The Tide Fell Silent in the Seventeenth Year

【Novel Blurb】 This year marks the seventeenth year Li Shuang has been secretly in love with Jiang Jing. In the business world, she sat expressionlessly across from the other woman, feigning composure as she listened to one deal after another being discussed. “Ms. Li, this is Ms. Jiang, our liaison partner for this project.” Li Shuang’s gaze swept over Jiang Jing’s face. She gave a blank nod. “Li Shuang.” The moment their hands touched, Li Shuang’s palm felt as hot as if it were burning. But no one knew that beneath her lovely exterior, her heart was already surging like a storm-tossed sea. She didn’t let her gaze linger on Jiang Jing for long. Beyond the force of habit she’d built over all these years, she discovered she still had a moment when she could barely control herself. She was still indulging in wishful thinking. She’d thought she had let go, after all these years. “Hey, I don’t think Ms. Li and I have each other’s contact info yet. How about we add each other on WeChat?” Li Shuang raised her eyes. Her lashes trembled faintly, and her gaze, like a tranquil pool of autumn water, studied Jiang Jing. She seemed to want to say something, but stopped herself. After they scanned each other’s codes, both fell into a long silence. “I’ve accepted your friend request. We can now start chatting.” But the date was nine years ago. In truth, nine years before that, they had already shared eight years no one else knew about. Counting from then to today, it had been seventeen years since Li Shuang first met Jiang Jing. She’d thought she was used to being ignored, like a voiceless tide: raging beneath the surface, yet still making no sound. “Li Shuang, open the door.” But in the seventeenth year of that voiceless tide, Jiang Jing turned back and discovered the stowaway in that deserted sea. Li Shuang leaned against the door, lowering her head. “Just go.” The sea whose waves had always stayed hidden in the shadows was finally laid bare for all to see. It was passionate and turbulent, impossible to evade and impossible to conceal. Meanwhile, Jiang Jing on the other side felt she was about to go mad. “Li Shuang, you’ve chased after me for all these years. You can’t just decide you don’t want me anymore.” An avoidant, insecure wolf-cut butch who’s the pursued one x an anxiously attached, teasing beauty who’s the pursuer 【Reading Guide】 1. Secret love comes true / the one in power lowers her head / an aloof beauty falls / reunion after a long separation / happy ending 2. Updated daily. The author has a great track record and won’t abandon the story, so read with confidence. 3. The secret crush and bittersweet push-and-pull will last for quite a while. The girls will all grow. 【Coming Soon】 Song Li first met Li Xunwen on her sixteenth birthday. After running away from home following a fight with her father, she nearly froze to death on the street. Li Xunwen found her and took her in. “Listen,” Song Li overheard a woman saying to Li Xunwen from behind the door. “You can barely take care of yourself as it is, and now you’ve gone and brought home some stranger whose background you know nothing about… You’d better dump her while you still can.” Through a crack in the door, Song Li watched Li Xunwen’s face disappear behind curling smoke, making her expression impossible to read. Song Li didn’t know whether that conversation had made Li Xunwen hesitate back then. All she knew was that, afterward, she spent a few of the happiest months of her short life with her. But that was all just what she believed. Much later, when she finally returned home, she thought she could stay in touch with Li Xunwen. But when she messaged her again, all she got was that bright red exclamation mark. “The other person has enabled friend verification. You are not her friend yet. Please send a friend request first.” She was close to falling apart. She called in almost every favor she could, wanting nothing more than to dig the woman out from wherever she was hiding. But Li Xunwen seemed to vanish into thin air, disappearing from the world without a trace. Song Li was devastated. From that moment on, she longed to run into Li Xunwen again. She imagined every kind of scene: painful, furious, confrontational, stern… But she never imagined that they would meet again on her seventeenth birthday. Her father, Song Zhuocheng, had rarely prepared any surprises for her as she grew up. Yet at her sixteenth birthday banquet, he confidently promised her she would love his present. As soon as he finished speaking, an elegant, gentle-looking woman stepped out from behind him and greeted Song Li with a smile. “From now on, she’ll be your mother,” Song Zhuocheng said with a smile. “Of course, if you’re not ready to call her that, you can start with ‘Auntie.’” Song Li looked at Li Xunwen, and the blood in her veins seemed to freeze on the spot. With a cold laugh, she took the welcoming gift offered to her and smashed it to pieces right there. “I don’t have a mother like you.” Song Li stared at her without expression. “Get out.” Later, Li Xunwen married into the family, and Song Li severed ties with Song Zhuocheng. “From now on, you’re no father of mine.” Song Li turned to Li Xunwen. “And I’ve never accepted you as my mother, either.” When Song Li said she wouldn’t acknowledge them, she meant it. She moved her household registration, relocated to another city, went to school, built a life, and changed her name. Back then, she never imagined that years later, after Song Zhuocheng passed away, she and Li Xunwen would have another connection. Years later, Song Li got drunk and called Li Xunwen’s name over and over. “Xunwen… Li Xunwen…” A glittering tear clung to the corner of her reddened eye. Li Xunwen lowered her gaze without expression and wiped it away. “You never loved my dad.” Li Xunwen gave a bored-sounding response and was about to continue what she was doing when Song Li caught her hand and pulled her down, pressing her close. Song Li went on, “Then… have you ever loved me?” “For a day, an hour, even just a minute?” 【Gentle-faced, cold-hearted, wicked Mommy X defiant, rebellious, flirtatious heartbreaker】 【Content Warnings】 1. Neither is pure. 2. Basically, it’s a wicked woman x a woman who falls for many. Neither of them may be a good person at all (). Don’t conflate the characters’ values with the author’s. 3. I’ve written too many wholesome stories and wanted something more exciting for a change. If it’s not your thing, please don’t flame me; just move along. This is a self-indulgent, write-what-I-want series. Theme: Those who never forget will eventually be answered.