Free-spirited Beijing girl x Hong Kong playboy
Love at first sight, sparked by looks x love at first sight
After walking thirty thousand steps around Macau, Xu Banruo boarded a speedboat and left the glittering city behind.
The boat cut through the shimmering waves as she sat by the window with her phone in hand and murmured, "Are there butterflies at sea, too?"
A soft laugh came from the seat beside her. The handsome man in gold-rimmed glasses smiled. "Miss, that's marine litter."
Xu Banruo turned at the sound of his voice. Amid the roar of the waves, she found herself asking, as if by some strange force, "Are you traveling alone, too? Want some company?"
As night fell over Victoria Harbour, the lights across the water flowed like a river of stars. Xu Banruo lifted her face into the sea of light and kissed a man she'd known for barely a day.
No questions about where they came from, no talk of where they were headed. She cast aside every identity and loved him with abandon for a few short days. It was just a chance encounter, she told herself.
But on the night her plane landed in Beijing, the screen of her phone, switched off for ages, suddenly lit up.
An unfamiliar number. A short message:
"Miss Xu, abandoning someone after leading him on is a bad habit."
2026.1.16
Theme: What is love?
