The Breeze Knows You

[Main story complete]

[A sweet but sensitive, conflicted good girl x a rational, cool-headed, gentle lawyer]

[Love that grows over time vs. love at first sight]

*

The day Hang Xuan left the capital, the sky was overcast and light snow was falling. Her delayed flight finally took off and landed in the mild weather of Hong Kong.

The sea breeze in Hong Kong was salty and damp. Cruise ships passed through the harbor in a dazzling stream of lights. Hang Xuan strolled along the shore, passing couples from time to time. She lifted a hand to smooth her windblown hair and thought of how Marquez described falling in love in One Hundred Years of Solitude: "It's like getting a pebble in your shoe."

At first, she couldn't relate. By the time she finally understood, she had become someone walking around in a shoe with a pebble in it.

Then she left the pebble behind and escaped through an exchange program.

But exchange programs always come to an end. She had to go back.

*

On another snowy day, she set foot in the capital once more. Without warning, a tall, lean figure entered her field of vision and took the suitcase from her hand.

She had overestimated herself: the pebble was back in her shoe.

Worse still, this time she could never get rid of it again.

*

Unable to sleep, Hang Xuan quietly went out for a walk in the middle of the night, only to run into someone else who had come out to clear his head.

The soft snow crunched beneath their feet as the two maintained a delicate silence.

"Hang Xuan, be my girlfriend."

Like snow falling from a treetop, the words came without warning.

"Lin Xu," Hang Xuan gathered her courage and looked up at him, her tone as calm as gently falling snowflakes. "I don't like you anymore."

The man didn't reply. He simply reached out to straighten her scarf.

"That's okay. I'll just make you fall for me again."

- A healing, sweet romance with an age gap

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---Synopsis for the upcoming novel The Moon Sets, Yet Sleep Eludes Me----

[Bright, lively heiress x cool, aloof head of the family]

[Marriage first, love later & mutual salvation]

1.

Wen Zhiyi first felt her heart flutter in high school. She had secretly fallen for the refined and courteous boy next door, who had always treated her with warmth.

She wished time would hurry along, and at last she graduated from high school. But one afternoon, she overheard his mother say to him, "I hear the new estate the Wen family bought was put in Wen Zhiyi's name again. Hurry up and make her yours. Half the Wen family's assets will be yours, and our family won't have to worry about what other people think anymore. Understand?"

After a few seconds of silence, she heard that familiar, gentle voice answer, "I understand. I will."

The second time Wen Zhiyi stood at the gates of love was in college.

A senior two years ahead of her pursued her ardently, bringing her flowers, meals, and gifts, accompanying her to class and helping her study. He even quietly spent a whole day waiting in line just to get her the latest limited-edition collaboration, even though all she had to do was ask.

Did she like him? Wen Zhiyi wasn't sure, but she thought perhaps she could give it a try.

By a cruel coincidence, just as she was about to take that final step, she overheard the senior and his roommate drunkenly revealing the truth: "I haven't even managed to touch her hand in months! Once she takes the bait, just watch how I deal with her! If she weren't the Wen family's heiress, who'd go to all this trouble for nothing?"

Sometimes Wen Zhiyi wondered whether she was lucky or unlucky. Unlucky, because she kept meeting them in the first place. Lucky, because she always figured out their ulterior motives before going any further and cut her losses in time. But if it was luck, why did she have to meet them at all?

Wen Zhiyi didn't know, but she knew that three strikes was one too many. There absolutely could not be a third time.

2.

At a banquet, Wen Zhiyi accidentally bumped into a strange man in the corridor. He wore a custom-made designer suit, his features cold and stern, his manner detached, and his whole bearing radiated such nobility that even she was taken aback. The man said nothing. His eyes shifted to the ruby brooch that had fallen to the ground, its crisp chime echoing through the corridor.

Thinking quickly, she removed the red jewel ornament from her bag, stepped forward to pin it on him, and hurried away after telling him to send the bill for the brooch to the Wen family in Jiangcheng.

She never received a bill. Instead, she heard the rumors spreading all over the internet, followed by news of an engagement.

Pei Shaoyu once asked Wen Zhiyi why she agreed to marry him when she had the means and the confidence to refuse.

After a brief pause, the girl smiled at him. "Because you're rich."

Pei Shaoyu thought she was joking. The Wen family's affection for her was well known in their circles, and she owned countless assets. Only later did Pei Shaoyu understand that there was more to her words.

Because he was rich enough, he wouldn't covet the Wen family's assets.

Indeed, that thought had never crossed his mind. He had agreed to the marriage only to put the elders in his family at ease.

But at some point, he began to covet her herself.

3.

That evening, as usual, Pei Shaoyu read to Wen Zhiyi.

In the soft, warm light, the sharp line of the man's jaw softened, and his magnetic voice held less cool detachment and more tenderness.

Watching him read so seriously, Wen Zhiyi couldn't help smiling.

"What are you smiling at?"

The man closed the book and lowered his gaze to the restless woman lying beside him.

Wen Zhiyi smiled without answering, then reached out from under the covers and tugged at the hem of his pajamas.

"Pei Shaoyu, I love you."

At that, the man simply placed the book back on the bedside table. Dissatisfied by his overly calm reaction, Wen Zhiyi grabbed the edge of his pajamas and tugged hard. "Hey, you..."

Before she could finish, her words were swallowed by a kiss. Wen Zhiyi was kissed senseless, unable to think. During a brief pause to catch their breath, she heard him whisper in her ear, "I love you too."

The third time, she finally found someone who returned her love with sincerity.

"I fell into your arms, plunging headfirst into my fate." -- Adapted from Stefan Zweig

Theme: Pursue what you love