Quietly, From Afar

*Complete. The next novel, "Bite Down," is now available. Also recommending my friend's "Spring Days Grow Long" by Feng Chun Chao.

*Scheming every day x a rich young lady whose sincerity is her deadliest weapon

*Long-planned pursuit / Hero's secret crush / Intense push and pull / Eight-year age gap

1.

Wen Xun was the respected elder of Shu Lingqiu. Quiet, reserved, and refined, he was so cold that no one would dare entertain romantic thoughts about him.

One rainy night, Shu Lingqiu sat beside him as soothing music played in the car.

Her bare shoulders kept trembling. Her black hair was disheveled, and her lips were stained a vivid red. Wen Xun looked away, and the next moment his gray suit jacket was draped over her.

He put a hand to her forehead and frowned. "Why are you so hot?"

After her IV drip, he drove her home. The black Urus stopped, and outside the car, a man stood alone by the entrance with an umbrella.

Wen Xun lifted his eyes. "Your boyfriend's been waiting a long time."

After Shu Lingqiu got out, her boyfriend took her hand and laced their fingers together, as if declaring his claim on her.

"Second Uncle, next time, just have your assistant call me. There's no need for you to come all this way yourself."

Wen Xun rolled up the car window. "Don't let her down."

2.

Shu Lingqiu and her boyfriend, Wen Yudong, had grown up together. They had loved each other for years, and their families all knew they were meant to grow old together.

Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned.

After seeing her celebrity boyfriend pair up with one actress after another to promote their on-screen chemistry, she lost heart and broke up with him.

In the second week after returning from a business trip abroad, Shu Lingqiu went to dinner at the Wen family home.

Their families had been close friends for generations. They were deeply attached, practically one family.

Shu Lingqiu went to the washroom to fix her appearance. Wen Xun went to the kitchen to look for something.

The washroom door rattled. Thinking something had happened, Wen Yudong kept knocking. "Qiuqiu, are you okay?"

"I'm... I'm fine." Shu Lingqiu's voice trembled. "I just slipped. I'll be out soon."

Wen Xun bit her lip, his voice low and hoarse. "Coward. Can't we be selfish just once?"

The neighboring novel "Bite Down" is now available

Blurb:

*Second chance romance / Coercive pursuit

*"If he isn't good enough, tug on the rope and I'll come running back."

Song Qingli never imagined her new boss would be the ex-husband she'd left behind.

Their divorce had been ugly. She still remembered telling him, "You can't afford to support me. Let's split up."

A former lover becoming your benefactor means you have to put up with some unpleasantness.

Song Qingli gritted her teeth and silently endured, trying to keep everything in order.

Jing Chuan, however, was distant and cold, not even bothering to spare her a glance.

Until the day she was supposed to become a permanent employee.

She failed her performance review. A kind male colleague waited with her by the road for a ride. Her calves were splashed with water. When the ride arrived, she smiled and thanked him, then opened her umbrella and turned around.

A black Maybach slowly pulled up.

Jing Chuan lowered the umbrella he'd just taken out, his long fingers gripping its handle. He watched her coldly.

His words were as cutting as they had been before: "Song Qingli, so this is the man who can afford to support you?"

Song Qingli felt inexplicably irritable and called her contract boyfriend the next day to come get her.

With her belongings from work in her arms, she had just taken hold of the car door when someone grabbed her wrist.

"Song Qingli." His voice was icy to the bone. "I've got a Rolls-Royce, the finest villa in Nantang, and a diamond ring from Boucheron. What else do you need?"

He lowered his eyes, the veins on the back of his hand taut.

"I'll support you."

His eyes reddened, and his voice turned hoarse. "No one else can take better care of you than I can."

*Sharp-tongued, proud puppy x a prickly little hedgehog who seems long-suffering but is actually a handful

*Plenty of chapters written in advance. This story won't be abandoned.

Blurb for my friend's "Spring Days Grow Long"

As a homeroom teacher, He Li was well-liked by her students' parents. After several years of working hard, the principal called her in for a private talk. She assumed she was getting an award and a raise, but it turned out the principal wanted to set her up with someone.

Her blind date was handsome, kept himself pure, and was a leading researcher in materials science. He seemed perfect in every way, except that he was one of her student's uncles. Wanting to keep work and her personal life separate and avoid getting too involved with students' families, He Li turned him down.

On a chilly late-autumn day, a luxury FENDI scarf appeared on her desk.

He Li: Sorry, I don't accept bribes.

The day before Christmas, a necklace with a diamond apple pendant appeared in her drawer.

He Li: Sorry, I don't celebrate foreign holidays.

After being rejected again and again, Fu Yu finally cornered He Li outside her home one day.

"Don't you remember the pure college boy you played with back in high school?"

Right, because back then, he was still in a wheelchair.

And she hadn't yet been worn down by life. She was spring arriving early in the winter.

Love from afar comes true | Reunion after years apart | Mutual healing

Message: Love yourself