A Harbor in Deep Affection

When Meng Shuiyi was eighteen, a man moved in next door. He was a distant relative, so distant they were barely related.

He was handsome, but spent all day cooped up inside, growing more and more gloomy.

She was terribly curious about him. One day, she barged into his home without thinking.

The sight before her left her stunned.

After that, she kept showing up at his place, doing everything she could to stay by his side.

–

They met again later at the birthday party of one of Meng Shuiyi's admirers.

The guests mingled over drinks, dressed in fine clothes. She heard them talking about him:

The newly appointed head of the Bai family was the old master Bai's illegitimate son, who had been living as a drifter. No one had ever heard of him, but as soon as he returned, the whole city was in an uproar.

She glanced over. He was smiling and chatting, but his eyes held the icy, sharp glint of needles.

He seemed nothing like the man who, on a stormy summer night years ago, had grabbed her wrist, pinned her against the wall, and kissed her with passionate abandon.

He blocked her way in an empty corridor.

She smiled politely, her manner distant. "I haven't been back in the country for a long time. May I ask who you are?"

He caught hold of her, his voice dropping, his anger barely restrained. "Shuiyi, do you really have to talk to me like this?"

–

A huge oil painting hung in Bai Zhou's villa. It was titled Spring Boat.

In the painting, a wooden boat floated on spring waters, carrying a young woman. She stood with her arms spread wide, surrounded by a lush spring landscape.

Only later did they learn that the girl in the painting was his wife, ten years younger than him, whom he cherished above all else.

"I write of mountains and rivers, of spring's delight. But you alone are the love poem I could spend my whole life writing and never finish."

–

Fate is a broken boat, rocking as it carries me to shore, where I anchor in the depths of love.

And you are my Noah's Ark.

"My heart is not a stone, that it can be turned. My heart is not a mat, that it can be rolled up."

The Book of Songs: Cypress Boat

#One on One, Happy Ending. See the author's note in Chapter One for specific content warnings.

#Urban fairy tale, bittersweet and sweet, 95% sweetness

Theme: Live life to the fullest