*Fake yandere x aloof beauty / mutual unrequited love / saving each other
*An unconventional pairing. The blurb is full of lies, so please consult the reader's guide before diving in.
Mu Baizhi had a boyfriend in college. After graduation, she rented a place of her own and painted full-time, sometimes going ten or fifteen days without leaving the house.
Her boyfriend, Zhong Yan, didn't smoke, drink, or go clubbing. He didn't take her on dates or to hotels, and he barely even chatted with her. He might as well not have existed.
Mu Baizhi's best friend asked, "What are you even getting out of dating Zhong Yan like this?"
Mu Baizhi only smiled.
"So what? I like his face."
Zhong Yan had been the campus heartthrob at the college next door. The explanation she always gave people was that, more than a promising future, she preferred his pleasing looks.
She thought she would never have the heart to break up with him.
Until one night, she suddenly came down with acute appendicitis.
Half-conscious, she called her emergency contact. Zhong Yan answered.
He asked who she was, and hadn't even saved her number.
After being discharged, Mu Baizhi sat in a daze for a long time.
She typed and deleted messages over and over, until all that remained was one sentence: "Let's leave it at that."
She broke up with him unilaterally.
*
Mu Baizhi's neighbor was her landlord, Zhong Churan, a college student who had just graduated.
He was Zhong Yan's cousin. He looked about seventy percent like Zhong Yan, but was chatty and sunny.
The two of them grew closer because of what happened at the hospital, and she realized that Zhong Churan seemed to like her.
Her best friend asked, "They're cousins. Won't this cause trouble?"
Mu Baizhi lowered her eyes, avoiding her friend's gaze.
"So what... if I like his face?"
Then one day, Zhong Yan suddenly showed up at her door. By coincidence, she had just run into Zhong Churan, and the two of them were walking home together. All three came face-to-face.
In those eyes, which had always seemed calm and unruffled, a storm surged.
Mu Baizhi silently watched his Adam's apple bob.
She thought,
You're really too late.
"We've already broken up."
*
No one knew that Mu Baizhi, who seemed so carefree, had always liked Zhong Yan.
In the ten years they had known each other, she had filled a thick album with portraits of him.
She was an Aladdin with nothing to her name, wrapped in layers of disguise as she pursued Princess Jasmine.
Stumbling along, healing on her own.
Thankfully, after a long wait of longing, her feelings were finally returned.
Reader's guide:
1. A self-indulgent, healing story. The heroine is a "patient" who has long pretended to be gentle, kind, and perfect. Her mental state is genuinely unhealthy at first, but she will grow and change later. The hero is Zhong Yan, truly cold on the outside and warm on the inside. Two beautiful, strong, tragic people save each other and grow together. The author is a die-hard romance fan, with a proven track record (not really).
2. 1v1, both leads are sexually inexperienced, happy ending. The leads are both 26.
3. There is a secondary couple: a rich young lady x her loyal assistant, with the second male lead getting the girl.
4. The blurb was first drafted on 2023.10.27. The author is getting back into writing, so this is the first story they'll work on.
Theme: Don't judge by appearances
