Your Tenderness Outshines the Starlight

September sunlight filters through the leaves of the plane trees, casting dappled shadows across the concrete in front of the teaching building. The first day of school at Nancheng No. 1 High School is always especially lively. New students line up in a long queue at the gate, hauling their suitcases, while their parents follow behind, their faces full of anticipation and reluctance to part. Lin Yi walks through the crowd with his head down, carrying a backpack faded from countless washes. He is 178 centimeters tall and slim, with black-framed glasses. He looks like an utterly ordinary senior in high school. In fact, he's been studying at Nancheng No. 1 High School for two years, and he's always been the kind of student whose name teachers can't recall and whose face classmates can't remember. This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.