Step Aside

My next book will be How Do I Deal with a Roommate Who Loves Me Too Much? Please add it to your favorites!

A companion piece to Make Way: After Running Into an Old Classmate While Buying a Socialite Package Deal. Please add it to your favorites!!

Bittersweet romance | Childhood friend forces her into a relationship | Both leads are virgins |

Jiang Xu had been childhood friends with Shen Li for twenty years.

On this day,

he finally got his wish and married her.

Even though he knew

that Shen Li had always loved someone else.

At the wedding, he gazed at Shen Li in her pure white gown

and spoke the words he'd kept in his heart for so long: "I do."

To Shen Li, they were shackles. To Jiang Xu, they were the answer to a longing he'd nursed for years.

The day he learned Shen Li had gone to see her old flame, Jiang Xu got drunk for once.

He didn't even like alcohol, because Shen Li hated the smell.

That night, he avoided her until late.

But when Shen Li brought out the agreement, he still asked her:

"Have you ever loved me?"

"I know you don't love me."

"But you know I have a thousand ways to make you stay by my side."

"Shen Li, please, could you love me?"

"Even just a little. Even if it's only out of pity."

The candle blown out, the shooting star crossing the night sky,

every year, his wish was simply

to be with her forever.

Just as he had finally managed to win back a little of the love that should have been his all along,

that man came back.

Standing before Shen Li, he told Jiang Xu with righteous indignation:

"Make way."

The carefree life Jiang Xu and Shen Li had shared as childhood friends was disrupted by that man.

The birthday gifts meant only for Jiang Xu were now placed before him too,

and even the marriage pact arranged for them when they were children was rejected by Shen Li.

An outsider had thrown the life Jiang Xu and Shen Li had once shared into disarray.

Jiang Xu thought,

why should he make way?

Coming soon: After Running Into an Old Classmate While Buying a Socialite Package Deal, Ji Zhili vs. Yu Zhao

A similar bittersweet, male-lead-angst story: I Surrender

Everyone thought twenty-four-year-old Yu Chen had it all.

Career-wise, he won the Best New Director award at a young age. His films took both domestic and international markets by storm, making him one of the most promising and talked-about rising stars of the moment.

In love, his girlfriend Lin Ye was the woman he'd loved for ten years. After a decade, he had finally won her heart, and their relationship was growing closer by the day.

For a long time, this relationship had brought Yu Chen the happiness he had longed for.

He loved Lin Ye for ten years, waited for her for three, then pursued her relentlessly for another year before finally becoming her boyfriend.

But Yu Chen wanted far more than a romance.

He wanted to marry Lin Ye and let the whole world know they were together, that they were the closest people in the world.

Yu Chen knew that in this world, he wanted no one but Lin Ye, and could never fall for anyone else.

But later, this relationship brought Yu Chen more and more obsession and insecurity.

His cousin, Shen Jinyan, returned to the country,

the man who had once lived in Lin Ye's heart.

On his nineteenth birthday,

Yu Chen unknowingly drank milk laced with sleeping pills. Lin Ye had given it to him.

When he woke up, she had already gone abroad with Shen Jinyan.

On his twenty-fifth birthday,

Yu Chen drank the milk Lin Ye gave him once more. It was laced with sleeping pills again,

but this time, he took it willingly.

He knew who Lin Ye was going to meet. He knew there were cracks in their relationship.

But he wouldn't admit defeat, and he couldn't let go or bear to lose her.

So all he could do was pretend he knew nothing,

quietly hoping that when he woke up, he would still get to see her again.

Theme: Love can endure anything