“Give me one year of your life and I’ll give you the money you need.” Feng Mian is a normal and down to earth modern woman. She just wanted an ordinary life, an ordinary job and find an ordinary man to marry in the future. (Yes, all should be ordinary). But when family matters took a turn for the worst, she faced a huge dilemma called shortage of money. Suddenly, a contract came due to a series of coincidences. Zhang Liang was fed up with his father's (yes, father not mother) matchmaking schemes for him. He wanted to have a peaceful year because this was his chance to expand his business overseas, yet his father didn’t seem to get the message. When an ordinary fresh graduate employee in his company accidentally saw a scene, he decided to take the chance. “Since she has a normal background with nothing remarkable, nothing should go wrong, right?” Browsing through the contract, Feng Mian gritted her teeth. 'Fine. It was just one year of my life anyway. I wouldn't lose a lot.' But was it true? Or would that one year turn out to be a ride full of ups and down for both of them? ... Story set in modern era in fictional country. This story is purely fiction, any similarities with real life's event is purely coincidence. Special thanks for CatarinaM2811 for making the cover Word count: 900-1800 words/chapter Discord: https://discord.gg/pBy2wGB ... Thorough the Years' Series: 1. 1 Year of Beginning [complete] 2. 2 Years of Restarting [complete] 3. -Work in Progress- 4. -Work in Progress- 5. -Work in Progress- 6. -Work in Progress- 7. -Work in Progress- The series are all STANDALONE, meaning you don't have to read the other series in order to be able to follow this story. You can just read one and you still didn't lose anything. Each of the series have different main leads but they all happen in the same universe (and similar timeline, some are overlapping but mostly not) ... Other novels: -Flowers Bloom from Battlefield [complete] - Under the Veil of Night [complete] - 7 Path of the Lilies [on long hiatus] - Villain Lady [complete] - Science and Fantasy [complete] - Forgotten Legend of the Bloodied Flower [on going] - The Quiet Empress [on going] ... Note for those who read Sorahana's other novels: This novel took a different approach compared to my other novels because it focused heavily on romance and also in main lead's perspective. follow me on IG: @sora100518
Zhang Liang nodded. He had seen the report those developers gave to him when he received the design. The men didn't find it weird, but the women seemed a bit uncomfortable with this proposal. They hadn't told him the details yet because the meeting would be tomorrow. After all, it was already past the work time when they submitted the report.
Since he had already forced them to work overtime two days in the row, he allowed them to return back today.
"There are more pictures in different papers."
"Oh."
Feng Mian flipped the paper. She could see a picture of a chocolate container filled with several round chocolates. There was a faint description about almond and caramel at the side, but the shape of the chocolate was similar to a ball, a football ball to be exact without any of the pattern.
"This?"
"One of them said that it'll be better to prepare chocolates that you can share together because Valentine Day is meant for couples. Even though there's White Day, this concept of sharing chocolate is something sweet," Zhang Liang explained.
In his opinion, all worked as long as they could make different types of chocolates. He had been experimenting with his brother about some new types to make a variety of tastes. After all, what he wanted the most was to make a newfound recipe of the sweets, which was not easy.
Feng Mian blinked her eyes. She looked at the chocolate pictures. To be honest, she liked it much better if it was like this.
"I like it. Probably, the container will be the one to decide."
"That'll be your team's work later."
"Right."
"There'll be testing time later because this is a new combination with different proportions." Zhang Liang pointed to the picture. "We're still also discussing what kind of chocolate is the best."
Feng Mian nodded. She returned back to the previous paper. "If it's like this, I think it's normally what a girl would try to make by themselves. At that time, we're just going to buy a chunk of chocolate then melt it to form the shape according to what we want."
"I see."
"Have you never got any chocolate?"
"I have, but I never opened any of them and just handed it all to Xiao Ai."
Feng Mian: "…" poor girls.
Considering how Zhang Liang has been so stuck up to work all this time, she could say for sure that those girls who tried to hit on Zhang Liang has their work in vain. He would not bother to even receive those chocolates.
"What about last year's Valentine Project?"
"There's no time to make a new one, so we just changed the wrap to make it suitable. We choose the sweet one that has been famous," Zhang Liang replied. "Didn't you already know it?"
"I only learned about the design." Feng Mian only received the report of the design and not the chocolate itself, so she didn't know that it was actually an old product. Well, it was common for companies to use old products again if it was successful but they changed the wrapping to suit the needs.
"It'll be different this time, which is why we're still in a mess."
Feng Mian nodded. She had heard from Yu Yan about how they could not decide soon. Looking at the chocolate, Feng Mian herself was not totally sure whether she would be able to help. She could only melt chocolate to make a different form but if it came to make a new recipe… that would be impossible.
"I wonder about the taste."
"I'll let you taste it after we have decided," Zhang Liang said lightly as he put the papers away.
Feng Mian's eyes widened in surprise. A bright smile was formed on her lips. "Really?"
"Yes."
"Yay! I mean, thank you very much!"
Looking at Feng Mian trying to keep her composure, Zhang Liang felt like he was looking at a cute little bunny. Today, he had just found out that there were so many sides that Feng Mian originally wouldn't show him.
Feng Mian's face flushed. She liked sweets, which was the obvious reason why she included his company in the list of companies for her internship. Even though she only ended up in a trivial position that didn't have much importance, Feng Mian still felt happy.
After all, she could enter the biggest sweet company in this country. Even if it was just the branch, it was already an achievement for her.
"Do you like chocolate?"
"Yes!" Feng Mian responded almost instinctively. Her eyes widened when she realized that she was acting inappropriate, so she quickly averted her eyes and coughed. "I mean, yes, I do."
"There's no need to be so formal." Zhang Liang chuckled.
Seeing him laugh like that, Feng Mian was stunned. He looked far more handsome that way. She quickly averted her eyes while her mind was screaming for her heart to calm down. If this continued, she would die because of a heart attack thanks to a certain handsome president.
"What makes you like the sweet from this company? Is it because it's already famous?"
"Well, it's actually because of a childish reason," Feng Mian trailed off at her words. She felt a bit embarrassed when she thought about it.
Zhang Liang arched his eyebrows. "Do tell. I won't laugh."