In the end, they really did shine in their respective fields:
She published in Nature, and he published in PRL.
The trending topic on Weibo said: “The Barcode Couple: What a heartbreaking missed connection.”
But only they knew the truth:
The bottle cap printed with the four characters “Yuanxi Liangpi”
still couldn't scan a single sentence:
“I love you.”
Years later, Xia Yuanxi was photographing the stars in the desert when an artificial satellite crossed into her shot, shining so brightly it hurt her eyes. She suddenly remembered that bottle cap printed with the four characters “Liangpi” from Jiangcheng No. 1 High School. Back then, she had drawn three little stars on the cap and handed it to a deaf boy.
He had given her a barcode in return: 0001: Stay away from me. But she came closer anyway, and stayed close for the rest of their youth.
