Favoritism

#A heart can't be split in two, so little by little, I found myself leaning toward you#

Everyone thinks Qin Yushu is a sweet, well-behaved girl, but she's done plenty of unconventional things.

When she secretly left Canada and returned home to start a band without telling her family, she thought she was pretty cool.

Then she underestimated herself.

She confessed to a man she'd known for less than a month.

At the time, Lu Xinyang was a medical doctoral student so busy he could barely tell day from night.

Faced with Qin Yushu's frankness, he privately assumed she was like all the other girls who lost interest after three minutes.

Dr. Lu never took romance seriously, and his rejection was as rational as it was cruel.

“I'm a boring person, with nothing worth liking. Don't waste your time on me.”

He thought that would put an end to it immediately. Instead, the girl just got more determined?

“Dr. Lu, I know how to respect boundaries. I won't interfere with your work. For example, I'll pursue you on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and take Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays off. On Sundays, we'll see what happens.”

The two people who had seemed to have nothing to do with each other gradually grew closer, thanks to Qin Yushu's one-sided efforts.

Back then, Qin Yushu was full of confidence, never imagining that the sincere heart she offered would end up shattered to pieces.

If she could do it over, she'd rather love herself a little more.

-

When they met again, one had become a moderately well-known musician, and the other an outstanding cardiothoracic surgeon.

They should have drifted apart and become strangers, but fate brought them together at the same hospital.

Qin Yushu sprained her leg and pushed herself along in a wheelchair, feeling unlucky and miserable.

And in that awkward state, she ran into Lu Xinyang again.

All she wanted was to get away as quickly as possible.

But Qin Yushu never expected him to follow her straight into the examination room.

The orthopedic doctor hadn't even said a few words before Dr. Lu started asking questions.

Qin Yushu said calmly, “You can't trust a cardiothoracic surgeon's word.”

But this was only the beginning. In the days that followed, Lu Xinyang kept showing up in front of her. Qin Yushu tried every trick in the book to shake him, but he clung to her like a ghost.

“Do you hate me?” Lu Xinyang asked.

Qin Yushu smiled, looking completely indifferent.

“Why would I hate you? I'm not that petty.”

The man pressed her relentlessly, trying to see through her emotions.

“Then why are you avoiding me?”

Qin Yushu fell silent. She was only afraid of making the same mistake again.

“Only when you want to see me does our meeting mean anything.” - Letters Across the Ocean

Reading guide:

*Spirited sweet girl x aloof heartthrob

*Rock singer x cardiothoracic surgeon

*She pursues him early on; later he catches on and starts making bold, direct advances.

*The leads are imperfect. The hero is stubborn and jealous, and acts like a jerk early on.

*Reunion after years apart / he pursues her to win her back / ensemble cast / fairly slow burn / happy ending

Blurb for Taiyuan Street:

Wen Jingyu has plenty of words to describe Liang Xiaohan.

A free-spirited, unrestrained rich young master.

From high school to the present, they'd long since crossed the boundaries of friendship. But there was always one step between them and being lovers.

He never said anything, so she pretended not to notice.

At a dinner party, someone teased Liang Xiaohan about his many scandalous escapades. Everyone doubled over laughing, except Wen Jingyu, who sat quietly to the side.

Liang Xiaohan put an arm around her and laughingly scolded the loudmouth: “She's the only close friend I have. If you scare her off, will you pay me back?”

“Closest friend” was how he defined her.

Until one day, Wen Jingyu finally came to her senses. She decided she didn't even want the title of his friend anymore.

Liang Xiaohan panicked at last.

The ever-proud Mr. Liang choked up on the phone. “Wenwen, come back. Let's start over.”

-

Wen Jingyu went to Hong Kong, a city without Liang Xiaohan, a place that had nothing to do with him.

There, she met Zhou Rongye.

Wen Jingyu remembered him. He'd sat across from her at that silent dinner party, mysterious and distinguished, someone everyone treated with respect.

She had left halfway through that night, thinking she'd have to walk home in the pouring rain with a broken heart. In the end, Zhou Rongye had driven her home.

In the back of the Bentley, Wen Jingyu quietly and intently wiped the water off her instrument case, unaware of the young man's thoughtful gaze.

“You play the viola.”

He stated it as a fact, not a question.

Only then did Wen Jingyu look up at him in surprise. “How did you know?”

When she didn't say anything, people always assumed she played the violin.

How many people would notice that it was only a seventh larger?

Zhou Rongye only smiled and said nothing.

Much later, in an apartment at 33 Taiyuan Street in Hong Kong, Wen Jingyu found a note Zhou Rongye had left for her.

“Just turn around, and you'll see me.”

“Think of the other side of the sky, where someone is waiting for you.” - Eason Chan, Ripening Grapes

Theme: Love life; life comes first