A Ticket for Your Voyage

[Clear-headed, cold-blooded younger highway-and-bridge designer x fragile ice-queen teacher]

[Happy ending, 14-year age gap]

[No romance while the student-teacher relationship continues; no blood relation]

[Imperfect characters with obvious flaws. They can be selfish, dark, and petty, among other negative traits]

[Not each other's first kiss. A melodramatic, angsty story with potentially upsetting scenes]

[Thoroughly revised on 2024.2.22, with details polished. Please support the official version for the best reading experience]

In the stifling heat of early autumn, Xu Qingchen leaned against the lectern in a black shirt and white trousers. Su Yin came to report to her. "Teacher."

Xu Qingchen read Su Yin's name aloud. That year, Su Yin was sixteen.

Xu Qingchen was every bit as perfect as her name suggested, with a seemingly flawless air about her. For many years afterward, Su Yin never met another woman whose presence could compare to hers.

Su Yin knew Xu Qingchen didn't like students like her. She said she didn't like Xu Qingchen either, but the truth was, it hurt.

Later, neither of them knew who had first stepped into the other's world.

On the day Xu Qingchen got divorced, Su Yin stayed with her all night by the battered ping-pong table on the school field. The wind was cold, so they shared a school uniform jacket.

"Teacher, what's your favorite movie?"

"In the Mood for Love."

If you had an extra ticket, would you leave with me?

A little extra 1:

Xu Qingchen received another anonymous letter. It was thin. She quietly put it in a drawer and never opened it.

She thought she could forget everything by locking it away.

She didn't know that the more she ran away, the more her memories came roaring back.

"Xu Qingchen, why won't you take this ticket? Why won't you come away with me?"

"Disgusting."

"What is?"

"You, and this kind of love. It all disgusts me."

A little extra 2:

Xu Qingchen saw Su Yin again.

In the sunlight, in the rain, in the sky, in her dreams, and in Yu Zhi's social media posts.

On the school field, Xu Qingchen stood for a long time by the broken ping-pong table that had been torn down, looking all around. She couldn't find anything anymore.

At some point during an unremarkable day, Su Yin had moved on.

Their memories slowly faded. Su Yin might have forgotten her long ago, but Xu Qingchen was still living in the past.

Xu Qingchen couldn't hold it in anymore. She cried. The world broke its heart over her fragility, but one person didn't: Su Yin.

A little extra 3:

"I hate that you've been married. I think you're dirty. Do you understand? Xu Qingchen, I fucking think you're dirty."

Those words were a thorn in Xu Qingchen's heart, one she could never pull out.

When she said them, the other woman's eyes were full of disgust and repulsion. If a look could do harm, Xu Qingchen would have been cut to pieces long ago.

That woman was none other than Xu Qingchen's lover, Su Yin, who was now lying asleep beside her on the pillow.

Xu Qingchen tossed and turned, unable to sleep.

Before bed, she had kissed Su Yin and done everything she could to please her. She wished she could give Su Yin everything she had.

Su Yin only said flatly, "I'm tired."

That was all.

Xu Qingchen was left alone in the awkward silence of the night, one thought echoing again and again in her head:

Does she think I'm dirty again?

The Xu Qingchen who had once stood at the front of the classroom, embodying the full allure of a woman, was gone.

She had lost herself in this relationship.

She loved Su Yin so much and was so afraid of losing her. She was always jealous, envious, sensitive, and overthinking things, never feeling secure.

She cried all night, asking herself again and again:

How did I lose myself?

A little extra 4:

At a reception, the lighting was dim.

One woman in the crowd stood out above everyone else.

She wore an emerald evening gown, elegantly swirling her glass. Someone spoke to her, and she smiled with red lips, regal and aloof.

Su Yin walked over. "Long time no see."

The woman took a sip of wine, her eyes icy, and coolly spat out one word: "Get lost."

Theme: Face your inner self and learn to turn things around when you're in a difficult situation.