The Wind Passes Through the Northwest, Never to Part

[Two female leads, road-trip story, devoted romance, healing everyday life, sweet bedtime bites, short story. Yes, a very heartwarming tale.] Gu Qiaotai spent the first thirty years of her life living what looked like a “perfect life” according to all the right answers. Then the younger man she had personally mentored smeared her with accusations of “stealing trade secrets,” leaving her in a humiliating mess. After proving her innocence, she saw how the glittering world fawned on the powerful and looked down on the fallen, and decisively cut all ties with her past. She bought an off-road vehicle and drove alone toward the vast northwest. Here, there were no KPIs or performance targets, only howling winds, endless seas of sand, and a brilliant starry sky spilling across the heavens. Along the way, she met Lin Guxiao. Riding a bicycle, the woman smiled more brightly than the sun, like a gust of freedom. She taught Gu Qiaotai to recognize the paths of the stars and helped her embrace the simplest local customs. On nights when nightmares about the past jolted her awake, she offered a silent yet steadfast presence. From a small act of kindness when they first met, to standing together in a sandstorm, to countless days and nights traveling side by side, two lonely souls gradually drew closer beneath the vast sky. The road began with a resolute escape and ended in a healing journey that led her back to her own heart. What she gained was not only the freedom she had long missed, but also someone who would watch every sunrise and sunset of the rest of her life by her side. (The author has never been to the northwest. All the descriptions are based on imagination and the internet, and the specific locations are made up. But I really do yearn to visit the northwest, okay? QAQ)