Hard to Say Aloud

Print edition sales are now open. For details, see Weibo: Eat Your Carrots, Summer Bonus story, alternate timeline: Just This Feeling, formerly titled No Wonder, now complete. See my author page. - Content warnings below -++++ The neighboring novel, Unspeakable Addiction, is complete. Synopsis: [Lu Yinong] At fifteen, her aunt Lu Qing married up, becoming the wife of wealthy Beicheng businessman Zhang Peiming. Lu Yinong went north with her and stayed at the Zhang residence, where she met Zhang Ronghui, her new uncle's only son. A small-town girl and a golden boy were like two straight lines in three-dimensional space that could never meet, until a marriage compressed them onto the same two-dimensional plane. A youthful crush quietly took root. She had seen the sun, and no longer had eyes for the stars. But by the time he finally looked at her in earnest, two years had already passed. [Zhang Ronghui] At nineteen, his father remarried, and his young stepmother brought along a girl who seemed like his stepmother's spitting image. He assumed they were cut from the same cloth, both shallow and alike, and judged her accordingly. Until an unexpected trip to Tongnan. She sat behind the counter of a little photography studio, wearing the shop's faded promotional T-shirt. When she looked up at him, her eyes were as pure as a mountain spring, and her skin as white as porcelain. In that instant of eye contact, the prejudice rooted in his heart vanished without a trace. Two years later, he finally experienced that delayed rush of love at first sight. When she finished her college entrance exams, he confessed indirectly in the sea breeze beneath a sky filled with fireworks. It seemed to come too late. Someone else had already begun to occupy her heart. Lu Yinong said, “It wasn't easy for me to call you big brother.” “I cherish that too.” “I don't want to change what we are to each other.” The first to fall in love is the first to give up; the one who falls later can't accept it. “As long as you're brave enough not to be a coward, why should we miss each other?”, lyrics from “You Just Don't Think of Me” * [Important!] Chapters 67–71 follow the heroine's other romantic relationships. Subscribe with caution! * Four-year age gap * The leads fall in love at different times; the male lead pursues the female lead * A little angst for the male lead * No real-life inspirations; no historical research needed * Please add to your library and leave a comment * Content warning: The heroine has other romantic relationships * Not love at first sight; the opening is slow-paced, so please be patient Theme: Who gave you tenderness that said, “This is all I can say”?