Falling into the Fog

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Love and hate entwined | Bittersweet redemption | Small-town setting | Taming the dog | Living under the same roof

Resilient moss flower vs. unruly stray dog

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At first, Gan Tang thought Zhou Disheng was naturally cold and bad-tempered, a reckless, dissolute man like a stray dog.

But by an unexpected turn of events, the two became strangers living under the same roof, and year after year went by.

She couldn't understand why Zhou Di had hated her as consistently as ever, yet kept her around and raised her until she was eighteen.

Rain poured down on a summer night, and mist filled the air. She saw Zhou Di pin her long-unseen father into a corner, his eyes bloodshot, like a bloodthirsty leopard.

"A murderer like you belongs in hell."

Each word struck like a blade, every syllable aimed at the heart.

"Your daughter belongs there with you."

Gan Tang clapped a hand over her mouth, fear seizing her to the very tips of her nerves.

_

When Zhou Di was thirteen, both his parents died in an accident. His wealthy relatives swindled away his inheritance, leaving him only a rundown house and the motorcycle his father had given him.

On the night of his seventeenth birthday, he saw a small figure huddled behind his bike. Ahead, a drunken man was cursing at the top of his lungs.

The mist was so thick he could barely see.

A man who never meddled in other people's business, he broke with habit and threw a bucket of water over the man.

From that day on, there was a "stray dog" at his doorstep.

Whenever he woke in the middle of the night from dreams of the scene of his parents' accident, that stray dog would sidle over pitifully and ask what was wrong.

Until one day, he discovered that the stray dog was connected to his father's killer.

Fine. He'd taken her in for so long, so he accepted it.

But the stray dog ran away.

On the night they reunited, thick fog shrouded the world outside the window. Inside, the man turned aside to flick off his cigarette ash, his bloodshot eyes fixed on her.

The damp mist had long since clung to them all. Was it love or hate?

He'd long since stopped being able to tell.

Reporter vs. motorcycle racer

tips:

1. The male lead's name comes from: "The road is smooth as a whetstone, straight as an arrow." From the Book of Songs, Lesser Odes.

2. The heroine will develop a hearing impairment later in the story.

See the author's note in Chapter One for details.

---- Next up: an elite-capital-circle romance, The Late Spring Cold ----

When Qi Nian first met Pei Qingji, he was sitting alone in a dim corner. Mottled light fell across his proud face, and his whole being radiated an air that warned others to keep their distance.

That night, Qi Nian sat as far away from the man as she could.

But later, who knew which of them fell first?

On a rainy night in the spring of 2011, Qi Nian held up an umbrella and moved to the side of the slightly tipsy man, then asked carefully:

"Pei Qingji, would you like to date me?"

When he didn't answer, she added, "Without getting married."

Qi Nian would never forget the look in his eyes that night, or the feel of his lips against hers.

-

When a friend told her Pei Qingji was getting married, he was sitting at the table across from her, busy with work.

Just like the first time she'd seen him, he seemed enveloped in mist, like a solemn, imposing mountain forest, impossible to see through.

Qi Nian stared at the line of text on her screen for a long time, feeling her heart crack under the weight of it.

Her voice hoarse, a barely perceptible tremor slipped into her words.

"Pei Qingji, come to Tibet with me."

"We'll definitely be back before September 15."

Qi Nian knew September 15 was the day he was getting married.

Theme: Healing oneself on the torn fabric of life