The Stars’ Smile

The person Han Wan'er least wanted to see again in this life was Gu Sichen.

When they were young, she was spoiled and willful, while he was aloof and sharp-tongued. Whenever they met, they clashed.

When she was eighteen, her family fell on hard times. She went from the top of the world to the depths of despair, following her mother abroad.

At her lowest point, she ended up working at the same café as Gu Sichen.

She thought he would kick her while she was down, but instead he stepped in to shield her from trouble and stayed by her side through the hardest days.

When the Ferris wheel reached its highest point, he kissed her.

He said, “Han Wan'er, I've loved you for years.”

She thought his love was a salvation in the depths of despair, but an unexpected misunderstanding drove them apart for good.

She vanished without a trace, as if she had never been part of his life.

*

Gu Sichen searched for Han Wan'er for five years.

Everyone said she was dead, but he refused to believe it.

Then he met a famous actress who looked exactly like her.

She said her name was Han Simiao, and looked at him with unfamiliar, distant eyes.

Five years of longing and resentment became a thorn in his heart.

He said the cruelest things and used a contract to keep her by his side.

He gave her the connections she wanted in the entertainment industry and stood up for her.

On the day the contract expired, she turned to leave.

“Are you really in such a hurry to leave me?” Gu Sichen locked an arm firmly around her waist. His eyes reddened, and his voice turned pleading. “What do I have to do for you to love me?”

Please add my next book, Love You in Time, to your reading list

Fake playboy / rekindled romance / university and city life

(I)

In her third year of college, An Yushan went with her parents to a wedding.

The groom was Ji Shicha's father.

She knew Ji Shicha was the keyboardist in the band Miracle. She had seen him smile as a girl confessed her feelings, then casually dodge her kiss.

He was an unruly, pampered prodigy, languid and refined. She had always been a well-behaved, practical girl who followed the rules.

They were supposed to come from different worlds, yet she longed to enter his.

After turning over her confession in her mind countless times, she finally worked up the courage to tell him.

But at a corner in the hallway of a bar, she overheard him joking with a friend

Xiang Chengyu remarked, “I've always wondered how you and her met. It feels like she's not from the same circle as us.”

Ji Shicha replied in a casual voice, “She's the daughter of one of my dad's friends.”

Xiang Chengyu teased him with a laugh. “So now you know how to suck up to your dad? If you really marry her, you can do whatever you want afterward.”

(II)

Ji Shicha had calculated everything, except that all his efforts to get close to her would be met with An Yushan's cold insistence on keeping her distance.

In a deafeningly loud bar, Ji Shicha was half drunk when he stopped An Yushan in the hallway as she was leaving.

“You laugh and talk with other guys, but turn around and leave the moment you see me?” His voice was low, its final note edged with mockery. “An Yushan, you're such a hypocrite.”

“Senior Ji, who I talk to has nothing to do with you, does it?” An Yushan tried to break free of his grip and took a step back, her face cold.

“Nothing to do with me?” Ji Shicha bent down, pressing his forehead against hers, his breath brushing her lips. “Then who was it that wrapped her arms around my neck and leaned in to ask if I wanted to kiss her?”

Images of that reckless night after drinking crashed into An Yushan's mind. She forced herself to turn away. “I told you, it was an accident. I drank too much that night. I don't remember.”

“You don't remember?” Ji Shicha reached out and cupped the back of her head, giving it a gentle tug that brought her right in front of him. “Fine. I don't mind helping you remember.”

He lowered his head and kissed her hard.

An Yushan struggled to get free and bit his lip. The taste of blood instantly spread between them.

Ji Shicha wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with his fingertip. A wild obsession was growing in his eyes. “I forgot. Even a rabbit will bite when it's pushed too far.”

Theme: Only by forgiving the past can we put down our heavy burdens and move forward unencumbered.