Returning Radiance

A light whose radiance only becomes clear when you look back.

When love first stirs in your heart, everyone longs for a beautiful romance. Top students are no exception. The moment Song Mingqiao first saw Zhou Linling, she knew she wouldn't be able to escape her feelings.

Though their grades were almost identical, Song Mingqiao always deliberately scored a fraction of a point lower than Zhou Linling, making herself the eternal runner-up.

Zhou Linling soon realized what was going on and got angry. The two of them had plenty of unhappy moments, but things eventually worked out.

Their happy days did not last long. The principal, who had been teaching for over thirty years, quickly noticed what was happening. Even after their parents were called in, the two refused to be separated.

They had managed to keep it a secret, but somehow word got out. Everyone began looking at them differently. Unable to bear it, Zhou Linling went to find Song Mingqiao, who had fallen out with her family and had not been home in a long time, intending to break up with her. But when they met, she couldn't bring herself to say the words. Instead, she just kept crying.

Torrential rain poured from the sky. Song Mingqiao held Zhou Linling tightly as the world around them blurred.

Zhou Linling slowly opened her eyes and saw a large truck barreling straight toward them. With no time to think, she shoved Song Mingqiao hard to the side and desperately tried to get out of the way herself, but she was too late. The truck screeched to a stop and slammed into Zhou Linling...

After lying in a hospital bed for a long time, Zhou Linling slowly opened her eyes. She saw doctors bustling around her bed and her grandmother crying nonstop, but she could not remember why she was in the hospital.

After she was discharged, she asked her grandmother more than once what had happened, but her grandmother always refused to talk about it.

Zhou Linling transferred to another school. After graduating from a prestigious university, she turned down every high-paying job and took over her grandmother's only legacy: a flower shop.

After graduating, Song Mingqiao started working at a well-known newspaper. Once she had asked around and learned what had become of Zhou Linling, she began trying to get closer to her, little by little. And she succeeded.

And so...

This is the first novel I've ever written. I thought about it for a long time before I finally dared to start.

If anything seems similar to another work, it's purely accidental. Feel free to let me know, and I can make changes.

It was originally supposed to be part of a much larger story, but once I had the outline, I felt it was far too much trouble, so I decided to split it into several short stories instead. This is one of them. I'll take my time writing the rest. Including this one, there will be four stories in total.

Please look forward to them.

Theme: Love is like wheat bran; only what's wrapped inside can be eaten.