Plucking the Stars

[Genius Musical Girl vs. All-Rounder Actor with Real Talent]

[Reunion After Years Apart / Mutual Secret Crush]

After graduating from high school, Ge Yao falls seriously ill. Her vocal cords are damaged, and it will take a year to recover.

Just before leaving school, Ge Yao manages to get the phone number of Fan Xingye, her classmate and secret crush of three years. Gathering her courage, she calls to confess.

But he mistakenly thinks she's a boy: "Sorry, bro, but your voice sounds kind of bad."

*

Four years later, two pieces of news send shockwaves through the music industry:

- Twenty-year-old singer-songwriter Ge Yao wins the Grammy Award for Best New Artist with her outstanding songwriting and ethereal, angelic voice. Her debut single, "Ballad," makes her the youngest Chinese winner ever.

- After returning to China, Ge Yao turns down an invitation to guest on a veteran star's global tour and instead agrees to sing the theme song for a low-budget TV drama.

A month later, the show becomes a smash hit. Fan Xingye, who plays the male lead, wins the Golden Eagle Award for Best Actor, becoming an Emperor of Television after just one drama. He's hailed as the most promising male star in the entertainment industry.

At a live music awards ceremony, Fan Xingye is scheduled to perform the theme song alongside its original singer.

When he sees a familiar face appear onstage and sing the first line, he freezes, forgetting the lyrics he'd rehearsed a hundred times.

After the ceremony, while netizens are frantically posting #FanXingyeWasStunnedWhenTheAngelSang#, she posts a seemingly unrelated message on Weibo:

@Ge Yao: Does my voice sound bad?

The post trends, and all five million comments say the same thing: "It's beautiful."

Backstage, just as Ge Yao is about to leave, she turns to Fan Xingye and says, "Out of five million people, you're the only one who ever said it sounded bad."

*

When Ge Yao is eighteen, she receives a mysterious letter from two years in the future:

"Hi, Yao Yao. I wrote a song for you as a gift for your coming of age. I hope you get it."

It contains the lyrics to a song titled "Ballad."

* They have a mutual crush and are each other's first love

* The heroine starts university at sixteen and changed her surname after graduating from high school

* Everything is fictional, with no real-life inspirations. It's all for maximum sweetness

Theme: Keep pursuing your dreams, even when they seem out of reach