A Flash of Beauty

Also known as After I Accidentally Shared Hot Guy Videos with My Crush~

★ Chatty, socially anxious cutie x aloof, jealous campus heartthrob | A mutual crush comes true

Xia Mian is painfully shy in real life, but a queen of bold talk online.

She has an uninhibited alt account, [Spring Slumber], which she uses to share hot guy videos with her best friend. But after they started their senior year, her "best friend" suddenly became much more distant.

[Spring Slumber]: (two hot influencer videos) Wifey~ Today's hot guy picks. One for you, one for me.

[Valuri]: (Read) ?... Don't call me that.

Xia Mian thinks nothing of it and keeps right on posting:

[Spring Slumber]: (ten videos of her crush, Pei Yan) I want to bury my face in his pecs so badly. His collarbones are so handsome and sexy too. I'm over here panting!

[Valuri]: Ahem. Keep it decent.

In the days that follow, Xia Mian notices her "best friend" becoming more and more gentle, replying instantly and staying up late to help with homework, but making snide comments about hot guy influencers.

Then one day, she speaks without thinking:

[Spring Slumber]: Aaaah, Pei Yan bought me milk tea today! Three percent sugar, no ice. Do you think he likes me?!

Ten seconds later, a friend request pops up:

[Valuri]: "Yeah, I like you. I'm Pei Yan."

When she gets so scared she won't accept the request, he sends another message.

[Valuri]: "Leaving me on read?"

[Valuri]: "Weren't you calling me wifey this morning?"

Xia Mian: ...Can I still delete my account?

#TheBestFriendWhoLeavesMyVideoSharesOnReadTurnsOutToBeMyCrush#

Notes:

1. Both leads are each other's first love. The city of Nancheng is fictional.

2. The central premise took shape in 2023. The blurb has been revised and expanded.

★--Blurb for the currently updating sweet romance, The Polar Night Arrives--★

Strangers to lovers after a marriage of convenience

Capable, cool-headed deep-sea sailor x mature, stern research station chief

In her three years on the job, Bai Hemian has been pressured to marry 108 times.

By the fourth year, her mother finally can't take it anymore and arranges a blind date for her, even using the trendy phrase "marry first, fall in love later."

"You can grow to love each other. Your job is so unusual, you're never home. If you don't get married while you're young, what will you do later?"

She agrees to marry her third blind date, Song Zhenhong, simply because he's a good match, pleasing to the eye, and another victim of family pressure to marry.

When they meet, they introduce their jobs:

She is vague: "Transportation equipment mechanic." It sounds like she fixes high-speed trains in the city.

He says, "Space physics observer." It sounds like he works at an astronomical observatory in the suburbs.

So they hit it off, get married in a flash, and give their parents an answer.

Half a month later.

Song Zhenhong is the first to receive an assignment, and says he'll be out of town for "a few days." Bai Hemian follows soon after.

Aboard the research vessel bound for the Arctic, Song Zhenhong is holding a photograph and telling his crewmates about his wife at home when he sees Bai Hemian.

The next second, Bai Hemian is introducing herself to someone else as a deep-sea sailor aboard the ship, newly married, with her husband at home.

Late at night.

Bai Hemian sneaks into his room to confront Song Zhenhong.

He calmly replies, "I am a space physics observer. I'm the winter-over station chief, responsible for observing the aurora during the Arctic polar night."

She answers without a hint of guilt, "And I'm a transportation equipment mechanic. That's true too. I'm a marine engineer. I fix ships."

-

When polar night falls, death is forbidden in the Svalbard archipelago, but love is not.

Theme: Shining brightly in the work we each do.