Don't Be So Stubborn

[Signed for publication. Updates can be found at my Weibo account, @Shi Yi Ling Ye.]

[I've opened a reservation page for the side couple, Fang Rong x Xu Zhiqing. Feel free to follow it.]

At a class reunion, Liang Jingyun, once a famous figure at Lili High, didn't show up.

At everyone's urging, Xia Yunduan, Liang Jingyun's ex, sent him a message:

[Ex-hubby, my heart hurts]

There was no reply. Since they didn't get to see any drama, everyone was hard-pressed to hide their disappointment.

Their school romance had been passionate and clingy. They'd even heard that the dean of discipline knew all about them. No one had expected them to break up so suddenly.

They never crossed paths again. Lovers became the most familiar strangers, and hearing each other's names no longer stirred a thing.

Amid all the sighs, Xia Yunduan didn't get annoyed. She just smiled nonchalantly. "If he hasn't come back from the dead, that means he's a decent ex."

Everyone knows a decent ex should be as good as dead.

After a few rounds of drinks, with the mood slightly tipsy, someone couldn't resist asking why the two had broken up.

Xia Yunduan's eyes were hazy as she casually replied, "He was bad in bed."

She didn't take the matter to heart. After getting home, Xia Yunduan showered, flopped into bed, and slept soundly.

But when she woke up, she found more than ten messages from her ex.

11 p.m.

Ex: [?]

Ex: [You dumped me so decisively back then. Why are you pretending now?]

Ex: [I know you're awake. Reply.]

1 a.m.

Ex: [You're really asleep?]

Ex: [What exactly do you mean?]

4 a.m.

Ex: [Fine, I get it.]

Ex: [If you really want to, I can reluctantly give you a chance to get back together.]

One minute ago.

Ex: [Xia Yunduan, who taught you to badmouth your ex after a breakup?]

Xia Yunduan asked in surprise: [How did you find out?]

Her ex sent a voice message through clenched teeth: "Open the door."

"Let's see who's really bad in bed."

*Video game and relationship streamer x private cinema owner

*Avoidant attachment x aloof and stubborn

*Rekindled romance / Reunited in the present from the opening / Interspersed flashbacks

*90% anti-piracy protection, 72 hours

Blurb written and archived on 23.12.15

Side couple, Fang Rong x Xu Zhiqing, coming soon:

Unrequited love from the guy | Friends to lovers | Rekindled romance

-

Fang Rong, single since birth at twenty-three, heard that Jiming Temple could fix your love life, so she dragged her friends along.

The rumor turned out to be true. She had barely finished burning incense and turned around when she ran into the boy who'd had a crush on her in high school.

For three years in a row, there had always been a bottle of milk on her desk. She didn't find out until just before the college entrance exams that it had been him. Unfortunately, they went to different universities, and their relationship fell apart.

Years later, they met again, and he started pursuing her once more. Fang Rong took it as fate sent by the heavens and didn't turn him down. But trouble cropped up the night before their official date.

Her friend of eight years, Xu Zhiqing, came down with a fever late at night. She went over to look after him. When he made a video call, it was accidentally answered by a disheveled man with a hoarse voice.

-

After being friends with Xu Zhiqing for eight years, Fang Rong had never imagined they would end up together.

Only after they started dating did Fang Rong realize that the aloof, distant, untouchable beauty was all an act. He was clingy, stubborn, and extremely suspicious, checking up on her every waking moment.

Unable to stand his excessive need for control, she finally broke up with him.

Three months after breaking up with Xu Zhiqing, he was still haunting her. Fang Rong returned to Jiming Temple, this time just hoping to sever their ill-fated bond.

Unexpectedly, as soon as she posted on her social media, her ill-fated love messaged her: [Were you there to cut me off?]

Fang Rong sneered and blocked him, out of sight and out of mind.

Perhaps the Buddha really did answer her prayers. After she blocked him, Xu Zhiqing stopped pestering her and said they could just be friends again.

After all, they'd known each other for years, so Fang Rong agreed.

Her life returned to normal. They got along as usual, and the man seemed to have regained his old sense of boundaries. Fang Rong breathed a sigh of relief.

Until one time, after getting drunk, she woke up to find a man's breath tangled against her neck. She stiffly turned her head and saw a familiar, handsome face.

Her whole body froze as she remembered the wild night before. He had asked again and again in a hoarse voice against her ear, "Am I still your ill-fated love?"

-

Xu Zhiqing had been in love with Fang Rong for eight years, carefully plotting everything and waiting for her to come around.

From a distance, the girl held incense and prayed devoutly. He stood half a meter away, waiting for her to turn around, but hadn't counted on someone suddenly swooping in and getting there first.

And he certainly hadn't expected her to think that the milk that had appeared on her desk without fail throughout their three years of high school had been left by someone else.

Theme: A good horse loves to return to the old pasture