Not long after Shen Liang joined the company, her direct supervisor, Tu Weiwei, made a deep impression on her.
Tu Weiwei was exactly the kind of female boss people stereotyped: middle-aged, divorced, and raising a child. The rocky course of her love life had led her to pour too much energy into work. She dressed in a conservative, old-fashioned way, spoke sharply and cruelly, and was aloof and solitary. Her favorite things were going to work and squeezing every last drop of effort out of her subordinates. No one in the department could hear her name without getting nervous.
But that wasn't why Shen Liang remembered her so well. She couldn't shake the feeling that Tu Weiwei looked familiar. And to be fair, Tu Weiwei wasn't particularly harsh toward her. If anything, she offered her a fair amount of guidance.
Before Shen Liang could figure out whether she and Tu Weiwei really had some connection, a male colleague whose advances she had rejected began spreading sexual rumors about her and Tu Weiwei, just before the promotion evaluations.
The gossip quickly reached Shen Liang. There was no way she would put up with that, so she confronted the male colleague and broke with him completely.
In the heat of the moment, Shen Liang lost her temper and announced in front of everyone, "Yeah, I like Tu Weiwei. So what? She's a thousand times better than a sleazy rumor-mongering dog like you!"
The crowd fell completely silent. The atmosphere turned unnervingly cold.
Shen Liang sensed something and turned around. Sure enough, Tu Weiwei was standing behind her, watching the spectacle with a cool expression.
Tu Weiwei shot Shen Liang a look of disgust, then turned and walked away without a word.
Shen Liang figured she was probably about to get fired again. Dejected, she skipped work and went to a bar, where she drank herself into a stupor.
But late that night, she received a long message from Tu Weiwei. It was sincere and gentle, every word urging her not to fall for someone as flawed as herself.
This was nothing like Tu Weiwei's usual cold, sharp manner. She sounded more like a kind older sister.
Drunk and muddled, Shen Liang sent her address and demanded that Tu Weiwei come over and say it to her face.
Half an hour later, Tu Weiwei actually showed up. Faced with Shen Liang, who was completely wasted, Tu Weiwei sighed and played the role of a helpful house spirit, taking care of her all night before leaving.
After sobering up, Shen Liang couldn't remember a thing. Out of habit, she opened a job-search app and started sending out resumes again. But she couldn't bring herself to write a resignation letter, and put it off until the night before her interview at a new company.
The next day, Shen Liang trudged downstairs, ready as usual to pitch herself and engage in a mutually beneficial scam with a prospective employer.
But as soon as she got downstairs, she saw Tu Weiwei hurrying over.
Tu Weiwei was pale and flustered, her shirt buttons done up wrong. She reached out to Shen Liang with a slightly trembling hand and spoke with the helpless indulgence one might use with a child: "All right, I already said yes, didn't I? Stop throwing a tantrum and come back to work, okay?"
Shen Liang: I already... Wait, what did you say yes to???
Only later did Shen Liang learn that on the night she got drunk, Tu Weiwei had not only looked after her all night but also listened to her rambling confession of love.
Those childish sweet nothings were a fantasy Shen Liang had cherished for years, and the only spot of color in Tu Weiwei's desolate emotional world.
A seemingly bold and carefree but actually shy, innocent younger top x an outwardly stuffy and dull but actually straightforward and clingy older bottom
Warnings: 1. The bottom is divorced and raising a child, but the child is not biologically hers. The top is inexperienced, while the bottom is not.
2. There is a 10-year age gap between the top and bottom.
Theme: True love can break through every barrier imposed by convention
