Mystery Romance | Campus | Part Southeast Asian Road Trip
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/Is there anything to do during a boring adolescence?
Like what?
/Let loose, that sort of thing.
Skipping class, playing truant, fighting, young love... Just having fun without a care.
/I think all of that is too shallow.
...Then give me an example of something that isn't shallow.
/Do you want to kill someone?
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Xia Tan was always at the top of her grade.
Smart, pretty, and well-behaved.
She wore her long, straight hair neatly tucked behind her ears. Her uniform was always buttoned up to the very top, and her eyes curved into a smile when she looked at people. She spoke softly.
Teng Ye was a notorious delinquent in Nanyue.
He wore his hair half long, had a brow piercing, and always had a small black cross earring dangling from his left earlobe.
Fighting, skipping class, playing in a band with his electric guitar... He was good for nothing.
Almost no one could imagine the two of them together.
But then, one day, Xia Tan's grandmother called the police and reported her missing. More than 24 hours had passed.
The police pulled footage from the school and street cameras.
In the footage, a boy and a girl climbed over the school wall. With a motorcycle chasing the sunset, they sped toward the end of the road.
Young love. Running away together.
The police reached their conclusion and made a token effort to have the teachers and both families warn them.
No one took it seriously. They thought it was just teenage hormones.
But then, one day, an unsigned envelope arrived at Xia Tan's home.
Inside was a photograph, half soaked in blood. Xia Tan lay in a pool of blood, her eyes vacant.
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Notes:
1. Happy ending. All the mysteries will be revealed in the story.
2. The male and female leads are adults and ethnic Chinese from abroad. The countries and locations are entirely fictional, with customs and scenery inspired by Southeast Asia (Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia).
3. This is a romance with a suspenseful mystery, focused on the emotional push and pull beneath the mystery plot. It's not suited to readers who want hard-core deduction, nor to readers who want a pure romance. For the balance between mystery and romance, see my completed work "Xue Xiu," where the two are roughly equal.
Theme: A turbulent youth
