Lin Xiaoxing's life began in a remote mountain village. Her introversion as a child left her living in the shadow of isolation. Her canvas shoes, washed until they had faded, and the country accent she could never shake made her the quietest corner of the class.
In her second year of high school, everything seemed to change with the arrival of a transfer student, Shen Ci. His words, "Your eyes are beautiful," became the only light in Lin Yangyang's dark world.
She began working desperately to get closer to that light. Her grades rose from near the bottom to the top ten. She gathered the courage to join his club and even secretly memorized everything he liked.
Then, at the graduation party, she heard Shen Ci tell a friend, "The volunteer teacher asked me to look after her and help build her confidence. She's kind of pitiful, isn't she?" So it had all been an assignment, charity bestowed from on high. From beginning to end, she was the only one who had taken it seriously.
At their class reunion ten years later, Lin Xiaoxing is a well-known social media creator, and has published a collection of essays about the growth of girls from mountain villages, titled Stars Growing in the Mountains. Shen Ci tracks her down at a book signing, hoping to start over. Lin Xiaoxing only looks at him calmly and says, "Thank you for that joke back then. It taught me that the light that can illuminate your life can only come from yourself."
Theme: Rock bottom, deception, awakening, turning your life around, personal growth
