Autumn Rainfall

Completed column: Daylight Delusions

Coming soon: Summer Night Sparks. Please add it to your reading list!

Blurb for this novel:

Lin Huanyan has had a crush on Cheng Yu for years, only to hear that he is dating someone else. Determined to forget him, she decides to cut ties with him.

When they meet again, Cheng Yu is an attending neurosurgeon at North City No. 1 Hospital. Lin Huanyan covers her swollen cheek, inflamed by a toothache, and steps back coldly, addressing him distantly: "Senior Cheng."

Everyone says Cheng Yu is gentle and courteous, like the spring breeze in April, always warm yet aloof. Even when Mount Tai crumbles before him, he never loses his composure. But one night, a nurse making her rounds sees him leaning over a hospital bed, clutching a young woman's hand and choking back sobs as he repeats, "Huanyan, please wake up soon. Open your eyes and look at me."

-

Lin Huanyan feels that she has always been the weaker one in her relationship with Cheng Yu. Day after day, she waits for him. All he has to do is crook a finger, and she will walk to him without hesitation.

One day after they break up, Lin Huanyan goes to a bar to bring him home.

Cheng Yu is too drunk to think straight, but stubbornly clings to her hand and asks, "Why don't you want me? Whatever you think is wrong with me, I can change. Is it just because he's younger than me?"

"He's younger than me, more energetic than me, better at making you happy, and better at making you smile, right?"

Huanyan's Diary

"It rained hard today, and I met someone.

I think I may have fallen for the autumn rain."

[Bonus Scene]

Lin Huanyan says she won't fall for the handsome-man routine. Cheng Yu racks his brains and decides to show off his cooking skills.

The two sit at the table.

Cheng Yu: "If you're not into handsome-man tricks, I wonder if you like a househusband?"

Cheng Yu: "The kind with an eight-pack."

Lin Huanyan is stunned.

Cheng Yu smiles at her. "Want to check the goods? No fooling around, genuine article, just as advertised."

Lin Huanyan: "W-we'll see. Can we just eat?"

Cheng Yu: "Sure. Then I'll keep working out. Do you like me bulkier or leaner? If you like me bulkier, I'll eat more before I train."

[Slow burn. Both leads speak their minds, and misunderstandings don't last long.]

[Both leads are inexperienced. A crush becomes mutual: the heroine has a crush on him early on, and later the hero pursues her. The hero seems aloof but is actually a lovestruck flirt.]

Reader's Guide:

1. Both leads had brief relationships in the past, but no ex will return to interfere or come between them. If you mind characters having exes, this may not be for you.

2. The characters are not perfect, and the story has a realistic tone.

3. No marriage or children.

Note: All professional knowledge in the story was researched online. Please feel free to point out any errors, and the author will correct them.

Ongoing column, Daylight Delusions:

At seventeen, Shen Suining is sent by her mother to live with the Gu family.

The first time she meets Gu Yan, he's dressed in sportswear and wearing a faint smile. He tells her, "Once you're under this roof, you're family. If you need anything, just ask. Your big brother will help you."

And help her he does, for over a year.

When Shen Suining doesn't understand her homework, he teaches her.

When she needs someone to attend a parent-teacher meeting, he goes.

When she needs a model for her painting, he poses...

That year, Shen Suining secretly writes a few wishes in her diary:

1. Become a little better, then better still.

2. Speak up.

3. Become good enough to stand beside him...

-

Years later, backstage at a music festival,

a reporter asks her, "What's the thing you most regret doing when you were young?"

When the microphone reaches Shen Suining, she remains silent for a long time before answering, "When I was young and foolish, I fell for someone I could never have. I harbored a delusion, and it came to nothing."

-

During the years Shen Suining is away, Gu Yan turns down every matchmaking arrangement his family makes and is never seen getting close to any woman.

Everyone assumes he isn't interested in women and plans to spend his whole life in business.

Then one day, someone sees Gu Yan gripping a young woman's arm outside, his face stern as he says, "Shen Suining, who said you could get this drunk out here?"

The woman slaps his arm away and replies coldly, "What business is it of yours?"

The onlookers gasp.

The next second, they see the usually lofty Young Master Gu lower his voice and say, "Ningning, your big brother knows he was wrong. Whatever it is, can we go home and talk about it?"

-

Bonus Scene:

At a family dinner, the two sit quietly side by side.

Someone with a sharp eye notices the cut at the corner of Gu Yan's mouth and asks, "A Yan, what happened to your mouth?"

Gu Yan raises a hand and casually brushes his lip. "It's nothing. I have a bit of internal heat."

Shen Suining says nothing beside him, her face nearly buried in her bowl, the tips of her ears bright red.

It wasn't internal heat at all. She had left that mark in a fit of anger during their argument last night...

[Both leads are inexperienced, happy ending, and each is the other's only one. Five-year age gap. Not an entertainment-industry story.]

Special Notes:

1. The leads are not related by blood. Their parents simply know each other.

2. Because of her family circumstances, the heroine has a psychological disorder and cannot speak at first. She communicates in other ways instead.

3. No childbirth.

Theme: Keep moving forward bravely