Second-Rate Goods II: Floating Lanterns

He is a first-rate actor, and a second-rate piece of trash. She longs to love a first-rate man, forgetting that she's only a second-rate piece of trash herself. [Blurb One] For the first sixteen years of Cong Lei's life, she was lonely, overweight, and utterly dull. Her childhood was a tearful history of being enslaved by Leng Qianshan. Leng Qianshan lived in the apartment above hers. When they were children, she was his toy. When he carried her on his back, he'd flip her over and dump her on the ground. The scar on her forehead took months to heal. When he picked her up, he'd hike up her skirt too, exposing her Snoopy underwear and making their playmates laugh at her. When he took her by the hand, he'd run ahead at full speed, only to realize when he looked back that he'd been dragging her along the ground like a dog. Even as they grew up, Leng Qianshan didn't leave her alone. Besides sweeping and mopping his floors and wiping his windows, Cong Lei also had to iron his clothes, wash his socks and underwear, copy his homework, and serve as his loyal maid. She hated Leng Qianshan, hated his verbal abuse, hated his overbearing ways, and hated that she could never escape him. Until one freezing winter night, Leng Qianshan took her hand in the bitter cold and said, "Cong Lei, I love you." He had been part of her entire, ordinary youth. Then he disappeared. [Blurb Two] From the Hutu Encyclopedia entry: Wen Yun, born Cong Lei, is known for repeatedly playing the vicious female antagonist in second-rate television dramas such as "Goodbye, My Love" and "Hold You Close." She has a voluptuous figure and stunning looks. On the hit reality show "A Journey to Boiling Point," she sparked public debate by clashing with the famous actor Leng Qianshan. It is rumored that Cong Lei was brutally beaten by Leng Qianshan during filming. The editor accepts no legal responsibility for this entry. [Blurb Three] After "A Journey to Boiling Point" aired, Leng Qianshan became known as the "Anti-Tea Expert" for his clueless, unflappable, poker-faced straight-guy persona. But the usually cautious actor was caught by paparazzi in a passionate kiss. The intensity of their embrace was astonishing, and the internet erupted when it turned out that the person he was kissing wasn't anyone else, but that very "Tea." After digging into the story, everyone was shocked to discover that these two enemies, who seemed to be at each other's throats, had been childhood sweethearts ten years ago. -- This story is divided into two parts. "The Cold Metamorphosis" is the childhood-sweethearts school arc, while "Floating Lanterns" is the reunion-in-showbiz arc. Each part can be read on its own, but reading both makes for a better experience. Theme: We swim out to sea, away from the floating lights on the water.