[Tang Xiaoyi] Goldfish on a Lonely Isle

[Before You Read]

1. Couple: Tang Xiaoyi x original female protagonist, Lu Dao Mi

2. Unless something unexpected happens, this should be a second-chance romance.

3. Fair warning: The characters may be out of character, the writing is rough, and the plot is a mess. Best not to think too hard while reading.

4. If anything makes you uncomfortable while reading, please stop immediately.

Recommended BGM: Princess Wendy's Guard - Accusefive

The actual blurb begins below.

After climbing out of the Mimir Spring, Tang Xiaoyi rested for a while before returning to Saint St. Ding to continue his studies.

It was now the spring semester of his first year of high school. As transfer students, Tang Xiaoyi and another student were brought to the front of the classroom by their homeroom teacher to introduce themselves to their classmates.

The girl who had just shared a pair of earphones with him smiled warmly, her eyes curving into crescents. "Hello, my name is Lu Dao Mi."

After that, they shared many things: the same bag of candy, the same coconut, the same drink, the same "secret hideout."

Until they themselves became part of the same history.

-

During her first year of college, Lu Dao Mi was cleaning the house when she found a gift box in the dusty storage room.

The box was sky blue, with a faint, shimmering glow. Red paint had been used to sketch a few goldfish swimming between sky and lake, with nowhere to call home. She turned it over and found a gold-plated clasp on the side. With a click, she opened it. A pair of earrings and a thin piece of paper rolled out.

The earrings were shaped like chrysanthemums, dyed a vivid orange-red. Layer upon layer of petals clustered together in a bloom, set on a golden base. The posts that went through the piercings were made of pure silver, thin and wrapped in soft silicone backs. Lu Dao Mi held them in her palm, turning them over once before placing them back in the box. Then she picked up the paper. A few words were written across it in sweeping, flamboyant strokes:

"For Lu Dao Mi"

There was no signature, but she still remembered that they were a gift from Tang Xiaoyi.

-

On the first day of graduate school, Tang Xiaoyi got off at the subway station near campus. Under the scorching late-summer sun, he dragged his suitcase for ten minutes, sweating profusely, before reaching the school gates. Fortunately, volunteers were there to welcome new students, sparing him the dilemma of which suitcase to put down so he could free a hand to show his admission letter.

As a volunteer took his luggage and he bent down to fill in the registration form, a familiar yet unfamiliar scent brushed past Tang Xiaoyi's nose.

At first, he paid it no mind. After filling in his information, he stood up, said, "Thank you," and tried to take his luggage back. Then, quite unexpectedly, he glanced up and met the volunteer's eyes.

She was clearly taken aback for a moment. Then she raised one eyebrow, wearing an expression that was both familiar and strange to Tang Xiaoyi, with a hint of teasing amusement.

Lu Dao Mi said, "So it's you, Tang Xiaoyi."

-

Since we've met again here, and neither of us has met anyone better over the past few years, and we don't think we're likely to find anyone more suited to us in the future,

why don't we give it another try and get back together?

Let's just pretend these years were wasted, golden years that didn't belong to either of us.

*The cover was made by the author. The background image is from the internet.

Theme: A sweet-and-sour little island story.