A Sweltering Summer

[Complete. Revised. Pirated copies are incomplete. My new novel, Newlywed Trap, is currently updating.] Bittersweet healing | Secret crush becomes mutual | Second chance at love When Chen Xia was ten, her mother took her from the south and remarried in the north. Not only did she have to call a strange man Dad, she also gained an older brother, Chen Chao, two years her senior. Though they weren’t related by blood, their personalities were completely different. She was quiet and well-behaved, a model student, while he was carefree and unruly, always getting into trouble. At school, nobody would have connected the two of them. That changed when he started dating someone from outside school, and she reported him. When they got home, Chen Chao blocked her behind the door, his face dark. “Tell me, what did I ever do to you?” Chen Xia lowered her eyes and replied coolly, “I just can’t stand people who date so casually while they’re still in school.” “Fine. I’ll remember that.” He was furious, but his eyes held a dark, mocking glint. When Chen Xia was seventeen, disaster struck their family, and Chen Chao was the only one left by her side. On a summer night after the college entrance exams, the two of them squeezed together to sleep in a hot, humid rental apartment. Out of nowhere, Chen Xia asked, “What does it feel like to kiss someone?” Chen Chao lowered his thick brows, narrowing his eyes. “How would I know?” Chen Xia said, “You’ve dated before.” Chen Chao gave a crooked smile. “You ruined that for me, remember? I never got to find out.” Chen Xia stared at him silently for a few seconds, then suddenly leaned toward his lips. “Then let me make it up to you.” Chen Xia had always thought she was a burden to Chen Chao, a responsibility he had no choice but to shoulder. She never knew she was the moon he was willing to break his pride to lift higher. [Reader’s Guide] 1. A seemingly sweet, well-behaved girl × a cool, aloof bad boy. The male lead never dated in school. Both leads are sexually inexperienced, and each is the other’s first love. 2. The female lead is a top student, and the male lead is a boxing scholarship student. Bittersweet but with a happy ending. 3. No romantic feelings are described while they are still step-siblings. My new novel, Newlywed Trap, is currently updating Xu Yumo had been childhood friends with Zhou Shiye for twenty-four years, and had secretly loved him for eight. Throughout those long years of youth, she played his closest friend, watching him date girlfriend after girlfriend. She thought that staying by his side was the most devoted confession of love, and that one day Zhou Shiye would turn over a new leaf. Instead, she only got a scornful laugh from him when he spoke to his friends: “Xu Yumo? We’re way too familiar. It’s like touching one hand with the other. Boring.” That day, Xu Yumo gave up on him for good and vanished from his life completely. Zhou Shiye was certain she couldn’t live without him. He even bet that she’d be in touch again within a week. Instead, he heard that she was marrying into the He family. Zhou Shiye got dead drunk and called the number he knew by heart. His voice trembled with a humbling plea. “Momo… I’m sorry. I was a jerk before, and I didn’t understand my own feelings… Come back. Will you marry me?” But a lazy, languid male voice came through the receiver. “Proposing to my wife in the middle of the night, Young Master Zhou? Have you been drinking fake liquor?” - He Linxi. The eldest son of the He family, one of the most powerful families in Beijing. He was a legendary figure in high school and the top student in his grade. Later, he founded Matrix Tech and took the company public in just a few years, becoming the youngest technology tycoon in the business world. He was strikingly handsome, cool, and refined, and had always seemed indifferent to romance. Xu Yumo had always thought their marriage was nothing more than a transaction of mutual benefit. Until one day, while organizing the computers at home, she accidentally opened a folder filled with photos of herself from high school. The folder’s name was a string of encoded characters: 521D 604B Once decoded, it read just two words: First Love. Theme: Be brave enough to pursue love.