In the steam rising from the bun shop in Qingquan Town, Shen Hengzhi hunches her shoulders as she pours soy milk for customers. A boy from the class next door teases her, saying her face is “as yellow as a bun wrapper.” She lowers her head and says nothing. The more insecure she feels, the duller her reflection looks. On the way home from school, she runs into Lin Qingwan, a transfer student from the city, clinging to Gu Yanzhi’s arm. “A-Yan is my fiancé.” Shen Hengzhi digs her nails into her palm, her chest soaked in sour jealousy. But the next second, Gu Yanzhi shakes off the girl’s hand, walks straight over to Shen Hengzhi, and drapes his uniform jacket over her shoulders. “Let’s go home.”
That night, Shen Hengzhi stares blankly at the mirror. The shoulder he touched glows faintly, and her whole face looks as if it has soaked up moonlight. Her best friend, Zhou Xiaohe, shrieks, “You’re glowing!” From then on, Shen Hengzhi discovers that every time Gu Yanzhi looks at her, stardust clings to her eyelashes. When he slips soy milk into her schoolbag, her hair turns amber. Meanwhile, Lin Qingwan, who’s always trying to get close to Gu Yanzhi, turns a shade grayer each time he pushes her away.
Shen Hengzhi grips her apron tightly. So being loved really does make you glow. But she doesn’t know that locked in Gu Yanzhi’s desk drawer is a stack of sketches, drawn from elementary school until now. Every single one shows her smiling.
