Misty Rain Over Jiangnan, Covering Longing

My old writing is terrible. Please don't read or recommend it, orz.

It's old stuff. I genuinely recommend you don't read it.

1.

Zhu Xinglan would never forget the first time she saw Jiang Yichen.

During the Huai Xu season in Wuchuan Town, after a night of misty rain, the boy's lonely figure stood out among the weathered white walls and dark-tiled roofs. A melodious bamboo flute drifted from afar. He slowly raised his head, his brows and eyes full of aloofness.

Zhu Xinglan accidentally met his proud, stubborn gaze, and remembered it for years.

He moved in next door to Zhu Xinglan, and also found his way into her young, lovestruck heart.

Later, on the day Jiang Yichen's family and his fiancee came to take him away from Wuchuan, Zhu Xinglan received a bamboo flute engraved with the words:

"I seek the Milky Way's most dazzling place, and dream of morning rain gently wetting the dust."

2.

At the Intangible Cultural Heritage Conference in Jianghuai City, Zhu Xinglan was invited to demonstrate the art of embroidering Suzhou silk fans. With bright eyes and pearly teeth, she wore a pale green qipao. A beauty mark at the corner of her eye added a touch of allure to her gentle, captivating appearance.

Unexpectedly, the moment she looked up, she met that familiar yet unfamiliar gaze once more.

Jiang Yichen sat in the very middle of a group of people dressed in suits. He seemed distracted, his brows lowered, his expression indifferent as he toyed with a metal-cased lighter.

Zhu Xinglan tried to leave, but was stopped backstage.

After an elaborate introduction by someone who knew nothing of their history, Jiang Yichen parted his lips, his voice hard to resist.

He said, "Miss Zhu, hello."

Later, they met again when Jiang Yichen came to Zhu Xinglan's Chunxing Pavilion to have a wedding outfit made.

Zhu Xinglan smiled calmly, but couldn't stop her eyes from reddening.

The clothes she had carefully chosen didn't catch Jiang Yichen's eye. Instead, he became captivated by the courtyard's charming beauty and its springtime abundance.

3.

After Zhu Xinglan, an inheritor of Suzhou embroidery, became popular online, her fame soared, and she was even hailed as the "Suzhou Embroidery Goddess."

One day, someone exposed intimate photos of her with a current top-tier star, and claimed that her rise to fame had been planned all along.

Public opinion erupted online.

But the story soon took a turn. Not long afterward, renowned young entrepreneur and Fenglan Group heir Jiang Yichen opened a Weibo account and posted a video of Zhu Xinglan embroidering at home.

His caption read: "My fiancee asks everyone to support intangible cultural heritage."

[Both are virgins, one-on-one romance]

Spring returns, and Jiangnan is drenched in misty rain once more. I will love her until all sound falls silent.

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1. They heal each other in the first half; the second half is about rekindling an old romance, which is the main focus.

2. The male lead's personality changes considerably. See the story for details. He loves only the female lead from beginning to end. His fiancee is a supporting female character, and the engagement was arranged by their families. The wedding outfit in the blurb is not for the fiancee.

3. Jianghuai City and Wuchuan Town are fictional settings.

4. This is my first story. I'm open to all advice.

5. Find me on vb at Ya Shang. Come say hi.

6. The blurb was screenshotted on July 26, 2022.

Coming soon: July Butterflies

[Now updating regularly every day]

Devoted, wealthy young man x sensitive, gentle small-town girl

Mutual crushes / reunion after a long separation

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Zhuang Xiao was like a kite. No matter how high she flew, her family still held tight to the other end of the string, keeping her trapped in dark clouds of sensitivity and insecurity.

Lin Zhongqi was a butterfly born at the end of June. He accidentally landed by her side, and with one flap of his wings, snapped the invisible thread holding her back, letting her fly farther.

-

On the first day of their second year of high school, Zhuang Xiao accidentally knocked over a bowl of tomato soup in the cafeteria. It spilled all over Lin Zhongqi's shoes.

Growing up in a small town, Zhuang Xiao had no idea that one pair of the Hook shoes, a collaboration with OW, cost tens of thousands. In a panic, she pulled out a 100-yuan bill and handed it to him. "I'll pay you back."

Pointing at his horribly stained shoes, Lin Zhongqi said with an awkward laugh, "Sis, these shoes cost ten thousand."

Zhuang Xiao trembled with fright on the spot.

-

In Lin Zhongqi's eyes, this small-town girl lived with such caution that even when she cried in front of him, she did so in silence.

At first, he just thought she was amusing. He took her to eat Western food, to Starbucks, and for drives around Yijiang. Watching the curiosity and wonder in her eyes as she encountered new things, Lin Zhongqi found her more and more interesting.

He once asked whether Zhuang Xiao was named after the line "Zhuang Zhou dreams of butterflies at dawn."

She answered that her name came from the line "The emperor's longing in spring rests with the cuckoo," because "emperor" sounded like "longing for a younger brother."

That was why she lived so timidly and humbly: she was nothing but an afterthought to a family that favored sons over daughters.

Lin Zhongqi just laughed and said, "What nonsense. The first line has so much more poetic feeling. I'll call you Little Butterfly from now on."

-

Later, Lin Zhongqi was going abroad.

Before leaving, he only said, "Little Butterfly, fly away."

Zhuang Xiao thought he had never liked her, and didn't shed a single tear when she saw him off.

In her third year of college, Zhuang Xiao went to Boston as an exchange student. With the help of a friend, she found Lin Zhongqi.

But he was lost in a life of wine and women, drunk with one pretty girl after another, as if he had long since forgotten her.

From so far away, Zhuang Xiao didn't see the tattoo on Lin Zhongqi's wrist: a little butterfly.

-

"We even wish we were butterflies, living for only three days in summer. Three days with you would bring more joy than fifty years alone."

- Keats

1. The female lead was born into a family that favors sons over daughters, and is sensitive and conflicted at first.

2. School life in the first half, city life in the second, with a greater focus on school life.

3. Both are virgins; happy ending; no real-life inspirations.

4. They don't date while in school.

5. I'm terrible at writing blurbs.

Theme: Live life positively.