A few warnings up front:
1. The male lead is a complete scumbag: he cheats, emotionally abuses and deceives people, and pays lip service to feminism. He's guilty of every sin, and he won't be redeemed.
2. The female lead is a hopeless romantic, but eventually she comes to her senses.
3. This story was written entirely to condemn scumbags.
4. Bad ending.
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Synopsis
When Qiao Yu first saw Xu Shuoye, the only words that came to mind were, "He stands tall as an orchid tree, and his smile is like the moonlight in your arms."
He stood onstage, speaking with effortless poise. She watched from below, a tiny, distant star gazing up at his radiant brilliance.
She thought their paths would never cross again, until she received a copy of Daddy-Long-Legs from him. On the title page, he had written: Before I met you, I was all alone, desperately and hopelessly fighting against the whole world.
But beneath the beautiful packaging, there was nothing but lie after lie.
Theme: Don't lose yourself in love
"Morality condemns you to death, philosophy exonerates you" from Camus' "The Stranger"
"Don't think about things you haven't had before" comes from "Daddy Long Legs", but there are differences in translation.
"When you grow up, you hate having fun but you are willing to love a thousand pieces of gold and smile lightly." From Song Qi's "Spring in the Jade House"
"You can come and go without any hindrance, but you are confused and full of sorrow and joy? Are you talking about closeness and distance? Why were you so busy in the past? Now, it's boring to think about it now!" From "A Dream of Red Mansions"
"Fuck you, I just want it to smell like this..." From Wang Zengqi's "Gardenia"
The quotes quoted are all from Wang Guowei.
"Disturbing the dust of horses and carriages, being merciless by the years, secretly disappearing young people." From Yuan Haowen's "Yulu Chi·Yong Huai" "The greatest secret of morality is love" by Shelley
"Shazes slanting on the mountainside with hazy clouds all turn into flourishing poems in Manchuria" comes from Zhang Yanghao's "Luomei Yin", and other quoted articles should be noted.
This passage on the title page is quoted from the introduction of a certain version of "Daddy Long Legs"