Deliberate Intimacy

Going premium on May 30~

A film investment goes south, leaving Lu Shiyan buried in debt.

Her mother agrees to pay it off on one condition: Lu Shiyan must put her house up as collateral and work for her mother's company. She can leave once the debt is paid.

Lu Shiyan knows that if she accepts, she'll have to share a home with someone and shoot projects she doesn't want to make. But she has no other choice.

What she never expected was that her roommate and the screenwriter she'd be working with would be the same person.

Her mother really did arrange things perfectly.

This woman doesn't suck up to her or try to get close on purpose. She even argues with Lu Shiyan in front of everyone.

She has absolutely none of the grace you'd expect from someone doing a favor for the person paying her.

She doesn't seem intent on winning Lu Shiyan over. She seems intent on whipping her into shape.

-

The first time she moves out, she finds the home of her dreams.

The first time she takes a job with a major platform, she's the only screenwriter.

Yang Linghan never imagined that two windfalls would drop into her lap at once.

It's just that her new roommate is a little cold. Even from far away, she can feel the chill to her bones.

And what a coincidence: this roommate turns out to be the director she's supposed to work with. She's not just cold, she's a stickler, too.

She can go on at length over the tiniest issue, even inviting Yang Linghan to check out a location after work, just to prove her wrong to her face.

How infuriating. Roommate or director, Yang Linghan gives as good as she gets.

-

Leaning against the trees by the lake, the sharp tongue softens, the cold woman warms up, and they become more and more entangled.

The works they collaborate on, which are also chapter titles:

A Hundred Years of Happiness (TV series)

Mist Veiling the Water (film)

Between the Sun and the Moon (film, featured in Spring Breeze Kisses the Rain)

Summer Love Song (variety show)

Their Room (short film, featured in Spring Breeze Kisses the Rain)

Before the Starting Gun Fires (TV series, with a brief, easy-to-miss scene in Spring Breeze Kisses the Rain)

Three Goodbyes (film, featured in Caught in the Tides)

Please note:

1. All the characters who appear are women. There are no male characters. Same-sex marriage is legal, and couples can have children, whether through single or dual female reproduction. (Since the protagonists of this story are characters in Spring Breeze Kisses the Rain, I couldn't write it as a fully female world. When writing Spring Breeze Kisses the Rain, I didn't want to make the antagonists women, so I made them men instead. Though many readers feel it's fine for the antagonists in a fully female world to be women, I still don't want women fighting women.)

2. The entertainment industry in this story differs from the real world, though the professions themselves are much the same as usual. Actors don't need makeup to play ugly characters, but they do need to get ready. If a character is injured, they apply plant juice in a similar color.

3. You don't need to read Spring Breeze Kisses the Rain to enjoy this story. This is a standalone story.

Theme: Live well and work hard.