Crash into the Galaxy

(Updated daily at 6 p.m.)

[Living-under-one-roof trope + age gap + unrequited love becomes mutual]

Qiao Yier first realized she had feelings for Lin Xu, her brother who shared neither parent with her, when she was sixteen.

She studied desperately to get into his university, then joined his company as an intern during her senior year.

But she followed him only from the shadows. Lin Xu had no idea.

As an insignificant junior intern, Qiao Yier assumed she'd never have any real interaction with Lin Xu, the company's CEO. It was enough just to hear about him from a distance.

But before long, they came face to face.

Qiao Yier's long lashes trembled as she lowered her gaze in alarm, hiding the chaos in her heart and forcing herself to remain composed. She greeted him respectfully: "Mr. Lin."

Confusion gathered on Lin Xu's handsome face. He raised an eyebrow and asked casually, "Don't you usually call me your brother?"

A colleague happened to see Qiao Yier riding to work in Lin Xu's car and found a chance to ask her, "Are you close with Mr. Lin? What's your relationship?"

Qiao Yier replied awkwardly, "We're not close. We just know each other."

As soon as the words left her mouth, Lin Xu's clear voice rang out behind her: "Qiao Qiao, let's go. We're going home for dinner."

They had indeed been invited by the Lin family elders to have dinner at the old family home, but it was set for seven in the evening, and there was still the whole afternoon to go.

Dazed, Qiao Yier followed Lin Xu away, only realizing this after a moment. "Are we going now? Isn't it too early?"

"It is early." Lin Xu looked at her, his narrowed dark eyes full of meaning. "Perfect. Let's go on a date and get to know each other better."

1. Both are each other's first love, and both are each other's first sexual partner.

2. Living-under-one-roof trope, but they're not listed in the same household register.

3. The author's abilities are limited. You don't need to tell me if you drop the story.

Please add my upcoming story to your reading list: "Meeting My Ex-Boyfriend at the Psychiatric Hospital"

After Nan Qing broke up with Gu Huating, she threw herself into work. In her free time, she sometimes wondered if their paths might cross again someday.

But no matter what, she never imagined she'd meet Gu Huating again at... a psychiatric hospital.

He didn't recognize her at all. The first thing he said was, "You've been staring at me for one minute and six seconds. Don't tell me it was love at first sight."

The next day, when Nan Qing came back, he looked aggrieved. "Sis, I'm so scared. Will you take me away?"

The day after that, his eyes were full of menace as he cornered Nan Qing against a wall. "I heard that the last two times you came, you got along pretty well with two different men. I'm curious. Who were they?"

Nan Qing: ???

Only then did Nan Qing learn that her ex-boyfriend had split into three different personalities. The worst part was that they didn't share memories.

So after two of his personalities had just kissed her until she could barely catch her breath, and she was trying to take a moment to recover, the third personality appeared and clung to her, insisting, "I only kissed you for the first time today."

Nan Qing: !!!

Over time, Nan Qing got used to Gu Huating's constant changes and was relieved that he was actively receiving treatment. But then she accidentally overheard his attending doctor say to him:

"Dissociative identity disorder is difficult to diagnose. You must have had a hard time pretending for so long..."

*Fake dissociative identity disorder × popular science writer

Upcoming story: "A Meeting on the Northern Frontier"

During her senior-year internship, Qiao Zhixia resolutely chose to go teach in northern Xinjiang.

Her roommates were astonished and surrounded her, asking, "There are so many places you could go if you want to teach. Why northern Xinjiang? It's so far away, on the other side of half the country!"

"Because I want to go." Qiao Zhixia brushed them off with a brief answer, a tall, slender figure flashing through her mind.

She first met him in northern Xinjiang.

What she never expected was that they would meet again there years later.

On her way to northern Xinjiang, Qiao Zhixia ran into Gu Ze. They tacitly treated each other as strangers.

But Qiao Zhixia was terrible at pretending, and before long one of her companions saw through her. "You and the famous photographer Gu knew each other before, didn't you?"

"Yes," Qiao Zhixia had to admit.

Her companion asked, "What was your relationship? You two seem kind of strange around each other."

"We had no relationship," Qiao Zhixia and Gu Ze said in unison.

But Gu Ze slowly added, "We were just each other's first love."

The school where Qiao Zhixia taught was remote, and Gu Ze often came to the area to take photographs, claiming the scenery was beautiful.

Qiao Zhixia looked at the dry, barren plants all around them and couldn't see what was so beautiful about the scenery.

But she saw through his excuse without calling him on it, letting him wander around nearby.

Their quiet routine was disrupted after a social gathering. A male teacher walked Qiao Zhixia back to the staff dormitory, and when she went upstairs, she saw Gu Ze.

He grabbed her arm with one hand and pinned her against the wall, bending down until his warm breath brushed her sensitive ear. "Looking to find someone? Why not give your ex-boyfriend first consideration?"

Theme: Growing toward a brighter future