An Encounter in Xinjiang

(Complete)

During her senior-year internship, Sui Yue made up her mind to teach in northern Xinjiang.

Her roommates were shocked. They surrounded her, all talking at once: "What on earth are you thinking? You're actually going to northern Xinjiang? It's so far from here, on the other side of half the country!"

"Because I want to," Sui Yue replied tersely, brushing them off. A tall, upright figure flashed through her mind.

She had first met him in northern Xinjiang.

What she never expected was that they would meet again there three years later.

As soon as Sui Yue arrived in northern Xinjiang, she ran into Gu Ze and resolved to treat him like a stranger.

But Sui Yue was hopeless at pretending, and it didn't take long for a colleague to catch on. "You and the famous photographer Gu knew each other before, didn't you?"

"Yeah." Sui Yue had no choice but to admit it.

Her colleague asked, "What was your relationship? You two seem kind of weird around each other."

Sui Yue brushed it off. "We weren't anything to each other."

"Right, nothing to each other," Gu Ze said in his cool voice, slowly adding, "Just first loves."

Their awkward standoff came to an end after a social gathering. A male teacher walked Sui Yue back to the teachers' apartments, and when she went upstairs, she found Gu Ze waiting there.

He restrained her arm with one hand, gripped her slender waist, and pinned her against the wall. Bending close, he breathed hotly against her most sensitive spot, her collarbone. "Looking to find someone? Wouldn't you consider your ex-boyfriend first?"

Gu Ze leaned in closer, his lips grazing her collarbone as though he could barely resist biting down. "At least we know each other inside and out."

He enunciated those last words slowly, leaving their meaning wide open.

Coming soon: Meeting My Ex-Boyfriend at a Psychiatric Hospital

After Nan Qing broke up with Gu Huating, she threw herself into work. In her spare time, she sometimes wondered if they might cross paths again someday.

But no matter what, she never imagined that the next time she saw Gu Huating would be at... a psychiatric hospital.

He didn't recognize her at all. The first thing he said was, "You've been staring at me for one minute and six seconds. Don't tell me it was love at first sight."

The next day, when Nan Qing returned, he looked aggrieved. "Big Sis, I'm scared. Will you take me away?"

The day after that, his eyes dark with menace, he cornered Nan Qing against a wall. "I heard you came by the last two times and got along pretty well with two different men. I'm curious, who were they?"

Nan Qing: ???

Only then did Nan Qing learn that her ex-boyfriend had split into three personalities. Worst of all, they didn't share memories.

Which meant that just after two of his personalities had kissed her breathless, and she was trying to catch her breath, the third would switch in, cling to her, and insist, "Today was the first time I've ever kissed you."

Nan Qing: !!!

Over time, Nan Qing got used to Gu Huating's many sides and was glad he was actively receiving treatment. But then she accidentally overheard his attending physician say to him:

"It's difficult to diagnose dissociative identity disorder. You've really kept up the act for a long time..."

Theme: Devotion to one person