[Main Story Complete]
The boy Du Wei moved to the end of her alley like a wildfire crashing into her winter.
He saw her as his deskmate, his teammate, the "slowpoke in front of me" he had to protect.
"Is the Qiu in your name the autumn where every tree wears autumn colors?"
She saw him as a secret, a faith, the one moon she dared to love in secret.
From the age of twelve to twenty, she followed the boy, their shadows overlapping for eight years. Her love was quietly sweet, yet so deep she couldn't pull herself free.
In her first impulsive moment, she wrote her unrequited love into a lifetime.
That draft was locked away in her notes forever.
A few days later, she deleted her regret and replaced it with a much-liked line of poetry:
"Every tree wears autumn colors; every mountain holds only the setting sun."
No matter how glorious the autumn colors, they could not reach the shadows in her heart.
Later, Du Wei got married.
The bride was not her.
On the night of the wedding, she sat in the farthest corner, smiling as she raised her glass, then weeping as she walked out.
She posted just one line on her social feed:
"The mountains recede with the open plain; the river flows into the vast wilderness."
The mountains were gone, and the river had flowed far away. From then on, she and her boy were separated by a sea of people, with no boat to bring them home.
At the end of the story:
Du Wei left with his wife, while Jiang Qiu stayed in the old alley.
They never saw each other again, and never said goodbye.
