Break Off a Rib and Make Her

A cool, aloof older woman x a wandering boy

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Qiu Ji would always remember that day. She came walking through the puddles, swaying gently, her simple, lovely face sheltered beneath her umbrella. "Want to come over here and get out of the rain?"

She thought they would never cross paths again.

Instead, they became part of each other's lives, bound together for seven years.

Xia Xin was always fretting over the wrinkles appearing at the corners of her eyes. But Qiu Ji thought: So what if you have wrinkles? Sister, you are as lovely as mountains and rivers, each feature perfectly placed. Your wrinkles are medals proving the depth and beauty of all that you are.

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Three years ago, Qiu Ji gazed at the moonlight pooling around his feet and said to himself, "I'll graduate in a little over a hundred days."

"It'll be soon... It won't take long. So, can you wait before finding yourself a brother-in-law?"

Three years later, he looked into her eyes and no longer called her Sister. "Xia Xin, the time when I met you was when I most wanted to grow up."

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#Breaking a rib to make her

When he was eighteen, she told him a story. In ancient times, people believed that bones could be reborn and grant a second life. In Sumerian cuneiform, the word ti meant both rib and life. In this context, Adam broke off one of his ribs to make Eve, and Eve became his life.

After turning eighteen, Qiu Ji thought: If he were Adam, he would break off one of his ribs to make Xia Xin, too.

For all the years he struggled along the border, he would think of her.

She was the life within his life.

◎Reader advisory:

① Eight-year age gap.

② The female lead is not a virgin; the male lead is, and they have a happy ending!

Theme: Even a fleeting moment beyond the bounds of order can become eternal.