Chasing Stars in Summer

[Please support the authorized version; this novel has been completed. Secret crush, personal growth, rekindled love after a breakup / from school uniforms to wedding dresses / both leads are each other's first]

[Coming soon: companion novel, "Sweetly Smitten After Marriage"]

[Weibo: @Yin Xiaoyi Wa. Thanks for the five-star review (heart)]

1.

The day Wen Xia ran into Xiang Jiachen was in the height of summer, just before the summer break of her second year of high school.

Four girls had shoved her to the ground. They splashed several bottles of ink across her fair, milk-white face, so young and innocent-looking, and ruined her clean Nanhe school uniform.

With her eyes squeezed shut, she heard the bullies say, "Why is the school heartthrob here?"

Yes, the school heartthrob had appeared.

He took off his clean, bright white school uniform and gently handed it to her.

She would never forget the faint scent of mint on that uniform.

2.

Xiang Jiachen was Nanhe High School's top student and heartthrob, born into a wealthy family and hailed by everyone as a heaven-blessed favorite.

Teachers and students alike were certain he would be the provincial arts champion in that year's college entrance exams.

But to everyone's shock, he unexpectedly failed to make the grade.

For some unknown reason, he returned to school to repeat the year.

In his new class, he noticed a pretty, charming girl with clear, limpid eyes that would gaze straight at him.

That very day, he learned that she was the younger schoolmate he'd once rescued by the back gate.

Her name was Wen Xia.

Before the college entrance exams, he and Wen Xia had wished each other luck.

But one day, he suddenly couldn't get through to the younger schoolmate who was always calling him "senior."

After the exams, he made his debut on the trending charts and became a star.

3.

When Wen Xia saw Xiang Jiachen again, she was a second-year university student.

He was not only her senior at university, but also the school heartthrob she'd adored from afar at Nanhe High School, and now a top-tier star who had taken the entertainment industry by storm.

He was a dazzling celebrity, surrounded by admirers and cheered on by fans.

Yet amid all those gazes, he always managed to look her way and meet her eyes.

Xiang Jiachen never imagined that one day he would run into the younger schoolmate he'd lost touch with again, in her classroom.

After that, just as she had in high school, she started calling him "senior" again.

But she was no longer the innocent girl she'd been before the college entrance exams. She had blossomed into an acting student who easily caught the eye of every guy around her.

One afternoon at university, now a top-tier star, he avoided everyone and asked her to meet him on the rooftop of the teaching building.

Beneath the blazing orange sunlight, they sat close together, talking about the future and the growing attraction between them.

At last, he coaxed her tenderly: "Girlfriend, is this your first kiss?"

That day, he didn't know he was confessing to the younger schoolmate who had secretly loved him for years.

He became the boyfriend she had longed for.

4.

Xiang Jiachen's career soared from the moment he debuted. A top-tier star and an entertainment-industry legend, everything went smoothly for him, except when it came to Wen Xia.

At first, he was furious, but whenever he was with her, all his anger turned into willing surrender.

He didn't want to let her go.

He pinned Wen Xia against the apple-patterned wall in a dark backstage area and said, "You got your award and now you want to leave without knowing me? Fine. Kiss me once, and I'll let you go."

But Wen Xia rejected him. "I don't want to be caught up in a scandal with a top-tier star and award-winning actor."

Though he was a celebrated actor who had conquered the industry, a flower perched high above the entertainment world, all he could do was look at her with tender affection and lingering regret as he tried to win her back. "Then how about a scandal with your ex-boyfriend?"

He gave in. In six years, he had never forgotten her, not for a single second.

But he didn't know that for her, this was already the twelfth year she had found him impossible to forget.

[Reader's Guide]

* From high school to the entertainment industry, from school uniforms to wedding dresses.

* The heroine secretly loves the hero in the beginning. Later, they rekindle their romance, and the hero goes crazy trying to win her back.

* Both leads are each other's first. One-on-one romance.

A heaven-blessed top-tier star and senior x an ordinary younger schoolmate who secretly loves him and follows his career

Coming soon, companion novel: [Sweetly Smitten After Marriage]. Blurb:

1.

On the first day Tang Lili returned to her new company after her honeymoon, the whole office was on edge.

They weren't there to welcome her. They'd heard that their company's competitor was moving into the office building across the street.

Though the two companies were rivals, almost every woman in Tang Lili's office had a photo of the other company's boss as her phone wallpaper.

Her colleagues couldn't stop praising the man in those photos, calling him handsome, rich, and blessed with an eight-pack, or marveling that someone so young could already be a rising star in the tech industry.

The only downside was that this young, rich bachelor had reportedly gotten married just a few days earlier.

When Tang Lili first joined the company, she too was tempted by her colleagues' gushing over their rival's boss.

As a newlywed herself, she eagerly asked them for a photo.

The moment she saw it, she blurted, "Ptooey!"

Wasn't this the new husband she'd just married, the one she'd already wanted to be a widow from?

Back at Nanhe High School, Lu Xing had been known as the bad-boy heartthrob, alongside top-tier star Xiang Jiachen. Together, they were called Nanhe's Twin Heartthrobs.

2.

At Nanhe High School, he was a heartthrob as famous as top-tier star Xiang Jiachen. At Yichuan University, he was a figure no one dared to provoke. And as soon as he founded his company, he became a powerful new investor sweeping through the tech world. That was Lu Xing's reputation.

Lu Xing had promised his buddies he would be the last of them to get married. But in the past few days, they'd bombarded him with complaints, accusing him of forgetting his friends for a pretty face and abandoning them the moment he got a wife.

Everyone assumed he'd married young for love and asked when he'd introduce his sister-in-law.

At a drinking party, Lu Xing grumbled, "Don't call her your sister-in-law. I'll get my divorce papers next month."

3.

But no one ever saw news that Lu Xing, CEO of tech powerhouse DMBUR, had divorced.

One night, after they'd made love, Lu Xing smoked a cigarette. The smoke curled into a heart and drifted from the bed toward the ceiling.

Holding Tang Lili in his arms, he grinned roguishly and asked with smug confidence, "You confessed to me on the day I graduated from university. Tang Lili, you've been so faithful in loving me. You must have had a crush on me since high school, right? You love me that much?"

Tang Lili: "..."

She wanted to confess honestly that if their drunken night three months ago hadn't left such a deep impression, he would have been the ex-husband she'd wished to lose every day.

But she didn't dare tell him.

She was afraid Lu Xing would kick her out of bed the next second, never let her back in, and drag her off to get a divorce as soon as the Civil Affairs Bureau opened.

When he learned the truth, Lu Xing nearly exploded with rage. But then he saw the divorce agreement Tang Lili had tucked beneath the pillow.

After stewing in anger all day, the moment Tang Lili opened the door and came home, he pushed her against it and kissed her until her limbs went weak and she could barely breathe. Furious, he said, "You dare divorce me? Tang Lili, believe me, I'll kiss you to death!"

When the woman didn't say a word, the next second, the tech CEO everyone feared, the cocky king no one dared to provoke, buried his face in the neck of his wife, who was threatening to divorce him.

For the first time, Lu Xing begged someone. His deep voice softened as he said, "Don't divorce me. Please, baby."

A cocky, lovesick tech tycoon x a woman who is clearly a lightweight but keeps wanting to be a widow

Theme: Growing and pursuing what you want