Roses and Swans

Skyscrapers that seemed to pierce the sky. An ash-gray sky. Soaked by the downpour, Yu Zhi followed a boy's umbrella from a street where she'd gotten lost to the competition exam hall. In the gloomy weather, the boy was the only thing pure white.

Yu Zhi remembered the boy's name.

Yu Lingyan, from the advanced program at Provincial No. 1 High School.

A year later, wearing glasses to correct her vision, which had worsened by more than a hundred degrees, Yu Zhi got into No. 1 High. Then, over the course of another year, she went from barely making the cut to seeing her name listed beside Yu Lingyan's on the honor roll.

Beneath the honor roll, the boy looked at her with a friendly, open, and courteous gaze. "Hello, I'm Yu Lingyan from Class Two. I've heard so much about the top student in Class One."

Yu Zhi clutched the hem of her uniform, but did her best to smile brightly and naturally. "Hello, I'm Yu Zhi from Class One."

He really didn't remember her.

Still, he'd heard so much about her. Yu Lingyan.

"I never thought I'd get married one day, so finding you was practically a miracle. It's like finding dark matter. Scientists are seriously looking for dark matter, but I wasn't even looking that hard for you. That makes you even more wonderful than dark matter."

Years later, Yu Lingyan dropped by a gathering of Yu Zhi's research group. Everyone was watching The Big Bang Theory when they reached Sheldon's line. He suddenly said to her, "You're more wonderful than dark matter, and I'm luckier than the man who got hit by Newton's apple."

Yu Zhi stared at the data on her computer, not listening to him.

He waited a while, his gaze growing more and more aggrieved. He waited until the gathering was over and everyone had left, until Yu Zhi closed her laptop, before asking seriously, "So, can I pursue you?"

Just like when they were teenagers, he was direct and passionate.

A passionate girl, born in the mud, who always reaches upward and blooms like a rose

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A gentle, reserved, humble, and elegant boy, like a swan

The story mainly follows their high school studies, competitions, and the secret crushes that unfold amid school life. The latter half follows the heroine as a graduate student.

They focus on studying in high school and don't date.

After a long separation, the hero takes the initiative, confesses, and pursues the heroine.

This is a story about a girl who shines brighter and brighter because of her secret crush.

Theme: Love is the most commonplace yet elegant fairy tale in the mortal world. You have to stand tall to make it your own.