Ten Years Like Daylight

Next novel: Knowing Joy, a secret-crush story The night Lin Ting ran away from home, she met a strangely dressed boy along the way. He was tall and long-legged, dressed all in dark black, yet his aura was easygoing. He asked if she wanted some candy. That was the first time she met Pei Ji. At the time, Pei Ji came from an elite family and was bold and carefree. He was a Formula racing prodigy with the highest win rate in his class of competitions, attracting plenty of attention and fans. She knew they would never work out. Yet when she happened to hear him ask a friend, “Who’s Lin Ting?”, her heart ached with a sour pang. - Years later, at a class reunion, someone asked whether Pei Ji had ever cared about a girl when he was younger. The teasing grew louder and louder, and Pei Ji had no choice but to answer honestly. “One rainy night in the second semester of sophomore year, I saw a girl sitting beside some stone steps, her face buried in her knees. She was probably asleep... She’d taken off her denim jacket and covered a stray cat with it, while she herself was soaked through.” “I remember thinking, how could anyone be so foolish? But I didn’t wake her. I left my umbrella in the bushes over her head and walked away.” After the reunion, Lin Ting forced down the feelings surging inside her and smiled as she asked him, “If you had the chance to see that girl again, what would you say to her?” “I hope she always has an umbrella to shelter under and a home to return to.” Outside Pei Ji’s line of sight, Lin Ting’s eyes suddenly grew hot with tears. At last, the feelings she had kept sealed away for years were exposed. On the phone, Pei Ji’s voice was hoarse. “Why didn’t you tell me that girl was you?” Lin Ting gave a self-mocking smile. “It’s too late now.” Later, on another rainy night, under flickering lights, he kissed her gently. “Let’s go home together.” - When she was seventeen, Lin Ting once sent Pei Ji a letter. The last line read: [In the name of a passing stranger, I wish you a life where everything goes as you hope and every day brings joy.] On the eve of their wedding, Pei Ji wrote back to Lin Ting. The letter contained only a few brief lines, yet they were the finest reply to the ten years of darkness she had endured: [This life is vast, with stars blazing across the sky. I will grow old together with Mrs. Pei.] [Sensitive x carefree | Doctor x racing driver] 1. Both virgins, happy ending, slow-burn and bittersweet. 2. Told in reverse chronology. The school days take up about a dozen chapters, under 80,000 words. 3. “Lin Ting” is the heroine’s former name. As an adult, she changed her name to Lin Zhenxi. 4. The original blurb was written in 2023 and revised for the third time on 2025-09-06. The letter’s wording was adapted from the internet. Knowing Joy Jin Huan had always been the oddball in everyone’s eyes. She always started exams with the last question, slept with her head at the foot of the bed, and never read page seven of any book. Though she treated “being unconventional” as her life’s creed, at sixteen she did something utterly ordinary: she fell in love with Pei Yian. He was a reserve candidate for the national archery team, a regular on the school honor roll, a born prodigy with a brilliant future ahead of him. Jin Huan thought her secret crush was perfectly concealed, until Pei Yian walked straight up to her. His face was pale as frost and snow, glimmering with flecks of golden light in the sun. She drifted in his deep eyes, her heart racing. Then she heard him ask, “Why didn’t you sneak a look at me today?” - Pei Yian had been smiling more and more lately. A friend asked him why. “Because she’s cute.” The sentence had no pronoun, leaving everyone who heard it completely baffled. Jin Huan was the first to understand. It was a night before the college entrance exams. The midsummer breeze was like steam rising from hot tea, brushing against their skin, its warmth lingering long after. Pei Yian bent down and lightly tapped her rabbit hair clip with his finger. “Don’t make such a cute expression.” Or I won’t be able to stop myself from kissing you. Little sunshine x sweet on the outside, dark within | fencing x archery | two prodigies School life · ensemble cast · pure romance Blurb written on 2026-07-27, revised on 08-14 Theme: Love life