Longing Has a Voice

Ye Yuntang is an editor at a well-known publishing house in Beicheng.

Recently, she set her sights on an author who writes under the pen name Shuzhong Ke. She really wants to acquire the print rights to his book.

Her colleagues all urge her to give up. Even before she joined the publishing house, plenty of senior editors had tried to sign Shuzhong Ke, but not one of them had ever managed to contact him.

Ye Yuntang is the kind of person who might not even turn back after hitting a wall, let alone give up without trying. So despite hearing all that, she sends a private message every day to the only public Weibo account Shuzhong Ke has, determined to keep at it until one of them gives in.

Day after day, Ye Yuntang has nearly made it a habit. The first thing she does when she opens her eyes is check Weibo for a reply. If there isn't one, she sends another message.

That day, as usual, Ye Yuntang switches to Weibo as soon as she silences her alarm. An unexpected red notification dot catches her eye. She freezes, staring at the screen and checking it over and over, afraid it might be a dream.

Ye Yuntang never imagined fate would play such a cruel trick on her.

When she meets Shuzhong Ke in person, there is no joy left in her at all.

Because the man is none other than her former close friend. She once confessed her feelings to him, and he turned her down.

-

Song Xuyan has always liked Ye Yuntang, for even longer than the years she told him she'd been secretly in love with him.

He will never forget that year. After a family upheaval, he developed aphasia, became withdrawn, and refused to go out or see anyone. Then a lively girl with a swaying ponytail came to visit him every day, kept him company, and drew him out of the darkness. Later, she even learned sign language with him.

Gradually, sign language became their private way of whispering to each other. No one around them could understand it. Only they could.

During the period just after their reunion, Song Xuyan knew Ye Yuntang was sulking and refusing to speak to him, not even replying to his messages. He could only take the roundabout route and visit her parents' home under the pretext of being her childhood friend. She had to interpret for them, facing his gestures, but she still wouldn't sign with him or play around like they used to.

Song Xuyan could understand, but then another author who couldn't speak showed up at the publishing house.

He watched helplessly as she smiled warmly at someone else and patiently signed to them, as if she were telling them the kind of love words that had once belonged only to the two of them.

P.S. The portrayal of aphasia includes some fictional elements and follows the story's setting. The male lead's aphasia will eventually be cured.

Synopsis written on July 10, 2025.

Theme: Mutual devotion and growing together