The Evening Breeze Brings Love

[Childhood Rivals] A coming-of-age story about immature kids

Talkative childhood sweetheart x childhood friend who only talks a lot around one person

Sweet girl * proud and prickly

"They say the early bird catches the worm, but this silly bird of mine isn't even perched on the same branch as everyone else in Class One."

"...Don't talk like that. With all this time, you could be getting ready to take off. Come on, we haven't finished going over the questions you got wrong last time."

"...Chen Chaomu, you're so annoying."

People asked Xu Wan if she and Chen Chaomu had always been evenly matched.

Xu Wan nodded. "That's right!"

Then she quietly added, "Except when it comes to grades."

The two had been squabbling since childhood. To each other, they were as inseparable as lips and teeth, yet always at odds. Neither would give in to the other, and they were still like that even after they got into bed.

Chen Chaomu was steady-tempered and rarely got angry, but when he did, it was almost always because of Xu Wan.

When Xu Wan drove him completely mad, he would block her, only to unblock her less than two seconds later. It helped him cool off, and in his mind, it also meant he had already punished her.

But he usually did all this without Xu Wan knowing. That is, until the summer after the college entrance exams. When he took her off his blacklist again, he discovered she had deleted him.

*

In high school, parents and teachers did everything they could to stop Xu Wan and Chen Chaomu from dating.

Everyone thought the two would boldly get together as soon as they graduated.

No one could have imagined that after the college entrance exams, they would lose touch. For years, neither spoke to the other.

Later, Xu Wan walked out of the high-speed rail station with her luggage and spotted a figure standing in the snow. She had no idea how long he had been waiting.

The travel-weary man shook the snow from his shoulders, picked up all her luggage, and firmly clasped her hand.

"Who said you could buy me a ticket? I never said I was coming." Xu Wan jabbed him with her elbow.

"Isn't it normal to buy a friend a ticket when you invite them over?"

"Are we friends?"

"Even people who've broken up can still be friends, and besides..." Chen Chaomu looked calm. "We never broke up."

"..." When had someone who used to be so proud become this shameless? Xu Wan stared at him in disbelief. "Were we ever dating?"

"No," the shameless man continued to smile shamelessly, his tone earnest and sincere. "When do you want to start?"

Xu Wan: "..."

Chen Chaomu had gone crazy.

* Middle school and university

Set in a high school in a small county town, with a bit of local dialect mixed in

● Next book: Wishing You Clear Skies for Miles

Blurb:

By-the-book "aloof" girl x bold, carefree hopeless romantic

School life / mutual devotion / healing

She struggled beneath heavy storm clouds. His arrival brought clear skies.

--Even without him, she would have found clear skies stretching for miles. His arrival simply sped things up.

Zhu Qingkong and Bi Xiao were giving each other the silent treatment.

Anyone could tell something was wrong between them. They were both stubbornly refusing to speak to each other.

Their friend didn't believe it. He went over to Bi Xiao and couldn't help asking, "Can you really go without talking to her?" With his clingy puppy-like personality, he didn't seem capable of staying away from Zhu Qingkong.

Bi Xiao's voice was cold and hard. "She stopped talking to me first."

He was going to stand his ground for once, so he wouldn't talk to her either.

-

Later, in a classroom with only Zhu Qingkong inside, Bi Xiao walked up to her desk.

"Don't stop talking to me," Bi Xiao said, wrestling with himself, hesitating, then finally steeling himself. "Just talk to me a little... I'll give you my life!"

Zhu Qingkong: "?"

Laughter suddenly erupted behind him. Bi Xiao turned and saw a few of his "friends" who had been helping him come up with ideas doubled over with laughter.

Bi Xiao: ...

He looked at Zhu Qingkong awkwardly and saw that she couldn't hold back a laugh either. "Are you crazy?"

Bi Xiao scratched his head and grinned. If she could laugh while calling him crazy, she probably wasn't mad anymore.

Theme: Study hard before you start dating