Meeting Spring

After deciding to give up dancing, Wen Hui traveled alone to an old water town in the Jiangnan region to clear her head.

It was early spring, the off-season for tourists, and the rain kept falling.

The whole town was shrouded in mist, and the ground was damp.

When Wen Hui arrived at the guesthouse with her suitcase, the owner wasn't there.

Not long after she called the number on the sign, she heard footsteps on the stairs.

Following the sound with her eyes, Wen Hui saw a familiar, striking face.

The man wore a hoodless sweatshirt, broad-shouldered and narrow-waisted.

A beautiful white ragdoll cat walked beside his leg. He held a phone in his left hand and spoke in a lazy drawl:

"I know. Stop rushing me. I'm coming downstairs."

As he spoke, he looked up.

Their eyes met unexpectedly.

Wen Hui saw that Xie Qi seemed to have more to say, but the moment his gaze met hers, he froze, visibly stunned.

He stared at her, all kinds of emotions tangled in his eyes.

Wen Hui found her old classmate's reaction strange, but didn't think much of it. She simply smiled and greeted him first.

At the time, Wen Hui had no idea what that look from Xie Qi meant.

She didn't find out until one night after they'd started dating. While helping Xie Qi tidy up, she accidentally came across an old, yellowed letter. The first line had Wen Hui's name, and the last line read:

I love you.

But the date at the end was: 2015.6.6

/I was once trapped in a mire, convinced that this was how it would end

Until you came carrying spring/

Reading notes: 1. The male lead has a secret crush on the female lead. Happy ending.

2. The female lead has dated before, but that relationship has ended.

3. The male lead is a soldier who retired early due to an injury and has a disability in one hand.

4. Ensemble cast, slow-burn realism. None of the characters, leads or supporting cast, are perfect.

5. The characters are not based on real people, and the place names are fictional.

Related novel in the author's collection: "Rain Tonight"

One month into their marriage.

Liang Shuyue wrapped up the case she was working on and returned from the procuratorate to the new home she shared with Zhou Yanchuan.

The house was dark when she arrived, and Zhou Yanchuan wasn't home.

Liang Shuyue opened her phone and saw that their chat history still ended on the day they registered their marriage. Zhou Yanchuan had sent her a message:

[It's going to rain tonight. Should I come pick you up?]

She'd been too busy with work and had forgotten to reply.

Looking at the sky darkening outside, and thinking about how they hadn't made time for each other during their entire first month of marriage, Liang Shuyue finally put on her coat and decided to go pick Zhou Yanchuan up at the air force base.

Before leaving, she sent Zhou Yanchuan a message.

But when she arrived at the air force base, he was nowhere to be seen, so Liang Shuyue had no choice but to grab an umbrella and get out of the car.

As she approached the gate, she saw two tall figures standing there. By instinct, she stopped in front of the more handsome one.

"Hello, I'm looking for Zhou Yanchuan. I'm his wife."

Under the rain, the handsome, roguish man in front of her stiffened.

Then he narrowed his eyes and practically ground out,

"Liang Shuyue, you can't even remember what your own husband looks like?"

"..."

*

Zhou Yanchuan had a wooden box he treasured dearly.

One day, while he was away at work, Liang Shuyue opened it to take a look.

Along with Zhou Yanchuan's military medals, the box held an old, yellowed photograph.

The girl in the photo wore a school uniform and had her hair tied in a high ponytail. She had a youthful face.

She was Liang Shuyue at seventeen.

"From now on, the moonlight will shine on me alone."

Procurator x pilot

Theme: Apart from life and death, everything else is a small matter