Name: A Century Apart
Author: Shu Er

Synopsis

[The bonus stories will be released as special extras | Upcoming age-gap novels: Nathan Road and the Oriole, and The Secret Everyone Knows Except You. Blurbs below, please add them to your favorites]

Beautiful hot-tempered girl × sharp-tongued rogue

Unconventional marriage before love | Arguing by day, fighting by night

-

The Song and Yue families arranged a marriage. The engagement banquet was a lavish affair, with guests from every corner of the world invited. The only people missing were the bride and groom.

Asked why, Yue's mother gave an awkward laugh and wiped the cold sweat from her brow. "Mimi loves looking her best, and her hives have flared up again, so she can't receive guests."

Song's mother offered much the same explanation.

But not long after the engagement banquet ended, Yue Mi posted a photo to her Moments, instantly face-slapping them all: she was watching the sunset from the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

Song Weiran followed right after, flooding everyone's feed with eight consecutive videos of himself scuba diving in Bangkok.

You could say their sham marriage was shamelessly obvious.

That night, though, Yue Mi was bored in her hotel room, idly scrolling on her phone when a message came in from a contact saved as "Song Weiran is a dog."

Yue Mi taunted him: "Are you trying to make up with me?"

Song Weiran: ":-)"

Song Weiran: "Quit pretending. Open the door."

-

Illustrator "Wangshu" had always been notorious for her distinctive art style and her refusal to back down when she was right. She had countless haters and a mountain of nasty comments.

Just as her haters were congratulating themselves, Wangshu left the "Shurong" game studio under public pressure, and her projects were handed over to someone else. Before long, she joined "Gravity Space," Shurong's rival.

Life's wildest ups and downs can happen in an instant.

Then one day, Wangshu, who hadn't argued with netizens in ages and had mellowed out, posted a message with just four words: "A century of discord."

People suspected she had clashed with her new company's boss over their principles, and that she was recklessly testing how close she was to getting fired.

As her haters happily gossiped about Wangshu's past clashes with Gravity Space's boss and speculated how he would respond, the mysterious boss, who had never posted a single thing since making his account, quickly clarified:

"A century of discord" means "a century of marital bliss."

#What company's clarification sounds like a marriage proposal#

#Are the haters part of your love life too?#

#If I don't clarify one second sooner, my wife will make me kneel on a washboard#

#So what if we used to be enemies? We're all about secret rendezvous now#

"I must have told you I loved you hundreds of years ago. You just forgot, and I never remembered."

- We Missed Each Other

Reading tips:

1. About the "secret rendezvous" thing, I think I can explain.

2. The heroine has a bad temper and is great at roasting people. Please skip this if that bothers you.

3. There will be character growth. Thanks for reading.

Blurb for The Secret Everyone Knows Except You

"People only live for a handful of moments."

When Wen Ye saw this line online, the first moment that came to mind was a day when she was holding a folder and waiting at a crosswalk for the light to change.

On the giant LED screen across the street, a host was interviewing Xu Jiarang about his thoughts on winning Best Supporting Actor.

And back in their school days, when their homeroom teacher had suddenly called her over to tutor Xu Jiarang in math.

"Thanks for helping me, classmate."

The boy's tone was polite and distant, but Wen Ye's heart still skipped a beat.

The sunlight shifted across the desk. The cramped classroom was filled with the rich smell of ink, and the sleeves of their school uniforms were separated by only one desk.

That was Wen Ye's entire adolescence.

A secret she kept locked away, never daring to say aloud.

"I guess I'm mute, unable to tell even one ten-thousandth of a lie.

No wonder you only see me as some random passerby, with all that time difference between us."

- A One-Sided Crush

Female unrequited love | Reunion after years apart | He pursues her

Blurb for Nathan Road and the Oriole

Nian Ti met Wen Bingshu too early.

That year, Nian Ti was eight and was taken to her cousin's graduation banquet.

After a few rounds of drinks, her relatives seemed to remember she existed. They pushed her toward the young man who had been charming everyone at the banquet from beginning to end, and coaxed her to greet him.

Nian Ti didn't falter. In her clear little voice, she called him, "Uncle."

Everyone at the table burst out laughing.

Wen Bingshu was only eighteen then.

Already tired of the glitz and nightlife, he spent the whole evening smiling only at Nian Ti.

-

They met again years later,

on the night before Typhoon Nightingale arrived, when the news announced Signal No. 8.

Hong Kong shut down work and school, and even the taxis by the roadside refused to take passengers.

Nian Ti was stranded on the street, wondering how she could get away, when a black Maybach pulled up in front of her.

She climbed in wearing a man's coat, only to discover that, by an incredible coincidence, the man was an old acquaintance.

She called him "Uncle Wen" for two whole years.

It was a long time before Nian Ti learned that on that night, Wen Bingshu had nearly turned the whole of Hong Kong upside down looking for her.