He stood by her for ten years, yet couldn't even say, "I love you."
Jiang Bei has intermittent aphasia. The more emotional he gets, the less he can speak.
When they were twelve, Gu Li said, "Your voice is like cicadas singing in summer. I wouldn't know what to do without it."
He believed her.
He sold his mother's keepsakes to raise money for her arts college entrance exams, but when he slipped her an envelope late at night, he lost his voice.
She mistook him for a coward. "Can't you even be bothered to explain?"
Ten years later, she was a famous singer, and he was the sound assistant at her studio.
He discovered that her new song had been plagiarized by her manager and tried to tell her the truth.
She stormed out, saying, "I hate it when you clam up at the worst possible moment."
He took the blame for her, then disappeared from town.
Two years later, she found him and tearfully apologized.
He wrote a note and handed it to her:
"I'm cured. It's just that when I'm facing you, I still can't speak."
It turns out the greatest distance in the world is when you can't hear my cicadas singing.
