A Summer Night Hard to Cross

[Comments are open. The full text is still being revised, bonus chapters drop at random. Pirated copies are incomplete and jumbled. Please support the official release.] [Upcoming title in the author’s collection: Summer Loop. Please add it to your favorites!] "Mutual pining | Mutual healing | Reunion after years apart | Romantic reality show tension" Gentle, fairy-like painter × Cocky, flirtatious, top-tier star Three years after Yu Xingyang left without a word, Shi Yue met him again on a dating reality show. By then, he was a top-tier star and singer in the Chinese entertainment industry, cocky and provocative, known as its great demon king. He feared nothing and no one, and his swagger knew no bounds. She was a celebrated painter in the oil painting world, gentle and soft-spoken, hailed as a top-tier star in her field. Her daily routine was simply to pick up her brush and paint, and nothing could shake her composure. They should have had nothing to do with each other, and the audience assumed neither would be interested in the other. But during a game, the show asked the contestants to share something only they had done. Shi Yue had just said, “I liked someone for five years, but I don’t anymore.” Then the top-tier star, with tens of millions of fans, broke character and said, “I’ve liked someone for eight years, but now, ” “Tsk.” At the end of the first episode, the contestants were asked to choose who made their heart flutter. Without a moment’s hesitation, he chose her, then offered a thoroughly unconvincing excuse: “Parkinson’s. My hand was shaking.” Everyone said Yu Xingyang couldn’t help making suggestive remarks, and wondered how two people from completely separate worlds could develop feelings for each other so quickly. Until, halfway through the show, the contestants had to pair up on a deserted island. The second male lead played the victim, begging her to pick him just once. Just as everyone thought she would choose him The unruly great demon king finally lost his temper. In front of everyone, he pulled out a diamond ring and asked: “Will you marry me?” “Me, specifically.” All the fans shipping them went wild! The couple who had supposedly had nothing to do with each other instantly took the internet by storm. · No one knew Shi Yue had secretly loved Yu Xingyang back in high school. At the time, she was an unremarkable girl from the class next door, so inconspicuous she disappeared into the crowd. Yu Xingyang, on the other hand, was a heaven-blessed favorite, born among the clouds and as dazzling as a star in the night sky. She took careful steps, inching closer to him. Until she thought she was about to catch up to the sun. Then he shot to fame on a variety show. And before she knew it, he had left without a word. She ran after him for a long time, numb and stubborn, only to discover that some things don’t work out no matter how hard you try. The secret crush of an eighteen-year-old girl was buried deep, and they set off along parallel lines that could never meet. But she never expected that years later, when they met again, the boy who should have been so confident and full of spirit would pretend to be a pitiful little puppy, resting his chin against hers as if he were carefully holding the whole world in his arms. “Don’t move. Let me hold you for a while.” “Please.” · -In non-Euclidean geometry, parallel lines can meet. If you can’t keep running, I’ll cross over to you. · A few tips: 1. The male lead, Yu Xingyang, is not a playboy. They’re each other’s first love. 2. Bittersweet, but mostly sweet. 3. Early on, she has a one-sided crush on him; in the middle, they pine for each other; later, there’s romantic tension on the dating show. 4. The author isn’t a celebrity fan, and the characters aren’t based on real people. Theme: Loving you makes me a better person