He Said the Future Looks Bright

I may occasionally fix typos ^_^. The print edition is now available on all major platforms. Thank you for your support! Weibo and Xiaohongshu: @Jian Muchun Ya

Sensitive, gentle, and resilient girl x heaven's favored son

TV journalist x research physician

1. The year they first met, Xu Sui was fourteen. It was a bitterly cold winter's day. Bearing a body covered in injuries and the last remnants of her courage, she arrived in the city where her mother had grown up. Lost and unsure where to go, she saw a boy with exquisite features stop in front of her. In a calm voice, he asked, "Do you live around here?"

She looked up, then nodded, her expression a little lost. He seemed to notice her confusion. After giving her directions, he disappeared into the thin frost rising in the night.

2. Xu Sui thought that brief, dazzling glimpse that night had been nothing but a dream, until they met again. He seemed cool and untamed, the celebrated son of a prominent family who, according to their classmates, had taken first place in every major mock exam. Yet once again, he came to her rescue. She lowered her head, hiding her feelings, and pushed the turbulent emotions stirred by their brief encounter deep inside. Without changing expression, she applied to the high school she had planned to attend.

Then, on the first day of school, the boy she thought would never show up at No. 1 High School appeared before her. From then on, her quiet adolescence was brightened by someone named Song Shiyang, who became the sun she chased in her youth.

3. In early autumn 2016, Song Shiyang was about to board a flight to Baden-Württemberg, bound for Heidelberg University to begin seven years of advanced medical studies.

Before his phone shut down, a message from an unfamiliar QQ account popped up:

"SSY, the summer heat in Shancheng is always unbearable, but its hot winds hide so many unforgettable moments. Now that you've gone to chase your dreams, I should let go of my feelings and keep moving forward, too."

"May you grow wings and transform into a fish of the Northern Sea."

Song Shiyang paid no attention. As he had done countless times before, he typed "Thank you," exited the screen, and switched off his phone.

4. In June 2023, after graduation season, a photo suddenly appeared on the No. 1 High School forum. In it, seventeen-year-old Song Shiyang was explaining a competition problem to a petite girl, his eyelids drooping. He looked lazy and wild, yet somehow tender and harmonious.

The younger students spun all kinds of romantic stories about them.

At the class reunion at the end of the year, their classmates dug up the photo and the forum posts to tease them, asking if they'd been in love when they were young. Xu Sui smiled, her brows lowered, her expression cool and distant. "That's not true."

Song Shiyang only lifted his eyelids and said nothing.

After the reunion, Song Shiyang cornered Xu Sui in the car. A faint blush colored his pale chin, and a bead of sweat hung there, about to fall. In a hoarse voice, he said, "It is true now." And it was also true that he had been in love with her in high school.

Xu Sui clutched the hem of his shirt and looked up at the man who had been part of her entire youth. Her eyes inexplicably grew hot, and she answered softly.

So this was how tender it felt to have your wish come true.

You told me my future was bright, and I endured countless unbearably difficult moments.

"Becoming someone as outstanding as him was the only heroism of my girlhood."

* A school-days unrequited love story / No intimate scenes before adulthood / Both are each other's one and only / First love for both / Bittersweet school-days romance in the first half, reunion in the city in the second

* The leads have only ever loved each other.

* No real-life inspirations. All locations are made up.

Theme: You were the fiery light in my quiet youth.