[This is a story about a girl whose faith in her path is shattered, then rebuilt.]
Zhou Jing loved to write. In her first year of college, her rural novel was nominated for the highest literary honor, the Huazhi Prize. What followed was not congratulations, but a torrent of criticism.
Readers said her story was fresh, but her prose was overwrought and ungrounded, as if it were floating in midair.
Zhou Jing paid no heed to these comments, even sneering that the readers who thought that way simply lacked literary appreciation.
But one bright afternoon, she saw a flower quietly bloom. Her thoughts surged, yet she could not put a single word on the page. That was when she admitted how much those criticisms had gotten to her.
Zhou Jing's heart broke. She slowly fell into a life of drinking and revelry, and even began skipping class and leaving early. Her GPA plummeted from the top of her department to the bottom. The school followed its rules and expelled her. Her brother, Zhou Zai, pulled strings to get her another chance, but Zhou Jing refused it.
At the time, she hated everything.
After a long stalemate, Zhou Zai patted her head and comforted her. "Zhaozhao, don't stay in Huaian. Go out and see the world."
Zhou Jing asked in a daze, "Where should I go?"
Zhou Zai thought for a moment. "Chadong. It's a lovely place."
Zhou Jing opened her mouth as if to say something, but in the end, all she said was, "Okay."
Zhou Zai arranged a leave of absence for her and took her to the airport one evening. She boarded a plane to Qiongzhi alone, then took a train from Qiongzhi North Station to Zhuoyue Mountain, and finally took a taxi from Zhuoyue Mountain to Chadong.
There, she met Yang Xizhou.
It was a rainy day in Chadong. He had no umbrella when he got off the ferry to take her luggage. The first thing she noticed was the tiny mole at the bridge of his nose. Then she met his deep-set eyes.
Many years ago, a literary master wrote an immortal masterpiece in Chadong, making the remote border town a name in literary history. Years later, Zhou Jing, battered by criticism, put pen to paper there too, writing the story that changed her life.
Her shattered heart was rebuilt on that rainy morning.
● This blurb was written on December 4, 2025, and a screenshot has been uploaded to Weibo.
● This story draws on real life, but is fictional overall.
● For specific content warnings, see the first chapter after the story begins.
Theme: Celebrating our country's magnificent landscapes
