When they were eighteen, Yan Shixing and Xia Yuyu’s love meant more than anything. He was the star she could see whenever she looked up, and she was the only constellation and fish he held in his arms.
Yan Shixing and Xia Yuyu had grown up together, childhood sweethearts.
He was the most dazzling young man in the capital’s social circles, with features sharp as a blade and eyes like cold stars. She was a beauty in everyone’s eyes, her almond-shaped eyes full of feeling, her smile so radiant even the moonlight paled beside it.
Everyone thought they would marry, grow old together, and stay this happy for the rest of their lives.
But when he was twenty-one, someone new appeared at his side. He began avoiding her and treating her coldly. When she chased after him, he said the cruelest things. She asked through tears why. His whole body trembled, his lips bitten bloody, but all he could force out was, “I don’t love you anymore.”
She didn’t know the truth: he still loved her, but he no longer dared to. A woman named Lin Yuan had used some kind of power to control him. Whenever he felt something for Xia Yuyu, agonizing pain wracked his body and he could barely move. He wanted to explain, but couldn’t speak. He wanted to go to her, but couldn’t take a step. All he could do was watch himself carve her heart to pieces, one cut at a time.
Three years. She went from waiting in heartbreak to feeling nothing at all.
The day the truth came out, he broke free of his restraints and rushed to her. But someone else was already by her side.
“Yan Shixing, it’s too late.”
He knelt before her, tears streaming down his face. A thousand words were stuck in his throat, but in the end, only a sentence as light as the wind escaped him:
“Little Fish, Little Fish, swim along. You’re free to go in every direction.”
She turned and walked away without looking back.
The star returned to the heavens, and the fish stayed in the sea. That sea would never shine again.
