Summer Off Track

[Resilient, spirited policewoman x straight-laced, muscular criminal investigation captain]

A few things to know before reading:

1. This is a companion novel to Ashes Beneath the Night! Some plot points are here to fill in gaps from the previous book. Those storylines weren't left unresolved at the end; they were the main plot of the previous book and weren't expanded on there. This won't affect your enjoyment of this book!

2. If you don't want to read the flashbacks, you can skip from Chapter 2 to Chapter 24, where the male lead appears in the main timeline!

3. The plot is the main focus, and the romance isn't very prominent!!!

Here's the blurb:

When she was ten, she was kidnapped by human traffickers and taken to an abandoned warehouse in the mountains.

Everyone thought she was dead, but a month later, the girl emerged at the end of the road, limping and covered in wounds.

When she grew up, her family did everything they could to stop her from becoming a police officer.

But she knew the bad guy from back then had been following her all along.

Staying in Cangyuan would put her family at risk. And as an ordinary person, she wouldn't be able to protect herself.

In her first year of high school, Lan Xin met Jiang Ziping for the first time. She was being followed by a bad guy, and she got away by taking advantage of a dazed, clueless boy.

He bought her a red bean popsicle. The red beans were sweet, and he told her he was from Jifeng.

Later, she went to Jifeng, never expecting that man to be her examiner. He'd matured a lot over the years, and clearly seemed to have forgotten her.

After a major case finally came to an end, the two sat by the river, enjoying the breeze. The woman was about to light a cigarette when the man beside her took it away and replaced it with a red bean popsicle.

"Prices have gone up over the years, but this ice cream still costs less than it did back then. You people in Cangyuan really do have your own currency."

Lan Xin was stunned. Ever since she'd come to Jifeng, he hadn't mentioned what happened back then. "You remember me? Then why did you pretend not to know me on the day of the exam?"

"What, was I supposed to greet you in public and let people say I was being biased?"

"What about that time at the barbecue restaurant?"

"Was I drunk that day? When I'm drunk, I don't even recognize my own mother."

Jiang Ziping paused.

"But I won't get drunk again. I have to take you home."

Upcoming novel, Hard to Find [Undercover Police Officer x Volunteer Teacher], mutual pining

In the eighth year of her unrequited love, Fang Mo received the news of his death.

A great fire reduced Fang Mo to ashes. They didn't even find his body.

After the funeral, He Yi went to the cemetery alone and placed the diary filled with Fang Mo's name on his tombstone.

The dead don't come back, so the living must carry on.

He Yi applied to go north and resolutely set off to teach in a rural area, only to see a face strikingly similar to Fang Mo's in that county.

After testing him several times, she finally confirmed it. The dead couldn't come back to life, so how could he have appeared?

Perhaps unable to accept the regret, she got drunk that night and decided that from then on, she would love him as she had once loved Fang Mo.

That night, she took the initiative and kissed him on the single bed where Fang Mo had always slept.

But she didn't know that beneath the pillow lay the diary filled with Fang Mo's name.

He loved her just as much, but couldn't show it in the slightest.

Upcoming novel, Enchanted by Spring, please add it to your favorites!

Reserved female writer x secretly passionate male executive / height difference / contrasting personalities / infidelity

Fang Yuan never expected that six years later, on the very first night they met again, she and her "ex" would end up in bed together.

The man's eyes were deep, and the veins stood out on the arm gripping Fang Yuan's wrist.

He stared at the ring on her hand and asked hoarsely, "Fang Yuan, have you made up your mind? You have a boyfriend."

Fang Yuan said nothing. She raised her head to kiss Jiang Fengnian, but the man took control, and this kiss was even more passionate than the one they shared on the night they parted six years ago.

Fang Yuan had been a model student since childhood and had hardly ever done anything out of line.

Except kiss and sleep with Jiang Fengnian without defining their relationship, and now pretend to have a boyfriend so she could make him her lover.

But she didn't know that one night three years ago, Jiang Fengnian had gone to find her.

Under the spotlight, he saw her kissing another man, and inexplicably, his vision grew hazy.

"I'm willing to love you this way, even if it means being your secret lover."

Theme: Justice will ultimately triumph over evil