Picture collage with courtesy of five-blossom.

Before I start reading the first page, I thought the heroine's name will be Jasmine, since the cover said so. But it wasn't, and her name is Dou Qing Mu; and she loves the smell of Jasmine (ah...that explains it).

Qing Mu lost her mother when she was young; her father remarried but her new stepmother despises her, thinking she is nothing but dirt getting in her new life. Although the stepmother has a daughter from her previous marriage, Qing Mu is glad that Zhi Lin is nothing like her mother. They share food and secrets, goes to school together, until Zhi Lin tells her she likes a boy in school.

Qing Mu likes Xia Yi Ye too, but she knows they are worlds apart as he is the 'golden boy' in school - with his good looks and excel in his studies, while she is a plain looking girl with a stammering problem. Yi Ye knows Qing Mu one day while he went to her 'rescue' as she is being teased by their schoolmates; and they became friends. Yi Ye enjoys being with Qing Mu, as she is different from other girls he knows in school. But when he tries to get close to Qing Mu, she keeps a distance from him because she knows Zhi Lin likes him.

Years passed. Zhi Lin marries another man and Qing Mu is no longer a shy girl and is able to speak fluently after surgery. She now owns a spa and top model Xiao Qin is her regular client. They became good friends; Xiao Qin will share her love life with Qing Mu, that her boyfriend is a well-known screenwriter and seldom spend time with her. Thus to get him to notice her, she asks for a breakup which he agrees without hesitation. Xiao Qin then tells him she meant it as a joke, and that he needs a break from his hectic job. She gives him the address of the spa she frequents, hoping he is just tired and will change his mind.

Yi Ye is tired of his girlfriend's charade, but he visits the spa out of curiousity but never expect this visit will take him to his childhood's love embrace. Qing Mu is equally shocked to see him, but never know he is the boyfriend of her regular client as Yi Ye doesn't want their newly found love be affected by his work and his past relationship. They live happily for a while, until the truth lets out in the end. Heartbroken and feeling deceived, she left.

Yi Ye then returns his attention to his work, hoping it would make him stop thinking of Qing Mu. But tragedy strikes as Yi Ye's co-worker (also a screenwriter) is jealous of his popularity and he struck Yi Ye's head with a metal bin. Fearing he might become a vegetable, Xiao Qin leaves him for another man. Qing Mu knows of Yi Ye's accident and sits by his bedside consistently and tells him about their lives - beginning from their childhood memories, hoping Yi Ye will regain consciousness.

Xiao Qin is touched by Qing Mu's gesture, and knows she would never be the woman in Yi Ye's heart. Qing Mu vows she would not leave Yi Ye, even if he would never be up and well again.

Since this is a romance story, you might have guessed what would happen in the end. Though the plot isn't new, I am still touched by the author's superb writing skills.