Our Shared Playlist

Everyone has a shared playlist from their youth, and someone who understands every note they add.

The friendship between Su Xiao and Xia Ran lived in a playlist packed with over a hundred songs. They had been inseparable in college, but after graduation, one drifted north to Beijing and the other west to Chengdu. Distance and busy lives weakened their connection, and dust settled over the playlist.

Amid Beijing’s steel jungle, Su Xiao is suffocated by work and battered by her coworkers’ hostility. In a moment of late-night despair, she opens the long-neglected playlist and finds a song added three days ago: “Darling, That’s Not Love.”

The note is in Xia Ran’s handwriting: “Su Xiao, I’m guessing you haven’t been happy lately... Don’t lose heart. Every life has its cracks, and that’s where the light gets in. If you’re hurting, call me. I’m always here.”

The instant the call connects, the strength adults have been pretending to possess comes crashing down. The person you thought you’d lost touch with has actually been quietly looking out for you in her own way all along, seeing through every brave front you put up.

This is a story about leaving and coming back, about being healed and finding yourself. When life is a complete mess, luckily, I still have you.