If You'd Said Sooner, I Would Have Acted

At the age of twenty-four, Xie Xiaoye pulled a boy who wanted to jump into the river back from the bridge. He was as thin as a bean sprout, covered in wounds, with only a pair of eyes that were dark and bright, looking at people like a wary young beast. She took him home, raised him, thinking she could let go once he graduated from university. Later, she realized—from the day she pulled him back, his eyes could no longer hold anyone else. —— Fei Nan’s eighteenth birthday happened to be on New Year’s Eve. Xie Xiaoye pretended to forget on purpose, decorating the house to the brim, wanting to give him a surprise. She sent the boy out, and he didn’t return until it was completely dark, c...