The Scent of Wine Hasn't Faded

The wine stain on her school uniform was something Di Luosheng tried to wash out for three years, but never could.

[Adapted from a true story, in loving memory of the youthful innocence and regrets of our student days]

Di Luosheng

Everyone at Qingchuan No. 1 High School thought she'd been born in the spotlight.

A high ponytail, the girl everyone admired, top of the class, and a uniform always brilliantly white.

So aloof no one dared approach her, and so beautiful she seemed almost dangerous.

Everyone at school, boys and girls alike, had a crush on her, but no one dared give her a love letter.

No one knew that when the door to her home closed, it felt as oppressive as a tomb.

She never talked about herself.

The only thing she'd secretly learned was taekwondo, earning a red belt.

Xia Jing

Everyone at Qingchuan No. 1 High School thought she'd been dragged through the mud.

A short mullet, wine stains on her uniform, cigarette packs in her drawer, and piercings from her earlobes up to her cartilage.

Everyone said she was a gangster, and even the dean of discipline couldn't be bothered with her.

No one knew that her grandmother's medical bills were thicker than her homework, or that she was too afraid to even get into a fight.

The older girls outside school liked her because she was sweet-talking and streetwise, with a smile that made her eyes curve like crescent moons.

But no one knew about the stomach she'd burned with alcohol at such a young age, or how she sat alone at night, sighing over her grandmother's medical reports.

She never talked about herself.

She was waiting for someone to pass through her dark alley.

They should have been two lines that would never cross

Until one summer night, Xia Jing was cornered in a back alley, gripping a bottle but unable to bring herself to smash it.

Di Luosheng happened to walk by. Without a second thought, she kicked the ringleader to the ground.

Xia Jing crouched on the ground and looked up at her.

“Have you trained before?”

“Taekwondo.” Di Luosheng straightened her cuff, her tone cool. “Don't tell anyone.”

Later, Xia Jing heard that even the toughest delinquent at Qingchuan No. 1 High School was afraid of Di Luosheng

Not because she could fight, but because she never meddled in other people's business.

That had been the first time.

Afterward, Di Luosheng came up with countless excuses to “look after her”:

Her grades were so bad, she'd bring down the class average.

She slept so badly, taking up half the desk.

Her perfume was so strong, it made it hard to breathe.

But when Xia Jing slipped chocolate into Di Luosheng's schoolbag, she was smiling.

Di Luosheng didn't throw it away.

She just kept it in her pencil case for a long time.

By the time she opened it, the chocolate had melted.

It got all over her hand.

She didn't wash it off.

#Girls' Love #School #Slow Burn #Mutual Healing #Happy Ending

The girl everyone admired, a top student × the delinquent who seems bad but is secretly good / Both are devoted to each other / Tears, laughter, and growth / The ending is set, with plenty of sweetness and angst along the way

Later, Xia Jing once asked her, “Why did you help me that day?”

Di Luosheng said, “No reason.”

After a pause, she added, “The way you crouched there, you looked like a cat soaked through by the rain.”

That was the most romantic thing Xia Jing had ever heard.

Theme: True “salvation” isn't about pulling someone out of the mud, but helping her find the strength to stand on her own. True love is never a shackle; it's a crown.