To My Little Angel

[A print edition has been signed; updates at @BaiRiMengYangMie]

* A shy, earnest girl with an inferiority complex x a clingy young Russian-Chinese heir

* University campus setting / height difference

* Pirated copies are incomplete.

Yan Tang has always known she is ordinary, and that she has terrible luck.

The people she likes never like her back. No matter how hard she studies, she never gets the grades she wants. She worked hard at her internship, only for the department to be disbanded just as she was about to get a permanent position.

In her final year of university, she finally accepts her fate and prepares to return to her hometown after graduation, take the civil service exam, and go on blind dates as her parents arranged.

By chance, before graduating, she gets a side job: tutoring the precious son of a rich woman, who's just returned from Russia, in Chinese.

The rich woman describes him this way:

“My son just came back to China. He only understands very simple Chinese, so I need you to accompany him to his extracurricular classes on weekends and chat with him more.”

She adds:

“He's very sweet and adorable, like a little angel, though he does cry a bit. You mustn't spoil him.”

Yan Tang arrives full of anticipation to meet the little angel, then falls into an endless silence.

He really is adorable. His bright eyes are as clear as a cat's, his skin is milky white, his hair soft and thick, and his pale lips are like beautiful flower petals.

But the rich woman left out a few key details:

The little angel is 1.9 meters tall, and his extracurricular classes are shooting and MMA.

The little angel says he loves hunting. In his Moscow mansion, one wall is hung with all kinds of guns, and another with the heads of brown bears and wolves he hunted when he was fifteen or sixteen.

This grown-up little angel is indeed hopeless at Chinese, knowing only everyday phrases like “hello,” “have you eaten?” and “asshole.” But if you praise him as “handsome,” “cute,” or “good boy,” he understands every word.

Yan Tang teaches him earnestly for two months, only to discover after the tutoring job ends that he acts as if he's never learned some of the Chinese she taught him.

“Stop! Stop!” she shouts, bracing her hands against his chest.

Song Yu grips her waist and asks in Russian, “What are you saying, baby?”

Yan Tang: “Stop kissing me!”

He gazes at her with catlike eyes and leans in again.

So Yan Tang slaps him.

She makes him cry, then spends two hours comforting him.

*

After graduation, she quits her job with the rich woman.

To avoid trouble, she doesn't tell Song Yu and quietly returns to her hometown.

On the day of her blind date, Yan Tang has only been talking to her date for a little while when she suddenly spots a tall figure at the entrance.

Song Yu strides over and sits down at their table. Smiling at her date, he says:

“So you're the man who's going to marry Yan Tang? She slept with me. I want to be with her. You don't mind, do you?”

You are a sparrow fleeing through a snowy pine forest / I aim my hunting rifle at you / but the bullet strikes my heart

To the Little Angel (written by Song Yu during his final Chinese tutoring lesson)

Reader's guide:

1. One-on-one romance, both leads are sexually inexperienced. (Note: As the blurb indicates, the heroine had a former crush and goes on a blind date before she and the hero become a couple. The hero has only ever been with her, emotionally and physically.)

2. Happy ending, younger man, male lead is Russian-Chinese.

3. Lighthearted tone (that's the author's goal; criticism is welcome if it doesn't come across). The heroine has a growth arc, but she won't crush everyone beneath her feet. She'll achieve success in her own field.

4. Regarding the tutoring relationship: the leads are not romantically involved while she is his tutor.

5. The MMA content in this story: UFC is a real organization, but all people and specific events are fictional. Please don't connect them to real life.

Theme: Study hard.