I've Only Seen My Moonlight Seven Times

Originally titled Blue and White Porcelain

[First person + realistic fiction + secret crush + reunion after years apart + bittersweet beauty]

“I spent my whole life learning how to say goodbye to you properly.”

On January 21, 2000, twelve-year-old Yan Qiu met a boy just as lonely as she was in a drafty hospital corridor. From then on, she secretly called him her “Friend Number One.”

Over the years, her life seemed to repeat the same exercise: she kept drawing closer to the sun named Wang Jingyan, only to face one kind of separation after another.

She thought every story had to end one of two ways: either the two people ended up together, or they forgot each other and went their separate ways.

But Wang Jingyan taught her a third answer: some encounters help you become a better version of yourself, and some goodbyes are a deeper kind of devotion than love.

He was like the silent shadow of a mountain, guiding her through the gloom of illness, the insecurities of youth, and the drifting of life far from home. Then, just as she wanted to stay by his side, his terminal illness led him to wrap the last of his warmth around her before calmly walking toward his fate.

“Please don’t call what happened between Wang Jingyan and me a simple story about a secret crush! That’s far too clichéd. He was a wonderful teacher from Qinghe. As he taught me to love everything in the world, he also taught me about the weight of death and fate.”

Finally, thank you for opening my story. It warmed my heart, and I hope it warmed yours too.