Onstage, Behind the Mirror

[Clear-eyed, resilient female photographer x laid-back dance-theater actor]

One summer, when she was twenty, Qi Yitong met the freest soul under heaven, high on a plateau three thousand meters above sea level. For the first time in her life, she found something she wanted to do and someone she wanted to love.

Over the following years, she traveled across mountains, rivers, and deserts, gradually realizing that Yang Xian could be anything to her. He didn't necessarily have to be her lover.

Still, whenever the wind rose, she would think of him dancing for her in the distance, before a snowy mountain peak, his clothes and hair whipping in the wind.

That was why she first picked up a camera.

Yang Xian had been surrounded by love and applause since birth, so when he realized someone loved him, he only found it troublesome.

But Qi Yitong was like a wildfire burning quietly. They had an innate connection, and he didn't mind her getting close, though that was all.

It wasn't until long after Qi Yitong had left that he heard someone talk about souls resonating, about how each person has a other half cut away by the gods.

He found himself thinking of her, overcome by a sense of loss and a feeling that she had been destined for him all along.

"If anyone was saved, then I was the one who was brought into the light."

[Reader's guide]

1. A bittersweet romance, probably a story about two people teaching each other how to love.

2. The theater festival is inspired by the Wuzhen Theater Festival. Some place names are fictional.

If you enjoy second-chance romances, check out the completed story Springtime Out of Place and the upcoming story Layers Upon Layers.

Theme: When words of love fail, learn more ways to express them.