A Burning Cycle of Love

[Main story complete, undergoing a full polish. Bonus chapters will be updated with the rankings]

Clear-headed and resilient x Deeply devoted and long-suffering

[Urban / rekindled romance / both leads have only loved each other / bittersweet slow burn]

1.

Years after their breakup,

Yu Qiao sees Jiang Shu again at the live bar where she sings.

After the performance, the owner calls Yu Qiao over and introduces them. "This is Jiang Shu, a well-known director and your schoolmate. Sit down and have a drink together."

Yu Qiao doesn't dare face him, so she makes an excuse. "I'm afraid I don't know Mr. Jiang."

Before the bar closes, she hurriedly makes her escape, only to be stopped by the man at the mouth of the alley.

Beneath the cool streetlights, his familiar face is cold and aloof.

His voice is icy and mocking. "You don't know me?"

"Then who was sitting in my arms back then, asking me to give us a try?"

When her lips begin to hurt, Yu Qiao vaguely remembers the freshman-year gala.

She jumped straight off the stage and, in front of the entire school, raised the microphone and asked him:

"Jiang Shu, will you be with me?"

2.

At university, Jiang Shu was refined and aloof, a self-possessed, untouchable beauty amid the noisy campus.

Though countless girls were smitten with him, he never gave them a second glance, let alone fell for anyone.

But Yu Qiao went and attached herself to him.

She was bright and passionate, and pursued him with bold abandon.

Everyone laughed at her for overestimating herself.

Until one day.

Someone saw the usually indifferent Jiang Shu pin Yu Qiao against the net around the court and kiss her deeply, as if he'd lost control.

They created things together, their names appeared on the same award lists, and they became the campus fairy tale everyone envied.

But it all ended just before graduation.

Yu Qiao coldly broke up with him. Seeing his bloodshot eyes, she smiled.

"I'm bored."

3.

Even years later, people still talk about their story.

Jiang Shu refused to properly inherit the family business and made a name for himself in the film industry.

Yu Qiao struggled for years, then suddenly became a top-tier star.

Their friends say that someone as distant and aloof as Jiang Shu, hurt as deeply as he was, must hate her so much he doesn't even want to hear her name.

But no one knows that late at night, in bed, he trembles as he kisses the person in his arms and asks over and over in a hoarse voice:

"Yu Qiao, can we start over?"

"Can I be the one to pursue you this time? If only you'll let me..."

Give me the right to love you.

*[Little Scene]*

The Baina Film Festival is a prestigious event that draws the world's attention.

When the Best Director award is announced, Jiang Shu's face, handsome enough to rival any movie star, appears on the screen, eliciting waves of gasps.

He takes the stage to accept his award, his gaze deep and intense as he looks toward someone in the crowd.

"Once, I thought these awards were the honor I was striving for."

"Only later did I understand that everything I did was simply so you would see me."

Under the live broadcast cameras, Jiang Shu strides back to the audience and drops to one knee.

"Yu Qiao, will you marry me?"

-

Reading notes [Content warnings]:

1. The blurb withholds information. There were other reasons for the breakup.

2. Dramatic and unrealistic, with no female rivalry, but the leads are emotionally tangled and terrible at communicating.

3. Contains some scenes of the male lead suffering physically and emotionally. Read with caution if that's not for you.

4. The characters are not based on real people. Information about their professions and illnesses comes from the internet and is only used to serve the plot. There is no discrimination, so please don't nitpick. Thank you!

My next book, The Stars I Can't Resist, will start during the Spring Festival. Please add it to your reading list!

Campus to city / casual relationship to committed couple / childhood sweethearts / male unrequited love

[Rebellious and unruly x Cool, scheming, and brilliant]

Wen Xingfan hates Pei Yuchen.

As a child, he was gentle and well-behaved, the ideal kid in every parent's eyes.

After starting middle school, his handsome, refined appearance and noble bearing made him the unspoken crush of every girl in school.

Only Wen Xingfan knows his true colors.

He loves playing tricks on people and is always meddling. It's bad enough that he won't let her date anyone in secret, but he won't even let her copy his homework!

Then, after the college entrance exam, Wen Xingfan's boyfriend at the time disappears without a word.

As she's nursing her heartbreak, Pei Yuchen comes over from next door and says coolly with a frown:

"Wen Xingfan, you need to improve your taste in men."

Furious, with old grudges compounded by new ones, she charges at him and they start wrestling.

Unexpectedly, their horseplay goes too far. Their bodies tangle together, their breaths mingling.

In her daze, Wen Xingfan sees his cool, clear eyes and sinks into a whirlpool of desire.

She thinks to herself:

So even Pei Yuchen, the most composed and self-controlled person in everyone else's eyes, can look like this.

-

As one of the most successful new names in tech in recent years, Pei Yuchen is reserved and polished, and famous for keeping himself chaste.

Countless women throw themselves at him, but not one manages to pluck this untouchable flower.

No one knows that the proud and aloof Pei Yuchen was someone's casual sex partner in college.

They spent four years together without a name or commitment.

Though they lived far apart, he went to Wen Xingfan's city every holiday.

They spent day and night tangled together, consumed by passion.

Wen Xingfan was bewitchingly alluring. When passion swept her away, she'd tell him she liked him.

Pei Yuchen knew she was playful and never took him seriously, but he was willing to go along with it, teaching her little by little how to love.

But in the end, she still dumped him without a backward glance.

-

Wen Xingfan had thought that she and Pei Yuchen would drift apart after graduation, as they went on to work and build their lives.

Until the day she accompanied her boyfriend to a business dinner.

Her boyfriend finally secured the crucial business partner and, in his excitement, had a few extra drinks.

Wen Xingfan takes her drunk boyfriend to a guest room upstairs and looks after him attentively.

As she leaves, the door to the next room suddenly opens. Before she can react, she's pulled inside

Pei Yuchen, who had just passed her by indifferently, now pins her behind the door, his dangerous presence drawing closer by the second.

"Wen Xingfan, how can you use the tenderness I taught you on someone else?"

"After all these years, why won't you look at me?"

"Why are you crying? You know I haven't even tried yet."

Note: The "boyfriend" is a disposable character. This is a childhood-sweethearts 1v1 romance!

*

First version: 2025.08.23

Second version: 2026.02.01

Theme: Never lose your courage