We Will Always Burn Bright

Age Gap / Childhood Friends Past Their Prime / Two People with Eight Hundred Schemes Each

Weibo: @TakeABiteOfStickyRice

1. When Xu Tingwan was little, she had a childhood friend who grew up by her side. Later, for various reasons, they gradually drifted apart and went years without contact.

Five years later, they met again through a university-industry partnership.

By then, he was a leading figure in his field, while Xu Tingwan was just a second-year master's student working hard to meet her graduation requirements.

The moment they unexpectedly ran into each other, her mind raced, searching for an answer...

After years apart, what should you say first to a childhood friend who's now past their prime?

-

2. At a university academic forum, Xu Tingwan's paper was selected, and she was invited to present it.

That day, the audience was packed with leading scholars and industry figures. Standing onstage, she spotted her old childhood friend Pei Jingxu, dressed in a suit, ruthless and sparing with words.

Her heart gave a jolt. She nervously opened her presentation file.

Below, Pei Jingxu flipped through her paper, marking it up as he went.

After the presentation, without even looking up, he offered a few concise remarks:

"I don't think that's necessarily true."

"Useless."

"Too much nonsense."

"The argument is shallow."

"It doesn't mean much."

When the forum ended, everyone crowded around him, striking up conversation under the pretext of exchanging ideas in the field.

Leaning back in his chair, he answered them here and there, but his gaze passed over the crowd and landed on Xu Tingwan, clutching her backpack and hunching over as she tried to escape.

He kept his eyes on her retreating figure, reining in his anger, and called out, "Come back."

Xu Tingwan stopped. Everyone's gaze shifted back and forth between the two of them.

Pei Jingxu stood up, fastened his suit jacket, and walked over to her. "I gave you all those comments, and you still haven't revised it. How exactly do you want me to praise you?"

-

3. Back when Pei Jingxu was still in academia, he lived up to his name: strict with himself and decisive in everything he did. No one dared slack off under his watch.

Word had it that he was dating a graduate student from a certain university, and that he watched her work on her thesis every day.

Just as everyone was feeling sorry for his girlfriend, they suddenly saw Pei Jingxu replying to a post she'd made on her social media a year earlier.

Xu Tingwan: Looking for a boyfriend who can fix thesis formatting.

Pei Jingxu: Am I just decoration?

Xu Tingwan: ?

Pei Jingxu: Send it to me.

Xu Tingwan: Sob, I don't dare. They all say you're really scary...

Pei Jingxu: That's only with them.

I ask nothing of anyone, not even of her. Except that she make me think of her., Fernando Pessoa

◎ He fell for her first. It isn't very obvious at first, but it will be explained later. The heroine is a late bloomer.

◎ Struggling graduate student x former research big shot

◎ A heroine who talks nonsense and never acts serious x a seemingly proper hero who'll become a lovesick puppy for love

◎ The heroine writes her own paper and revises it herself, including the formatting. The earlier "Looking for a boyfriend who can fix formatting" is just a joke.

◎ This is not a research-focused novel, and it has many fictional liberties, so please don't compare it to real life.

[Upcoming Novel] White Orange Pith, please add it to your collection

"Liking 'Gege' is like the bothersome pith between orange segments.

It's the mesh that traps the secrets of her young heart.

It's the kind of fiber society deems hateful."

Half asleep and half awake, Chen Ran'er sent this message:

"Seven o'clock, 1506, coming?"

An hour later, the screen lit up.

The person who replied was Zhou Shiqing. Just two words:

"Address."

The moment Chen Ran'er saw the name she'd saved in the chat window, she woke right up, all traces of sleepiness gone.

-

Later, Chen Ran'er sheepishly asked him about the room number she'd sent by mistake.

At the time, Zhou Shiqing was sitting across from her at the dining table, peeling an orange for her.

During those few seconds of silence, her heart raced, and she felt awkward and uneasy.

In other people's eyes, he was a proper older brother, an absolutely honorable elder.

Even Chen Ran'er knew she shouldn't cross the line, not even a little.

She'd always thought she'd hidden her feelings with great skill.

She never expected Zhou Shiqing to make them so plain: "Ranran. Your way of testing people really isn't very clever."

He sighed. His eyes plainly showed that he saw right through her, while his self-restraint was only a pretense.

"I can tell whether it was an accident or intentional."

A gentle breeze, a cleansing flame: one is my thoughts, the other my desire. Both are with you.

Theme: Let go of prejudice against talent and live life with a positive attitude!