Listening to Summer's Secrets

[My next book, There’s Something Between Her and Me, is a secret-crush story on my author page. It’s open for follows, so please add it to your reading list!]

Troublemaking girl vs. rebellious top student

Longcheng No. 1 High School has two people famous for not getting along.

One is a favored child of heaven: clean-cut and aloof, top of the class, with a bright future ahead. The other is a troublemaking girl, a menace to society, ranked near the bottom of the class, with a powerful family behind her.

Then one day, the troublemaking girl beats up the top student.

In an alley.

The boy is tall and long-legged, with broad shoulders and a slim waist. He’s a full head taller than her.

When he sees her, he can’t even be bothered to lift his eyelids. His gaze lowered, he says unkindly, “Who are you? If you’ve got nothing to say, get lost.”

Lin Tingxia can’t be bothered to answer. She rolls up her uniform sleeves, charges over, and kicks him.

That kick leaves Chen Zhiyu on crutches for three months.

Everyone thinks there’s no hope for the two of them, but one day they’re spotted standing together beneath the old locust tree on campus.

The sunlight is scorching and blinding. Chen Zhiyu wears an irritated expression as he shifts his shoulder toward her, blocking half the sunlight.

“What is it?”

“I have a secret. Want to hear it?”

The girl looks sly. Chen Zhiyu knows she’s up to no good and raises an eyebrow, not particularly interested.

They say wishes made beneath the locust tree all come true.

Lin Tingxia rises onto her toes and leans close to his ear.

“Once this summer is over, I’ll tell you.”

-

Chen Zhiyu has been a model student for eighteen years. Everyone thinks his future girlfriend will be someone like the pretty, gentle, well-mannered girl at the top of the liberal arts class.

Who could have guessed he’d fall for a girl like Lin Tingxia, a clumsy troublemaker with a head full of wild ideas?

Later, someone asks Chen Zhiyu what he sees in a girl like Lin Tingxia.

He just smiles and says, “We were meant to be.”

In fact, he has a secret of his own.

He’s liked Lin Tingxia for a long time.

Once this summer is over, he’ll tell her.

-Reader’s Guide:

1. Teen awkwardness, a charming boy and girl, and an ensemble school cast

2. Both are sexually inexperienced; happy ending; he has a secret crush

3. Blurb written on April 30, 2025

*Everyday-life focus. The characters aren’t perfect, so read at your own discretion.

Next book: There’s Something Between Her and Me

Yun Chu has secretly loved Jiang Ci for all three years of high school.

Back then, Jiang Ci was the school’s most talked-about student, while she was just an invisible nobody in class.

But even she had her bold moments. For instance, she wrote a line in Jiang Ci’s yearbook: “May my boy always be sincere and passionate.”

*

They meet again at a blind date.

He’s a guest, and she’s just there to watch.

With his conspicuous blond hair, the boy across from her curls his lip. “You’re too high-maintenance, and I hate trouble.”

He’s still just as carefree and uninhibited as ever.

He doesn’t recognize her.

*

Later, the two of them sign a contract to pretend to be a couple.

Their secret arrangement is forced to end only when the person Jiang Ci has a crush on returns from abroad.

At a class reunion, someone teasingly asks, “Ci, when was your first time?”

Jiang Ci smiles and says, “May 21, 2021.”

Yun Chu’s ears suddenly turn red.

The person continues, “Then when did you first fall for someone?”

Jiang Ci answers lazily, “October 1, 2017.”

She looks up in a daze, and their eyes meet in the dim private room.

“A secret crush is a book sealed away in the sea of time. After all these years, at last, someone has opened its first page.”

“In this grand, sweeping secret crush, it turns out she was never alone.”

Theme: Make the most of every day