[The full novel is complete. The simplified Chinese edition was released on December 17, 2022, and is available on all platforms.]
Every graduation season, yearbooks are always one of the hottest items around.
So, in the year they graduated from high school, Xie (pronounced “xie”) Lin also bought one at his underlings’ urging and casually passed it around for people to fill in. After lunch break, he quickly received a thick stack of “replies,” all filled to the brim.
Amid the tender confessions from a crowd of lovestruck girls,
there was one especially tactless message in the well-wishes column: “Xie Lin, I hope your studies go well and your future is bright.”
The earnest yet ill-timed wording
could only have come from the girl Chi Xue.
*
But things did not go as hoped, and in the end, he let everyone down. His future was indeed not bright.
Instead, he stumbled into a mire. Nearly ten years passed like a dream, and he resigned from the police force and moved into a run-down public housing block. One night, an old injury flared up. With no choice, he braved the heavy snow and sought help at the dilapidated little clinic across the street.
The desk lamp inside flickered on and off. The doctor, bent over her desk filling out a medical record, lifted her face. Her features were plain and clean. He seemed to have seen her somewhere before.
“Name?” she asked.
“...Xie Lin.”
Before long, the room fell silent, until all that remained was the “scratch, scratch” of her pen against the paper.
Suddenly, he said, “You actually knew it was this Xie.”
Her hand paused.
She suddenly stared at him in a daze. But Xie Lin’s expression remained quiet, his brow slightly furrowed.
Ten years later, she still felt ashamed of herself under his gaze.
*
“His eyes suddenly fell on the blue vase on the desk in front of him.
The vase was empty. For the first time in all these years, it was empty on his birthday. There were no flowers in it. He was seized by a sudden shock: it was as if an invisible door had suddenly opened, and a chilling draft from another world had blown into his silent room.
He felt death. He felt immortal love.”
Stefan Zweig, Letter from an Unknown Woman
See below for the blurb of the upcoming novel Softhearted
Have you ever met someone who was born kind?
She gives all her spare change to street performers and beggars, and can’t help comforting an adult who breaks down on the roadside.
She can’t stand seeing children in impoverished mountain villages suffer, so she’s donated money every year since third grade. She’s so softhearted that she can’t even refuse flyers handed to her on the street, always replying earnestly, “Thank you, I’ll take a look.”
Qin Sixi is that kind of born-good person.
She was born ordinary and grew up unremarkably, and all she wants is to live a peaceful life. Of course, if she could also reform Wan Zhi, the brat next door who’s always tricking her into doing bad things, that would be nice. It’s the only extraordinary thing on her wish list.
*
On the day Qin Sixi got married, Wan Zhi didn’t show up. He only sent her a text: “I’d planned to take you in, reluctantly, if you were still unmarried at twenty-six. Now that you’re married, congratulations.”
On the day Qin Sixi got divorced, bad luck inevitably followed the good.
Wan Zhi really did give up his chance to win a fifth consecutive championship just to insist on returning home. He even waited outside her house, attracting a crowd of girls who passed by and couldn’t bear to leave.
Afraid of making a spectacle of herself, and worried he’d come all this way just to laugh at her, she hurriedly helped him up.
As a result, when he knelt on one knee, his leg had gone numb and he couldn’t keep his balance. He toppled down with a thump, landing on both knees. Without time to worry about anything else, he shakily pulled out a ring that had been out of style for two years and proposed to her.
Qin Sixi was dumbfounded.
Other people propose by saying, “I’ll treat you well for the rest of my life.”
When Wan Zhi proposed to Qin Sixi, he said, “I’ll be a good person for the rest of my life, and give you the happiest life possible.”
And he did.
*
There is only one kind of heroism in the world: to see life for what it is, and still love it.
Romain Rolland
Theme: For whom do you stand in the night wind and dew?
How can I put it, if a person persists in his despicability but is able to achieve perfection, and insists on his nobility but has nothing, even if there is his seeking for benevolence and getting benevolence, it still makes people sad. I hate Ye Nansheng, maybe there is a reason like "a despicable person stole the last light of a noble person's life", right? Those letters that were buried due to Ye's jealousy are the biggest pain for me while reading this article. The last trace of an unknown hero in the world should not be wasted like this.
I'm very conflicted, I don't like this story because it's not satisfying enough. But I surprisingly finished reading a chapter without missing a chapter, and cried through a pack of tissues.
At first, I didn't read the beginning or the end, but the ending of the subplot. Yes, I was attracted, and I read all the subplots, which made me decide to read the entire novel.
The author wrote it very well. He had been holding back tears almost since Chi Xue suddenly hugged Xie Lin, and couldn't hold back the moment he got home. I cried about Ye Nansheng's failure to love despite all the tricks (although the subplot was together), I cried about Liang Zhen's final awakening, I cried about Huang Yu's bravery for his daughter, I cried about Huaiyuan's unwillingness to let go of his girl even to the end because he was too sad and turned into a butterfly to accompany her through every moment of life, I cried about Xiaoxue and Xiaojie's last tenderness, I cried about the two corpses in the last subplot turned out to be Big Wave and Potato Chips, I cried about thanking Lin for the letter she had to send until she died, a total of 372 letters.
Finally, I like this story. Life is never perfect, and there will always be a lot of regrets. The regrets in winter will be engraved in my heart.
To be honest, I didn't like Ye Nansheng from the beginning to the end. He was too despicable and I really can't have a good impression of him.
Winter night replies, youth echoes. Goodbye Xiao Xie Xiaoxue. Teacher Xiaolin, see you next time!
It seems that both endings cannot be simply defined by he or be. They are just two possible endings. Thank you to the author for not giving the protagonist inexplicable good luck or superpowers and forcing an almost impossible happy ending. Although I was really sad and heartbroken when I read it, this reading experience was very real and immersive.
I cried so hard after reading it. In just a few dozen chapters, the entangled life of the two was written.
Fortunately, there was a reply, and he was waiting for me during the long winter night.
If you are a good person, you have to be nice.
If you are a bad person, I hope you will be fine while accepting punishment.
Ah, I still want to see Huang Yu Jie Jun
I'm really sick when I'm riding a horse. Seeing this ending [split]
How can I put it, if a person persists in his despicability but is able to achieve perfection, and insists on his nobility but has nothing, even if there is his seeking for benevolence and getting benevolence, it still makes people sad. I hate Ye Nansheng, maybe there is a reason like "a despicable person stole the last light of a noble person's life", right? Those letters that were buried due to Ye's jealousy are the biggest pain for me while reading this article. The last trace of an unknown hero in the world should not be wasted like this.
I'm very conflicted, I don't like this story because it's not satisfying enough. But I surprisingly finished reading a chapter without missing a chapter, and cried through a pack of tissues. At first, I didn't read the beginning or the end, but the ending of the subplot. Yes, I was attracted, and I read all the subplots, which made me decide to read the entire novel. The author wrote it very well. He had been holding back tears almost since Chi Xue suddenly hugged Xie Lin, and couldn't hold back the moment he got home. I cried about Ye Nansheng's failure to love despite all the tricks (although the subplot was together), I cried about Liang Zhen's final awakening, I cried about Huang Yu's bravery for his daughter, I cried about Huaiyuan's unwillingness to let go of his girl even to the end because he was too sad and turned into a butterfly to accompany her through every moment of life, I cried about Xiaoxue and Xiaojie's last tenderness, I cried about the two corpses in the last subplot turned out to be Big Wave and Potato Chips, I cried about thanking Lin for the letter she had to send until she died, a total of 372 letters. Finally, I like this story. Life is never perfect, and there will always be a lot of regrets. The regrets in winter will be engraved in my heart.
To be honest, I didn't like Ye Nansheng from the beginning to the end. He was too despicable and I really can't have a good impression of him.
Winter night replies, youth echoes. Goodbye Xiao Xie Xiaoxue. Teacher Xiaolin, see you next time!
It seems that both endings cannot be simply defined by he or be. They are just two possible endings. Thank you to the author for not giving the protagonist inexplicable good luck or superpowers and forcing an almost impossible happy ending. Although I was really sad and heartbroken when I read it, this reading experience was very real and immersive.
I cried so hard after reading it. In just a few dozen chapters, the entangled life of the two was written.
Fortunately, there was a reply, and he was waiting for me during the long winter night.
If you are a good person, you have to be nice. If you are a bad person, I hope you will be fine while accepting punishment.
Ah, I still want to see Huang Yu Jie Jun
I'm really sick when I'm riding a horse. Seeing this ending [split]