Spring Begins Anew

[Due to health reasons, this story is now free to read.]

1.

In their first year of high school, Ren Zhen and Zhou Yanxin were two parallel lines with nothing in common

One studied hard, while the other swaggered through life.

That changed when they were assigned to different academic tracks and became desk mates, one behind the other.

Ren Zhen's childhood friend, whom she secretly loved, wanted to pursue the school belle who had caught his eye. He asked Ren Zhen to pursue Zhou Yanxin to put a stop to the girl's crush.

Heartbroken, Ren Zhen coldly refused. With red-rimmed eyes, she turned to leave, only to find Zhou Yanxin leaning arrogantly against the wall at the stairwell.

“You boss me around, but then come here and let someone else push you around, ”

Zhou Yanxin raised an eyebrow and scoffed. “Ren Zhen, you're a hypocrite, aren't you?”

Ren Zhen bit her lip and clenched her hands. “It's not like I like you.”

“You know you like that guy, so why not just do what he says?”

Zhou Yanxin tugged at the corner of his lips and drawled, one word at a time, “Come chase me.”

2.

They met again at a business dinner. As the client, Zhou Yanxin carried himself with arrogant, careless ease.

Ren Zhen kept her head down, trying to stay out of sight.

Glasses clinked and drinks flowed. Her immediate superior chatted amiably as he respectfully offered Zhou Yanxin a cigarette.

“No, thanks.”

Zhou Yanxin's gaze darkened. He refused coldly, “My wife doesn't like the smell of smoke.”

After a few awkward seconds, her boss hurriedly put the cigarette away and smiled apologetically. Several colleagues nearby immediately stubbed out their cigarettes, too.

-

After the dinner ended, Ren Zhen was the last to leave the private room. In a daze, someone grabbed her arm and pulled her into the emergency stairwell.

Recognizing him, she struggled to steady her breathing and compose herself. “Mr. Zhou, please behave appropriately.”

“Ren Zhen.”

Zhou Yanxin gritted out her name and flung a crumpled sheet of pale gold paper into her hand. “What, can't a clever liar tell the difference between truth and lies?”

With that, he turned and strode away.

The dim stairwell was silent. Ren Zhen unfolded the crumpled paper. The handwriting was neat and elegant, the ink slightly faded

“Zhou Yanxin, see you in Spring City after the college entrance exams.”

Signed: Ren Zhen

Date: 2015.6.6

Reader's guide:

1. Both leads are virgins, one-on-one romance, guaranteed happy ending

2. School years first, then city life; reunited after a long separation, an unconventional rekindled romance

3. No intimate behavior while underage

[Blurb written 2023.4.11, revised 2023.4.28]

Coming Soon 1: Dark Attraction

[Male lead has a secret crush / “Fox and Wolf” pairing / love and hate]

After graduating from college, An Ying focused on starting a business and, as her father had advised, agreed to a matchmaking meeting with the young master of the Zhao family. But on the eve of their engagement, she caught her fiance fooling around with a young star.

Her engagement, matchmaking arrangements, and business deals were ruined one after another. An Ying investigated the person behind it all, and finally found out who it was. After much deliberation, she went to see him and asked what he was after.

“Don't you want to get married?”

The man, dressed in a suit and looking refined and aloof, answered succinctly: “Marry me.”

An Ying's scalp prickled. She called him crazy, but as she turned away, his well-defined fingers pressed against her shoulder and pinned her to the door.

After a moment of confusion, she forcefully tugged his tie loose, narrowed her eyes, raised her chin, and moved closer to his lips, pretending to be calm as she said:

“Huo Mingqi, isn't this what you want? So why bother getting married?”

Their breaths mingled, their lips barely a hair's breadth apart.

Having been together day and night, An Ying knew he was averse to physical intimacy. She did this on purpose, hoping to provoke him quickly.

“You called me by the wrong name.”

His dark eyes were wolf-like, surging with hidden emotion. His Adam's apple bobbed as he pressed a finger hard against the back of her neck and said, hoarsely, one word at a time, “Kiss me.”

An Ying's heart trembled as memories of the past swept over her like waves

Back then, she followed him every day, calling him Mingqi-ge.

Coming Soon 2: The Client Gives Me a Bottle of Water

[Romance between mature adults]

At the project kickoff meeting, Jiang Xinchuan talked nonstop as she gave her presentation until her throat was parched. The client representative seated quietly in the front row smiled kindly and handed her a bottle of purified water.

At the dinner after the meeting, the client left early. Her colleagues whispered that this aloof beauty was as cold and rigid as ever, someone to admire from afar but never touch.

On her way home, Jiang Xinchuan found the lights on in her apartment when she arrived downstairs.

Her phone buzzed, and she pressed her lips together as she answered. The man's deep voice sank into her ear, hiding an unyielding command beneath a faint drunken haze. “Come up.”

Jiang Xinchuan looked up. The man stood leaning against the balcony in his bathrobe, his figure tall and slender.

Their eyes met, and her throat suddenly went dry.

Theme: Move forward fearlessly and live as your true self.