The Evening Breeze Blows Through

Find me on all platforms: @Que Si Ah

Resilient, ambitious heroine x guiding, supportive lover

Unrequited love becomes mutual | Reunion after years apart | Bittersweet push and pull | Five-year age gap

“Loving you is a lonely secret” / Lan You Shi, “Lonely Secret”

-

The biggest secret of Shen Hang’s youth was that she had a crush on Qiu Huai.

He was the teacher’s star pupil, who skipped grades and became the provincial exam top scorer, a peerless prodigy.

She was an unremarkable admirer, a dim star beside him.

She decided to let go during the first snowfall of a certain year.

Shen Hang worked up the courage to send him a confession by text, but waited and waited for a reply that never came.

Later, she heard he was about to get married and had everything going for him, in both his career and love life.

From then on, she never mentioned Qiu Huai again.

In Shen Hang’s third year posted overseas, she ran into an old acquaintance in Africa.

Qiu Huai was the director of an aid and investment project for the China Development Bank, every bit as dashing and confident as before.

When their colleagues learned they had gone to the same school, they asked Shen Hang about him. She shook her head. “He got married young.”

She didn’t expect him to hear that.

On a night with a bright moon and few stars, the power went out and the room grew stiflingly hot. Shen Hang went up to the rooftop for some air and ran into Qiu Huai.

Just before she could get away, he blocked her path. “I hear you’ve been spreading rumors about me everywhere.”

She played dumb. “I don’t know what you mean, Senior.”

For the first time, a hint of amusement entered Qiu Huai’s cool eyes. “Married. Who did I marry?”

Later, the situation grew unstable, and in the chaos of war, they fled a conflict zone together.

Shen Hang would never forget that day.

Qiu Huai held her hand tightly, dazed. His voice was soft.

“Shen Hang, if I could start over, I’d be the first to come to you.”

[Bonus scene]

After returning to China, Shen Hang and Qiu Huai visited their teacher at their old school. Passing the honor roll, they saw their names unexpectedly listed side by side.

Shen Hang smiled. “I used to think this was as close as I’d ever get to you.”

Qiu Huai took her hand and gently brushed his thumb over the wedding ring on her ring finger. “And now? Mrs. Qiu.”

#Diplomat x financial engineer, an aid mission to Africa#

*The hero’s supposed marriage is a misunderstanding. They are each other’s only partners, body and soul. SCE.

*Set in a fictional world. Industry knowledge comes from the internet, and many details are invented. Please don’t overanalyze the accuracy.

*This story focuses on the heroine’s growth. The main plot is complex and slow to unfold. School years: city life = 3:7.

*Blurb first posted on September 7, 2024, revised on August 1, 2025.

✨Next up: Conceal and Confide✨

Qiao Man x Xie Fangqiu

Gentle antiques conservator x powerful, high-ranking daddy

Second male lead wins the heroine | Uncle steals his nephew’s bride | Older man has been plotting for ages | Nine-year age gap

-

Everyone in their circle knew that Qiao Man was Ye Yichen’s inseparable little shadow.

They had grown up together, and it was a foregone conclusion that they would eventually marry.

But the groom failed to show up on their wedding day, making Qiao Man a laughingstock throughout the capital.

She fled in humiliation, and ran into Xie Fangqiu at her lowest point.

The man’s long eyes were slightly upturned, his eyelids thin. His beautiful, fan-bone fingers held her veil. “You dropped something.”

Qiao Man took it. “Thank you. Are you...”

“By seniority, you should call me Uncle.”

Only later did she learn that he was Ye Yichen’s maternal uncle, the all-powerful head of the Xie family who had the final say in everything.

She heard that he was old-fashioned and had a mountain of rules. So when she met him again, Qiao Man still addressed him respectfully as “Uncle.”

She never expected that in the end, the self-disciplined and proper Mr. Xie would ask her to call him something else.

His warm fingertips brushed her lips. Desire churned in his cool, phoenix-shaped eyes. “You think you should keep calling me Uncle just because I said so? Manman, you’re so obedient.”

When Ye Yichen announced he was going to win Qiao Man back, he never imagined anything could stand in his way.

After all, she had been the one in love with him for so many years, with her self-respect trampled into the dirt. All he had to do was beckon, and she would come back.

But on Qiao Man’s birthday, when he prepared an extravagant surprise party, she turned him down.

Ye Yichen couldn’t understand. He grabbed her and demanded an explanation. Qiao Man’s voice was as soft as a mosquito’s buzz. “Maybe, perhaps, more or less, you need to call me... Auntie?”

Even after years of marriage, Xie Fangqiu still thought about the first time he met Qiao Man.

She had bright, beautiful eyes and a radiant smile. As she explained the restoration techniques used on an antique to someone nearby, the newly returned Xie Fangqiu caught a glimpse of her and remembered it for a long time.

“That’s the Qiao family’s daughter. Her given name is Man,” a friend beside him explained. “Isn’t it strange to give someone such an unusual name?”

Xie Fangqiu only smiled. “Unusual? Manman sounds lovely to me.”

“Your nephew by marriage said the same thing.”

His gaze lingered for a moment. “Did he?”

He had been waiting for the day he could call her by her nickname openly and without shame.

Manman, his Manman.

*SCE

*Beijing social circle romance. The setting is fictional, so don’t fact-check the details.

*First draft written on April 17, 2025, revised on August 29, 2026.

Theme: Building a better Africa