You Should Be Held Tight

Ruan Zhizhi is a probationary journalist in A City, known for her fragile health and reliance on sweets to maintain her energy. Her life is defined by a five-year unrequited love for Li Sichen, a college classmate who accepted her devotion but refused to reciprocate romantically, keeping her in the ambiguous role of a best friend. While researching a cold case involving a child witness to parental murder, Ruan Zhizhi receives an unexpected gift from her best friend Gu Nian: a spot on a university-organized trip to Yunnan. The journey is intended as a restorative break, but it becomes the catalyst for a profound shift in her emotional landscape.

Upon arriving at the trip, Ruan Zhizhi encounters Shi Yan, a twenty-six-year-old psychology professor renowned for his brilliance and his cold, aloof demeanor. He is physically striking, with an air of languid danger that contrasts sharply with the cheerful and talkative Chen Jiayan, who accompanies him. From their first interaction in a café where Shi Yan purchases the last box of macarons, a tense dynamic emerges. On the tour bus, when Ruan Zhizhi suffers from low blood sugar, Shi Yan silently offers her a fruit candy, an act that marks the beginning of his attentive, albeit enigmatic, care. Throughout the journey, he consistently protects her from social pressures, such as drinking games in a Lijiang bar, where he consumes her penalties and gifts her a paper rose, signaling a departure from his usual indifference.

The trip serves as a crucible for Ruan Zhizhi’s healing. As she travels through the Stone Forest, Lijiang, and Shangri-La, Shi Yan’s actions grow increasingly intimate and protective. He lends her his scarf on Jade Dragon Snow Mountain to ward off the cold and buys her food when she forgets her wallet, insisting she eat. These gestures dismantle her defenses, forcing her to confront her growing attraction to him. Meanwhile, her feelings for Li Sichen begin to waver as she realizes the emptiness of her past devotion. Chen Jiayan, who harbors his own interest in Ruan Zhizhi, warns her about Shi Yan’s difficult nature, but Ruan Zhizhi finds herself drawn to the professor’s hidden vulnerability. She discovers his tattoo, a French phrase meaning "love is patient," and learns he suffers from depression, a secret that humanizes him and deepens her empathy.

A pivotal moment occurs when Shi Yan uses Ruan Zhizhi as a shield from the advances of another female traveler, Yan Rui, by standing close to her and whispering intimately. This act, though initially manipulative, reveals his possessiveness and interest. Later, on the flight back to A City, Shi Yan reveals that he has someone he likes and confidently states that she will one day marry him. Ruan Zhizhi interprets this as a general declaration rather than a specific promise to her, dismissing it as the fantasy of a lonely man. However, her heart is irrevocably changed; she acknowledges that Shi Yan has unsettled her stability in just five days.

Back in A City, the narrative shifts as Ruan Zhizhi returns to her routine, yet she is no longer the same woman. She continues her journalistic work, now with a renewed sense of self-worth. The story sets the stage for a new chapter where the power dynamics between Ruan Zhizhi and Shi Yan begin to reverse. While she initially viewed him as an untouchable figure, their interactions in Yunnan have established a connection that neither can ignore. The prologue’s mention of the child witness from the murder case hints at a deeper plot thread involving Ruan Zhizhi’s professional life, potentially intersecting with her personal journey. The narrative concludes with Ruan Zhizhi beginning to detach from Li Sichen, symbolized by her indifference to his return and her focus on her own well-being, while Shi Yan’s promise of a future together lingers as an unresolved tension that will drive the story forward.