A Faraway Land

Tibetan-region driver x Thangka painter Blurb: 1. In a desolate wilderness 3,294 meters above sea level, a gust of wind swept in, its perceived temperature less than seven degrees. The bonfire blazed. Cheng Qingyu gazed at the young woman’s face, speckled with sparks, and let out a long sigh. “There isn’t a single thing you’ve said that’s true.” The evening breeze lifted Wan Yao’s waterfall of hair. She pulled her thick shawl tighter and looked at him with a silent smile. “You can’t drive a manual?” “Don’t understand Tibetan?” “Your name’s the only thing that’s real, then?” Cheng Qingyu gave a mocking laugh. “And that’s only because I saw your ID.” Wan Yao suddenly looked up at him. “What if even my name is fake?” “Then that’s great.” Cheng Qingyu had nothing more to say. 2. The year Wan Yao first met Cheng Qingyu, she was nineteen. He was a carpool driver who spent most of the year traveling around the Tibetan regions. In his early thirties, he still spoke with a trace of a local accent. Dark-skinned, broad-shouldered, naturally curly-haired, and rough around the edges. She was smoking on an observation deck when he unexpectedly spotted her. Their gazes met through the haze, and a hint of amusement entered the man’s strong, regular features. When she climbed into the passenger seat of his commercial vehicle on the Yunnan-Tibet loop again, the man beside her rested his hands lightly on the steering wheel. In an offhand tone, he laid down a new rule: “No smoking in this car.” Wan Yao hadn’t planned to pay him any attention, let alone imagine that one day… they would be wrapped in each other’s arms beside a hot, clammy bed. He would drape an arm casually over her sweat-damp shoulder and take the half-smoked cigarette from her. 1. The story is inspired by the Yunnan-Tibet loop, including places such as Shangri-La, Meili Snow Mountain, and Tiger Leaping Gorge. All specific locations in the story are fictional, so please don’t scrutinize them too closely. 2. The heroine is sweet on the surface but secretly calculating; the hero is steady as a rock. There’s a significant age gap: she’s 19 and he’s 32. 3. Road-trip story | simmering tension | age gap | flirtatious heroine x subtly seductive hero 4. Blurb written on 2023.7.10 and screenshot saved Theme: Love and courage