The Mountain Moon Knows My Heart

[The urban rom-com "Zhixia" is ongoing] Blurb:

[Cold CEO and her sharp-tongued assistant / bickering couple / long-planned romance]

The aloof beauty comes down from her pedestal x a useless, timid, fun-loving troublemaker

1. Cen Xia had just graduated from university when she threw herself into the tide of self-media. She failed again and again, and eventually couldn't withstand the pressure of reality, so she went to interview at a company.

On the day of the interview, a torrential downpour soaked her when a speeding car splashed her. Her makeup was ruined, and her clothes were stained with mud.

The culprit leisurely lowered the car window and reached out a hand with long, distinct knuckles, holding a business card between two fingers. "I have an urgent matter to attend to, so I need to leave. I'll get in touch with you about compensation later."

Before she could reply, the taillights of the car, with its fancy repeating-digit license plate, vanished into the rain and mist.

Cen Xia was left in a miserable state, gritting her teeth as she spat out, "Damn it!"

Cen Xia was late to the interview and, naturally, got rejected. But the very next day, she unexpectedly received a job offer from that company.

2. She thought she was incredibly lucky, until she discovered that her direct supervisor, Lu Zhiyu, was eccentric, aloof, and notoriously difficult to deal with.

In barely a month, Cen Xia was being put through the wringer.

While Lu Zhiyu was tormenting her, Cen Xia, the office workhorse, went back to her old job and registered a new social media account, where she regularly came up with creative ways to complain about her devil of a boss.

Unexpectedly, she gained a following, and her worth rose right along with it.

The commenters offered all sorts of advice on how Cen Xia could deal with her bizarre boss. One comment got an exceptionally high number of likes:

"If you can't beat him, win him over! He makes you suffer at work, so make him suffer in love!"

Cen Xia stared at the comment for a long time, thinking of Lu Zhiyu's hateful but undeniably handsome face.

Maybe it wasn't such a bad idea.

3. Cen Xia was making a fortune by updating her "Daily Battles with My Bizarre Boss" series, and now she felt increasingly guilty in front of Lu Zhiyu.

Then one afternoon, she spotted the short-video app icon on her boss's phone and broke into a cold sweat.

"B-Boss, do you use short-video apps too?"

Lu Zhiyu glanced up at her, his expression as cold as ever. "No."

Cen Xia quietly breathed a sigh of relief, her smile growing even more ingratiating.

As soon as she left the office, a notification sounded on her phone. She opened it, and a message from a fanatical shipper of the bickering couple popped up.

Inside, behind the glass door, Lu Zhiyu curved his lips as he stared at the message he'd just sent on his phone:

"So, has the blogger succeeded in her mission to win him over?"

[Blurb]

Bickering couple, the irresistible allure of falling in love, fake sweetheart vs. all-talks-tough-but-is-actually-sincere

1. The first time Chu Ning met Shi Yan, she was delivering a letter to the Shi family for her grandmother. He sat lazily on a sun-drenched sofa, his head bowed as he fiddled with his phone. She suddenly remembered the rumors about the young master Shi: a businessman who was constantly dominating entertainment trending topics.

Shi Yan never even looked up at her, until Grandpa Shi urged him, "A Yan, see Xiao Ning off."

Only then did the man finally raise his head, his handsome brows and eyes full of indifference.

The corner of his lips lifted in a meaningful smile. "Sure!"

A cold wind howled halfway up the mountain, but Shi Yan suddenly hit the brakes and said coldly, "Get out."

Chu Ning: ?

Shi Yan: "You knew how to get here, but you don't know how to get back?"

Chu Ning's opinion of him plummeted, all the way to rock bottom.

2. Since her internship was up on the mountain, Chu Ning unexpectedly ended up living at the Shi family home. She and Shi Yan became "neighbors."

Her "neighbor" Shi Yan was not to be trifled with. Though still young, he already had an iron hand in business. He was calm and reserved, a veritable iceberg.

Yet when he was with Chu Ning, the two of them were constantly at each other's throats, setting the house in an uproar.

Chu Ning couldn't quite figure him out, until one day he told her, "I've got a bad temper and no manners. Don't let Grandpa fool you."

She was slow to catch on, then laughed in anger. Did Shi Yan really think she'd had a crush on him all along?

She lifted her face, her smile sweet and dimples faint. "It's nice to know we agree," she said, then added, enunciating every word, "You're not just rude and ill-tempered, you're also presumptuous!"

3. At a family dinner, Shi Yan once again left a delicate, pampered heiress behind and walked out halfway through the meal.

Grandpa Shi pressed him for an explanation. Shi Yan lit a cigarette with a look of distaste. "She's so affected. Chu Ning is much easier on the eyes."

Grandpa Shi: "Could it be that you..."

After a long pause, in the empty room, Shi Yan suddenly jerked his fingers back from the burn and murmured, "Yes."

It turned out that he had been the first to fall for her all along.

Later on...

People said that, at some point, Shi Yan, who was hardly ever home, had started dropping by every few days.

People said that the woman-averse Shi Yan now had a sweet and charming girl by his side.

#From then on, the bright moon, the gentle breeze, and every meal and season were proof of his love for her.#

Reader's Guide:

1. In the first part, the hero doesn't actually abandon the heroine.

2. One-on-one romance, both leads' first time, happy ending.

3. Bickering couple, falling in love over time, quirky fake sweetheart vs. all-talks-tough-but-is-actually-sincere

Revised 2022.10.21

Theme: Companionship is the most heartfelt confession of love