The Wind Blows Away the Past

[BL + sweet romance + no angst + urban + devoted protector + outwardly harmless, secretly ruthless]

3 a.m.

Zhuo Ning comes home from working late and, in the dark, runs into a man carrying a feverish child on his back.

He steps aside to let her pass. She lowers her head and walks by.

They don’t speak, but the moment their eyes meet, they both freeze.

It feels strange.

Like two people who have been walking through the dark for too long suddenly seeing a shadow just like their own.

Both are wounded. Both are used to silence. Both are like stray dogs the world abandoned, who picked themselves back up anyway.

They meet again on a rainy night and exchange names.

“Ji Tingchen.”

“Ting, as in listen; Chen, as in subject.”

“Zhuo Ning.”

“Zhuo, as in outstanding; Ning, as in peace.”

One evening, they sit by the river.

She asks, “Do you believe in fate?”

He says, “I don’t. If it really exists, it’s too cruel.”

Later, they get together.

Later, she gets a chance to leave the town. He tells her to go, saying she is an eagle and he is willing to be the wind beneath her wings.

On the day she leaves, as he watches her plane fly away, he doesn’t know what he is or where the future will lead.

He could be the wind that lifts her up, the nest that watches over her, or the tree on the ground that looks up at her and takes pride in her.

What he needs to do now isn’t make her give everything up and come back. It’s to work hard to keep up with her, and become someone who can stand by her side.

Three years later, she returns.

Without telling anyone, she hopes to surprise him.

She opens the door and sees him in the living room, bracing himself on the armrests of his wheelchair as he struggles to move toward the sofa.

He looks up and freezes.

He speaks first, his voice hoarse. “You’re back?”