Jade in the Haze · Bewitched Mountain Forest
Female student · Man in power
Happy ending | Some angst | Neither lead is perfect | Older man
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Qi Nian first met Pei Qingji at a construction site in Zhoujiabao.
It was pouring that day, and raindrops pounded against the plastic sheeting over the tomb entrance. She had just climbed out of a tomb chamber five meters underground, soaked through, her rain jacket plastered to her body and mud caked on her boots. The nasal strip on the tip of her nose had started to peel up at one corner from the rain. Professor Zhang beckoned to her from under a plastic canopy. "Xiao Qi, come over. This is President Pei of Qingshan Group, the investor in our bamboo-slip scanning project."
Pei Qingji stood alone in the rain, holding a black umbrella. The dim yellow light spilling from the tomb entrance was broken up by the curtain of rain and scattered across his aloof face. His brows were high, his nose straight, and his peach-blossom eyes so cool they held no warmth. He gave off an air that warned strangers to stay away, like an ink stick that had strayed from the city into the countryside.
Qi Nian walked over and glanced at him. She didn't know him and didn't care who he was. She nodded. "Hello, President Pei." Then she looked away and wrung the muddy rainwater from her hem.
That day, she stood outside his umbrella, closer to him than anyone, and farther from him than anyone.
But later, who could say which of them fell first?
One rainy night in the spring of 2011, Qi Nian lifted her umbrella and stepped over to the slightly tipsy man, then asked cautiously:
"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 feeling of his lips against hers.
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When a friend told Qi Nian that Pei Qingji was getting married, he was sitting at the table across from her, taking care of some business.
Just like the first time she saw him, he seemed surrounded by fog, like a solemn, imposing mountain forest. She couldn't see through him.
Qi Nian stared at the line on her screen for a long time, feeling her heart sink and crack.
She spoke in a hoarse voice, with a faint tremor she could barely conceal.
"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.
[You were a cold wave I went through in the warm spring, a wave that ran backward, damp and icy, seeping into my bones and blood.]
tips: The female lead's professional terminology was sourced online.
Synopsis published on 2025.1.12 and screenshotted
Theme: If only life could be like our first meeting
