Xu Yan was a poor relation of the Meng family. With nowhere else to go, she'd lived in their home since childhood. She was less a guest than a servant. She knew how far beneath Meng Xicen she stood, and had always kept her distance from the beloved young master, never daring to tell anyone about her secret, humble love for him.
On her twentieth birthday, Meng Xicen took her out to celebrate at his grandfather's request. They both drank too much, and somehow ended up in bed together. When they woke up, Grandpa Meng forced Meng Xicen to marry her. For the first time in her life, she dared to entertain some improper hopes for the future.
Xu Yan knew that Meng Xicen was the bright moon in the clouds, snow atop a mountain peak, an immortal from the heavens. He was the only miracle in her ordinary life. So she tried with all her might to hold on to that miracle, to love the man who had never once deigned to look at her, dreaming that one day she could stand beside him and make him see her worth.
It was only when she received his divorce papers that Xu Yan finally understood: There were no miracles in this world. Some people were born to stand above others, while some were destined to toil in the mundane world. Even if she flew into the flames and was burned to ashes, she would still be no more than a smear of mosquito blood, a speck of fly droppings, a stumbling block in Meng Xicen's dazzling life.
She would never catch his eye.
*
Years later, the two met again in a conference room at a branch of Yaosen Group.
The company's vice president introduced them eagerly. "President Meng, this is Comrade Xu Yan, the new Party-building instructor assigned by the government."
Xu Yan held out a slender, pale hand and gave a faint nod. "Hello, President Meng. I look forward to working with you."
In that moment, Meng Xicen knew his Yan Yan had flown away.
*
Meng Xicen came from a distinguished family. Successful in his career, handsome, and charming, he was widely regarded as Yaosen Group's heir apparent. But one drunken lapse in judgment led to a night of passion with Xu Yan, a country girl living under his family's roof. As a result, he lost his well-matched fiancee, his good name and reputation, and his chance to compete for the position of successor. He became the laughingstock of their social circle.
He thought he had every reason to resent Xu Yan.
But when the girl signed the divorce papers, picked up her suitcase, and quietly walked out of the Meng family mansion, an inexplicable emptiness opened inside him, and it had never been filled, not even after all these years.
He thought he would get used to it.
But year after year, he never did.
He thought perhaps he should win his Yan Yan back.
[Urban romance: Aristocratic heir x rookie civil servant, marriage before love, rekindled romance, male lead is a virgin, female lead is not. Do not read if that's not your thing.]
Theme: Why not cherish the one before you?
