A Seaside Love Story [The Second Male Lead Takes the Lead]

A full subscription to this novel costs just 1.39. Thanks for supporting the author! My column has two sweet little stories, "Stop Taking Photos of the Lions! Take One of Me!" and "Who Dates Their Regular Hookup?" Please add them to your reading list. Their blurbs are at the end. The blurb for this novel: [Question: I broke up with my boyfriend of five years. How can I get over the heartbreak quickly?] [Top answer: Find someone new.] Zheng Lan hid the post, thinking she didn't have what it took. The next day, she met Shao Yunian. He was gentle and considerate, like a white-sand beach at dusk, warm even beneath bare feet. The day she worked up the courage to take his hand and bring him home, Jiang Cheng was waiting outside her door, delivering a crushing blow. The heart and guts she'd only just stitched back together seemed to shatter all over again. That night, Zheng Lan iced her lips, swollen from being kissed, and posted again: My ex wants to get back together, and the guy I'm currently flirting with is waiting outside my door. What should I do? In his seventh year at Ming University, Shao Yunian met again the girl he'd fallen for at first sight. Back then, the news he'd discreetly gathered was: "Zheng Lan? She has a boyfriend. He's a great guy, and they're very much in love." Shao Yunian turned away in time, stamping out the feelings budding in his heart. Five years later, she was still as graceful and lovely as a lotus, but when someone asked about her relationship status, she answered in a cool, even tone: "We broke up." Others didn't believe her. "You can't just cut off a relationship that lasted so many years." But those three words were enough for Shao Yunian. He pursued her patiently, taking his time, like someone carefully tending a flower. Until one day, while walking her home, he happened to see that man blocking the door with a bouquet of roses, his eyes reddening the moment he saw her. All his manners and restraint came crashing down. Shao Yunian finally tore off his gentle, controlled mask and pinned her against the mottled brick wall. "So you can't make a clean break? Let me help you." "If you're going to turn back and pick up trash, you might as well drown in my arms first." - "Shao Yunian, the shore is right ahead." "You are my shore." He clasped her five fingers tightly, gathering seven years of silent moonlight into his palm. The tide ebbs and flows, but someone will always be waiting on the beach to catch your stranded moon. - 1. Clear-eyed, prickly wild rose x gentle-looking, dark-hearted upperclassman 2. The setting draws inspiration from the coastal region of southern Fujian. 3. The ex's pursuit doesn't win her back. The male lead is a gentle knife, every cut deadly. A short story of around 100,000 words. Feel free to dive in. Please add my sweet story "Stop Taking Photos of the Lions! Take One of Me!" to your reading list! An energetic, sunny, straightforward college girl x a carefree, wealthy, straight male photographer. Blurb below: Other people go to Africa to see lions. On her very first day there, Dong Xueyin was injured: she broke her arm. She rescued a local child, but didn't earn any academic credits. Instead, she got a snowy-white cast on her arm. Worse, the tour group left without a second thought, dumping her like a piece of luggage into another unfamiliar jeep that was departing later. Dong Xueyin crouched on the street in Narok, where it was 40 degrees Celsius, waved the cast on her arm, and cheerfully reassured her parents over the phone. "Oh, don't worry! Everyone here is really friendly, and there are loads of tourists. Chinese people are everywhere, all looking out for each other!" The kindly compatriot, Li Weiyu, called out to her from behind with a stony expression. "Are you coming or not?" * On his seventh trip to Africa, Li Weiyu skipped all the tourist itineraries. He arranged a driver with the ease of a regular, and set off as soon as he got off the plane. They hadn't even left the city when the driver got a call. Scratching his head, he said they had to pick up an injured tourist. Li Weiyu raised his brows but didn't object. He lowered his head and fiddled with his camera. When they arrived, though, no one got in for ages. He looked outside and saw a young woman chatting happily with a group of Black children, generously handing out snacks from a backpack. He rolled down the window and urged her to hurry up, only for her to fix her sparkling eyes on him. "Hey, you have a camera? Could you take a group photo for us?" Li Weiyu: "..." "Pose." Three, two, one. Click. Li Weiyu's lens had been pointed at lions' faces and captured snow at the equator. This summer, it began to catch the bright, radiant smiles of a young woman again and again. "I worshipped wandering, change, and fantasy, until she pinned my love to one place on Earth." - Li Weiyu - "Who Dates Their Regular Hookup?" Friends-with-benefits to lovers | Carnivore learns to behave | Love triangle. Please add it to your reading list! Blurb: 1. Qiao Xi had always lived freely and loved her independence. Yang Jiayu was as emotionally wooden as a dead tree. When a mutual friend introduced them as potential roommates, they promised the two would get along perfectly, meaning they would stay out of each other's way. That was exactly how things went at first. Until one hot, sultry night, Yang Jiayu caught Qiao Xi alone, her eyes like spring water and her voice sweet as a songbird. A few days later, she put down a package she'd only half unwrapped, then tilted her head and smiled at him. "Want to try it together?" 2. On a stormy night, Qiao Xi brought her date upstairs to wait out the rain. But when she opened the door, she ran into a man emerging from the steamy bathroom. She pretended to be calm and introduced the man, who wore nothing but a towel around his waist. "This is my roommate." Her date forced out an awkward, friendly smile. "Hello." Yang Jiayu glanced at Qiao Xi's soaked top and gave a cold, dismissive "Mm." He bent over at the water dispenser to pour himself a glass. His light wheat-colored abs folded as he leaned, and droplets he hadn't wiped away ran straight into the shadow of his V-line. He stood up, took his glass, and went straight back to his room. 3. Later, when the rain had eased, her date took his leave, and Qiao Xi personally saw him out. The elevator dinged and its doors closed. An arm suddenly wrapped around her waist and forcefully dragged her back inside. All the lights went out. Yang Jiayu pinned her in the corner of the sofa, both of them drenched, their bodies glistening with moisture, impossible to tell whether it was rain or a thin sheen of sweat. "Why didn't you leave with someone else tonight?" "Was that one no good?" Qiao Xi froze in the darkness for a few seconds. She could feel Yang Jiayu desperately venting his despair, and at last she seemed to hear him murmuring. "Xixi." He rarely did this, but he kissed her between the brows. "Stop trying. No one will ever understand you better than I do." Exhausted to the limit, Qiao Xi casually answered, "Mm." The next morning, she woke up and got out of bed briskly. "Qiao Xi." Yang Jiayu propped himself up against the headboard and called to her in a low voice. She glanced back over her shoulder and blinked at him, bewildered and innocent. A few seconds later, she instinctively offered a polite summary: "Oh, I had a great time last night." Theme: Some relationships can't be mended. Keep moving forward.