Stealing the Light

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School Days: [Resilient top student girl VS rebellious basketball boy]

Urban: [Obsessive, straightforward type VS restrained, deeply devoted type]

Mutual crush / Reunion after years apart / Mutual healing

*

“The broken sun finally found the moon that belonged only to him.”, Stealing Light

1.

Meng Er always kept a photograph in her black coin purse.

There were two people in it. One was a boy wearing a blue-and-white school uniform. The other was dressed in a bulky black-and-white panda mascot costume, making it impossible to tell who was inside.

The boy’s black hair fell softly over his brow. His features were full of youthful spirit, and he wore a carefree smile, deep dimples showing in his cheeks.

That smiling face became the pure, spotless moon that Meng Er carefully hid in her heart through her darkest years.

On the back of the photo, Meng Er had written these words the summer Lin Jianian disappeared: “We never confessed, and we never said goodbye. Just like that, I lost him in the crowd.”

2.

Meng Er saw Lin Jianian again seven years later, at the Huaining Wanderers’ championship game.

The boy who once wore a basketball jersey, sweating it out on the court and leading his team to victory, now sat at the sidelines in a suit, his gaze dark and stern, like a wolf ready to pounce at any moment.

Her eyes stung. It was as if she were inside a dream she had relived a thousand times. All the resentment and longing she had accumulated over seven years burst out at once.

She summoned almost all her strength before finally calling out to him: “Lin Jianian!”

His familiar smile and dimples were still there, but his eyes were unreadable, and he treated her like a stranger. In a gentle voice full of distance, he said, “Meng, long time no see.”

3.

After that day, Meng Er resolved to tear him out of her heart, no matter what it took.

On a rainy night in late autumn, beneath the yellow glow of a streetlamp at the mouth of an alley, a tall, slender boy stood waiting for her in a familiar school uniform.

He held Meng Er by the shoulders. Tears welled in his reddened eyes. “Actually, last time I wanted to say, ”

“Long time no see. I missed you so much.”

“And I always knew you were the one inside that panda costume.”

Both first love and first time | Both inexperienced | Happy ending

[PS: The panda-costume photo scene was inspired by a real story shared on Douyin by the user “A Little Bit Too Fond of You.” Adapted with permission.]

Reader’s Guide:

① The leads’ professions are fictionalized. Please don’t overanalyze them.

② School days first, then city life.

③ There will be a tiny bit of angst, and the leads will have their awkward phases, but not much. Feel free to enjoy.

④ The male lead’s adult personality is quite different from his school-day self, but the female lead will eventually heal him.

⑤ No intimate scenes during their school years.

⑥ The girlfriends won’t fall out, and the guys won’t turn against each other.

⑦ Songs and books are mentioned in the story. Please don’t discuss them anywhere except in this story’s comment section. Thank you for understanding.

(Blurb revised on January 15, 2023, screenshot saved.)

Theme: Love can overcome anything.