You Were Never Mine

Everyone is certain that Fang Yuqing will end up with his childhood sweetheart, a dazzling woman from a family on equal footing with his own.

Only Cong Xue knows how, where no one else could see, he treated her like a candy so sweet it was almost sickening, peeling it layer by layer and tasting it again and again.

She is the daughter of an old family friend, staying at his house. Born poor, quiet and awkward, she is so frail that a gust of wind might blow her away.

In that bright house, she lives carefully, but her eyes always follow Fang Yuqing:

The focused look in his eyes when he is deep in thought, his lively figure when he plays ball, and the bright, indulgent gaze he gives his childhood sweetheart when they play around.

She wishes he would look at her like that, just once.

Sleeping with him was the boldest, most secret thing Cong Xue had ever done.

She knows that once certain lines are crossed, there is no going back.

She is only afraid there won't be time...

That night, as she trembled and kissed the boy who reeked of alcohol and was barely conscious, she had only one thought: Before you belong to her completely, could you lend me just a little time?

*

Your eyes, your hair, your lips, your body,

especially your kind and astonishing heart, a treasure only I have the right to uncover.

Gerald Durrell, My Family and Other Animals

Gentle and soft x handsome and a little dense

1. She falls for him first; he starts out as a jerk, then falls in love.

2. 1v1 romance, happy ending.

Theme: Love doesn't need to choose.