(The manuscript is ready and waiting.)
Ji Shu nearly died many times in his life. Twice, he nearly died during that bullying incident. Once, he nearly died at “his” hands. Once, he nearly died at the hands of Fu Qingyue. This time, Fu Qingyue nearly made sure he died for good.
The year Ji Shu's parents died, he was taken in by yet another new family.
Neither Ji Shu nor Fu Qingyue was willing to give in to the other.
Later, Fu Qingyue became his brother in name.
“Did you cook dog shit in the pot?”
“No, I made sweet-and-sour ribs.”
Fu Qingyue glanced at the ribs in Ji Shu's bowl. “Did you cook them with chocolate?”
Ji Shu pouted. “Forget it. I don't want to talk to you.”
Youth is always tinged with awkwardness and immaturity. So is the love they naively believe in.
Fu Lian and Yu Shan were both clever people. There were no explosive arguments. They arranged a farewell, one that might as well have been a death in life.
From then on, Ji Shu treated Fu Qingyue as if he were dead.
Fu Qingyue looked at him. The room was quiet, filled only by the hum of the radiator and Ji Shu's uneven breathing.
“Why are you so obedient?” he said, his voice lower than usual. “I almost don't want to pick on you anymore.”
It wasn't until Ji Shu became a forensic pathologist that he took on a thirteen-year-old hit-and-run case.
And the man who had disappeared nine years ago once again entered his life in some way.
“We're going to Shenzhen next week.”
Ji Shu's hand stopped as he peeled an orange.
“The observatory,” Fu Qingyue said. “I checked. A new one just opened there. If the weather's good, we can see the stars.”
Ji Shu had never been to an observatory.
No one had ever taken him to see the stars, not once in his life. Qin Xin had read picture books with him, and Ji Shoucheng had taken him to the zoo, but no one had ever gone stargazing with him.
“Shenzhen?” Ji Shu asked.
“Yeah. A little over two hours by high-speed train.”
“Isn't your lab busy?”
“I can spare a few days.”
Ji Shu looked at him. After a while, he nodded.
“Okay.”
Fu Qingyue's love was like the sea.
When the tide went out, he gathered every seashell and offered them to Ji Shu, speaking softly and tenderly.
But when the tide came in, the seawater covered Ji Shu's nose and mouth, leaving him suffocating, each breath salty and bitter.
Trapped on the shore, Ji Shu watched the tide draw near again and again. He didn't dare run, afraid that when the tide receded, Fu Qingyue would dry up and die completely.
Theme: Saving each other in the darkness, and upholding justice and the truth.
