Love, Love, and the Stars

Flirtatious and dazzling, all bark and no bite vs. an aloof, restrained ideal man

A new tenant moved into the little courtyard house with its oyster-shell walls.

He was handsome, refined, quiet, and dressed in a white shirt and black trousers. He was also a university professor.

Rao Xingchen tilted her head and looked him over. Yep, he was exactly her type.

On his first night there, he tossed and turned, unable to sleep, before pushing open the courtyard gate.

She wore a purple magnolia in her hair and drank alone beneath the moon.

Tilting her head, she asked him for his phone number. She was so beautiful she took his breath away.

The professor showed no reaction, but secretly accepted her friend request as soon as he turned away.

One day, beneath the sunset-lit corridor,

with flowers in her hair and a halter-neck qipao on,

she brushed past him as if he weren't there.

But just the night before, they had been alone together in a room.

Through the layers of mist, she had been close enough to touch.

The young professor, usually so calm and self-possessed,

found his impregnable walls crumbling at her hands...

Later, beneath the moon at the night market,

with a flower she'd picked tucked behind his ear, he told her,

"To share the sight of stars that have shone for a thousand years with you is my honor."

And later still, the aloof beauty in everyone's eyes

would fall apart just as completely as he'd maintained his gentlemanly composure.

When his feelings ran deep, he held her close

and whispered the sweetest words in her ear:

"What's so wrong with falling together, straight into love?"

From then on, in bustling lanes and among the everyday warmth of life, love was written in the stars.

Reader's Guide:

1. The first half takes place in a fishing village, the second in the city. The aloof beauty says one thing but does another.

2. They fall for each other wholeheartedly. The heroine is no silly, naive girl.

Lighthearted, with plenty of flirty tension and no complicated plotting.

3. One-on-one romance / happy ending / both leads' first love

Currently updating: Ripples Beneath the Night Tide [Marriage Before Love]

A refined qipao designer and heiress × a sinister tycoon with eight hundred schemes up his sleeve

Ruan Linglong was the most privileged young lady in Pingjiang City.

She lived in a century-old private garden and ran her family's qipao shop, making clothes for the wives of prominent families.

After a rainstorm passed, water still dripped from the roof tiles.

A man stepped into the courtyard over a carpet of fallen begonias, his bearing elegant as he stood in the dappled light. "I'm here to collect the qipao Madam Ye ordered."

She lifted the beaded curtain and handed it over. He froze as he took it.

"Palace-grade Xiangyun silk?"

"You have a good eye, sir." Linglong smiled. The haughty pride of a young lady from a distinguished family shone in her eyes and at the corners of her lips, eclipsing all the flowers in the courtyard.

They met again at the swimming pool of a private club. Her leg cramped and she began to drown.

In a daze, she felt a strong arm catch her around the waist and lift her above the water.

Linglong coughed and opened her eyes. He was drenched, but his gaze was so scorching it made her heart race. "We meet again, Miss Ruan."

Later, when the Ye family pressed him to marry and his elders chattered on about photos of eligible young women,

Ye Lansheng paid them no mind. Instead, he stared at the graceful figure behind the screen, being measured for a dress. "Why look farther afield?"

In the deathly silence, he smiled and glanced at Linglong.

"I think Miss Ruan would be perfect."

That very night, she was "invited" into his study.

The man calmly unfolded an old, yellowed land deed and a prenuptial agreement,

then took off his glasses and leaned closer. "Miss Ruan, choose."

Linglong didn't even look up. "Mr. Ye, I sell qipaos, not myself."

"Is that so?" He pinned her against the desk.

The cool frame of his glasses traced her cheek and traveled downward.

"Under the water, you clung to me so tightly I nearly lost control. You weren't nearly so... tough back then."

[Side Story]

On a damp, rainy night, she was cornered on the second floor of the qipao shop.

The man leisurely ran his hand over the fabrics lining the walls. "Pick a color."

She warily stepped back. "What for?"

He hooked a measuring tape around her wrist. "To take your measurements..."

"For your wedding dress."

He'd come to collect a qipao, but what he really wanted was to marry her.

Theme: Every passion deserves to be pursued with all your heart.