On a Rainy Night, I Took a Little Beggar Home

One rainy night, an alley, and a little beggar curled up beside a trash can.

Ye Ling was only passing by. But the moment the white-haired, blue-eyed girl looked up, he stopped in his tracks. Eighteen-year-old Bai Xinyu had nothing left, only a heart battered and bruised by life. He took her home and gave her a bowl of noodles, a sofa, and somewhere she could sleep in peace.

From a sixty-square-meter rental apartment to a university in the provincial capital, from scores in the four hundreds to 603, it took them a whole year to go from strangers to the most important people in each other’s lives. There were no grand vows, only bowl after bowl of braised pork, a fridge covered in sticky notes, and the words “You’re home” and “I’m home” every day.

This is a story about saving someone, and a story about healing. But more importantly, it’s about one truth: the best kind of love in this world isn’t roses and fireworks. It’s someone telling you in the simplest way, on every ordinary day: You’re not alone.