See Me

[The subtle, romantic type who says what she means and means what she says x the fake playboy who goes along with the plan]

Childhood sweethearts / Friends cross the line / Testing each other, then pulling away

Eventually, Zhu Shihao figured it out. She never said the word love. She just went for it.

But Tan Zhixu always held her by the waist, asking over and over, "Who do you love?"

1.

Tan Zhixu looks like the kind of guy you don't want to mess with, but he's easy to handle around Zhu Shihao. He's always been the type to act like he won't indulge her while indulging her more than anyone.

Their first serious fight was in their senior year of high school, when Tan Zhixu stumbled upon the love letter she'd tucked inside her rough-notes notebook.

It was still a draft, with several lines crossed out and rewritten. She'd clearly put a lot of effort into it.

He read every word, and as he came across descriptions like "gentle" and "considerate," he ran through every guy he knew in his head.

With a blank face and a sinister look in his eyes, he muttered, "You little shit."

For the sake of her "studying hard and aiming high," he promptly handed it over to Zhu Shihao's parents.

After two hours of lectures and a self-criticism at least twice as long as the letter, Zhu Shihao went straight to Tan Zhixu.

His expression was calm. "So now you're fighting with me over that little shit?"

At the name, Zhu Shihao choked on her words.

"Write it yourself. Life is long, and you should write a self-criticism yourself at least once. Make it memorable, and don't use fewer than 936 characters."

Zhu Shihao gritted her teeth. Fine, she'd write it herself, you little shit.

2.

But she never managed to give him that love letter.

It was an ordinary moment, with the sound of the school broadcast in the background, but she knew Tan Zhixu's voice better than anyone.

"What kind do I like? A little spirited, interesting, beautiful and pure."

Zhu Shihao lowered her eyes and hid behind the wall.

Too bad she wasn't interesting, and she wasn't the pure-looking type either. Even when she was at her most bad-tempered, all she'd done was curse him as a "little shit" in her head.

Tan Zhixu didn't like girls like her.

Her crush disappeared from her life, never to be mentioned again.

3.

Everyone knows Zhu Shihao has a childhood friend who's cocky, cool, rich, and way too controlling.

Everyone also knows Tan Zhixu has a childhood sweetheart who's beautiful and sociable. She doesn't seem to keep him on a short leash, but whatever she says, he listens.

What was there to keep an eye on? Zhu Shihao simply watched from the sidelines as he got dumped once and dumped two other people.

Tan Zhixu: "Shihao, why do we always have such bad luck finding decent people?"

Zhu Shihao glanced at him, picked up her glass, and drained it. "You have bad taste in people, not me."

He sneered. "Then why do you break up so fast? Collecting exes?"

She'd had three relationships, and none had lasted a month.

After a few more drinks, Tan Zhixu was tipsy too. "Maybe you and I should just give it a try."

After a moment of silence, her voice came out perfectly clear. "Okay. Let's try."

His hand shook, and the wine spilled. Tan Zhixu almost thought he'd imagined it.

"How do we try?"

Zhu Shihao stared at his lips, then leaned in and kissed him. "Like this."

Their glasses fell to the carpet, and wine soaked them both.

4.

One day, Tan Zhixu found a pale pink envelope inside a comic he'd given her years ago. It was clearly a love letter.

After reading no more than one line, he realized this was a revised version of the draft from back then.

Jealousy fermented inside him, turning sour and rotten.

Tan Zhixu sneered, yet couldn't help reading it again.

He flung it onto the table and swore, something he rarely did. "The more you revise it, the more you have to say, huh!"

The way I see myself and you isn't the same as the way you see me. How is that not a kind of unspoken understanding?

Really, it's just double standards and rose-colored glasses.

Note:

1. The author's idea of a "playboy" is someone fickle and unrestrained, who makes no promises in relationships and comes and goes freely in the dating scene.

2. Both leads have exes. While they were in relationships, they never crossed the line with one another as friends, in either action or thought. According to the author's reasoning, it's normal for 19- and 20-year-olds to date for a year during their sophomore year of college without having sex. The male lead's friendship turning into family-like affection happens after graduation.

3. This is a contemporary urban romance, and both leads have had sex only with each other (emphasized). Readers who require leads to have no exes should proceed with caution.

There are countless good stories out there. If this one isn't for you, please move on. I ask everyone to be kind.

◎ [Welcome to the New World (Infinite)] Coming soon~

[The Great King of Fish is good at "communicating." Consort Song can only reason with people.]

When she woke up, her mind was so clean it felt like someone had hit the reset button.

Who was building an illegal structure on top of her coffin?

Unable to move the bulldozer, she had to float her way around.

Ping'an Library clerk: "Th-there's a ghost!"

Wei Yu looked at the colleague across from her as bits of flesh fell off them. "That's kind of rude, you know."

She only wanted to make money and enjoy life, but she ended up paying out of pocket as soon as she started working in a scenario.

She couldn't entirely blame herself. She didn't believe anyone could like someone stupid, and besides, he was good-looking.

As a temporary worker from outside, fitting in with the local NPC family was a problem, but not a big one.

Sincerity was difficult, but an eye for an eye worked just fine!

Wei Yu did her best to maintain good workplace relationships, beating up her coworkers and saving them too.

And so, she went to "collect debts" from the smart ones.

When it was over, Wei Yu was satisfied. "Excellent, my sisters."

After ten years of theoretical experience, it was time to put it into practice.

On his first trip into a scenario, Song Jingrang met a very unusual NPC and instantly became her favored contact.

That was true. After all, she not only gave him [a rose of love], but also gave him a little sister.

He even became the magpie bridge helping the sisters in their Cowherd and Weaver Girl story reunite.

Later, Song Jingrang smiled. "Excellent, my sisters."

Wei Yu wasn't really called Wei Yu. She didn't care what her name was.

Until one day, she took on a player's identity and needed a name.

Song Jingrang's words suddenly came back to her: "How many people have truly caught a deer? Who knows that all day long, they dream of being a fish?"

Looking at the "stranger" who showed up at his door,

Song Jingrang said dazedly, "This is a hallucination. I've gone crazy again."

Wei Yu pushed past him and went straight inside. "Hot pot, barbecue, dumplings, roast duck, milk tea. You can pick the rest."

Song Jingrang looked at that face so at odds with her personality and started questioning himself.

"Y-you sure have a good appetite."

#Help, what's this ancestral secret for producing heroes out of a crack in a rock?#

#Wait, I've seen this little sister decades ago#

#Mom, come quick! The one you voted dead is alive again!!#

Song Jingrang is determined to switch up his performance style, but he still remembers to be sweet to his partner.

"What can I do? I'm smart, handsome, and lucky. Of course you'd be patient with me, right, Sis?"

"Sis, look at me. I refuse to believe you have nothing in your eyes."

"Sis, Sis, would you still love me like this? No, no, you should love me no matter what I'm like!"

At first, Wei Yu's hands itched whenever she heard his deliberately affected "Sis." Later, when she couldn't hear it, her heart started itching instead.

The day "Advent" came to Blue Star, a terrible calamity shattered the planet's peace.

It didn't do evil, but a game that toys with life and death and magnifies selfish desire was evil to ordinary people all the same.

And yet the game was also a slim chance at survival, bestowed by a superior planet "high above."

"Do you want to change the outcome of your world's destruction?"

"Welcome, victors, to the New World."

But for Wei Yu, this was already her new world.

[Contemporary fantasy setting / scenarios focus more on plot / scenario and romance plots run in parallel]

Theme: If you want something, go get it yourself