When Will You Return to the Alley at Dusk?

At twenty-five, Xiao Qiang made a living as a photographer, drifting rootless from city to city. His days were shabby and barren, and he carried the unresolved regrets of his youth deep in his heart. Seeking somewhere stable to settle, he rented a small room in an old alley and became an equal-footing housemate with twenty-six-year-old Su Zhiwan. Both were ordinary people adrift far from home. Amid the daily bustle and late-night companionship, they warmed one another and quietly entrusted each other with their hearts. But his old flame, Xiang Wan, suddenly returned, while Xia Ran, whose love for him never wavered, continued to stand by him. Still immature, Xiao Qiang wavered and struggled to choose. Again and again, his cowardice, hesitation, greed, and fear led him to betray their kindness, leaving him burdened with irreparable debts of the heart. Only after old friends had parted and dust had settled did he awaken to the bitter truth: most encounters in life are ultimately meant to be missed. The late-night alley holds countless regrets, but only those destined to meet will find their way home. After sailing through a thousand storms, battered and bruised, he had only one person left: the one who had become his long-delayed, one-and-only place of rest.

This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.