A clear-eyed, resilient heroine with a strong sense of self-worth × a hero with low self-worth who doesn't dare admit his feelings
The hero chases his wife through hell / Love in the wrong place / An ordinary girl's growth
A powerful cold front was on its way, and Chen Yiting had already bought her ticket back to the “gully.” Shen Xunhe had promised to take her to the high-speed railway station, but he didn't show up or offer an explanation. On the phone, all he did was remind her to share her itinerary with him along the way. She wasn't surprised or disappointed. After hanging up, she continued packing. The open suitcase by her legs still had room to spare. In two years, these few things were all he had left behind from the nights he spent at her place.
Chen Yiting was born in a small town in central China. When the nation encouraged the development of its Third Front, people poured in from all over the country, and the locals called the place the “gully.” Later, the factories moved into the city. Some people left, while others stayed in the gully. Her family was among those who stayed.
After the high school entrance exam, her parents wanted her to attend the factory's technical school, then get a factory job after graduation and live a peaceful, uneventful life. She nodded, but later she made her way out of the small town, going farther and farther afield.
When people ask if she's one of those small-town students who excel at exams, she just smiles and tells them: small towns have more than just exam-takers. They have plenty of ordinary people like her.
When Shen Xunhe first saw her, he thought she was like a bamboo viper: quiet, unremarkable, and venomous.
Only after they parted did he realize she was more like a liquor called Bamboo Viper: sweet on the tongue, but painful in the aftertaste.
She had once mocked him in private, saying that wolves were not only fierce, but faithful, too. He was like a wolf, but only on the outside.
He thought the person he couldn't let go of was someone else. When he finally saw things clearly, he discovered that the person who had been left behind was himself.
What she cared about was never whom he had loved, but whether he loved her.
Theme: I can love you, but I love myself more
