Fallen Li [Broken Up, Reunited]

[The Beijing-Shanghai-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Series: Shenzhen Arc]

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Quiet and gentle heroine x sharp-tongued young master who says one thing and means another

[She falls first / Second-chance romance / Angsty push and pull / Deeply in love with each other]

1.

Back in their school days, Jin Zexu was bold and unruly, adored by everyone. He was both the top student who repeatedly took first place on the honor roll and the bad boy teachers spoke of for smoking and fighting.

Countless girls liked him, including Li Wanyin.

The night she first met Jin Zexu, a thin mist cloaked the entire city.

The damp, narrow alley reeked, and Li Wanyin was cornered by a group of vicious young men with nowhere to run. Just as they began beating her, a tall figure stepped in front of her and put an end to all their harassment. The boy's dark eyes were cold as he looked at the groveling thugs as if they were filth. His voice held no warmth. "Looking to die?"

The moment before, he had been surrounded by menace. The next, he sheathed his sharp edges and comforted her. "Don't be afraid."

They say the love you feel at seventeen is often the most intense.

But her love was a one-woman show.

2.

Li Wanyin thought she and Jin Zexu were complete opposites, two parallel lines that should never have crossed. When she tried to put everything back on track, she realized it was already too late.

Her words, "Let's break up," shattered his pride.

"Li Wanyin." Jin Zexu deliberately held back the turmoil surging inside him, but in the end he still spoke harshly to her. "I don't want to see you again for the rest of my life."

Years later, after a long separation, they met again.

By then, Jin Zexu still held a position of power, surrounded by all sorts of people eager to talk to him. His expression indifferent, he rose and left in the middle of their many insubstantial pleasantries.

By chance, Li Wanyin came looking for him along the way. Jin Zexu kept a polite distance. The eyes that had once been so deep and full of affection now held only cold detachment. "Ms. Li, excuse me."

Li Wanyin's throat tightened with emotion. She knew he no longer loved her.

But she didn't know that their reunion had been carefully engineered by him.

3.

At the end of December, snow fell over Shenzhen.

After a sleepless night, Li Wanyin went out onto the balcony to admire the view and pass the time. Suddenly, she noticed several late-blooming camellias in the greenhouse, blooming at their fullest, like flawless feathers.

As she stood lost in thought, a pair of arms wrapped around her waist. His chin rested lightly against the side of her neck, and his voice was low, almost pleading. "Don't leave me again."

"Please."

The world is full of flowers in every shape and form, yet he loves only that late-blooming camellia.

Note:

1. High school and city life, mainly urban, with the story opening at their reunion.

2. One-on-one romance / both leads are virgins / happy ending, both leads are each other's first love.

Theme: We will meet again.