Sea of Bitter Oranges

- Coming soon: Hi, Salted Pineapple, where the high school heartthrob becomes my stepfather. The age gap between the couple is 18 years.

Blurb: [Seven-Year Age Gap] [Teacher and Student] [Mutual Healing] [Both Each Other's First] [Bittersweet]

[Good Girl on the Outside, Rebellious Little White Flower on the Inside x Gentle Male Lead Who Seems Untouchable]

*There is no romance while they are in a teacher-student relationship. The full text has undergone major revisions. I am not responsible for pirated copies.

At the start of the second semester of her junior year, a new teacher, Qin Muye, took over the first math class.

Zhao Xu recognized his voice. The teacher standing at the podium was the online friend who had shared movie reviews with her over winter break.

Thankfully, he did not recognize her.

And she had no intention of telling him who she was, either.

Let this beautiful mistake come to an end here.

Zhao Xu had forgotten that their first meeting in real life had been on the seaside during the first snowfall.

The snowflakes crossed the years and returned to those deep, peach-blossom eyes.

He remembered.

And when they met again on campus, he recognized her at once.

The night Zhao Xu ran away from home, she happened to go to a midnight movie with him.

In the dim, flickering light, the cool, handsome man closed his eyes and leaned his head to the side as he fell asleep. She turned her head slightly, daring only to look at him in the darkness.

Zhao Xu knew all too well that her secret crush was wrong.

It should never be returned.

Unbeknownst to her, in the shadows where she could not see, those cool, peach-blossom eyes opened ever so slightly. His gaze was calm and cold as he took in her every move.

Zhao Xu lived in the shadow of the past, afraid to let anyone enter the dampness of those memories.

After a huge fight with her mother, she wandered through the night with a heavy heart. A torrential downpour came, and she witnessed a crime.

The rain from more than a decade ago finally soaked this night.

By the time Qin Muye arrived, broken glass littered the ground, and the girl's cheeks were streaked with bloody rainwater.

He came through the downpour without hesitation, gently wiping the marks from her face.

The most intimate relationship in the world is being accomplices.

Harder to escape is the firework burning in the dark.

After dealing with the scene, two exhausted hearts sought a brief respite, and so they formed a temporary alliance...

They drank in the bitter, citrus-scented sea breeze, then took a boat and "eloped," escaping the world they knew.

Reader's Guide

1. There is no romance while they are in a teacher-student relationship.

2. One-on-one romance, both each other's first. Before meeting the heroine, the hero had never dated or fallen for anyone.

3. The heroine started school late and is over two years older than her classmates. She does not date during high school.

4. Content warning: The premise is pretty outlandish in itself, the product of watching too many foreign dramas. Recommended for readers aged 21 and up. I set an age restriction, but it does not show up in the app.

🫶 Dear readers, please keep fiction and reality separate. In real life, please, please, please do not put the teaching profession on a pedestal. A noble profession and a person's good character are not directly linked. Young people without much life experience can easily be deceived, so protect yourselves. Unequal relationships will only hurt you. If you notice anything concerning at school, seek help from your parents immediately.

I'm mentioning this because I'm afraid younger readers might be misled by the fictional world.

Coming soon: Hi, Salted Pineapple

Also known as: The High School Heartthrob Becomes My Stepfather

- The heroine is 18 years older than the hero. The heroine has a sexual past; the hero does not. A lighthearted, cozy, sweet romance.

- The heroine is the mother. The blurb is from the daughter's perspective, while the main story is split evenly between mother and daughter.

Sunny, sweet big sister x cool, obsessive, clingy puppy

Blurb:

Back in school, Tang Yiai hated pretentious boys.

Like Luo Liancheng.

He was the talk of the whole school: tall and lean, with cool, handsome features. Whenever he walked by, whispers rose around him. His looks were nearly perfect, and he was just as brilliant, always ranking first in the grade.

But he did not like socializing. He was always alone and never smiled.

Even though he was aloof and solitary, everyone liked him.

For no particular reason, though, Tang Yiai couldn't stand his "strange" behavior. She thought he was always making an exception of himself just because he got good grades.

Once, she heard her deskmate say that Luo Liancheng had had a hard life. His parents had both died when he was young, and he lived with his grandmother. He often skipped evening study hall to earn money and help support the family.

From then on, Tang Yiai's prejudice against him softened a little.

That very night, when she got home, she saw him working the night shift at her family's bookstore.

Two years later, when Tang Yiai was a sophomore in college, her mother, Tang Ning, who had been single for many years, suddenly announced that she was getting married again.

Tang Yiai neither opposed nor supported the idea. She simply asked her mother to bring the man over so she could meet him.

As soon as she finished speaking, a man stopped behind her.

"Hello. I'm Sister Ningning's fiancé."

Tang Yiai couldn't help sucking in a breath at the nauseatingly sweet form of address. When she realized who was speaking, her smile vanished instantly.

Then she looked up and saw the man's face...

Her world collapsed.

Back then, Tang Yiai had said plenty of cruel things to drive him away and keep him from her mother.

Two years had passed. Why was he still clinging to her mother?

And when she wasn't looking, he'd even gotten a marriage certificate with her?!

Reader's Guide:

1. The heroine has a sexual past; the hero does not. She is 18 years older than him. The hero does not date during high school.

2. The story gives equal weight to the mother-daughter relationship and the romance.

3. The daughter genuinely hates the hero at first. Her instincts may be pretty sharp, but her opinion gradually changes later on.

4. The mother is kind and charismatic, with plenty of admirers. Her ex-husband has never gotten over her, either, so expect plenty of romantic rivalry.

The heroine is an ordinary person just trying to make a living. She has no golden finger.

Theme: Make the most of your youth.