Shen Yeqing

Biodata

Background / History

Before revealing his face on the dating show, Shen Yeqing was already a world-famous philanthropist whose appearance and total fortune remained mysterious. Viewers describe him as having made more than 300 donations in recent years, each worth at least eight figures. During the finger-folding game, he treats ownership of fifty buildings as an unremarkable accomplishment 6 7.

Shen joins the show at the last minute. Xie Mi recognizes that he did not exist as a named character in the original novel she read: the sixth guest should have been You Hongxuan, its second male lead. His presence initially appears to be an unexplained departure from the story she knows 6 11 145.

He also has business dealings with Xie Zhengde. After telling Chairman Xie about his daughter’s hardships, Shen is invited to the family home; Xie Mi later identifies him as the reason her father brought her back 35 36.

Childhood and Altered Fate

In the original novel, Shen was an unnamed child who should have died at eight in the abduction incident used to establish Xiao Jingxi’s traumatic childhood. The other six abducted children likewise should not have survived. Xie Mi’s journey into the past changes that outcome: she rescues the young Shen, calls herself Sister Liu, and takes him to the police station. In the present, she verifies that all seven children were rescued sixteen years earlier 144 145 146.

Shen remembers this older girl even though, from Xie Mi’s perspective, their meeting has not yet happened when she first encounters his adult self. Before she disappears, he photographs her beneath an apricot tree, but the resulting image shows only the empty road. This provides the later explanation for the apparently subjectless apricot-tree photograph on his WeChat Moments 30 146.

Before his abduction, he vaguely remembers having a loving father and a relatively happy childhood. Afterward, his father inexplicably disappears from his life, an orphanage takes him in and supports him, and his earlier memories gradually become indistinct. The passages do not establish a definitive explanation for his father’s disappearance 376.

At twelve, Shen encounters Xie Mi again in a park and recognizes her despite her mask and their four-year separation. She encourages him to stand up to the children who rob him. A photograph he later keeps shows those same children holding written self-criticisms, demonstrating that he acted on her advice 285 301.

Adolescence, Awakening, and System S

By high school, Shen appears sociable and cheerful in photographs, but Xie Mi discovers that this outward ease conceals emotional emptiness. He responds pleasantly to classmates without genuine happiness, while ordinary surroundings seem unable to stir him. During her visit to this period, Xie Mi helps him win a race, takes him for noodles, and becomes acquainted with the young You Hongxuan 372 373 376 377.

At sixteen, Shen asks whether Sister Liu can wait until he grows up. Xie Mi tells him that loving someone and having courage are good things, but that he must first love himself. Their adolescent encounter becomes another part of the shared history that the adult Shen remembers while the present-day Xie Mi has yet to experience it 387 388.

Eight years before the present, Shen also notices a high-school girl named Xie Mi whose face and voice resemble Sister Liu’s. He eventually becomes an observer of that girl’s life rather than finding the person he remembers in her behavior. Noticing Xiao Jingxi’s resemblance to the person who had threatened him during Sister Liu’s visit prompts him to investigate further 485 486.

At seventeen, System S reveals that he inhabits a novel and should have died at eight. It regards his survival as a disruption because saving the abducted children removes a catalyst for Xiao Jingxi and Xu Shuangrong’s future romance. Shen challenges the premise that other people should be sacrificed for the protagonists’ relationship 487.

System S cannot directly erase him, but inflicts electric shocks whenever he approaches important characters. After initially resisting and reading numerous novels to understand the world’s rules, Shen withdraws from the main storyline and studies overseas. He eventually develops technology capable of destroying the system inside his mind and uses it despite its pleas for mercy 488.

Appearance

Shen’s unmasking reveals a notably handsome young man, overturning viewers’ assumption that the mysterious philanthropist was elderly 6.

• Face: Porcelain-fine skin, long eyelashes, a high nose bridge, and soft, rosy lips 6.
• Hair and eyes: Tousled black hair and expressive, alluring eyes, described as peach-blossom eyes and later as obsidian 6 19 43.
• Build: Tall, with long legs, a firm chest, and defined abdominal muscles 20 36 40 41.
• Clothing: Appears in a relaxed ivory sweatshirt during hide-and-seek preparations and a full-body black wetsuit for the pool date 16 17.
• Everyday style: Frequently wears simple, elegant clothing, including white shirts and a gray workout set. His second-season room is similarly uncluttered, containing only a few outfits, books, and a computer 203 499.
• Pendant: Wears a four-leaf clover preserved in amber on a black cord beneath his clothes. The clover was given to his younger self by Xie Mi eight years earlier 501.
• Comic styling: Accepts Xie Mi’s makeover involving a leopard-print shirt, floral-print trousers, cat ears, paw gloves, and drawn whiskers 116.

Personality

Shen habitually wears a languid expression and faint smile, delivering provocations as though they were perfectly reasonable remarks. He jokes about scamming Xie Mi, turns her threats into sexual innuendo, and readily matches her absurd humor. Their shared life philosophy leads them to greet each other as kindred spirits 6 8 16.

He is direct when defending her. Rather than politely tolerating Xiao Jingxi’s insinuations or Xu Shuangrong’s attempts to speak on Xie Mi’s behalf, he interrupts and challenges them. His teasing does not prevent practical attentiveness: he remembers Xie Mi’s favorite food and quietly covers her when she is cold 10 24 25 43 44 48.

His usual composure falters when he cannot find Xie Mi during the seaside camping trip. He searches repeatedly, calls for her with an openly tense voice, and clenches his hands until his knuckles whiten. Her subsequent shower of petals leaves him unusually emotional 45 46.

Patience, Attachment, and Loneliness

Shen’s apparently carefree manner conceals a long attachment to Sister Liu. He treasures their encounters, preserves small gifts, and quietly supports places associated with their shared past. His investment helps preserve the gym, boxing club, and supermarket they visited, while Apricot Blossom Street becomes a thriving pedestrian area 501.

Although he appears comfortable drinking coffee, reading, and sitting by the sea alone, Xie Mi notices occasions when he stares into the distance without turning a page. She comes to understand that he is still waiting for her to experience memories they already share from his perspective 270 271.

He admits that, when younger, he repeatedly worried over matters concerning one particular person. His adolescent cheerfulness likewise conceals unhappiness, complicating the apparent contrast between his timid childhood and relaxed adulthood 137 373 376.

His attachment does not make him passive toward rivals. He confidently says they cannot beat him, uses feigned vulnerability to compete for Xie Mi’s attention, and identifies himself as someone who guards his own love rather than another man’s courtship 203 499 562.

Defiance and Concealment

Shen uses apparently foolish behavior and a disarming manner to conceal serious secrets. His early awakening allows him to overhear other awakened characters’ system conversations while behaving as though he knows nothing about their plans 354 485 486.

His destruction of System S demonstrates a willingness to reject the world’s assigned hierarchy and resist coercion. When Xiao Jingxi and Xu Shuangrong forcibly expose his memories, he remains outwardly composed before knocking both unconscious with a brick and lying down beside them after discarding it 485 487 488.

Abilities & Skills

Composure Under Pressure

Shen remains calm during the vehicle mission despite Xie Mi’s frightening driving. The assistant director reports that he is the only guest whose heart-rate alarm does not sound 15 16.

• His pulse remains normal throughout the mission 16.
• He is reportedly able to maintain a heart rate of eighty while bungee jumping; this is a reputation relayed by the assistant director, not a feat shown in the provided passages 16.
• His escape-room fear is revealed to be an act, rather than proof that the horror setting overcame his composure 20 21.
• Lai Bingxuan and Xu Shuangrong fail to disturb his heart rate during a flirting challenge, with Shen again using selective hearing against Xu 212.
• Xie Mi is a pronounced exception: taking his hand raises his pulse to 122, triggering his elimination. During their later water-park showdown, his band displays 127 and he is eliminated again 213 222.

Acting and Selective Hearing

Shen can present himself as frightened, innocent, weak, or hard of hearing when it suits him 20 21 28 31 41.

• Feigning fear: Plays a trembling captive during the escape-room interrogation before turning the situation around 20 21.
• Selective hearing: Ends an unpleasant blind date by repeatedly answering “Huh?” He later hears Xie Mi’s very quiet insults and admits that pretending not to hear reduces pointless socializing 28.
• Performative weakness: Claims to be poor at sports and asks Xie Mi to protect him during volleyball, undercutting Xiao Jingxi and Qiu Chengye’s assertion that men are naturally better athletes 41.
• He says someone taught him the selective-hearing tactic, but does not identify that person 28.
• Feigning abandonment: Responds to Xu Shuangrong’s attempt to separate him from Xie Mi by presenting himself as the injured party whose own love is being disregarded 56.
• Joint performance: Helps Xie Mi sell a fake boulder-breaking act using foam props, then explains away the props blowing away by solemnly announcing an approaching typhoon 543.

Improvisation and Tactical Thinking

Shen exploits rules and available resources rather than relying on conventional approaches 17 18 43.

• Hide-and-seek: Clarifies that a seeker must touch a contestant, then hides underwater while breathing through a reed. He remains uncaught until the game ends 17 18 19.
• Crowd management: Orders one hundred drinks from each of two shops to draw their employees away from a mascot fight involving Xie Mi 43.
• Publicity awareness: Recognizes that the attack on the production crew can become a peak-viewership event 22.
• Coordinated evasion: Reads Xie Mi’s cues during group games, including dropping into position so they can crawl out of an encirclement together 93.
• Mission chaining: Works with Xie Mi to connect his prediction-based Hidden Mission to Qiu Chengye’s mission and obtain an Asset Transfer Card through her mirror-assisted inspection of Director Niu’s cards 263 264.
• Defensive planning: Uses a Protection Card to shield Xie Mi from a negative skill-card effect while his own assets remain vulnerable to equalization 271.

The Replication Card, Asset Transfer Card, and Protection Card are production-team game mechanics, not demonstrated supernatural abilities belonging to Shen himself 263 264 271.

Gaming

Shen introduces Xie Mi to the villa’s VR system, explains balance and fall risks, and joins her in the game 30 31.

• Chooses an Ultraman avatar dressed as a security guard 31.
• Uses the game’s Dynamic Light Wave skill to clear a row of monsters 31.
• The attack is an in-game ability, not a demonstrated supernatural power 31.
• Rapidly improves at ranked multiplayer gaming: after initially not knowing how to take down towers, he becomes skilled enough to carry Xie Mi through more than a dozen ranked stars 183.
• Plays the third installment of Ultraman Fights the Little Monsters with Xie Mi. His avatar uses a distraction-and-punch combination based on a move she taught, while the game also includes an NPC surnamed You 559.

Athletics and Physical Coordination

His claim of poor athletic ability is contradicted by later performances and his regular training 41 279 329.

• Running and stamina: Maintains a morning-running routine and displays exceptional speed during a mud-pit relay 329.
• Racing: Completes the Racing Arena task with Xie Mi and demonstrates racing proficiency 119.
• Balance and distance judgment: Defeats Yu Jinche in a blindfolded match while moving forward and spinning 427.
• Golf: Scores a hole in one immediately after Qiu Chengye’s demonstration 457.
• Core strength: Braces himself one-handed on a spinning obstacle platform while looking for the correct landing opportunity 522.
• Physical protection: When he and Xie Mi are launched into a pool together, he wraps an arm around her waist and takes the water impact on his back 213.

Scientific and Technical Expertise

Shen’s science results earn him an invitation to an overseas research university. There, he eventually develops technology that destroys System S inside his mind, overcoming a coercive mechanism that had restricted his contact with the novel’s key characters 488.

He is also identified as a maker of VR games. His familiarity with virtual environments is associated with his strong balance, and he later plays the third installment of the villa’s Ultraman game with Xie Mi 427 559.

Awakening and System Awareness

Shen awakens before the other revealed awakened characters. Under the world’s rules, awakened people can hear one another’s systems, allowing him to overhear the antagonists’ plans from the beginning without exposing his awareness 485 486.

His survival initially makes him difficult for Xu Shuangrong’s system to identify: it finds neither a place for him in the original plot nor evidence that he is a transmigrator. This anomaly is later explained by his having been an unnamed child who should have died, rather than an outsider like Xie Mi 109 145.

Power Progression

Limitations

• Cooking: His apparently polished preparation produces blackened creamy mushrooms. Dinner subsequently causes widespread mushroom poisoning, including symptoms in Shen himself 32.
• Persistent culinary failures: Later breakfasts are burned, and his matcha cake remains inedible despite its initially convincing appearance and fragrance. Another batch produces a cloud of loose matcha powder 147 270 311.
• Physical vulnerability: He suffers a sprained ankle during the three-legged race and injuries after being thrown off Xie Mi’s scooter 14 42 43.
• Romantic vulnerability: His usual heart-rate control repeatedly fails around Xie Mi, making his feelings exploitable within the show’s elimination games 213 221 222.
• Game losses: Despite being regarded by staff as a game expert second only to Xie Mi, he is found and eliminated while hiding atop a cabinet during the Lunar New Year special 639.

Relationships

• Xie Mi — His romantic partner, childhood rescuer, and frequent teammate. He initially says he joined the show to fall in love with her, while she questions his unexplained knowledge and motives. Her journeys into his past reveal that she is Sister Liu, the person he has remembered since childhood. Their relationship becomes explicitly reciprocal: she initiates a kiss, tells him she likes him, and later promises never to make him wait again. She asks to go public before the final confession day, but he insists on waiting for that occasion. The wedding bonus includes him presenting her with an apricot-pink-accented diamond ring 20 21 47 146 387 498 546 611 627 648.
• Xiao Jingxi — A romantic rival who becomes an active threat. Shen confronts his passive-aggressive remarks, blocks his attempts to intrude on their time together, and pulls Xie Mi back when Xiao tries to separate them. Xiao later attempts to murder his teenage self and repeatedly seeks physical contact so System L can scan his secrets. After a successful forced scan, Shen knocks him unconscious 10 32 40 378 441 485.
• Xu Shuangrong — A fellow contestant whose advances and interventions he rebuffs. He admits to using selective hearing during their early conversation and later mocks her claim that Xie Mi needs rescuing from Lai Bingxuan. She investigates his anomalous identity, uses a contact-dependent mind-reading attempt against him, and helps Xiao Jingxi restrain him for a memory scan; Shen subsequently incapacitates her as well 6 28 48 109 354 355 485.
• Xie Zhengde — Business associate and host at the Xie family home. Shen informs him about Xie Mi’s difficult circumstances because he wants her to have a better life 35 36.
• Liu Woxing — Fellow contestant who recognizes his identity when he is unmasked. They later share a randomly paired music-festival date, quietly using their phones amid a loud heavy-metal performance. She becomes part of the close group celebrating Xie Mi’s birthday and exploring the universe together 6 50 642 645.
• Qiu Chengye — Fellow contestant whom Shen trips when he rushes to stop Xie Mi from revealing embarrassing gossip. Their later interactions include financial-game maneuvering, Shen eclipsing his golf demonstration with a hole in one, and Qiu bowing to him in exchange for water 7 264 457 463.
• You Hongxuan — Longtime friend dating back to their school years. Xie Mi had asked You to spend time with Shen because she worried he would be lonely. Shen nevertheless competes theatrically for her attention when they reunite. You later stays at Shen’s home during leave and joins their planned movie date, turning it into an outing for three 377 497 499 502.
• Lai Bingxuan — Fellow contestant and later member of his close circle with Xie Mi, Liu Woxing, and You Hongxuan. She helps expose Xiao Jingxi’s suspicious attempts to touch him and participates in Xie Mi’s birthday celebration and the universe-exploration outing 441 442 642 645.
• Yu Jinche — Rival for Xie Mi’s attention who taunts her about her lack of knowledge of Shen’s preferences and later persistently follows her while she protects Shen. Shen also defeats him in a blindfolded game 113 427 455.
• System S — A coercive plot-maintenance system that reveals the nature of the world to him, labels him expendable cannon fodder, and punishes his contact with key characters. Shen ultimately destroys it using technology developed during his overseas studies 486 487 488.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Identity Reveal and Early Courtship

• Unmasking: Mr. Panda’s slipped mask reveals Shen’s face, prompting Liu Woxing to identify him and sending his dating-show appearance onto Weibo’s trending topics 6.
• Collision dispute: After he demands compensation from Xie Mi, she accelerates and brakes the car before he fastens his seat belt, knocking him unconscious against the windshield. He later openly admits to staging an accident to scam someone 6 8.
• Cookie mission: Initially resists being fed, confronts Xiao Jingxi for insulting Xie Mi, then accepts a cookie and lets her complete her hidden mission 10.
• Villa neighbor: Chooses the luxury room beside Xie Mi when the other guests avoid it, accepting her foot in place of a handshake because her hands are full 11.
• Public interest: Tells Xie Mi he is interested in her “every way.” Their pairing immediately gains a dedicated fan community 14 15.

Matching Antics and the Escape-Room Date

• Pool date: Arrives in a black wetsuit matching Xie Mi’s; they turn the intended romantic segment into a swimming race and soak the production team 16.
• Hide-and-seek victory: His underwater hiding place and Xie Mi’s underground shelter allow both to win. They choose each other for the resulting date 18 19.
• Extreme-horror escape room: The pair initially appear terrified, but both eventually expose their fear as performance. Shen catches Xie Mi when she falls backward and later reveals his stated reason for joining the show 20 21.
• Questioned motives: Xie Mi confronts him about the staged collision, his persistent attention, and his decision to pursue someone he supposedly does not know. He answers that he saw her online and admires her; she does not find this explanation convincing 21.

Hater Attack and Family Intervention

• Attack on the crew: Masked haters posing as Shen’s fans throw rotten food and destroy a production camera. Shen immediately doubts that they are genuinely his supporters 22.
• Exposure: Xie Mi exposes the attackers as Xiao Rong supporters. Their arrest and the livestreamed raid reconcile her fans with Shen’s and lift their ship to first place in the supertopic rankings 23.
• WeChat contact: Xie Mi discovers that “185-Centimeter Pure-Hearted College Guy,” the account flirting with her, belongs to Shen inside the villa 30.
• Return to the Xie family: Shen admits that he told Xie Zhengde about her hunger, cyberbullying, stalking, and threats. His explanation is simple: he wants her to have a good life 36.

Guardian Angel and the Apricot-Blossom Mystery

• Camping games: Shen holds Xie Mi after the tug-of-war and supports her change of strategy during volleyball 40 41.
• Scooter accident: Xie Mi’s sharp turn throws him off the scooter. After his rescue, she applies a Band-Aid to his scraped hand while his head is already bandaged 42 43.
• Flower gift: Xie Mi disguises herself as a coffee-shop mascot to care for him secretly as his guardian angel. Shen recognizes her, accepts her flower, and carefully puts it away as a treasure 43.
• Apricot-blossom wish: His written wish is to see “another shower of apricot blossoms.” Xie Mi fulfills it with falling petals, after which he catches her drunken collapse and calls her “Liu Liu” 45 46.
• Initially unresolved recognition: “Liu Liu” connects to Xie Mi’s childhood outside the novel, when other children called her Sister Liu. At this point, she cannot determine whether she dreamed his words or how a person inside the book could know that name 46 47.
• Aquarium rescue attempt: Shen immediately jumps into the water after Xie Mi falls into the beluga pool, only for the beluga to ram him aside and carry her itself 49.

Festival Courtship and Growing Suspicions

• Festival challenge: Gives Xie Mi night-market gifts and his jacket, then challenges her to make his heart race. His alarm sounds when she asks whether he remembers Liu Liu during the fireworks; she cannot tell whether attraction or panic caused it 53.
• Temple snack heist: Persuades Xie Mi to continue stealing snacks during their temple stay. They escape discovery by giving Xiao Jingxi incriminating snacks and fleeing in opposite directions 74.
• Farmhouse questioning: Deflects Xie Mi’s question about whether they have met before. Later, while drunk beneath the stars, he tells her she has not changed and pulls her into his embrace before Xiao Jingxi interrupts 90.
• Unequal understanding: A restaurant challenge exposes how little Xie Mi knows about his preferences compared with his knowledge of hers, prompting her to reconsider their apparently effortless chemistry 113.
• First-love account: Describes realizing he was in love in a dessert shop and compares the person he loves to an elusive breeze he is willing to follow all his life 133.
• Careful wording: Tells Xie Mi that she did not know him before, rather than claiming they had never met. She suspects she is the person in his memories despite having no corresponding recollection 137.

Shared History and Sister Liu’s Return

• Childhood rescue revealed: Xie Mi’s journey sixteen years into the past explains Shen’s original absence from the novel and her role in his survival 144 145 146.
• Paintball surrender: Accepts a duel whose loser must answer one question honestly, but does not fire. He says he would lose to Teacher Xie under any circumstances and offers to answer off camera 154.
• Acknowledged connection: When Xie Mi asks whether he still wants to be her little sidekick, he recognizes the echo of their childhood encounter and says he always has 167.
• Ordinary dating: Their off-show date includes fleeing recognized fans, getting lost in alleys, playing with each other’s shadows, and sharing snacks 185.
• Second childhood encounter: Twelve-year-old Shen recognizes the masked Xie Mi as Sister Liu and later follows her encouragement to resist his bullies 285 301.
• Photo-album disclosure: Shows Xie Mi photographs from elementary school through high school, allowing her to see the life he lived between her visits. He attributes the album’s ending to becoming busy with his studies 301.
• Adolescent promise: Xie Mi’s later visit to sixteen-year-old Shen reveals his loneliness, his youthful feelings, and the origin of his long wait. On returning to the present, she finally understands that his attachment encompasses more than their two childhood meetings 372 373 376 387 388.

Second-Season Partnership and Opposition

• Heart-rate defeat: Remains unmoved by other women’s flirting but loses when Xie Mi takes his hand. He shields her when they are launched into the pool together 212 213.
• Water-park final: Eliminates Xu Shuangrong and Liu Woxing as hunter, leaving Xie Mi as his final opponent. Their interlaced hands in a dark tunnel raise his pulse to 127 just as she becomes seeker, eliminating him 221 222.
• Financial-game cooperation: Combines skill cards and Hidden Missions with Xie Mi to outmaneuver the production team, then protects her balance from an Asset Equalization Card 263 264 271.
• Mutual courtship: Gives Xie Mi a flower crown and admits wanting to impress her. She reciprocates with a wildflower trick, later openly declares that they are bonding, and runs away arm in arm with him 340 341.
• Contact-based investigations: Xu Shuangrong attempts mind reading, while Xiao Jingxi repeatedly seeks contact for System L’s scans. Shen evades or blocks their advances, with Xie Mi increasingly guarding him 354 355 364 441 484.
• Awakening exposed: A forced memory scan reveals that Shen awakened years earlier. He incapacitates Xiao Jingxi and Xu Shuangrong, and the ensuing account discloses System S’s coercion and his eventual destruction of it 485 486 487 488.

Reciprocal Romance and Final Confession Period

• First shown reciprocal kiss: Xie Mi draws him down by his collar and kisses him; he embraces her and deepens the kiss 498.
• Preserved memories: Xie Mi discovers the extent to which he has protected places and keepsakes from their past, then asks to create more happy memories together 501 502.
• Unconditional trust: Tells her he will believe her unconditionally. Their intended movie date becomes an outing with You Hongxuan 502.
• Affection-score rejection: Xie Mi tells him the bracelet’s low score has only made her more certain she likes him. The production team separately admits that the scores were guesses 546.
• Qingqing-Mimi Duo: Forms a named pair with Xie Mi for a twenty-four-hour nickname challenge worth 1,000 points. They quickly complete a flower-wrapping task together 576.
• Public-announcement request: Xie Mi asks to make their relationship public early, but Shen insists on waiting until the final confession day. Believing he may feel insecure, she begins openly pampering and protecting him during their animal-shelter visit 611 612.
• End of waiting: After Xie Mi’s thirty-five-day coma following the accident for which Xiao Jingxi faces an attempted-murder sentence, she promises Shen that he will never have to wait again. He kisses her as she dries his hair 626 627.
• Final confession day: Approaches the confession stage, only for Xie Mi to appear along the flower-lined path before her scheduled entrance 630.

Later Specials

• Birthday by the sea: Promises to share every season of his future with Xie Mi and joins Liu Woxing, Lai Bingxuan, and You Hongxuan in celebrating her birthday at midnight on December 6. He agrees to accompany her proposed adventures 642.
• Universe exploration: The explored universe formed from his subconscious initially contains Xie Mi throughout its worlds but otherwise appears blank. She insists that his universe should not contain only her, and their friends help fill it with color and life. Shen recognizes the result as tangible happiness 645.
• Wedding bonus: Presents Xie Mi with a diamond ring bordered by tiny apricot-pink diamonds. Seeing her hand encased in a snowman mitten, he laughs that they are perfectly in sync 648.

Notable Quotes

“I'm very interested in you, Ms. Xie.” 14

“Being selectively hard of hearing cuts down on pointless socializing.” 28

“I want you to have a good life.” 36

“She's a breeze I can never grasp.” 133

“But I'm willing to spend my whole life following wherever she blows.” 133

“I've always wanted to.” 167

“They can't beat me.” 203

“So everyone else deserves to be sacrificed for their romance?” 487

“I only guard my own love.” 562

Trivia

• His WeChat Moments contain only three posts when Xie Mi first checks them: an apricot-tree photograph from sixteen years earlier, a park photograph from twelve years earlier, and a photograph of himself in a high-school uniform from eight years earlier. All three have conspicuously off-center compositions 30.
• The apricot-tree photograph was taken when his eight-year-old self tried to photograph Sister Liu before she vanished; the resulting picture showed only the empty road 146.
• His pairing with Xie Mi appears under several translated ship names, including Xie-Shen Donkey Slayers, Xie Yeqing Kills Donkey, and Xie-Shen Slaughter 11 15 23.
• He buys Xie Mi matcha chocolates and knows that her preferred camping snacks are original Lay’s chips and Pepsi 24 43.
• His matcha-cake experiments reflect his attention to her tastes, but do not overcome his poor cooking. His black tea, unlike the cake, is described as nicely brewed 270 271 311.
• His contact name for You Hongxuan is “Idiot who can only swim” 496.
• During their mandatory nickname challenge, he and Xie Mi choose sunflowers and broccoli for each other and finish wrapping their gifts in under five minutes 576.
• His wedding-bonus ring combines a cool-toned central diamond with a border of warm apricot-pink stones 648.