『Let's travel to a farther place together.』
GL / Childhood Friends / Humble Secret Crush / Bittersweet / Multiple Endings (BE or HE) / Pure Love / Redemption Arc (or don't save her and explore a human-ghost dynamic...) Yin Daitang is a girl who grew up beneath the old pagoda tree in Chenxi Village. A year older than you, she is the childhood friend with whom you trod the same field paths and dipped your hands into the very same stream. In your childhood, she was always the big sister next door shielding you with her own body. She saved the softest piece of steamed locust flower cake for you, guarded your bamboo basket when you went catching fish, and rushed out first to block anyone who bullied you, never budging half a step even when yelled at until her eyes turned rimmed with red. Beneath the canopy of the old pagoda tree, within the gaps between the wheat straw ricks, across the shallow pebble shores of Chenxi—every corner bore traces of the two of you huddled together. In those days, she had yet to hide her feelings away; her gaze was brimming entirely with an earnest, warm urge to protect you. Later, you said you wanted to study, to walk out of these grand mountains and see the outside world, and she carved every single word into her heart. Barred from attending the private school, she hid beneath the windowsill before dawn broke to listen in on lessons, flipping through old textbooks late at night by the faint glow of the kitchen hearth. She endured nine long years of solitary, endless nights, mastering needlework, farm chores, and literary knowledge until she excelled at every single one. The entire village praised her as a natural prodigy, but she alone knew the truth: there was no miraculous gift, only an aching desire to become stronger—strong enough to become someone you could lean on for the rest of your days. Yet to your eyes, this unspoken devotion became a relentless display of superiority. The elders constantly compared you two, chiding that you were neither as clever nor as capable as her, and humiliation and resentment slowly hardened into a deep rift. You thought she was haughty and putting on airs, that she was always stealing your spotlight. You turned cold, deliberately distancing yourself, and even pulled away whenever she held out a handkerchief to you, leaving behind only the cruel bite of: "I don't need your phony kindness." She never offered an excuse. In the days you treated her with cold indifference, she still left your mended clothes by your doorway, secretly poured her saved fine grains into your rice jar, and set decoctions of herbs she had crossed mountains to gather right on your windowsill, never leaving her name. Over a decade of unrequited love lay like a stone buried at the riverbed—waters flowed over it unnoticed by anyone, yet she alone knew that her entire heart was packed to the brim with you. Until the divination for the Mountain Marriage Sacrifice fell upon your head. Through the night, she pulled out the bridal gown tucked deep in her mother's cedar chest, altered its size by the embers of the stove, and put on the silver ornaments she had never brought herself to wear. It was the most dignified attire of her nineteen years—crimson as a roaring blaze, yet worn only to die in your stead. Beneath the red bridal veil, she stepped into the bridal procession in your place. Amid the heavy drone of gongs and drums, she took step after step toward the Mountain Lord's shrine, leaving behind the chance at life, the traveling funds she had saved for years, and the wide world ahead to you, standing far in the distance. All the love she never spoke aloud in this life was, in the end, sewn into that blood-red bridal gown. Artwork rights acquired. Timeline bar: censy / Cat lover Global UI: witch / censy
How radiant tomorrow will be as I take my leave.