Trapped in a Spring Night

Xia Cheng first learned the name Wen Shinian from a magazine brought by one of the teachers at her rural school. The elegant, beautiful young man sat quietly in the spotlight, his cool eyes carrying a faint air of weariness. The world of fame and fortune, which everyone else scrambled to enter, seemed to him like nothing more than clouds that would vanish in the blink of an eye.

A prodigy who rose to fame young, heaven’s favored son.

That was all there was to it.

She saw him again at a banquet. She was no different from the other pretty girls hoping to make their way in show business, and was even more forgettable than most.

The elegant, distinguished man sat across from her and barely glanced her way, until the wallet she dropped revealed a silhouette she had cut out of a magazine.

"You like me?"

"Then I’ll give you a chance. Do you want to be with me?"

-

Wen Shinian was born into one of the most powerful families in the capital. Every work he exhibited won multiple awards, earning him the title of "a born artist." Those who knew him well understood that behind his beautiful appearance lay emotions that were desperately unstable. Compared to his art, he himself seemed more like a fragile work of art.

No one had ever stayed by his side for more than three days.

Yet Xia Cheng stayed with him for three years. She picked him up when he was at his most shattered, witnessed the utmost tenderness beneath his volatile emotions, and listened as he repeatedly whispered "A Cheng" with devotion in her arms.

Over those three years, he gave her the most blatant favoritism and protected her in the treacherous world of show business. Things others fought tooth and nail for were hers for the taking, all with a simple "Want it or not?" from her.

On the day she learned he was about to get engaged, she suddenly received a transfer of fifty million yuan. So she obediently packed her bags and said goodbye: "Mr. Wen, thank you for taking care of me all this time. I’m going to continue the studies I had to leave unfinished. I wish you every happiness and success for the rest of your life."

-

During each of the three years Xia Cheng studied abroad, she sent him a New Year’s greeting. He never replied.

Gradually, she stopped reaching out to him.

Later, she returned home as the youngest executive at a publicly listed company. People around her never stopped talking about her, while the cool, distinguished man sat in the shareholders’ section without saying a word.

For a while, she thought he had already forgotten her.

Then, when she was trapped in the mountains by heavy snow, the cool, distinguished man hiked dozens of kilometers alone. Snow clung to his black coat as his tall, slender figure bent beneath the low eaves. "A Cheng, have you ever thought that I wasn’t trying to break up with you that day? I was surrendering to you."

"A gentle, possessive top-tier artist x a clear-headed, independent star from the mountains"

SC, 1v1, both pure, no coercive romance, just tender surrender. A devoted, gentle big shot from the capital who uses his service-mindedness to win the heroine over.

--Please add my next novel, Marriage Is a Must, to your reading list--

Before she turned twenty-five, Song Chiyu had never imagined marrying anyone but Xie Yunjin. She would marry him, and marry for love.

Instead, it ended in misery in the most humiliating way possible.

Later, after giving up on love, Song Chiyu finally agreed to let her family arrange a marriage for her.

But on the day of the blind date, her match not only failed to show up, he even fled in a taxi in the middle of the night.

So when his elders came to apologize, the usually kind young woman blurted out, "Actually, Second Uncle, you’re still quite the catch."

The noisy dining table fell abruptly silent.

Song Chiyu had no idea what the others were thinking. She only saw the refined man across from her calmly undo his shirt collar, a smile on his face as he said, "Is that so? If you don’t mind, I could do the job too."

**

Qi Yanzhou was the youngest archaeology professor at Cheng'an University. Born into humble circumstances, he never let go of his ambitions. He treated everyone like a perfect gentleman, but was actually aloof, with a powerful sense of boundaries surrounding him.

After their wedding, Song Chiyu and Qi Yanzhou remained as distant as polite guests.

Apart from one meal on the day they registered their marriage, they barely saw each other.

Even when she clearly told him she was willing to fulfill her conjugal duties, he never stayed the night.

Song Chiyu didn’t take his attitude to heart either.

They both knew this was nothing more than an arrangement to give their elders an answer.

For a while, she thought their days would pass in peace, until she was assigned to conduct archaeological research in the Gobi Desert and ran into a local "big shot." To deal with him, she needed the help of the person in charge of the antique trade in the northwest.

In the antique world, everyone knew that everything beyond the Qinling Mountains belonged to the Qi family. The Qi family was not only known as a top collector, but also the sole authority in the northwest. The current head of the family was extremely low-key, rarely appearing in public except at major donation ceremonies. People knew his name, but had never seen his face.

Everyone was speculating about him when they saw a man in a windbreaker step out of a jeep in the distance.

Tall and slender, with sharp brows, he stood amid the vast Gobi like an immovable slab of stone.

Before the project leader could even speak, he slapped the local "big shot" on the head.

The hoodlum, who had been cursing up a storm just moments earlier, instantly broke into a fawning smile, calling him "Master Qi" over and over.

The noisy scene fell silent.

Everyone looked afraid, thinking an even more ruthless figure had arrived. But the man in charge of the northwest calmly stubbed out his cigarette, buttoned his unfastened shirt cuff, and looked toward the unremarkable Song Chiyu in the crowd. "Miss Song, what a coincidence."

Song Chiyu, who had come to support the northwest project on her own without discussing it with anyone: "..."

Don’t ask...

It really was a coincidence.

**

In Song Chiyu’s eyes, Qi Yanzhou was detached from worldly desires, wanting nothing. Everything seemed no more than a drop in the ocean to him.

Until his third night in the northwest, when Xie Yunjin came looking to reconcile with her, riding a slow green train through a sandstorm. The refined man didn’t say a word in front of others, but late that night, on the metal bunk bed, he kissed her until she could barely breathe.

"Miss Song, he’s your true love. Then what am I?"

Song Chiyu, kissed so breathless she couldn’t answer: "..."

Later, she finally understood what it meant to do the cruelest things in the gentlest voice.

Even the most refined man could be frighteningly fierce when jealous.

"The power broker of the antique world x a gentle, reserved archaeological researcher"

Theme: Love yourself first, then love others.