Letters of Plague

Shen Yan works in Changde and is dating Lin Xiaoxiao, a passionate, outgoing woman. Everyone says they're a perfect match who complement each other. Until one dinner, when he meets his girlfriend's best friend, Zhiyu. With her short, slightly wavy hair and quiet, reserved nature, she loves bookstores, coffee, Liuyue Lake, and sitting in silence at ancient temples. She's practically the female version of him. With just one glance, Shen Yan falls hopelessly in love. This love is forbidden from the moment it begins. All he can do is play the part of a carefree joker, getting along with her openly and trading jokes and barbs, a model “best friend's boyfriend.” To everyone else, he seems laid-back and silly, always laughing and fooling around with ease. No one knows that beneath every easy joke lies an obsessive, feverish longing he can barely contain. They share exactly the same tastes and understand the emotions hidden in each other's silences. But the identities that stand between them form a wall they cannot cross. He hides this love he cannot confess, watching from the sidelines day after day, holding back and enduring. The lively banter is an act, the jokes a disguise. Only the love that began at their first meeting is real, like an incurable cholera that takes root in his bones and blood and never fades. Laughing together, falling secretly in love, surrendering in a moment, waiting for a lifetime. Theme: Restrained love and a meeting of souls. Learning to make peace with feelings that can never be returned, and recognizing the loneliness and hidden devotion deep within people.