Seven Miles of Winter

■ Fan community: Qili Dong ■ Signed for publication. Print edition updates: Weibo: Xiao Changjin One day after the college entrance exam, Dong Yu was working as an NPC in a haunted house when the person she'd had a crush on for ages showed up. The light was so dim that neither of them could see the other's face. She held her breath as the boy walked over, lightly tapped her forehead, and asked the control room, "Does this count as completing the task?" A wave of bitterness surged through her. She quietly started to cry. She left the haunted house, took off her mask, and was about to go home. But Lu Liangfang walked over with his hands in his pockets, casually set down a bottle of warm milk, tilted his head, and called out, "You've been crying for ages. Did I hit you that hard?" * Remember their high school days? They went to different schools. Dong Yu was always seeing him on the citywide rankings. She'd use visiting a friend at his school as an excuse, though what she really wanted was to sneak a look at him. It was a bitterly cold winter. She turned around with her thermos in hand and saw how lively his class was. The boy leaned against the radiator, full of spirit and surrounded by admirers. A pretty girl walked up to him, cheeks flushed. The crowd was deafening, urging him to hurry up and say yes. "Qilixiang" by Jay Chou was playing over the school radio. She could no longer make out his face, and didn't know how things turned out. * "Anyway, I thought my crush story was definitely going to have a bad ending. I was even saying what a shame it was." When Dong Yu got home, she saw a new friend request on WeChat. Lu: "Your manager said I assaulted an NPC. Can you approve my request if you can see this?" She suddenly remembered the love letter in her drawer that she'd never dared to give him. "You must be a dream." Gu Cheng, "You and Me" ● A crush comes true + reunion after years apart, pure love, happy ending ● Gentle and beautiful girl × darling of heaven, rich young master ● Please don't dig up drafts or compare rankings!! Extremely, extremely, extremely slow burn ● Title inspired by Jay Chou's "Qilixiang" Next novel: "Melting Ice" 1. A magnitude earthquake hits Nancheng, and Xi Weixing wakes up trapped beneath a pile of rubble. Her vision goes black, her arm is stained with blood, and weakly, she leaves a final message in her notes. She thinks she's going to die today. But then a beam of light slips through from above. A man in military uniform jumps down through the rubble and crouches in front of her. He calls her by her full name, his voice low and scornful: "Are you okay?" Xi Weixing can't forget this moment. It's Chen Changxu, the man she'd brutally dumped back then. 2. In high school, Chen Changxu was infamous for being a delinquent at No. 1 High. Xi Weixing went to another school to receive an award and happened to see Chen Changxu reading a confession in the schoolyard. His homeroom teacher was exasperated, and the girls blushed. The boy glanced over nonchalantly. Xi Weixing's face was as white as the ice cream in his hand, and her whole body was soft and fluffy like a little lamb. She looked like a model student. When they were together, Chen Changxu climbed the wall every day by riding on his friend's shoulders, just to see her. He bought her lunch and cold medicine. Even during the worst of the pandemic, he never missed a day in her world. When they broke up, he wore the hair tie she'd given him and lay down on the railway tracks. It was the coldest, rainiest season of the year. 3. She never expected to meet again like this. Xi Weixing lowers her eyes, avoiding the man's cold gaze. Chen Changxu closes in on her, taking revenge one step at a time. With nowhere left to retreat, she falls onto the sofa. His leg pins down her skirt, and her gaze turns uneasy. He looks down at her and lights a cigarette. "What are you afraid of? Do you think I'm going to eat you alive?" So who the hell said you could dump me?