Knowing Zhi

[Campus: sweet, soft-spoken girl x scheming upperclassman]

[Present day: cool, captivating comic artist x arrogant, obsessive investor]

On a sweltering summer day, a brooding boy moved into the Shili Alley neighborhood.

Huang Zhi stood on the old open-air balcony and greeted him. The boy looked up in an instant, tree shadows weaving across his fair face. For the first time, Gardenia gazed down at a river of stars.

The boy's eyes shone like stars, but he glared at her fiercely.

The fan in the internet cafe at the alley entrance whirred and squeaked steadily.

The boy tapped the counter, his voice impatient. "A pack of cigarettes."

Gardenia lifted her head from her comic book. This time, she was looking up at a star from up close.

The rebellious boy ignored the bright, sweet girl's attempts to befriend him, until one night she found him after a fight, out of his mind with rage, and took him home.

*

A comic novel serialized on an online platform suddenly became a huge hit. Readers noticed that the male lead was based on Pei Shuchen, a brilliant architecture student and campus heartthrob.

Gardenia denied it: Don't make it weird. He's based on someone else. Attached photo: the boy from the alley standing proudly in the drizzle, shown from behind with a glimpse of his profile.

Pei Shuchen looked at his own photo and laughed angrily. "Do suspects usually hand over the evidence themselves now?"

Pei Shuchen, an architecture prodigy and a professor's star student, arranged to meet Huang Zhi, a sweet yet cunning girl from the art department, to negotiate. The moment they met, they both changed their strategies.

Gardenia: Politely asks for permission to use his likeness.

What she was thinking: I'm so stupid, I could cry. She thought she'd never see that guy from the internet cafe in the alley again, so she felt safe using his gorgeous face for her male lead.

Pei Shuchen: Says he understands, grants permission, and asks for compensation and a signed nondisclosure agreement.

Then he smiles. Why would he let her see his dark side?

In the end, that little tail fell into his hands.

*

Everyone thought the couple, who graduated in their wedding clothes, would stay together for life. But Huang Zhi left behind only a divorce agreement and vanished without a trace.

Pei Shuchen used every scheme and tactic he could think of to get hold of the rights to the comic he'd authorized, forcing her to show herself.

He wanted her to admit she was wrong, beg for mercy, regret everything, and...

A cool, dazzling woman stood in Shili Alley, holding the hand of a little child with a face like carved jade.

In that moment, all his convictions vanished. He lowered his eyes to the wound in his chest that had never healed, blood still flowing freely.

*

The stars may be far beyond the heavens, but if you reach out, he'll stay right here in this old Shili Alley.

*

Bonus scene~

A sultry woman reclined on a chaise, her alluring curves outlined against the sunset as she smiled at the big and little ones glaring at each other.

The fox of a father tried to tempt the child with a bottle.

The child couldn't resist, let go of the woman's hand, and climbed into the fox father's arms, swinging the bottle around like a pendulum. It wasn't long before the child fell asleep.

The woman sighed. Fooled again. Is this one a little dim?

The man put the sleeping child down, then eagerly scooped the woman up and carried her to the bedroom~

Oh, the fox father wins again!

Theme: When the stars fade, look up to the rising sun