Warning: This story has been abandoned.
I started it far too spontaneously, and ran into all sorts of trouble, like being unable to settle on a blurb or title. Since it hadn't made the rankings yet, I decided to cut my losses in time.
I wanted to abandon it outright, but looking back, I still really liked the heroine. I wanted to finish it, but just couldn't find the inspiration.
😡😡😡
Ji Wanzhi never expected her secret crush to be returned.
Back in school, she and Jin Yuye were two entirely different kinds of people.
She was the top student in the whole school, quiet and sensitive, like an isolated island no breeze ever passed over.
The boy she secretly loved was the lead singer of a band who became an overnight sensation after performing at a school gala. Rebellious and unconventional, he seemed born to be the darling of the stars.
Her secret crush, unknown to anyone, lasted until her senior year of high school.
When she heard he was going abroad to study, she clutched and crumpled the confession letter in her hands again and again. In the end, she couldn't bring herself to give it to him.
The sealed letter gathered dust, and even the writing on it began to fade:
"
You'll never know how the faint flutter of a butterfly's wings from you could stir up a storm on my silent, still island.
Lots of people like you. I'm just one of them.
But that's all right,
Jin Yuye. You're not a valley, so you don't need to echo back."
--
Years later, Ji Wanzhi was teaching at a local university when the school invited a famous musician to perform.
Standing below the stage, she stared at that same wild, arrogant face, and her heart stopped.
His long fingers wrapped around his guitar. He was bold and uninhibited, and a single casual glance could set the crowd ablaze.
After the performance, she didn't know whether he'd recognized her.
The broad-shouldered, narrow-waisted man onstage casually set down his instrument and walked straight toward her. "Long time no see."
After reuniting years later, they gradually grew closer. Their subtle approaches made Ji Wanzhi feel that perhaps her youthful secret crush was finally about to step into the light.
Then Jin Yuye released a new song, confessing the secret crush he'd carried since his youth. Only then did she learn that even someone like him could carefully nurse a love he was afraid to confess, wait outside a girl's building in the cold wind, and remain trapped in an unrequited love just like her.
The fire rekindled in her heart went out, and Ji Wanzhi began avoiding Jin Yuye.
She was curious about who he liked, but it certainly couldn't be her.
That day, the rain was pouring. As soon as she stepped downstairs, she saw him leaning against his motorcycle. He cupped a cigarette and tried to light it, but the damp rain kept him from succeeding.
His cool, clear eyes met hers, and the tenderness that surfaced melted away as gently as the rain.
"I guess I still can't let it go. I came to ask you for an answer in person." His eyes were rimmed with red. For once, the gaze that was usually so irreverent held nothing but overwhelming bitterness. After a long pause, he turned his head to look at her. "Are you avoiding me because you're rejecting me?"
--
Jin Yuye would never know that Ji Wanzhi loved him.
Just as Ji Wanzhi would never know that on the day he left Nancheng, he spent the entire night waiting outside her building. He'd racked his brains to write her a love letter, but didn't dare sign his name. Even the gifts he gave her had to be sent under the guise of coming from a friend.
Secret love is bitter. They both spent years standing in that damp rain.
Theme: Love and freedom
