Spring’s Beauty Cannot Be Kept Behind Closed Doors

The person her friend had been dreaming of pursuing for years, his unattainable first love, was Su Miao. Zhuang Chunyu was mortified.

- How am I supposed to tell him I pursued her too?

- And I didn't win her over, either.

*

The first rain of early summer in the little courtyard disturbed her sleep. When she woke and opened her door, Zhuang Chunyu saw the new tenant from last night sitting on the shared terrace. She looked exactly like Su Miao.

Zhuang Chunyu slammed the door shut. The bang did nothing to mask her suddenly racing heart. She decided it was a hallucination brought on by staying up too late, pulled the covers over her head, and went back to sleep.

The next day, at the same time and place.

Su Miao called to her. "Want to come sit for a while?" She looked just as she had when they first met at fifteen, smiling, her eyes bright and animated.

Later, Su Miao stopped appearing on the little terrace. Wearing a thin blouse, she leaned against the doorframe and invited her in. "Want to come inside?"

Later still.

"Want to do it?"

Zhuang Chunyu crossed the threshold and entered her world.

In the endless summer nights, vibrant flowers began to grow wild, and spring's beauty could no longer be contained.

They did everything they should, and everything they shouldn't.

Reader's Note:

1. Updated daily at 8:30 p.m., with occasional extra chapters. 80% anti-piracy protection.

2. The heroine's name comes from the line "Spring rain, startled spring, clear valleys and skies" in the Twenty-Four Solar Terms song.

3. The story is sweet, sour, and bittersweet, over and over again.

Theme: Those destined to meet will cross the river of time and find their way to each other.