[Please, please add this to your favorites. Favorites mean a lot to a little author like me, and more favorites means a faster start to the story. (Currently have 10,000 words in reserve.)]
- A fake gentleman, handsome young master returning from overseas, the pursuer × an emotionally steady, handsome employee at a major tech company, the pursued
- The pursued used to be the pursuer; now the pursuer becomes the pursued.
Yi Cangze, twenty-eight, handsome and well-groomed, a graduate of a top-three university, currently an algorithm engineer at a major tech company. He has a gentle temperament, strong logic, judgment, and execution, and is good at communication and negotiation.
No matter whether you judge by his looks, education, or character, he hardly seems like someone who'd lose his head over love.
But that's not the case. He and Zhai Qingwen have been breaking up and getting back together... on and off for seven years.
Zhai Qingwen was Yi Cangze's classmate in middle school, then went to study in the US during high school. After graduating, they got together and stayed together for three years. Throughout it all, Yi Cangze was emotionally steady, accepting, and considerate.
But they still broke up. The reason was long distance.
Yi Cangze wasn't naive enough to believe the excuses. Zhai Qingwen came from a wealthy family and had broadened his horizons in recent years. For the sake of his future, he should have left an ordinary man like Yi Cangze behind.
Heartache gave way to a cold heart. Yi Cangze told himself it was for the best that they'd broken up.
Yet years later, when Zhai Qingwen stood at his door in a white shirt, his face streaked with tears, Yi Cangze couldn't bear to turn him away and couldn't bring himself to say no.
People make foolish mistakes. No one can say whether they're in love with the person before them, or with the fearless days of their youth.
The memories that linger are gentle, but reality is a storm.
A year ago, Yi Cangze agreed to get back together. He never imagined that Zhai Qingwen, who'd cheated on him physically while traveling abroad in early 2024, would make amends by recommending him to a chaotic referral group as a dependable ex, without even telling him.
"Don't worry, I screened them for you."
Love is a luxury.
When they were apart, Yi Cangze had tried meeting other people, too.
If Yi Cangze were still eighteen, that line would probably have infuriated him. He'd have grabbed Zhai Qingwen and demanded an explanation, making sure to cut all ties.
But now, after seeing how filthy society could be, Yi Cangze looked at the friend requests on WeChat and only mocked himself for saving the cost of a visit to a certain kind of establishment.
-
At the end of April 2025, Yi Cangze received a referral resume and was told to take special care of an intern named Duan Qinglun. He learned the other man was only doing a summer internship for less than three months, smiled knowingly, and didn't think much of it.
What he never expected was that, as he calmly scanned the referral resume of the twenty-year-old Duan Qinglun, Duan Qinglun was simultaneously receiving Yi Cangze's own referral "profile" on WeChat.
-
From childhood onward, at every new place, Yi Cangze had been praised for being handsome. He'd never lacked people willing to come to him, but he was picky. If someone wasn't exceptionally good-looking, he wouldn't make a move.
Life's short. Be honest with yourself: go after power, money, and sex.
This is pretty good. Power, money, and sex have all come knocking at once.
Why bother chasing real feelings?
[The pursuer works as an intern while chatting flirtatiously with the pursued on WeChat, acting like two different people in public and in private. His secret will be exposed.]
Reader Notice: (Screenshot taken 25.12.26)
1. Younger man/older man, outrageously melodramatic dog-blood story, brainless fluff, toilet reading. The original title mentioned two exes, but to avoid repetition I used the popular online term "ex." With things already like this, it would be a disservice to readers not to make it melodramatic.
2. The pursued has a sexual history; the pursuer is a virgin.
3. The characters' views do not represent the author's views [bold and black].
Theme: To be decided
