Neurosurgeon Lu Cishen has a boy named Xiaoman who he has been looking for for fifteen years. He had a butterfly birthmark on his left shoulder and died in a sanatorium fire in 1998. Lu Cishen wrote letters that he had not sent for fifteen years, trapping himself in unfulfilled promises.
The ancient book restorer Shen Zhiyao's original name was Shen Zhiman, the "dead" Xiao Man. The fire destroyed his face, voice and birthmark, and doctors used scalpels to piece him together into another person.
In 2023, they met in the ancient book restoration room. Lu Cishen looked at the unfamiliar face, but was shocked by all the details of the trembling of the ring finger on his left hand, the double milk of coffee, biting his lip first and biting the left side: This is Xiao Man. Shen Zhiyao didn't dare to recognize each other, fearing that his unrecognizable self would not be worthy of the perfect phantom in the other person's memory.
They began the cruelest cohabitation: Lu Cishen wrote notes every day, fell in love with Shen Zhiyao again every day, and then forgot everything before going to bed every night. Shen Zhiyao collects notes every day, is loved through frosted glass every day, and then faces those unfamiliar eyes every morning.
Until Shen Zhiyao came up with all the evidence, until Lu Cishen was diagnosed with acquired prosopagnosia, until he said "I know you are Xiaoman, but I can't see you."
Only then did they understand that the cruelest thing is not not loving. It's love, but I can't recognize it. After searching for fifteen years, I found it, but it seemed like it was lost forever. It is falling in love again every day, losing again every day, a cycle of one thousand and ninety-five times, until the window period in the medical sense finally arrives. Three minutes or thirty seconds. Enough to say true I love you once. Then the window closes and everything returns to zero.
"Excuse me, who are you? "
"I'm your restorer. I also have to repair a very old book today. "
