Crossing Summer to the Mountains

Currently serializing: I Take Herbal Medicine Seriously

Next modern romance: Unfrozen, please add it to your favorites.

Synopsis:

A master of traditional Chinese medicine and Chinese painting x a geology PhD

Mutual pining / Rivals to lovers / Everyday warmth / Healing and comfort

1.

For a research project, Mu Yi takes her students to Jicheng for a geological survey. After arriving, they take a short break at a coffee shop.

As she is about to leave, she spots a man and a woman seated a few steps away, seemingly on a blind date.

After exchanging a few distant greetings, the man takes the woman's hand and holds it for a long time.

What a creep, Mu Yi thinks. He may have a handsome face, but his character is questionable.

Does he think no one can turn him down?

She strides past, dragging her suitcase noisily and drawing the man's curious gaze.

Mu Yi is certainly not pleased to see him, but when she notices the two have let go of each other's hands, she feels her mission is accomplished.

That afternoon, while checking in at the guesthouse, Mu Yi sees the grabby-handed man from the coffee shop again. What a small world, she thinks.

A guesthouse employee notices her looking and explains, "He's an exceptionally skilled traditional Chinese medicine doctor. He also paints a little. Every summer, he comes to the village to escape the heat and sketch, and he treats the village's elderly for free."

Only then does Mu Yi realize she may have misunderstood earlier. That strange hand-touching gesture was actually him taking the woman's pulse.

But half a day has passed, and it seems she's missed her chance to apologize. So Mu Yi keeps a low profile and says nothing, taking her students to their rooms to unpack.

2.

That night, unable to sleep because she isn't used to the quiet, late-night surroundings, Mu Yi runs into the man painting on the terrace.

Xu Mingchuan wears a thin shirt, with a lone lamp beside him, illuminating his dark eyes and red lips.

Seeing that he is busy, Mu Yi doesn't disturb him. She watches quietly as the flower takes on even more captivating colors beneath his brush.

After a long while, the man finally sets down his brush, raises an eyebrow, and fixes her with a sharp gaze. "Had enough of looking yet?"

3.

When Xu Mingchuan first learns that Mu Yi is a woman with a PhD, he thinks she must have poor eyesight, but at least her brain is working fine.

Later, he starts thinking her mind might be slower than most people's, too.

Otherwise, how could so many of his hints and not-so-subtle advances have gone nowhere?

Coming soon: Unfrozen, please add it to your favorites.

Race car driver x profiler, womanizing playboy x wounded, cold-hearted woman

Double replacement trope / Older sister and puppy-dog romance / The regretful pursuit of a wife

1.

While surveying a murder scene, Jing Nuo notices a suspicious motorcyclist lingering outside the cordon.

She's telling a colleague about it when the motorcyclist takes off his helmet. She hesitates for a few seconds at the sight of his profile, and then the man disappears.

They meet again at a family gathering. The first time she sees Shang Xichen, his features bring another blurry face into focus, almost identical to his own.

The face of a man she once loved but could never have, and then lost to death.

Even a little consolation would be enough. She goes over to strike up a conversation, and that very night learns from a friend that he's a notorious playboy in their circle, surrounded by women and never with anyone for more than three months.

Jing Nuo thinks this is perfect. She's only a little addicted to the feeling she had back then, and she sinks into it with ever-clearer eyes.

2.

The three-month limit is there to keep herself in check. Jing Nuo reminds herself of that more than once.

But during a trip to Europe with Shang Xichen, they are invited to an engagement party in an old castle. The bride-to-be is deeply moved as soon as she sees Shang Xichen, and leaves her fiance to go with him.

Only then does Jing Nuo understand that good and evil are always repaid in the end. All those times Shang Xichen looked at her, he had been thinking of someone else.

So she easily extricates herself and leaves with dignity.

"We were just using each other."

3.

When they meet again at the racetrack, Jing Nuo is avoiding him. She leaves through the emergency exit before they can meet during the awards ceremony.

Walking through a long corridor, she spots a familiar figure near the light a few steps ahead. This time, she doesn't mistake him for someone else.

Shang Xichen: "You said we were using each other. But I still haven't gotten what I really want."

The one thing Jing Nuo can't deny is that she truly did have moments of real affection during their brief relationship.

But they are like snow melting on a glacier, with shattered chunks of ice floating across the sea. The temperature is too high for them to freeze again, yet they can never melt away into warmth.

[Meeting you was beyond anything I expected]

[It was only after meeting you that I learned what it truly means to fall for someone.]

Theme: Leave the world behind and seek peace and serenity.