Zhilan Star Tales

On a rainy night, a landslide blocked a mountain road. Twenty-year-old Xia Zhilan sat on the steps of a road maintenance station, a swollen purplish bruise on her right shoulder, a team-dismissal notice stamped with a red seal in her canvas bag. A martial arts stunt double from a film crew was sheltering from the same rain. He said his name was Gu San.

By dawn, the rain had stopped. She chased after him to give him her phone number, but the wind swept the paper into the water, and the car drove away.

Nine months later, Xia Zhilan gave birth to a son. She named him Xia Nian'an.

Over the next five years, she learned six things: how to draw a bow to full tension, how to stand steady, how to breathe, how to read the wind, and how to be a mother.

Five years later, Gu San had become Gu Xingxu, a top-tier star, famous around the world.

It all began when a photo leaked: at a campsite outside the city, a boy crouched on the grass feeding rabbits, a copper clasp hanging around his neck. Netizens put it beside a still of Gu Xingxu at age seven.

The next day, the top trending search was: Gu Xingxu's Son.

The story begins here.

Reunion, testing the waters, growing closer, understanding each other, falling in love. She fought her way from the rankings to the Archery World Cup. He sat in the last row of the stands. On the night she won the championship, he rushed down from the spectators' section, held her, and lightly kissed her forehead. She held up two fingers and said something, but the microphones couldn't pick it up. The giant screen zoomed in on the moment, and the whole internet spent three days and nights guessing.