“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
Just like what Zhang Liang said, he didn't take a long time to take a bath. He returned back while wearing a light blue shirt with his hair slightly damp. From the way it looked like, he didn't bother to comb it properly and just used his fingers to keep them in their places.
'He's more handsome.'
Feng Mian bit her lower lips and averted her eyes. It was so unfair! How come he can look so handsome even though he had just finished taking a bath? He didn't even dress up!
While Feng Mian was tending her wounded heart, Zhang Liang sat down. He looked at the plates and chopsticks, which was arranged a bit different from how Chef Lu usually did it. He knew because Chef Lu was astonishingly very perfectionist and would always place it in the same place. Not even one millimeter off.
"Let's eat."
"Yes."
Feng Mian watched as Zhang Liang took the chicken to her plate. She looked at him in confusion, but he merely stared back at her with a calm expression. "Just eat."
"Oh… Okay."
'He's truly different today.'
Feng Mian couldn't pinpoint what was different from Zhang Liang, but he looked like he was trying to act good to her. Even though she didn't understand, Feng Mian decided to play along. She pointed to the chicken in the pot.
"Do you want some too?"
"Sure."
Seeing his calm expression, Feng Mian truly didn't know what was in his mind. She sighed internally and used her chopsticks to pick some of the chicken meat for him. Just like that, the two of them exchanged the food. The same process happened even when it was the vegetable.
On the side, Butler Lou was watching while blinking his eyes. He already sensed that there was something different from Zhang Liang, but he didn't expect him to act so good to Feng Mian. After all, this is his house. No one would say anything even if he kept his distance from her because the servant would never speak about it to anyone.
When she was finished, Feng Mian felt satisfied. Aside from Zhang Liang's somewhat weird attitude, the food was very good.
"Would you like water or milk, Madam?" Butler Lou asked. When it was dinner, Feng Mian sometimes asked for warm strawberry milk aside from water.
"Both, please."
"I understand."
Feng Mian looked at Zhang Liang, who was wiping his mouth after he drank. He looked back at Feng Mian. "Come to my room later."
"Bedroom?"
"My workroom."
Once again, Feng Mian blinked her eyes in confusion. Yep, President Zhang didn't act like himself today. Or there might be something else he wanted from her today? She was not too sure.
After drinking her milk and water, Feng Mian followed Zhang Liang to his workroom. For the past month, Feng Mian had never entered this room because Zhang Liang instructed her not to. Well, she was being obedient by only visiting the living room, dining room, her studio, bedroom, and bathroom. Aside from those five, she didn't enter any of the other rooms.
Zhang Liang's workroom was filled with book racks with one table, chair and sofa. There were several pictures on the wall, which she recognized as Zhang Liang's family members.
"You can sit on the sofa."
"Ok."
Zhang Liang took out the documents from his bag and sorted a bit before pulling a few of them. He sat beside Feng Mian and showed the pictures on the document. "Which one do you like the most?"
Feng Mian's eyes lit up when she saw the chocolate design on the picture. It must be the new design for the Valentine Project that the company had been working on so far.
"Wait, am I allowed to see this?"
"You'll see it soon enough when it's already accepted."
"Right…" Feng Mian chose not to pay much attention as she looked at the pictures. In the first one, it was heart shaped with flower decoration at the edge, which must have been hard to make. The second one was also heart shaped, but there was a short message in the middle. It seemed that they were thinking of writing messages there, but hadn't particularly decided which one would be the best.
"It looks beautiful."
Zhang Liang nodded. He knew that because he had seen the picture. "if you have a boyfriend, which one do you want to give?"
Hearing that, Feng Mian froze for a moment. She never had a boyfriend, but it didn't mean that she never thought about it. Looking at the chocolate pictures, she was not sure which one she would choose. It was good and all, but she would find it embarrassing to give a man chocolate with flowery design. As for messages, she would want to make her own personalized message rather than something the company had standardized.
"I think, neither?"
"Reason."
"Well, I don't think flowers will suit well for men. If it's White Day,* it might be a different story. As for messages, I think that making it a frame and adding message would be good, but the size of the chocolate needs to be big to add a message there. Also, rather than having standardized messages from the company, I would rather make my own message," Feng Mian explained.
She looked at Zhang Liang's face, feeling a bit nervous. "That's… my opinion, President."
…
(A/N): Sora's Corner: White Day
Not every country celebrates this day, but it usually occurs on March 14. At that time, the boys usually give the girls who give them chocolate some kind of biscuit or other sweets. It was white chocolate back when it first started in Japan in 1978, which then became popularized as the day to reciprocate Valentine's Day. Now, it could be many forms of sweets.
Note: No Sora's Corner for Valentine Day because I believe that many of you already know that day.