You Are Precious

Contract girlfriend | Office affair | Reunited after a breakup | Intangible cultural heritage business | Everyday life

The boldest thing Xu Zhaomi ever did was spend two years as her boss Lu Yining's contract girlfriend.

She never expected their pretend romance to become real.

With the wind and snow of Hokkaido swirling around them, Lu Yining wrapped his arms around her waist from behind. "If we renew the contract, can we make it last forever?"

From then on, she engraved those words in her heart. She worked hard to transform herself, forging herself into a blade sharp enough to stand by his side.

-

From a sticky-note girl carrying photocopied documents in the break room to an operations director who worked all year round, she had seen the office at three in the morning and hidden in the restroom to cry before touching up her makeup and getting back to work.

Until one day, outside the carved wooden door, she heard his lazy voice: "Marriage? I've never thought about marrying her. Isn't the way things are now pretty good?"

Those words became a curse that haunted her for three years.

Perhaps every woman has to go through heartbreak before she comes to her senses. But at least, in the end, she finally saw herself clearly: constantly sacrificing herself to maintain the illusion of happiness just to be with the person she loved was absurd. Standing on her own mountain, she looked back. She might have mocked her younger self's reckless courage, but she still didn't regret that journey of giving everything for love. People grow, after all. Back then, she simply couldn't see the bigger picture.

Years later, Xu Zhaomi ran a small business in her hometown and reveled in the life she loved. On a romantic country lane at night, she walked alongside a man she'd met on a blind date.

Then Lu Yining appeared before her, travel-worn and dusty.

He was no longer the arrogant, heartless rich young master he had once been. Seven hundred nights of tossing and turning had destroyed his carefully maintained facade.

He stumbled toward her and grabbed her hand, trembling. His hoarse, choked voice repeated that he regretted it.

-

You can love someone and still say goodbye to them.

You can miss someone and still be glad they're not by your side.

Everyone's path has its own peaks and valleys. Only you can fly toward your own mountains.

You are precious. You deserve to see all the beauty in the world.

[Reader's guide]

1. The first half takes place in the city's commercial world: junior operations staff × project director, following a sticky-note girl's career growth.

2. The second half takes place in a Jiangnan water town. The heroine quits her job and returns home to start a business as the owner of an intangible cultural heritage guesthouse, a beautiful innkeeper. The hero grovels to win her back. Also known as The CEO Comes Down to Earth to Work.

3. Both leads' first love and first time, mutual unrequited love. The hero actually falls first.

4. Amid the everyday bustle of an old town, they rediscover the desire to live for what they love.

Theme: May everyone live the life they want