Waiting for Spring

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[A story of a broken relationship rekindled]

A cold-faced, lovestruck, cocky genius x a charming, proud queen

Grown up: a scientist exploring the universe x a superstar who will go down in film history

*

Lan Yajun and Jing Chuhuai reunite at a movie premiere years later.

The once fearsome queen of thorns has become numb, detached, and exhausted.

She doesn't care about others' stares, teasing, or cold shoulders. She speaks sparingly, her eyes vacant, living as if she were dead.

But when their eyes meet after all those years apart, a soul is suddenly breathed into that lifeless shell.

"Is Lan Ruoya your stage name?" Jing Chuhuai asks, posing as an unfamiliar audience member.

Lan Yajun stares at him blankly and replies, "Yes."

"Then what's your real name?"

They gaze at each other. Nearly ten years have flashed by in an instant. Under Jing Chuhuai's burning gaze, Lan Yajun lowers her head and, after a long silence, replies:

"You know."

*

Half a year after they separated, Jing Chuhuai takes Lan Yajun home after she loses her memory in a car accident.

Without her memories, Lan Yajun becomes a cat who's all claws and no courage.

Jing Chuhuai is no longer young, his former sharpness and acerbity worn away. He holds back the claws of this cat that keeps hurting people, tells her about their past, and assures her that she isn't homeless.

Lan Yajun is cautious, testing him again and again, until she finally acts on a whim.

She reaches to pull down the many safety charms hanging in Jing Chuhuai's car, blocking his view, but he stops her.

Lan Yajun jumps, and just as she's about to retreat into her protective shell, Jing Chuhuai explains, "I got these from a lot of different places."

Lan Yajun cautiously looks up and asks, "What did you pray for?"

Jing Chuhuai replies, "For your safety and happiness, and for us to stay together forever."

"Maybe I was fooled," he says silently, turning to look at Lan Yajun, shy but happy. "But I hope it was true."

[Before You Read]:

1. This novel has no real-life inspirations. It is entirely fictional!

2. The heroine is an unbelievably gorgeous beauty, but has a split personality. The hero is an unbelievably brilliant genius, but he's cocky and sharp-tongued.

3. One-on-one, both leads are virgins. A sweet little treat with three parts angst, three parts madness, and four parts sweetness. Hehehehehehehe, trust me.

My next contemporary romance will be a road-trip story with a nine-year age gap, about a younger man pursuing an older woman.

A gentle, mature, wealthy young heir x a sweet but fierce lost girl

*

After her mother dies, Song Qiao takes a year off from school, packs her bags, and sets off on an unknown journey.

When she enters Tibet, Song Qiao, unfamiliar with the roads, gets into an argument with her driver and is kicked out of the car. Zhou Yunpeng, who has come to Tibet to pray for his mother's blessings, finds her.

In the wilderness, with a man and a woman alone together, it's hard to imagine nothing happening.

Song Qiao refuses Zhou Yunpeng's kind offer and stubbornly walks ahead with her heavy luggage. As dusk approaches, the car that's been following more than a hundred meters behind her turns on its bright headlights, illuminating the road growing dim before her.

She pauses, then turns around. Zhou Yunpeng leans out of the car window and beckons her over, saying helplessly, "I'm really not a bad person. It's unsafe here at night, and it's too dangerous for a kid like you to be alone."

Song Qiao presses her lips together, standing in the dim light as she and Zhou Yunpeng face each other in the quiet night. At last, she lets down her guard.

*

Zhou Yunpeng is a gentle, refined gentleman, kind to everyone. Song Qiao is no exception.

So he does everything he can to care for Song Qiao, who has lost everything, while coolly and rationally handling each time she draws close to him.

So after Song Qiao gives him everything, and he has fallen completely, he still turns away from her kiss.

At only nineteen, Song Qiao can't simply dismiss it all as a fleeting affair like an adult. She throws herself into it with all her heart, then lets it go just as fiercely. When the journey ends, she leaves without saying goodbye, like a fish disappearing into the sea, never to be found again.

As she boards the train, she notices a bodhi-bead bracelet stained with blood and tears dangling from her hand. It is the bracelet Zhou Yunpeng always wore.

Wearing it, he had held Song Qiao's hand as they crossed snowy mountains, walked through the wilderness, passed through canyons, and entered the sacred Potala Palace.

Zhou Yunpeng always wears his hair in a loose Taoist-style topknot, basking in the sunlight, forever carefree, forever at ease, forever doing as he pleases. But when his calm eyes meet Song Qiao's, they always reveal the faintest hint of fear.

"People in this world come and go in a hurry. Fates begin and end, and nothing is certain."

"And so?"

"And so, Song Qiao..." His bright eyes meet Song Qiao's, whose passion and honesty far surpass his own, and he silently lowers his gaze. He rolls the bodhi bead in his hand, falls silent for a moment, then looks up and regains the composure of an older man.

He raises a hand and ruffles Song Qiao's hair, then says, out of nowhere, "Never mind."

Theme: Each generation brings forth new heroes, yet every generation shares the same great dream for China