Skip to main content

How Man and Woman can be Just Friends

Can a Man and a Woman Be Just Friends?

What Dear You Teaches Us About Love Intelligence

After my earlier article, many people asked:

"How could Nanzhi and Musheng remain such good friends without becoming lovers?"

Their relationship reveals one of the highest forms of Love Intelligence.

It was never built on romance. It was built on the 3Cs.

Care

Nanzhi genuinely cared about Musheng's wellbeing, his dreams, and most importantly, his family. Her care was selfless, it sought his happiness, not her own.

Courage

She had the courage to put aside her personal feelings. Even after Musheng's death, she quietly honoured his life's purpose by writing letters and sending remittances to Shurou for eighteen years. True courage is often silent.

Connection

Their friendship was founded on deep trust and mutual respect. Neither sought to possess the other. Instead, they protected what mattered most to one another.

That is why their friendship endured.

Love Intelligence teaches us that the deepest relationships are not always romantic. Sometimes, the purest expression of love is to help someone fulfil their purpose, while expecting nothing in return.

Nanzhi and Musheng remind us that a man and a woman can be just friends, when the relationship is grounded in Care, Courage, and Connection.

And perhaps that is why Dear You has touched millions of hearts.

It shows us that the greatest love is not always about being together.

Sometimes, it is about helping another person keep their promises, fulfil their responsibilities, and leave behind a legacy of love.

What do you think? Share your experiences about man and woman being just friends, not lovers.  

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What an Executive Coach and Business Coach Does

The Secret Under the Mattress: Why would a 79-year Man Bet So Big on 4D?

It was 2007 when we discovered his secret. While moving my father’s mattress, we found them: heaps and heaps of Singapore Pools 4D tickets. They were stacked in layers, a paper trail of lost hopes. What shocked us most wasn’t just the volume, but the stakes. He wasn’t betting a few dollars for fun. He was punting hundreds of dollars per draw—nearly ten times a month. At the time, my siblings and I were furious. Our father was a 79-year-old retiree. We wondered, with a mix of anger and confusion, why a man at his stage of life would need to win such "big money." What was he going to do with the money? We saw it as a reckless habit, a sign of poor judgment in his final years.  Some of us would say, "If I were to give him money to buy 4D, why don't I use the money and buy 4D myself?  At least I have better discipline".  It has taken me two decades, and the experience of raising my own three grown-up children, to finally see the truth that was hidden under that matt...

Head Bleeding when the Chair Falls

The Weight of Silence: What Were We Really Arguing About? My earliest memories are punctuated by the sound of shouting. In 1970, when I was barely 6 years old, I stood as a small witness to the fierce quarrels between my father and my late eldest brother Kah Yang (he passed away in 1971 at the age of 17). As I grew up, these contradictions became the soundtrack of our lives, usually centered around our family's shoe shop and clothing stalls in Chinatown. In the court of family opinion, the verdict was almost always the same: my father was "wrong." He was judged as a man who didn't fulfill his role, who wasn't "burdening" enough for the family’s success. But as I look back from the vantage point of 2026, I have to ask: Was that actually true? Let me finally put to rest what my father did right: the truths that were buried under decades of criticism: Unseen Labor: He worked grueling, long hours. I remember him hauling boxes of goods and equipment to set u...