Lower Your Head

* Beijing Playboy VS Socially Anxious College Girl

A lofty beauty does all sorts of ridiculous things for love.

[1] What Shu Yang fears most is awkwardness.

And yet Jin Chi stood by and watched during the two most embarrassing moments of her life.

The first time was at an old family home on the outskirts of Beijing.

Shu Yang showed off by climbing a tree to pick Buddha's hand citron, then couldn't get back down.

As snow fell all around, she spent the whole afternoon wailing from the tree while Jin Chi sat in the covered walkway beside it, cracking sunflower seeds and watching her with cold indifference.

The second time was during Ming University's student union recruitment.

Shu Yang was so nervous that she almost stuttered during her interview: "I'm delighted to join the Fam... Family Department."

The problem was, she'd applied for the External Relations Department.

That night, the department head, Jin Chi, was so furious he nearly threw the application forms. "I told you to recruit people, not pretty ornaments!"

The deputy head was aggrieved. "But even the people who aren't ornaments are too scared to come interview..."

Because of those two unpleasant memories, Shu Yang did her best to keep her distance from Jin Chi after joining the department.

At meetings, she sat at the farthest possible corner from him. When it was her turn to be on duty, she always picked a day he wasn't there.

But you can dodge the first day of the lunar month, not the fifteenth.

The Beijing Opera Society's annual play was abandoned at the last minute by its sponsor, forcing the two of them to work overtime together for an entire month. Onstage, the actors sang and trilled. Offstage, they carried on a secret affair.

Shu Yang, who'd avoided him for days: Fine. I'll accept my fate.

Jin Chi, worn down until he had no fight left: What are you playing hard to get with me for?

*

[2] Everyone knew that Ming University had a Beijing big shot with unfathomably deep connections.

Before graduation, he already owned property worth hundreds of millions. His car had a Beijing license plate, and not only did it start with the letter A, it had an extremely rare sequence of identical numbers.

He looked like a handsome bully, but the people around him were always squeaky clean. After the campus belle and the department beauties all struck out with him, everyone guessed that with Jin Chi's background, he would only be interested in a girl from a prominent family.

Three months later, people noticed that Jin Chi seemed to have a young woman by his side.

She had no money, power, or family background. The only thing she had was a face so pure it was almost lethal.

Most baffling of all, she seemed to have a boyfriend.

So everyone assumed Jin Chi was just fooling around. After all, their family backgrounds were so different that even the bystanders would object if they really got together.

No one expected that six months later, instead of news of a breakup, they would hear that the two were engaged.

Jin Chi: Don't ask. It's a family-arranged marriage.

Shu Yang: ...Have some shame.

The next second, Jin Chi lowered his head.

His slender, pale fingers brushed over her swollen lips. His voice was hoarse as he spoke, one word at a time: "Then may I ask, Miss Shu, who cares so much about her dignity, could you take your hand off my waist?"

* Secret crush turns into love / mutual healing

* Both are each other's first

Take a look at my upcoming book

* Cold, arrogant rich young master VS purehearted, introverted beauty

On a chilly, rainy day, her roommate Lin got onto the back of her boyfriend's bicycle and asked Fu Zhanxi, who was beside them, "Could you give my friend a ride? We both forgot our umbrellas."

Beneath the dappled shadows of the trees, he met the girl's innocent gaze.

Fu Zhanxi tapped the back seat and said coolly, "Get on."

Meng Shu had imagined countless times what it would be like to stand beside Fu Zhanxi.

She'd never imagined she'd be avoiding his gaze and refusing him like this: "I don't think I can... I get carsick."

The man glanced at her with a cold expression. "This is a bicycle."

She bit her lip. "I still get sick."

*

She couldn't say when it started, but she began running into Fu Zhanxi more and more often.

She went onstage, and he was in the audience.

She fainted, and he became her ambulance.

She got hurt, and he carried her on his back, one step at a time.

One evening during a downpour, Meng Shu once again forgot her umbrella.

Fu Zhanxi came to pick her up with one.

Meng Shu lowered her eyes. "Thank you."

The man lowered his dark eyes, lips pressed tight, seemingly displeased. "Why are you being so polite with me?"

In the cold rain, Meng Shu saw a figure slowly draw closer. Before she could react, a kiss swept over her like a conquering army.

The man's low voice was restrained beside her ear.

"Don't just say thank you."

"And don't pretend you don't know me again."

*

She thought he'd finally taken the bait.

She had no idea he'd already laid his net.

# Meng Shu once thought that liking someone meant making herself become like him.

But Fu Zhanxi showed her that a good partner only helps you become more fully yourself.

Theme: Promote traditional culture.