The rain in Cambridge pattered down, yet it could not compare to the snow in Edinburgh, which fell with such tenderness and grandeur.
This little city, shrouded in mist all year round, holds the world's longest-lasting regrets and offers shelter to all the tenderness that arrives too late. Through more than thirty years of life's ups and downs, Cai Yiyang has lived with a faint sense of melancholy. In the bitter late autumn of her fifteenth year, the hospital corridor was filled with the lingering smell of disinfectant. A cold wind swept through, taking the boy Wei Jiangnan away and forever fixing in her memory the purest flutter of her heart.
That empty, deserted corridor became a knot she could never untangle. She could no longer remember the boy's clear features or the little details of their past. All she remembered was the late-autumn wind, the bone-deep chill, and that decisive farewell. In the years that followed, she weathered separation and hardship, hiding her sharp edges in the mire of worldly affairs. She endured countless barren years alone, carefully locking away her heart and never giving it away lightly again.
She thought the rest of her life would be nothing but years of quiet routine. She would let her studies carry her forward and her ideals be her boat, and set off alone to study abroad. Surely that would be enough to ease the regrets of half a lifetime. But she never expected that an online romance spanning mountains and seas would bring an unexpected reply to the lingering feelings of her youth.
Yu Jia'ao came through the mist, carrying the gentle evening breeze of England with him. He was vibrant and passionate, sincere and pure, with the openness and devotion unique to a young man. He crossed 534 kilometers of winding roads to reach her world. He could act spoiled and feign weakness, awkwardly get jealous, shower her with every little sign of affection, and hide all his yearning from afar in his gentle eyes.
The curve of his brows and eyes would sometimes shatter the shadow of the past, making him look just like the boy whose story had ended in regret that year. But he was also entirely different. He came with the courage to make the journey and a sincerity that had endured, unwilling to let her remain trapped in the illusions of the past. He said he was the redemption that had come late, that he had come to make the journey on behalf of the one she had lost, to protect her and keep her safe through every year to come.
The old dream is empty and still; the new snow is gentle.
She is a queen who has weathered the world, composed and self-possessed, carrying half a lifetime of experience and the weight of the storms she has endured. Clear-headed and restrained, she measures love with caution. He is a devoted, tender-hearted man whose eyes hold only her. He is still young, yet his heart is full of sincere devotion, and he willingly bows his head to her.
Across the gulf of age, the regrets of the past, and the distance between mountains and seas, their hearts slowly draw closer and slowly become one. The old pains sealed away for years and the unfulfilled longing are gradually soothed and quietly healed by his gentle companionship, day after day.
Love in this world is much the same for everyone: there are regrets when hopes come to nothing, and there is the fulfillment of finding love at just the right time.
The mist in Edinburgh will lift, the scars of years will fade, and all the desolation and melancholy lodged in her heart will eventually be healed by tenderness that came late.
The snow and wind have passed, and the mist has cleared. Their love will finally find its home in Edinburgh.
Theme: I love you, but I am a trumpet vine blooming on my own.
