"A stirring heart is an unresolved tide. Drowning in her eyes, I lose all sense of how to advance or retreat."
[Older woman-younger man romance | rekindled love | marriage first, love later | bittersweet push and pull]
Zhou Jiyue x Ji Jingming
Heartless x hopeless romantic | cold, teasing flirt x stubbornly devoted
Blurb:
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A month after breaking up with her ex-boyfriend, Zhou Jiyue met a man by chance at the hospital.
Ji Jingming, 185 cm tall, a doctor, with soft, neatly combed hair and clean, refined features. Most striking of all were his beautiful petal-shaped lips. He looked like he would be very good to kiss.
In matters of love, Zhou Jiyue was always the one in control.
Flirting with Ji Jingming was nothing more than a casual game to amuse herself during a dry spell.
Nobody expected Zhou Jiyue to keep the game going for two whole years.
Everyone thought she had finally settled down. Only Ji Jingming knew she had never loved him.
Still, he was content to stay in this unequal relationship, imagining a thousand possible ways it might end. The one thing he never expected was to receive a cold text at the end:
Zhou Jiyue: "Let's break up."
No preamble, no explanation. She simply ended it.
-
Four years apart.
Zhou Jiyue never imagined she would run into Ji Jingming again at a blind date dinner.
Across the table, the man had shed his youthful softness, his features now sharp and aloof. His once tender eyes held nothing but cool indifference.
Their eyes met. Ji Jingming said flatly, "Want to get married? To me."
Just like her casual words to him years ago: "Want to date? Me?"
Cold and emotionless.
Zhou Jiyue had no intention of getting entangled with him again, so she turned him down without hesitation.
But the man seemed to be going out of his way to get under her skin, showing up in front of her again and again.
Zhou Jiyue knew all too well how much Ji Jingming had loved her back then. Even knowing that after all these years, everything had changed, she still asked, "You don't still love me, do you?"
Her tone was teasing, just like before.
After a brief silence,
the man lowered his head and gave a cold laugh. "Zhou Jiyue, once was stupid enough."
"Besides, it's precisely because I don't love you that I chose you."
-
To appease her family, Zhou Jiyue eventually agreed.
They soon got their marriage license. Their life together afterward was no different from that of strangers, if anything, even more distant.
Until one late night.
Zhou Jiyue got blind drunk, pinned Ji Jingming against the wall, and kissed him without warning.
Everyone knew Ji Jingming had been utterly shattered back then and would never make the same mistake twice.
Only he knew the truth.
From the first time they met to their reunion, whenever Zhou Jiyue appeared, he still fell hopelessly in love with her. He willingly sank into this perilous infatuation, this drowning named after her.
Just before he lost all control, Ji Jingming pushed her away.
Most of the drunken haze had cleared.
Zhou Jiyue lifted her lashes and, through her blurred vision, saw the red, damp corners of his eyes.
Ji Jingming's voice was hoarse as he mocked her, one word at a time:
"Zhou Jiyue."
"Am I really someone you can toy with until I die?"
[Reading Guide]
1. HE, both are virgins. The male lead belongs to the female lead in body and soul from beginning to end. The female lead has had an ex, but they never slept together. Readers bothered by a complicated romantic past should proceed with caution.
2. An unconventional marriage-first, love-later story.
3. A mix of sweet and bitter. They say hurtful things to each other.
4. Before they get back together, their relationship can be summed up in two words: friends with benefits.
Theme: Love begins in an instant, but the drowning lasts for years.
