Wind Through the Lotus

[The entire novel has undergone extensive revisions and polishing, with 30,000 new words added. Pirated versions are incomplete. Please support the official release. The blurb for my next novel, You Are in My Name, is at the end. Please add it to your reading list.]

[Pure and aloof x refined scoundrel]

Age gap | Love at first sight | Long-planned pursuit | The powerful one bows his head

1.

When Li Qinghe graduated, her dancing career stalled because of public opinion.

Those who had once adored her could put her on a pedestal, then trample her into the mud.

She thought no one would ever be willing to come for her again.

Later, with no other choice, she went on a blind date and met Lin Jinting. She spoke frankly. "I'm just here to fulfill my elders' wishes. If that's true for you too, let's call it off."

Lin Jinting smiled faintly, meeting her icy gaze. He replied gently, "I'm not. I came here especially for you."

2.

The following summer, after Li Qinghe finished performing in a dance drama, she cut off contact with Lin Jinting. They didn't meet again until the night after a performance, when a tall, indistinct figure blocked her path on an arched bridge in her residential complex.

Lin Jinting's voice was as smooth as jade. "You used me, Xiao He, and now you want to throw me away."

The warm night breeze brought sweat to her back. As coldly as she had at their first meeting, she glanced at him. "I've thought it through. Mr. Lin and I aren't right for each other."

The lotus flowers in the pond beneath the bridge were graceful and beautiful. A dragonfly rested silently on one, unmoved by the wind.

Lin Jinting shed his usual gentility. A sharp glint flashed across his glasses. "How could we not be right for each other? Xiao He, we're made for one another."

-

"Even if you're mired in the mud, I'll still come for you."

Love at first sight / Healing and redemption / Long-planned pursuit / Fated connection / Five-year age gap / The powerful one bows his head

Reader's Notes:

1. Both leads are sexually inexperienced, happy ending.

2. All locations, musical pieces, and so on in the novel are fictional.

Blurb finalized and screenshotted on 2024.11.1.

Blurb for You Are in My Name

"Mischievous, rebellious girl x handsome, serious, aloof boy / bad girl x good student"

It was pouring on the first day of high school. Cheng Xiangxue helped a new classmate share her umbrella and ran with her to the school building. Amid the noisy crowd, a classmate tugged on her backpack strap. "Our Yaohai High actually has a handsome guy!"

Cheng Xiangxue looked back. The boy had a cool gaze and thin lips, and their eyes met. She murmured, "Don't bother looking. He's definitely a jerk. His grades are probably as bad as mine."

Sheng Yisong heard her, and her words became the source of an unspoken tension between them.

At a major exam, Sheng Yisong ranked first in the entire grade, completely shattering Cheng Xiangxue's prejudice. One after another, boys and girls in the class began asking the top student for help with their problems.

One day after school, when nobody else was in the classroom, Cheng Xiangxue grinned and asked Sheng Yisong for help with a math problem. He raised an indifferent brow and glanced at the score on her paper. "What, don't think I'm bad at school anymore?"

Cheng Xiangxue: "..."

After they started college, Cheng Xiangxue often organized events with the class monitor, and she went straight to him whenever she ran into problems in her major. One night, Sheng Yisong cornered her in the school building and asked in a low voice, "Am I no use to you anymore? Have you gone off to ask someone else instead?"

//

At some point, whenever other students asked Sheng Yisong for help with difficult problems, he did his best to remain patient and calm, then habitually glanced at Cheng Xiangxue. When she showed no reaction, he grew anxious and doubtful. Was his expression too stern? Her math score was so low, so why wasn't she coming to him?

*

Bonus Scene:

At the start of sophomore year, Cheng Xiangxue arrived at school with pink hair. When her father found out, he was so angry he dragged her to a hair salon and had it dyed black again.

Cheng Xiangxue was so mad that she paid no attention in class all day. The only thing written on her blank paper was: I swear, one day I'll dye my hair pink and strut around school!

The following winter, Sheng Yisong asked her to come out for a tutoring session, but she saw that his brown hair had turned pink.

She pointed at him in shock and swallowed a mouthful of cold air.

"What's wrong? Is there something off about the color?" Sheng Yisong glanced at her.

Cheng Xiangxue: "Have you gone stupid or bad? How can the top student dye his hair? And pink, of all colors!"

"You don't like... pink?" He stood ramrod straight in the cold wind.

The wind stung Cheng Xiangxue's eyes. She looked at the pink fringe blowing in the breeze and couldn't stop smiling. "I like it."

-

"Go ahead and lose yourself. I'll pull you along as we walk toward the light."

Mutual pining / From high school to college / Mutual pining fulfilled / Healing campus romance / The aloof, untouchable one comes down from his pedestal and takes the initiative to support her

Reader's Notes:

1. Both leads are sexually inexperienced, happy ending.

2. The leads only get together after they are adults. Includes some girl-pursues-boy elements.

3. Blurb revised on 2025.9.19; second version written on 2025.10.13.

Premise: Someone will come for you.