In a Summer Like This

"Zhuang Qi, I've always felt that I've been trapped in the summer when I was nineteen.

In July, in England; in September, in Beishi. Before I had the chance to confess my feelings, you appeared at the place where my best friend died.

My thoughts were like glass shrouded in mist. I liked you cautiously from the other side, and never truly saw you clearly.

Do you know? You were a typhoon that tore through my youth, so violent that you took everything you could carry away."

/

In 2018, Xu Anfan met Zhuang Qi while studying abroad in England.

Cambridge was crowded with tourists that summer. She was taking a photo in front of the Corpus Clock when he passed by, wearing a carefree expression. He paused casually to give her a moment to take the picture.

From other people, she heard that he was a playboy who was always surrounded by different girls.

Knowing she shouldn't get involved with someone like him, the usually obedient Xu Anfan nevertheless fell for him.

She did her best to get closer to him, until at last there was only one step between them.

But then she learned that her best friend, whose cause of death remained unknown, had met Zhuang Qi before she died.

And he asked Xu Anfan to keep that meeting from the police.

Her summer crush turned cold as ash. Xu Anfan personally requested that Zhuang Qi be investigated.

/

Five years later, the cold case that had gone unsolved was reopened.

Outside the interview room, Xu Anfan saw Zhuang Qi again.

She ran after him, wanting to ask about the case, but he looked at her with cold, distant eyes and spoke in an icy voice. "Didn't you say you never wanted to see me again?"

A few months later, the writer Xu Anfan attended an international artificial intelligence conference to research her new book.

Zhuang Qi, chief technology officer of a publicly listed company, took the stage. His English presentation was deep and pleasant to listen to, while the spotlight made him seem cold and remote.

Everyone tried to curry favor with him, but he didn't look her way even once.

Xu Anfan, sitting in the audience, thought the two of them would simply remain strangers.

But halfway through the conference, she suddenly received a message from the police. When she saw what it said, she felt as if she'd fallen into an icy abyss.

Xu Anfan stumbled out of the venue for some air, only to have Zhuang Qi grab her wrist outside.

He lowered his head, his eyes dark. "Did you come for me? Do you suspect me, or can't you let me go?"

Reading Guide:

1. The male lead isn't the culprit.

2. Rekindled love after a breakup; five-year age gap.

3. Romance is the main plot, with mystery as a subplot.

*This story was inspired by a trip to England to visit a friend in the summer of 2024.

Updates every night at 8. If I need to take a day off, I'll post about it on Weibo: @WoZhuLiuJing_

Blurb first published on August 16, 2024.

First revised on October 1, 2024.

Theme: Set out toward an open road.