In high school, Cheng Yu was one of the quietest students in class. Ning Yao barely interacted with him, aside from reminding him to hand out homework.
Back then, she was popular and had plenty of friends. Someone as quiet and unremarkable as Cheng Yu never caught her eye. By the time she transferred schools, they'd said fewer than ten words to each other in total.
Later, the compliment Ning Yao heard most often from her friends was that Cheng Yu, who'd been an average student back then, had become polished and successful, nothing like the boy he'd once been.
At the time, Ning Yao was busy earning money to pay off debts, so she had no time to care.
At a class reunion, a male classmate sitting in the back asked, "Hey, Ning Yao, are you still in touch with Cheng Yu? Didn't he like you?"
Only then did Ning Yao suddenly remember him. She looked astonished. "How could he possibly have liked me?"
The other man scratched his head. "Huh? But I clearly saw him secretly write you a love letter before you transferred."
Ning Yao held her wineglass in midair, looking bewildered.
She looked up. Someone had just come through the door, dressed in a suit, with a clear, handsome face, utterly unlike the unremarkable boy from before.
Amid the clinking glasses and cheerful chatter, Cheng Yu took a seat beside her.
Their positions had reversed over the years, and Ning Yao couldn't help feeling awkward. She greeted him first. "Long time no see."
Cheng Yu looked up at her and was about to speak.
Then a former classmate, drunk and carried away, came over and draped an arm over Cheng Yu's shoulder. "Cheng Yu, didn't you write Ning Yao a love letter in our second year of high school?"
Ning Yao couldn't interrupt in time.
Cheng Yu lowered his head and looked at her with deep, dark eyes. He said nothing for a long moment. Then, in front of everyone in the room, he admitted sincerely, "Yeah, I did."
After a sudden crisis struck her family, Ning Yao fell from the heights of wealth and pride into the dust. She thought everyone was pretending to be nice to her while secretly laughing behind her back.
She never imagined someone had liked her for eight years, just as he always had.
"To me, she's a burst of rainbow-colored fireworks, brilliant and sparkling."
Theme: Those who work hard shine the brightest.
