At seventeen, Wu Xian returned to school after taking time off, struggling with loneliness and the feeling that everything was unfamiliar. During a routine health check, she happened to glance over and catch sight of Feng Chen, a boy on the volleyball team, smiling brightly in the sunlight. That moment of attraction began the grand, two-year-long secret crush she carried for him.
She had been the quietest shadow in the crowd, while he was the dazzling campus heartthrob. The distance from the fourth floor to the first was an encounter she carefully planned. The anonymous apple she gave him on Christmas Eve was an act of courage she didn’t dare sign her name to. The blurry profile in her photo album was the secret that held all of her youth. A hurried group photo at graduation and a twist of fate in their college entrance exam applications brought this unrequited crush to a quiet end, leaving behind only a handful of embers from her youth.
Ten years later, twenty-eight-year-old Wu Xian is a capable publishing editor. While preparing for a new book launch, she is surprised to discover that the author is Feng Chen, the boy from her memories. He is now a successful entrepreneur, dressed in a suit and exuding calm authority. His simple greeting, “Hello, Ms. Wu,” ushers in a reunion marked by the polite distance of adulthood.
Yet beneath the polite small talk, memories buried by time quietly awaken. He begins to remember how quiet she was, recognizes the anonymous apple, and sees the independent, mature woman standing before him. From tentative testing of the waters to an irresistible pull toward each other, ten years of missed time melt away with every exchanged glance.
When the embers of youth meet the morning light destiny had in store, those once-humble feelings will finally find an answer. Embers Stealing the Dawn is a heartfelt story of a long-held secret crush, the answers time brings, and destiny’s favor, following two souls as they move from being out of step to finding harmony.
"This is the epitome of my high school days!" - A strong sense of empathy and resonance When I read Wu Xian's description of "feeling like a stone thrown into a stream by mistake", my heart was slightly hit. Your portrayal of her alienation and loneliness after returning to school is so accurate. That kind of atmosphere where the surrounding people are noisy but has nothing to do with you, that kind of loneliness that is clearer among the crowd, is an experience that almost everyone who has experienced transferring schools, dropping out of school, or simply having a sensitive heart has experienced. This kind of delicate psychological description allowed me to instantly enter Wu Xian's perspective. I felt her uneasiness and caution.