In the Silence

Also titled The Mute Groom Seduction Plan / Escape Toward the Night

Coming soon: Bruises. Please add it to your collection. The blurb is at the end.

Rebellious, lively sunshine new teacher x gentle, insecure older hearing-impaired teacher | Unrequited love becomes mutual x falling in love | Emotional push and pull x healing | Reconciliation after a breakup

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When Ji Lingxia leaned close to Xie Tingchao's deaf ear and whispered, "Xie Tingchao, you can't get away from me."

All he felt was a kiss wrapped in wind and dampness.

When Ji Lingxia took his hand, her fingertips tapping a rhythm on the back of it as she led him through that dance in the studio,

Xie Tingchao heard his own heartbeat for the first time.

When Ji Lingxia dragged him to a piercing shop, they left with matching earrings in their earlobes.

The light reflected off the cubic zirconia in the mirror and fell into his usually tranquil eyes. He saw a dazzling night sky.

He had thought he was a still, rippleless lake. Only after meeting Ji Lingxia did he realize he was a turbulent sea.

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That day, Ji Lingxia gently nudged Xie Tingchao's hand and said with earnest sincerity, "Xie Tingchao, you said a lot of people wouldn't be willing to listen to you speak slowly. But I am. I'll listen to you, no matter how slowly you talk."

Xie Tingchao's hand paused on his chopsticks. He watched Ji Lingxia deliberately slow down her speech and sign, pursed his lips, and smiled ever so faintly.

Ji Lingxia's ears turned red. "I mean it. I really am willing!"

Xie Tingchao raised his hands and signed with a smile, "I know."

I know you'll listen to me slowly, because you're Ji Lingxia.

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"Xie Tingchao. I hate you." When Ji Lingxia spoke those silent words in a moment of overwhelming emotion, they landed in Xie Tingchao's world with unbearable weight.

Pain and sorrow filled Xie Tingchao's peach-blossom eyes. His hands trembled as he signed, as if someone had thrown him into glacial waters. "You won't listen to me slowly anymore, either?"

You promised you'd always listen to me, no matter how slowly I spoke. Why did you leave me behind when I wanted to run away with you?

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Seven months after their breakup, Ji Lingxia saw the slender figure of that man outside the dance studio. She walked out and looked at the rose he held out and his tender, peach-blossom eyes. "Are you trying to win me back?"

That night, on a street after dark, he cradled her face and kissed her for the first time of his own accord. Ji Lingxia, all talk and no resistance, dropped her bag the very next second and held Xie Tingchao's face in her hands.

Strange. Xie Tingchao couldn't hear or speak, and yet she seemed to hear the plea from the person before her: Love me one more time, please.

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When the world falls silent, you and I love each other in silence.

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This story began on September 2, 2025.

P.S. All professional and career details in this story exist to serve the plot, so please don't overanalyze them, my dears!

There are no second male or female leads who have a romantic storyline with the leads.

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When Zhu Xingyao was twenty, she thought growing up meant one bruise after another, coming one right on the heels of the next.

The year she could barely take care of herself, another bruise appeared on her body. It didn't hurt or itch. It simply remained there, a mark beneath her skin.

In the middle of her twentieth year, Zhu Xingyao saw a pair of desolate eyes.

Looking into those dry, withered eyes, she knew that this man would become a bruise on her body.

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In an expanse of eternal whiteness, Song Yexi led Zhu Xingyao out of the confusion and struggle of her twenties.

"You like me, don't you?" Zhu Xingyao said as Song Yexi rubbed medicinal oil between his palms and pressed it into the bruise on her thigh.

"Am I not allowed to love you?" Song Yexi smiled gently, becoming another impact that left its mark on that bruise.

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"We shouldn't be like this." Zhu Xingyao was squeezed into a mass of cotton, soft yet suffocating. Looking at those desolate eyes, she murmured.

Song Yexi stood a step away, smiling with the same gentleness. "You want the freedom to fly away, Xingyao. I want you to be free."

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Song Yexi stood there, his white cane fallen to the ground, his usually straight back bending. As he listened to her footsteps fade into the distance, he thought: Zhu Xingyao longed for freedom, and he longed for her wishes to come true. So he would give her freedom and send her on her way.

But he forgot to ask whether, once she was free, Zhu Xingyao would be willing to look back with compassion on a soul that had always accepted her.

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Song Yexi has a pair of bright, tearful eyes.

Song Yexi has a desolate, turbulent, dried-up lake.

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Reader's Guide:

1. The male lead is blind, and he won't recover.

2. He is six years older than her.

3. Two little bitter gourds find salvation in each other.

Theme: Love isn't a competition, but the brave win.