The Star She Followed, the Man She Loved

One-Sentence Summary

After five years as a fan, she discovers her idol's biggest secret hidden among her mother's belongings.

Story Synopsis

Nineteen-year-old Lu Xinghe has spent five years as a devoted fan. Her room is covered in Lin Huaizhou's posters, her playlists are full of his songs, and every day she uses her secret Weibo account to boost his stats.

Her mother, Shen Qingwan, has always disapproved. "What's the point of being a fan?"

It isn't until the day her mother dies in a car accident that Lu Xinghe learns the last interview her mother had planned to conduct was with Lin Huaizhou.

And the final entry in her mother's phone notes reads:

"Ask Lin Huaizhou tonight: Who was that song from five years ago really written for?"

That song from five years ago was Lin Huaizhou's debut single, "Gao." It was also the song that made Lu Xinghe fall for him.

At that moment, Lu Xinghe realizes that there is a story she knows nothing about linking the idol she has followed for five years and her late mother.

To find the answer, Lu Xinghe approaches Lin Huaizhou as a fan, only to get caught up in the layers of intrigue surrounding the entertainment industry. She discovers that her mother's death was no accident, that Lin Huaizhou's silence conceals an unspeakable pain, and that the song which made her fall in love with him was, astonishingly, a farewell her mother had paid half her life to make.

This is a story about being a fan, and also about understanding one's mother.

As the stage lights come on and secrets from the past are gradually revealed, Lu Xinghe finally understands:

The light she has been chasing has never shone only on her idol's face. It has also illuminated the love and dreams her mother never voiced in her youth.