An Old Love Letter

[Main story complete]

[Reunion from the start | Brooding and aloof × gentle ray of sunshine | Secret crush and healing]

Chu Huiyi was the only beloved daughter of the Chu family in the capital.

At twenty-four, she saw Jiang Yi again.

Years had passed. The aloof boy in her memories had become someone others described as cold, ruthless, and unscrupulous.

She had planned to keep her distance, but then she realized he was actually a pretty decent person.

So why not be friends?

But a "bad" man was still a "bad" man. How could he be satisfied with being just friends?

He kept crossing the line more and more often. Chu Huiyi couldn't take his teasing, and her heart was in turmoil, so she decided to throw caution to the wind.

"Tell me honestly. Do you like me?"

He didn't hesitate for even a moment. "Yes. I like you very much."

"Will you be my girlfriend? If you say yes, you can't break up with me for the rest of your life."

Chu Huiyi thought he had acted on a whim, but she hadn't expected him to want a lifelong commitment.

How could that be? They had only known each other for a few months.

"Huiyi likes the twenty-seven-year-old Jiang Yi,

but every version of Jiang Yi has Huiyi's name carved into his heart."

[After all these years, he finally got what he wanted]

PS:

1. "Hui" means delicate and beautiful, gentle and graceful. The heroine comes from a distinguished family and is their only daughter, with an honored status. The hero is an illegitimate child, and when they were young, there was a great gap between them.

2. The hero's personality is a product of his upbringing, but he is very gentle with the heroine, and only with her.

3. Both are each other's first and only partners.

[Blurb first written on August 4, 2024, and revised on February 23, 2025. Screenshots of both versions have been saved.]

---- Upcoming novel: Dream Prison ----

Jiang Zhiyue bought a ticket for a famous cruise ship, but her boyfriend stood her up, turning their romantic trip into a lonely journey.

She had planned to quietly spend the next few days at sea by herself, but unexpectedly met a French-Chinese man.

He was open yet mysterious, sincere yet effortlessly charming. He said he was an ordinary mid-level office worker who lived and worked in London, but Jiang Zhiyue happened to discover that the ship's customer service director and even the captain treated him with the utmost respect.

Unable to figure him out, she spent the final two days subtly testing whether what he told her was true.

"Once the ship docks, we'll never see each other again. Can't you tell a chance acquaintance the truth?"

A chance acquaintance.

That was just an excuse Roderick had casually made up to get close to her.

As for whether they would cross paths again later...

Roderick stared at her with unblinking blue eyes, then slowly curled his lips into a smile. His voice was low and rich. "I'm sorry, Corrie. I've changed my mind."

A few traces of forceful danger spilled into his gentle, gentlemanly tone. Jiang Zhiyue sensed the lingering interest in his eyes, and the dangerous promise of their continued entanglement suddenly made her heart leap.

A faint feeling that things were slipping out of her control unsettled her.

When the cruise ship reached port, she left without saying goodbye.

-

In a sea of people, the odds of a chance encounter were slim. But a few days later, Jiang Zhiyue ran into Roderick again in a hotel lobby.

"Were you following me?" she asked in disbelief, her fingertips digging into her palm.

Roderick smiled. His deep-set features were captivating, and his eyes held the languid confidence of someone in control of the situation.

It turned out the hotel belonged to his family.

He said she shouldn't have to put up with staying there and planned to move her somewhere else.

Jiang Zhiyue was taken to his estate.

A suburb far from the city center, a vast lawn, and a medieval castle so enormous it could leave anyone completely lost.

So on the ship, all that gentlemanly warmth had been a way to lure and deceive his prey.

He was a powerful, privileged heir. Whatever he wanted, he could get with a little manipulation.

"I've tried everything to win you over, so why do you keep trying to run away?"

In the bathroom, he stood over her as she sat on the counter, gently stroking her cheek with his fingertips. "Stay by my side, and I'll give you anything you want. Be good, sweetie."

Jiang Zhiyue wouldn't let him hold her chin and angrily turned her head away.

When his kiss, carrying the faint scent of aftershave, covered her lips, she showed no sign of it, but inwardly she was thinking about how to get past the housekeepers and attendants and escape the maze-like estate.

-

The evening they first met, the orange sun hung low on the horizon.

On a whim, Roderick boarded the Renina.

Family feuds, collateral relatives scrambling for their share of the spoils, and his father's rigid grip on power all left him feeling frustrated.

A voyage far from shore would offer a brief respite, but sooner or later he would have to deal with his many responsibilities. Roderick gave instructions that he would disembark at the next port...

But a young woman from the East accidentally stumbled into his world and threw his plans into disarray.

PS:

1. The male lead has no prior romantic or sexual experience. His family once arranged for him to meet several women, but he never dated any of them.

2. There is a six-year age gap. The heroine is 22 and the hero is 28 (tentative).

3. More details to come if I think of any.

Theme: Strive to make yourself stronger.