In the End, We Almost Made It

Name: In the End, We Almost Made It
Author: Only After a Thousand Crossings Do You Find the Fragrant Heng

我们终究差一点

by Only After a Thousand Crossings Do You Find the Fragrant Heng (千渡之后方见蘅香)

Status: Completed
Length: 115k Words
Genre: Modern Romance
Subgenre: Period Fiction
Updated: 6mo ago
Source: Fanqie

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Synopsis

At thirteen, Ling Yue wore her red yarn in braids and watched over the braised meat stall at the mouth of the alley. There she met Qing Hao, a slender boy who came by to eat all the time. Their feelings showed in their eyes, and their concern for each other found its way into letters. She thought this was the start of a lifelong love, but one parting severed all their ties.

In the decades that followed, she settled in Nancheng, found a kind man in Song Ci, raised their daughter Song Nian, and tended a pomegranate tree that bloomed every year, burying those innocent days deep in her heart. He put down roots in Beihua, married the virtuous Ru Fang, and raised their son Nianbei to adulthood. He kept her letters and photographs for the rest of his life, never forgetting her despite the mountains and seas between them.

They crossed paths several times over the course of their lives, coming within arm's reach but never meeting. From dark hair to white, from the flutter of first love to the twilight of old age, they never got the long-delayed reunion they might have had. Yet neither wasted the years. They loved the people beside them wholeheartedly and lived their lives with purpose, turning unspoken regrets into the tenderest memories in their hearts.

Only when a final letter from old age and an iron box engraved with pomegranate blossoms traveled a thousand miles into the hands of an old friend did that story, sealed away for seventy years, finally come to an end. It turned out the most moving bond was never about staying together until old age. It was about meeting you and warming my entire youth. Even if we never meet again in this life, finding happiness in our own ways is the best ending of all.

This is a tender story hidden in the everyday bustle of life. There is no heartrending love or hate, only a quiet, enduring longing. It is for everyone who has carried regrets in their heart yet kept on living earnestly.

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41Chapters

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152Reads · all time

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