Qin Kaicheng had a very, very long dream.
Within those fragmented memories scattered throughout the dream, he saw the beautiful moments he had always treasured deep within his heart—memories he had never once forgotten.
The people of Crescent Moon Town made their living from the sea, forever struggling against it. It was as if they had inherited the ocean's spirit itself, renowned for their bold and straightforward nature.
And Qin Kaicheng was one of the boldest among them.
Ever since he was a child, he had been an exceptionally restless troublemaker. Every few days, he'd stir up some sort of trouble at school—or somewhere else around town.
It gave both Mrs. Qin, who had raised him alone, and his teachers endless headaches.
"Why can't you be more like Yu Heguang?"
At some point, those words had become something Qin Kaicheng heard over and over again.
If Qin Kaicheng was the infamous "bad kid" of Crescent Moon Town...
Then Yu Heguang was every adult's model student.
Kind to everyone, diligent in his studies, always ranking near the top of his class. In everyone's eyes, he was the child with the greatest chance of leaving their little coastal town and making something of himself.
Unfortunately...
Children in their rebellious years neither wanted to hear nor were willing to listen to such comparisons.
To the young Qin Kaicheng, nothing annoyed him more than hearing adults compare him to that gloomy bookworm who always had his nose buried in textbooks.
And so...
Since they were classmates, Qin Kaicheng frequently went out of his way to make Yu Heguang's life miserable.
That continued until the summer before their final year of middle school.
One evening after school, Qin Kaicheng was taking his usual solitary walk along the beach when Yu Heguang suddenly appeared beside him, schoolbag slung over his shoulder.
Without a word.
Yu Heguang tossed his backpack aside.
Before Qin Kaicheng even had the chance to open his mouth and mock him—
Yu Heguang threw a punch.
The hell?
Qin Kaicheng had spent his whole life bullying others. Never once had anyone dared bully him.
After lying on the sand in stunned disbelief for a moment, he scrambled to his feet and immediately threw himself into a brawl with Yu Heguang.
As Crescent Moon Town's self-proclaimed king of schoolyard fights, Qin Kaicheng had always thought beating up a bookworm would be effortless.
Instead...
He lost.
And he lost badly.
He had never met anyone like Yu Heguang before.
Again and again, Qin Kaicheng knocked him to the ground.
Yet before Qin Kaicheng could even catch his breath, Yu Heguang would roar like a wounded beast, leap back up, and charge at him once more.
For the first time in his life...
Qin Kaicheng was afraid.
After all...
Even bad people feared those who had nothing left to lose.
Finally, for the first time ever, Qin Kaicheng admitted defeat.
"Stop... Stop fighting..."
"I give up, okay? I give up!"
"I won't bully you anymore at school."
"I'll stay out of your way whenever I see you..."
"No, wait, we're in the same class..."
"How about this?"
"From now on... you're my big brother."
Standing over him, Yu Heguang had Qin Kaicheng by the collar, one fist raised high.
Hearing those words...
He slowly lowered his hand.
Under the setting sun by the sea, Qin Kaicheng finally got a clear look at Yu Heguang's face.
His face was bruised black and blue.
The fierce look in his eyes had vanished.
Instead, his eyes were bloodshot, and tears streamed uncontrollably down his cheeks.
"Why...?"
"Why do you always have to bully me?!"
"All I wanted was to study hard..."
"To leave this place..."
"I avoided you every chance I got..."
"So why did you keep coming after me?!"
"Why?!"
As he shouted, spittle splashed across Qin Kaicheng's bruised face.
When Qin Kaicheng was younger, he had once hidden outside his bedroom and overheard his mother quietly crying late at night.
Ever since then, he had believed there was nothing harder to deal with than a girl's tears.
But at that moment...
He realized he had been wrong.
Whether they belonged to a man or a woman...
As long as they were tears born from genuine sorrow—
They were equally impossible to face.
...
When Qin Kaicheng returned home that evening...
Battered and covered in bruises...
Mrs. Qin, unsurprisingly, gave him a severe beating.
In fact...
After learning he'd been fighting with Yu Heguang—
She hit him even harder.
Only then did Qin Kaicheng finally understand why all the adults cared so much about Yu Heguang.
It wasn't just because of his grades.
It was because of his family.
When Yu Heguang had still been in elementary school, both of his parents—fishermen by trade—had lost their lives in a maritime accident.
Crescent Moon Town wasn't a large place.
Everyone knew what had happened to Yu Heguang's family.
Combined with his outstanding performance in school, it was only natural that the adults admired and praised him.
"...I really did something terrible..."
Growing up in a single-parent household himself, Qin Kaicheng had always carried frustrations he never shared with anyone.
He also understood, at least vaguely, how much his mother had sacrificed for him.
Losing only his father had already made life so difficult.
He couldn't imagine...
What kind of life Yu Heguang had endured after losing both parents.
"I'm..."
"I'm such a bastard..."
...
During their final year of middle school...
Qin Kaicheng kept his promise.
He never bullied Yu Heguang again.
Whenever they crossed paths, he would honestly call him "Big Brother."
Two boys whose lives had both been scarred in different ways gradually came to understand one another after that fight on the beach.
Little by little...
Their relationship improved.
Before long, however...
The time came for them to part ways.
Yu Heguang's grades remained as outstanding as ever.
As planned, he would attend the city's best high school.
Qin Kaicheng, on the other hand, had always performed poorly in school. At best, he'd spend a few years at vocational school before entering the workforce.
There was simply no helping it.
At the same time...
Qin Kaicheng also knew that leaving Crescent Moon Town had always been Yu Heguang's dream.
It was a strange dream.
Yet Qin Kaicheng was perhaps the only person who truly understood it.
To Yu Heguang...
The world had been cruel.
Especially Crescent Moon Town.
...
Seven years passed in the blink of an eye.
Qin Kaicheng and Yu Heguang still kept in touch from time to time.
But after graduating from high school, Yu Heguang enrolled in a university even farther away, and the opportunities for them to meet grew fewer and fewer.
In truth...
It wasn't just Yu Heguang.
Most young people no longer dreamed of becoming fishermen.
As society developed, they yearned instead for the prosperity and excitement of the big cities.
That was inevitable.
But Qin Kaicheng was different.
He preferred the quiet little coastal town where he had grown up.
So he stayed.
He became a crew member for a seafood company, just like generations of Crescent Moon Town fishermen before him, spending his days drifting across the open sea.
Still...
As more and more of his peers left town...
There were times when, watching the sun set over the ocean, he couldn't help but feel a little lonely.
Until one day.
During what should have been Yu Heguang's senior year internship...
Yu Heguang unexpectedly returned home.
The two old friends, who hadn't seen each other in ages, drank themselves senseless at a tavern.
Eventually, arm in arm, they staggered through town singing the old fisherman's song that had been passed down through generations in Crescent Moon Town.
Before they knew it, they had wandered back to the very beach where they had fought as children.
"Kaicheng..."
"I've been thinking for a long time."
"I finally have my answer."
Sitting on the beach, Yu Heguang gazed at the enormous moon hanging over the sea.
Then he said quietly,
"I'm staying."
Already thoroughly drunk, Qin Kaicheng didn't understand at first.
He merely kept asking how long Yu Heguang planned to stay home this time.
But when Yu Heguang answered—
"Forever."
Qin Kaicheng sobered instantly.
He shot upright.
"What?!"
"Have you lost your mind?!"
He couldn't understand it.
Yu Heguang was the most promising young man in town.
He was supposed to have a bright future elsewhere.
Why would someone like him choose to stay in this tiny coastal town forever?
He must be drunk out of his mind...
"I'm not crazy."
"I've simply figured something out."
Yu Heguang took another sip of alcohol.
His expression carried nothing but relief.
"I used to think Crescent Moon Town only held painful memories for me."
"But after I left..."
"I gradually realized..."
"All my memories of them..."
"...were left behind here."
"It feels like the world has never treated me kindly."
"But the people who once lived here..."
"They loved me with all their hearts."
Bathed in moonlight...
Yu Heguang scooped up a handful of sand.
He held it loosely in his palm, allowing the sea breeze to scatter it grain by grain back into the ocean.
"If I leave this place..."
"And settle somewhere else..."
"I think..."
"They'd be lonely."
"So..."
"I've decided to make peace with myself."
"I'll stay here."
"The place where I was born..."
"And where they once lived."
"..."
Qin Kaicheng fell silent.
He couldn't argue.
Because the very reason he had remained in Crescent Moon Town...
Was his mother.
She was growing older.
She feared loneliness.
And she loved him too much.
If he left for a distant city...
She would never stop him.
But he knew...
She would be heartbroken.
After letting out a long sigh, Qin Kaicheng leaned back onto the sand and stared up at the moon.
"Fine."
"Do whatever you want."
"You're my big brother."
"It's your life."
"You get to decide how to live it."
Yu Heguang burst into laughter.
"Hahaha..."
"Now that's a title I haven't heard in a long time."
(To be continued in Part 2.)
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