Pursuing Joy in Flawless Jade [Reunited After a Breakup]

[Melodrama] [Campus] [Rekindled Romance] [Showbiz]

"Willful, carefree actress VS brooding, possessive heir"

01

At a post-exam gathering after the college entrance exams, Shen Huan thinks her unrequited crush has come to nothing. She drinks to drown her sorrows, when someone suddenly grabs her wrist.

Under the dazzling lights, Chen Bi wears a rare, bright smile. After a moment's hesitation, he asks:

"You said you liked me. Does that still stand?"

Her heart pounds like a drum. Amid the crowd's teasing, she nods without hesitation.

The day they break up is New Year's Eve.

Shen Huan leans against the window of the villa, quietly watching the fireworks fill the sky, and Chen Bi standing in the snow outside.

A message lies on her phone:

"It's better for both of you if you split up sooner."

02

When they meet again, Chen Bi has become the heir to the Huo family, and Shen Huan's fiance.

Everyone praises Chen Bi as a refined gentleman with impeccable manners. They don't know that he pins Shen Huan in a corner by the stairs and reveals his nasty side:

"You dumped me because you thought I was poor. Who were you planning to marry?"

"Since you left me, has anyone treated you as well as I did?"

"After all the twists and turns, I'm still your only choice."

Shen Huan doesn't indulge mad dogs. She breaks free and gives him a hard slap.

With a red handprint on his face, Chen Bi secretly revels in it for the rest of the banquet.

Shen Huan never took their engagement seriously, but to Chen Bi, this promise was a treasure he had fought tooth and nail to claim.

03

Cicadas sing in the summer heat. During self-study, Shen Huan stares absentmindedly at the transfer student.

Chen Bi sits in front of her, tall and straight, like a green bamboo shrouded in mist after the rain. His neat school uniform has faded from countless washes. As he lowers his head to write, the back of his neck forms a clean, striking line.

Suddenly, she finds herself interested in him.

But after several attempts to show him her affection go unanswered, Shen Huan loses heart and angrily throws the gift she meant for him into the trash can in the back row.

She has no idea that once the classroom is empty, Chen Bi will bend down to pick it up, carefully wipe it clean, and tuck it safely into his backpack.

Just as he puts away the feelings he can barely control.

04

After they marry, Shen Huan is tidying the study when she accidentally knocks over an old iron box, spilling its contents across the floor.

She hurriedly crouches to gather everything, but when she sees what the items are, she freezes in shock.

As soon as Chen Bi gets home, Shen Huan rushes over to him, grinning like a smug cat:

"You love me so much! You kept all that worthless stuff for years. I thought you'd thrown it away ages ago."

"How could I bear to?"

Chen Bi can't help sighing. During all those years apart, he often spent entire nights looking at those mementos and missing her.

He wraps an arm around her slender waist, holding her as if she were a rose branch, and gently presses a kiss to her lips.

"Promise me you'll never leave me again."

"Life is short. Better to chase a little joy while we can."

Reading Guide:

1. The leads are the same age. They have mutual crushes in high school, but only start dating afterward. They are 25 when they meet again.

2. Both leads are sexually inexperienced, one-on-one romance.

*The title comes from Liu Guo's "Nian Nu Jiao":

"Chase joy with white jade, buy smiles with gold, and give it all to you."

--My next book, "The Canary Lost Her Memory and Ran Away with the Baby", is available to preorder in my profile. It's waiting eagerly for your support. Here's the blurb:

[Showbiz] [Older Man] [Fake Pursuit of His Wife] [Raising a Child]

"Beautiful woman who loves boldly and hates boldly VS older CEO with a controlling streak"

01

Qiao Ci Zhu accidentally falls and wakes up to find that her memories have gone back to her university days. She also discovers that she's pregnant, and there's a contact in her phone labeled "Husband."

Nervously, she calls the number:

"Honey, can you come pick me up and take me home?"

To her shock, her sworn enemy Shen Xi answers in a cold voice:

"You're just the canary I keep. You don't get to call me that."

Qiao Ci Zhu feels as if the sky has fallen.

What on earth? How could she have sunk so low as to become her enemy's canary?

And now she's pregnant before marriage, too?!

02

Back at the villa, Qiao Ci Zhu caters to her sugar daddy:

"How much do you pay to keep me each month?"

Shen Xi coolly hands her a card. "Three thousand. Not a cent more."

She falls silent, opens a job-search app, and starts thinking about quitting.

Forget it. For the baby's sake, Mom will put up with it for now.

Sharing a bed at night, she evades Shen Xi's intimate advances and keeps fishing for answers. "Do you like children?"

Shen Xi coldly shoots her down. "No."

Qiao Ci Zhu is completely devastated. She touches the baby in her belly, whose vitality is all too strong. Let's go home, baby. She packs her things and runs away in the middle of the night.

You lousy man, you shameless capitalist! A cheap canary earning a measly three thousand a month? A college student would think she was in northern Myanmar! She's done with this!

03

Qiao Ci Zhu doesn't know that the moment she leaves, Shen Xi goes crazy searching everywhere for her.

He can't understand it. He was only jealous of a showbiz rumor and demanded she play canary for a week. How did he end up losing his wife?!

A few days later, during a live broadcast of a farming variety show, Shen Xi watches helplessly as his wife laughs and chats with the person she's rumored to be dating, acting intimately with him.

His eyes turn red, and he nearly snaps the sickle in his hand.

Oh no, his jealousy went too far. His wife really did run off with the person from the rumors!

04

After going through thick and thin to win his wife back, Qiao Ci Zhu brings up old grievances, pretending to cry and playing the victim as she complains about earning only three thousand a month and enduring all kinds of hardship after running away with the baby.

Shen Xi sighs. "Did you ever use that card? Take a careful look and count how many zeros come after the 3."

After counting, Qiao Ci Zhu is dumbfounded. It turns out that the "three thousand a month" Mr. Shen mentioned had a "ten thousand" silently omitted from the end.

She keeps making a fuss. "And you said you didn't like kids, that you didn't want a baby!"

Shen Xi wraps an arm around her waist and gently kisses her.

"Baby, I want both you and our little one."

"But I will always love you most."

Reading Guide:

1. Both leads are sexually inexperienced, one-on-one romance. The heroine will recover her memories later.

2. A silly, sweet romance about two drama queens. The older male lead gradually learns to rein in his excessive need for control.

3. Includes pregnancy and raising a child. Their child is an only daughter.

Theme: Love someone wholeheartedly