Sweet Dreams

# A kind, accomplished goldfish who doesn’t know her own worth catches a glimpse of the sun

A roguishly handsome, proud boy & a cool, steadfast girl

* Small-town school life, healing and gentle, a slow-burn coming-of-age story

Sixteen-year-old Li Shuyue squeezes her eyes shut. In her dream, she stands on an awards podium beneath the spotlights, surrounded by lovely pink flowers and the admiring gazes of teachers and classmates.

The figure of someone in the audience fades from view. Applause rises, hiding Li Shuyue’s sobs.

A little boy holding a certificate steals a glance at her, but she never turns around.

Seventeen-year-old Zhou Yu ruthlessly breaks up a pair of goldfish and keeps the ugliest one for himself, caring for it with the utmost tenderness.

Apart from studying, playing, and bickering with his younger brother, he spends every day watching the goldfish in the tank by the window.

He has never been this afraid.

What will he do if the goldfish dies?

He has long been trapped in the fish tank, unable to move.

Years later, Li Shuyue receives a thick diary with no sender’s name or address.

At the center of the title page, a grid frames a string of numbers: the exact date she and Zhou Yu chose for their wedding.

- “She’s a gentle, unhurried goldfish. She likes hugs, she’s quiet, and she likes to smile. Only in her most painful moments does she turn her back on everyone.”

- “Avoiding your gaze.”

The last page of the diary is covered in black ink, faded and blurred with time.

- “I’m willing to be Li Shuyue’s goldfish, kept in a tank, there to protect her.”

* “No one knew that on some day when the sunset drenched the sky, they had already lit up each other’s worlds.”