Unopened Old Times

When Ruan Zhixi drags her suitcase into the shared apartment, all she can think about is Su Yulin's back as he boarded his flight. He was the beloved first love her family schemed to send away, the one she'd cherished throughout her youth. As for Sheng Xucheng, the man waiting across the hall who was engaged to her, he was just a blurry face in an old photograph, and not someone she cared about.

She doesn't know that the moment Sheng Xucheng sees her, the little girl who used to chase after him, calling him “big brother,” comes sharply back to life in his memory. He has waited for her for years: since the day she hid behind her family and stopped talking to him, and through every Spring Festival after her family moved away, when the old house no longer echoed with her laughter.

Their days living together are like a cup of warm water, slowly thawing the ice between them. He remembers that she doesn't eat cilantro, leaves a light on when she stays up late, and tosses her his coat on stormy days. She discovers the thoughtfulness beneath his cool exterior. When he clumsily takes care of her while she's sick, she seems to hear a voice inside whisper, “Maybe things are different now.”

As Su Yulin's messages from overseas grow more distant, and the teddy-bear keychain with a broken-off corner unexpectedly reappears, Ruan Zhixi finally realizes that some people were never forgotten. She simply took a little too long to see the person beside her, the one who pretended to dislike her but had waited through her entire youth.

“Sheng Xucheng,” she finally says, turning around. “Was it annoying when I used to run after you as a kid?”

He looks at her, years of hidden tenderness surging in his eyes. “No. I just waited too long for you to turn around.”

A marriage arranged for convenience becomes a long-overdue love story, with both of them choosing each other. It turns out the best fate isn't a youthful obsession. It's waking up one day and realizing the right person has been by your side all along.