Lin Xi, a freshman in the design department, has a secret: she’s in an online relationship with a netizen called “Nightlight.”
This coding genius helps her deal with unreasonable clients and sends her warm milk when she stays up late working on designs. They’ve exchanged nine hundred and ninety-nine pages of messages, yet have never seen each other. They agreed to meet in person once the semester began.
The day Lin Xi arrives at Xinghua University with her suitcase, the gray rabbit charm on her canvas bag swings back and forth. Hidden inside its ear is an embroidered lantern made just for him. She grumbles to her phone that all the guys in the computer science department probably wear thick glasses, then turns around and crashes into a white shirt in the library.
The young man bends down to pick up her scattered sketches. A hand-drawn lantern sticker swings from his backpack, identical to the one she mailed him. His fingers are long and knuckled, a mole clearly visible on his index finger. Even his voice matches the “Watch out” she heard at the high-speed rail station.
“Your drawing...” He looks up, and Lin Xi suddenly remembers their conversation the night before.
[Tree by the Stream]: I heard Xing University gets a shower of osmanthus blossoms in autumn.
[Nightlight]: Mm. Just wait until you see it for yourself.
Their online connection had been foreshadowed all along. When code meets paint, and a streetlamp meets a tree, the answer to a secret crush kept hidden for one hundred and eighty-three days will finally be revealed amid falling osmanthus blossoms.
“Can you tell me your name now, Nightlight?”
“Jiang Yi.” He taps the lantern sticker with his fingertip. “And I don’t wear glasses.”
This long-awaited meeting is just waiting for a shower of osmanthus blossoms to bear witness.
Well written, the emotions are very delicate