Out of Reach

Updated daily at 18:00. The rest of the time is for revisions and fixing typos.

[1]

Lin Zhaolu is a struggling screenwriter whose name barely registers. To fulfill her dream, she adapts her high school crush into a screenplay.

She never expected the script to catch the eye of film emperor Meng Fanchen.

The usually aloof Meng Fanchen keeps discussing the script with her, analyzing the heroine's feelings as she secretly loves the hero.

Lin Zhaolu spends every day on edge, pretending she barely knows him and denying to her last breath that the characters are based on real people.

She is terrified he'll realize that the hero in the script is based on him.

On the day filming wraps, just as Lin Zhaolu breathes a sigh of relief, she receives a message from Meng Fanchen.

“Could you write a prequel for our movie, Ms. Lin?”

“Let's call it Before This Story Began, I Liked You Too.”

[2]

As a girl, Lin Zhaolu was always chasing after Meng Fanchen.

On the eve of graduation, just before she could confess, she heard that a talent scout had discovered him and he was joining the entertainment industry to act.

Her crush, which had never seen the light of day, was like her old diary, forgotten in a dusty corner.

She watched his career flourish, watched him grow ever more distant.

The day Meng Fanchen's romance was revealed, Lin Zhaolu dug her old high school diary out of a corner at home.

One page concealed the secrets of her girlhood

“I spent my whole youth trying to catch up with that unreachable star.

Then, overnight, I became one in a million people standing behind him.”

[3]

I was never an unreachable star, and you were never just one in a million.

With this film, I dedicate these ten years of love and missed chances to us, and to the one and only person I love.

The closing words of the film Unreachable, by Meng Fanchen.

Reading guide:

1. Mutual secret crushes, first love for both, happy ending

2. School and city life, slow burn, everyday moments

Next story: Who Messed with My Childhood Friend?

[1]

Ai Lantian and Xie Chu are sworn enemies who can't stand the sight of each other.

When Xie Chu reaches for a dish, she spins the table. When he drinks water, she adds salt. When he fences, she sings at the top of her lungs.

Xie Chu is taciturn, but he can always set her temper off with a single sentence.

The words Ai Lantian has said most often to Xie Chu, from childhood to adulthood, are: “Xie Chu, I'm definitely going to assassinate you tonight!”

Xie Chu always holds her at arm's length with one hand, ignoring her furious flailing. “Oh? Try reaching me first.”

It took Ai Lantian a long time to learn that fencing has only one rule: never let your opponent touch you.

Ai Lantian: “...Damn it, Xie Chu, you sly dog!”

Later, after an argument, the two of them give each other the silent treatment for a long time.

Not until Xie Chu wins the fencing world championships does she see him again. At the post-match interview, a reporter asks what he plans to do after the competition.

Xie Chu: “Go home and wait for an assassination.”

On the way home, Xie Chu calls Ai Lantian over. “Stick out your index finger.”

Confused, she does as she is told. “What for?”

Xie Chu takes two steps forward.

Her fingertip presses against his chest.

With a smile in his eyes, Xie Chu says, “Ai Lantian scores. Assassination successful.”

[2]

Ai Lantian keeps a grudge diary, and Xie Chu is the person who appears in it most often.

Later, the diary goes missing.

When Ai Lantian sees it again, it's on Xie Chu's desk.

She opens it and finds two extra lines on the last page.

“Let me tell you a secret.”

“The person in your diary has a crush on you.”

[3]

The three times Ai Lantian runs fastest in her life:

One, when her dad chases her after she's done something wrong;

Two, sprinting the hundred meters in a track-and-field race;

Three, going to see Xie Chu.

Theme: It turns out I'm a star in someone's eyes, too