Hunting Summer [Rekindling an Old Flame]

Rekindled love + childhood friends + bickering couple + six-year age gap

Naturally energetic, sweet rich girl x seemingly sunny, actually brooding captain of the criminal police squad

Guan Ningyi had a next-door big brother who was always by her side: Zhou Yuechen.

When Guan Ningyi was twelve, Zhou Yuechen left to attend university in another city.

She cried so hard she could barely breathe, clutching Zhou Yuechen's sleeve to keep him from going.

"After you finish university, will you still come back and be my big brother?"

Zhou Yuechen crouched, rubbed her little head, and hooked his pinky around hers. "Ningning, I'll always be your big brother."

When Guan Ningyi was fifteen, Zhou Yuechen came home for the summer.

She'd made chocolate by hand and wanted to give it to him after all this time apart.

But on a hot afternoon, standing across the street, she saw Zhou Yuechen walking alongside a beautiful stranger and entering the Zhou family home.

She stood there for a long time, not even noticing the chocolate melting.

From that day on, she never mentioned that "big brother" again.

Eight years later, Guan Ningyi disguised herself as a hostess and went undercover at a nightclub to investigate. Unexpectedly, she ran into a vice squad and was taken away on the spot.

In the interrogation room, she hunched her head down and said nothing.

Zhou Yuechen sat across from her, tilting his head and looking at her at his leisure.

"It's been so long. You changed jobs and didn't even tell your big brother?"

Later, in a noisy bar, Zhou Yuechen cornered Guan Ningyi in a narrow, cramped alcove.

Her cheeks flushed red with drunkenness, she mumbled, "I don't want you as my big brother anymore."

Zhou Yuechen sneered, his lips curling. "Perfect."

He leaned close, enunciating every word. "I never wanted to be your big brother."

A bonus scene:

One quiet, ordinary night.

Zhou Yuechen knelt on the bed, looking down at Guan Ningyi with an inscrutable expression.

He took out a pair of handcuffs, fastening one cuff to the headboard and the other around Guan Ningyi's slender wrist.

"You're under arrest."

Guan Ningyi's eyes welled with tears. She knitted her brows and sniffled, looking utterly wronged. "I thought you said confessing would get me a lighter sentence?"

Zhou Yuechen raised an eyebrow and gently flicked the pink bell on the "handcuffs."

"It's pretty loose. The shopkeeper said it's size M."

Happy ending, extremely sweet

P.S.

The male lead is tall and handsome, and the female lead is the only one for him from beginning to end.

Theme: My heart is at ease beneath the endless sky