Flower Vomiting Syndrome

*

“My left atrium holds a pansy.”

Pei Sheng’s high school years were much like those of most ordinary girls: drab and forgettable, without a single glimmer of brilliance.

Shen Tingze’s high school years, on the other hand, were like something out of a TV drama. He had a privileged family, good grades, and a face so stunning it took your breath away.

They were worlds apart. Beyond being classmates, they would have no reason to interact.

But at the coming-of-age ceremony before the college entrance exams, the school’s golden boy came up to Pei Sheng and quietly poured out all his affection.

“Pei Sheng, is there someone you like?”

The golden boy, who never usually bowed his head, blushed and stammered, “Would you consider giving me a chance?”

*

Pei Sheng didn’t like herself.

Medication had left her cheeks round, and people looked down on her for it.

She knew perfectly well how ordinary she was. All she needed to do was get through high school safely and earn a place at some mediocre college.

Still, she couldn’t stop herself from wanting to get closer to Shen Tingze.

He was the most striking person on campus, with a privileged background, excellent grades, and an inexplicable charm.

Most importantly, when her classmates mocked her appearance, he gently drew her behind him.

The slender back of a young man, his clear voice ringing out over the summer cicadas:

“Pei Sheng, don’t listen to them. You’re beautiful.”

It was pouring the day Shen Tingze ran away from home.

With no money to his name, he crouched miserably outside a convenience store, looking utterly wretched.

People streamed past, all casting strange looks at the thinly dressed boy.

Only one girl stopped.

She looked at Shen Tingze timidly and held out a roasted sweet potato. Her voice was small and soft. “You’ve been crying for ages. Have something to eat.”

Shen Tingze raised his head. Through the misty rain, he saw a pair of beautiful, glistening eyes, like a little deer’s.

Later, when he started high school, a transfer student joined his class.

Standing at the front of the classroom, the new student introduced herself nervously. “I-I’m Pei Sheng. I hope we can all get along.”

He clicked his pen and glanced up.

It was her.

Shen Tingze, who had always preferred sitting alone, raised his hand. “Come sit with me.”

After three years as Shen Tingze’s deskmate, Pei Sheng approached him at their graduation ceremony with an instant camera to take a photo together.

Shen Tingze swiftly snapped two pictures, keeping one and giving the other to Pei Sheng.

He gently waved the photo of them together, smiling with mischievous, carefree charm. “We’re graduating soon. Isn’t there anything you want to tell me?”

Pei Sheng stammered, lowered her head, and blushed bright red before fleeing.

After graduation, Shen Tingze and Pei Sheng lost touch.

Pei Sheng was ruthless. After moving away for college, she deleted every one of her old classmates and stopped talking to him, too.

All she left him was a photo of the two of them.

At twenty-five, Shen Tingze ran into Pei Sheng in Diancheng.

She had opened a tie-dye shop.

When Shen Tingze found her, she was holding a piece of cloth and dyeing it.

Hearing someone enter, Pei Sheng instinctively smiled. “Would you like to try tie-dyeing?”

Shen Tingze shook his head. “I’m looking for someone.”

Clutching the photo, he gritted his teeth and said, “Someone named Pei Sheng.”

Someone who stole every bit of love I had to give.

A bittersweet romance, mutual pining and mutual salvation, with a fake second chance at love.

Big bad wolf × little white rabbit. Both are each other’s first and only, and they’re both hopeless romantics!

The heroine gains weight early in high school because of medication for an illness, then recovers and loses it later on.

Hanahaki disease: Long-suppressed love gives rise to flowers in the chest. The sufferer keeps coughing up petals until they die. The only cure is for the person they love to return their feelings. (This is a metaphor used in the story.)

The original blurb was screen-recorded on 2026.08.12.

Theme: Loving is greater than being loved