The Alley Was Always This Long

by Little Panda

Original Title: 小巷原来那么长

Author: 顾徕一

Source: https://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=8757389

Description:

Former salted fish / Future jewelry designer × Cold older woman / Another genius designer

1v1, HE!!!

1.
As a salted fish¹, Cheng Xiang never expected her death to be so casual.

One year and thirty-five days after breaking up with Tao Tianran,

she was struck and killed by a truck on her way to the market to buy liangpi².

Lying flat on the zebra crossing, watching the first snow of the winter drifting down, she thought:

I wonder if Tao Tianran, that vast ice field, was ever warmed by me, even for a single second.

2.
Tao Tianran was Cheng Xiang’s high school classmate.

Calling Tao Tianran a “flower on a high peak³” wasn’t quite accurate; she was more beautiful, and colder—an ice field that would absolutely never bloom.

Starting in high school, Cheng Xiang chased Tao Tianran so openly that everyone knew about it.

The day Tao Tianran agreed to be her girlfriend in their junior year of college, Cheng Xiang hosted a three-day flowing water banquet⁴ at a barbecue stall outside the campus.

This heroic feat turned into a laughingstock when they broke up just half a year after graduation.

3.
Perhaps God hadn’t had enough fun playing with her, because Cheng Xiang found herself alive again.

Looking at herself in the mirror, she felt things had just gotten interesting—

She had been reborn as a wealthy young miss. On the surface, her brother was pursuing Tao Tianran, practically dying to have Cheng Xiang call her “Sister-in-law.”

Call her Sister-in-law, my ass.

Now she had money, looks, and an ass—couldn’t she pry open Tao Tianran’s ice field?

Until that rainy night, when Tao Tianran knocked on her door amidst a torrential downpour, her black hair clinging haphazardly to her almost snow-white skin.

Cheng Xiang sneered inwardly: Tao Tianran, so it’s not that you don’t know how to love someone; you just didn’t know how to love me.

But Tao Tianran’s lips trembled. Her fingertips, chilled from the cold rain, gently touched Cheng Xiang’s lips: “Are you… Xiao Xiang?”

「It took 8,000 years from the end of solar activity to humanity’s most recent ice age.
And how long did it take Tao Tianran to realize that the endless long alley in her memory was as beautiful as a regret.」

Reading warnings:
– This novel is also known as 《After I Died, My Cold Ex Realized She Loved Me to Death and Desperately Wanted to Get Me Back》 (Doge face⁵)
– Atypical transmigration, not a face-slapping-scum-ex power fantasy, the characters’ core souls remain unchanged
– Will add more when I think of it

Content tags: Soul Swap, Urban, Deep Affection, Flower on a high peak, Older woman, Chasing love crematorium⁶

One-sentence summary: After I died, you love me again (Eye roll)

Theme: Always be warm and kind.

Footnotes

A 'salted fish' (xiányú) is Chinese internet slang for someone who is lazy, lacks ambition, and has no intention of doing anything.
A popular Chinese street food dish (liángpí) made of cold, chewy, translucent noodle-like strips cut from a block of wheat or rice starch, typically served with a savory and spicy sauce.
A 'flower on a high peak' (gāolǐng zhī huā) is a metaphor for someone who is exquisitely beautiful but completely unapproachable and out of reach.
A 'flowing water banquet' (liúshuǐxí) is a traditional Chinese continuous, multi-day feast where guests arrive, eat, and leave at different times, with dishes constantly being served like flowing water.
'Doge head' (gǒutóu) refers to the doge emoji commonly used on Chinese social media at the end of a sentence to indicate sarcasm, joking, or that the statement shouldn't be taken seriously.
'Chasing love crematorium' (zhuī'ài huǒzàngchǎng) is a popular Chinese internet trope where a cold or dismissive lover realizes their mistakes too late and desperately tries to win their partner back, suffering greatly in the process.