A Bird Carries Off Half the Summer Moon

Because Ying Yao spent her childhood studying under intense pressure, she consistently ranked first in the entire city. But after an accident, her grades plummeted. Her parents’ punishment, combined with the grief of losing someone, triggered a sudden bout of depression. Frightened by her symptoms and giving up on her, her parents sent her away to a small town.

They first met beneath the eaves of a house in town. Song Tingmo saw a girl crouching miserably on the ground, her skirt soaked by the rain, with a stray cat beside her. He stopped, casually handed her the black umbrella he was holding, then walked into the rain without looking back. “Go home soon.”

The second time they met, she walked into his tattoo shop and asked for a flying bird tattoo.

“It’s you. Are you old enough?”

“I’m eighteen.”

“Where’s your ID?”

“I didn’t bring it… Wait, do you need an ID just to get a tattoo?”

“Other people don’t, but you do.”

That summer, the sign above the tattoo shop changed from “Mo” to “Mingyue.” Two people who had fallen into the abyss saved each other and became each other’s moon.

Long after summer ended, Ying Yao would always remember the boy in black standing in the rain that year. He dazzled her entire youth, and in the end, fell into her arms.