Love Comes Knocking

[The story is complete. Thank you for reading and supporting it. My other novel, Moonlight, is now underway! If you enjoy tragic endings, give it a look!]

When Cen Ying was seventeen, her parents died in an accident. Left all alone, she was forced to move from the imperial capital to her grandmother's home in Nancheng.

On her first day in Nancheng, she met the boy next door.

He wore a black T-shirt and stood tall, holding a black umbrella. He glanced at her with an indifferent expression, then quickly looked away.

But that one glance caught her completely off guard and found its way into her heart.

Not long afterward, Cen Ying learned the boy's name.

Xie Jin. He had won so many gold medals in competitions that he could hardly keep count. A bona fide genius, he could have gone to a much better high school, yet he chose to stay in Nancheng.

At the school basketball tournament, he scored a three-pointer in the final ten seconds to win the game for his team.

While everyone else cheered, she ran over anxiously with the water she'd brought for him and asked carefully, "Does your knee hurt where you hit the ground?"

Xie Jin stopped. His tone was flat. "It's none of your business."

At the teachers' appreciation banquet after the college entrance exams, Xie Jin seemed like a different person, accepting every toast his classmates offered.

Seeing how flushed he was, Cen Ying went over to check on him. But he pulled her into a corner and pinned her against the wall.

His gaze burned as his low, husky voice made a plaintive accusation: "You told me to wait for you in Nancheng. I stayed, but you took so long to come back, and now you don't even recognize me..."

Cen Ying froze.

The image of her childhood playmate flashed through her mind, and the face before her gradually overlapped with it.

So their childhood promise really had kept him waiting here for more than ten years.

*Her heart first skipped a beat when she met you.

The cover art is used with permission. Artist: A Ya You

[The male lead isn't really an aloof, untouchable type]

SC. The male lead has a secret crush on the female lead. Neither lead has romantic feelings or intimate contact before adulthood. The female lead pursues the male lead at first.

Slow burn. A little ensemble cast.

My upcoming novel, "Little Shadow," is open for follows. Please add it to your reading list!

When Shen Xingfu was fourteen, she fell from the clouds. Her parents died in an accident, and her relatives thought of her as a burden, yet wanted custody of her because of her parents' inheritance.

That was the year she met the person who would save her.

The young man stood tall and looked down at her with an indifferent expression. "Do you want to come home with me?"

From then on, she lived with the Fu family. That same year, she kept a secret in her heart: she fell in love with the man she called "Big Brother."

She became his little shadow, always following him around.

On the day she came of age, she took a pink love letter and prepared to confess her feelings.

But the man furrowed his brows and looked at her with a composed expression. "I'm sorry, Xiao Fu. I only think of you as my little sister."

She left in despair and packed her things to move out of the Fu home. The letter never saw the light of day.

-

When they met again, he was Fu Tingli, a famous lawyer, while she was a top-tier actress at the height of her fame.

They happened to run into each other at a banquet. Just as Shen Xingfu was about to walk past him, Fu Tingli grabbed her wrist.

His languid gaze settled on her face. "After all this time, have you forgotten how to address me?"

"Xiao Fu, will you give me a chance to pursue you?"

She answered calmly, "Attorney Fu, you said back then that you only thought of me as your little sister."

Fu Tingli smiled carelessly, shamelessly replying, "Did I say that? I don't remember."

"Are you a dog?"

"Then I'll be your dog and yours alone, Xiao Fu. How about that?"

-

On a talk show, the host asked everyone to call the first person on their contact list and say a designated line.

She placed the call as instructed. A man's deep voice came through the phone: "Xiao Fu, I'll wait for you to come home."

The name on the screen was crystal clear: Fu Tingli.

Netizens: "Isn't that Fu Tingli, the young lawyer from the Fu Group who's been all over the internet lately?!"

Everyone speculated that Shen Xingfu had gotten involved with the Fu family's young master. Soon, the internet was full of headlines like, "Top Actress May Be Caught in a Scandal, Her Powerful Backer Is..."

Fu Tingli V: [I'm the one pursuing her.]

Everyone knows me as cold and heartless, but you are the one person I treat differently.

SC. Seven-year age gap. The female lead only lives temporarily with the male lead's family. The male lead only starts pursuing her later.

Theme: Study hard and keep making progress