Falling Off Course

The complete story is finished.

[Marriage Before Love, Six-Year Age Gap, Both Leads' First Time]

The new novel, After All These Years, is currently updating. [He Fell for Her First | Brooding and Aloof × Gentle Sunshine] Find it in my author profile!

1.

Jing Tan knew she was the carefully chosen Mrs. Shen, a pawn meant to keep the Shen family's internal conflicts in check.

With no other choice, she married Shen Kuo, whose attitude toward her was indifferent from the start.

"Do what you're supposed to do. You'll gain nothing by meddling in other matters."

2.

This marriage was a cage built by other people, and Jing Tan was waiting for the day she could escape. She never tried to win Shen Kuo over, knowing she had to rely on herself.

After a business dinner at a club, Jing Tan felt unwell on her way back and asked the driver to stop by the roadside so she could go into a pharmacy.

From the driver's seat, Shen Kuo remembered that she had barely eaten that night. Her reaction seemed exaggerated, so he mocked her lightly. "Having an antidote?"

Jing Tan opened a bottle of mineral water and swallowed two pills. In an even tone, she replied, "I'm allergic to plums."

Shen Kuo froze for a moment.

The low-alcohol drink had been his choice for her.

Later, at a banquet, someone joked that they should toast President Shen and Mrs. Shen.

Shen Kuo moved the glass away from Jing Tan, picked up his own, and smiled faintly. "I'm afraid I'll have to drink for my wife."

It was plum wine.

3.

Jing Tan thought Shen Kuo had helped her out of simple gentlemanly courtesy, but he kept acting more and more out of character, nothing like the distant, indifferent man he had been before.

"Shen Kuo," she said, finally deciding to be direct and make things clear, "we're on opposite sides. Keeping our distance is the best choice."

She spoke decisively. A levelheaded man like Shen Kuo would make the right decision.

But Shen Kuo's expression darkened as he kissed her.

"You plan to keep your distance from your own husband? Jing Tan, does that sound reasonable to you?"

Once, Shen Kuo had thought that the divorce agreement he'd prepared long ago would eventually bear both his and Jing Tan's names.

But later, he was the one who changed his mind and refused to sign it.

Upcoming: I Like the Rain

[Age Gap, Powerful Man Bows His Head]

1.

The first time Yun Ci entered the Shang family's home with Shang Baiyang, she met Shang Yanhuai.

A gentle rain was falling that day.

The man had just come downstairs after a meeting on the second floor. A suit jacket hung over his arm, and a cigarette was pinched between his long, pale fingers, its ember flickering.

In the elegant old house, filled with huanghuali furniture, his distant, ink-like air reminded Yun Ci of a pine tree standing atop a mountain in a landscape painting.

"Yun Ci, this is my uncle," Shang Baiyang said, taking a pair of women's slippers from a shoe cabinet carved with scrolling floral designs. "You can call him Uncle too, from now on."

Yun Ci glanced up discreetly and accidentally met his cool, dark eyes.

She greeted him timidly.

From then on, thanks to that title that placed a generation between them, it seemed she had gained an elder.

2.

The Yun family lived far away in the misty, rain-soaked Jiangnan region. Yun Ci had come to the capital to study, and her family had asked the Shang family, an old family friend, to look after her.

"Hey, Yun Ci, my uncle is on a business trip in France. I spent ages persuading him before he agreed to pick something up for me," Shang Baiyang said, patting her with an expression that said he was a very thoughtful friend. "You like that painter, O-something, right? Want me to ask him to bring back a painting for you too?"

Yun Ci lowered her eyes, hesitating.

"...Never mind. I don't want to trouble him."

She didn't want him to think she was being difficult. But when Shang Yanhuai returned from his trip, he really had brought back the expensive oil painting he'd bought for her.

She took the framed painting and thanked him softly.

With his nephew chattering beside him, Shang Yanhuai showed little emotion and simply said it was nothing.

Yun Ci didn't know how much effort it had taken him to find the hard-to-buy painting, or whether, to him, such a thing really was no more than a trivial matter.

She only knew that the inexplicable feelings in the light, airy cloud in her heart were growing stronger. When it could hold them no longer, a gentle rain began to fall.

Yun Ci had always been reserved. She thought about it for a long, long time, then worked up the courage to decide to take a chance for herself.

It wasn't hard to notice the young girl's innocent, youthful crush.

In the study, Shang Yanhuai lowered his eyes and noticed the sun shining through the translucent red of her jade-like ear. She seemed just as delicate.

He fell unusually silent, then finally spoke.

"You're the same age as Baiyang? You haven't even turned twenty. You have a long future ahead of you, and children change their minds all the time."

Yun Ci's eyes gradually dimmed.

That was true. His experience and perspective were far beyond hers. How could a little pool, so shallow that he could see straight to the bottom, possibly move him?

Gradually, she visited the Shang home less and less.

Later, she went abroad to study.

3.

The day they met again, a violent storm was falling over the capital.

Yun Ci happened to run into the Shang family and greeted them politely with a faint smile.

When her gaze met Shang Yanhuai's, she nodded and called him Uncle in a clear voice, then calmly looked away.

A few years had passed. The once-naive girl had grown up. Her lightly made-up face had gained a hint of allure. But the heart she had once offered him, as clear as a spring, was gone. Her beautiful smile was like a veil of gauze, leaving her impossible to read through the mist.

She had gone out alone and was caught in the rain, making it hard to find a cab.

His lips pressed together, and just as he was about to speak, Shang Baiyang came over to her.

"Where do you live now? I'll take you home."

The youthful feelings had first emerged in a haze. Years later, he tasted the fruit's bitterness.

And this rain was nothing like the gentle drizzle from back then.

Ever since Yun Ci returned, Shang Baiyang had been spending a lot of time with her.

One evening, Yun Ci arrived at the agreed meeting place after work and waited for a ride. But the person who arrived wasn't Shang Baiyang. It was Shang Yanhuai.

He said Baiyang had something urgent to take care of, so he was filling in.

Yun Ci pressed her lips together, then got into the car.

They spoke little along the way, their conversation coming in fits and starts.

When Shang Yanhuai brought up the friends' teasing about Yun Ci and Baiyang, he was silent for a long moment before speaking. "You shouldn't rush into a relationship. You and Baiyang haven't seen each other in years. Think things through from every angle. You may not be right for each other."

"What makes two people right for each other?" Yun Ci gazed out the window, her voice cool. "Baiyang and I are the same age. We've had similar experiences and have plenty to talk about. We're not children anymore. Our feelings won't waver in the morning and change by night."

The words he had once said came back to cut him, one by one.

Shang Yanhuai's throat tightened.

"So your feelings don't waver anymore?"

A Tiny Bonus Scene

"Why are you called Yun Ci?" Shang Yanhuai asked.

"Because my mother really likes ceramics. We have so many pieces at home." Yun Ci lowered her head, looking a little dejected. "Do you think my name sounds a little tacky? When people hear 'ci,' they think of kneading clay..."

"Of course not." Shang Yanhuai smiled, his voice deep and pleasant. "Porcelain is fragile and needs to be carefully protected. It's a name meant to be cherished in the palm of your hand."

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Inspired by:

"The sky-blue glaze waits for the misty rain, and I am waiting for you.", Lyrics by Fang Wenshan, "Blue and White Porcelain" by Jay Chou

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P.S.:

1. The heroine and the second male lead knew each other as children, but were only good friends of a similar age, with no romantic feelings. After they reunite, she says those things only to make the hero jealous.

2. The heroine is already an adult when she comes to the capital for university.

3. The leads have an eight-year age gap, and neither has had a previous sexual partner.

[Blurb written on 2024.1.29 and screenshotted]

Theme: Stay clearheaded and resilient, even in difficult times