Hidden truth, intricate love

On the wooden bench in the dressing room, Lin Yue stared at the makeup mirror, looking worried. The fluorescent seal on the back of her neck glowed a faint blue under the warm light, and the ivy pattern stretched perfectly to the hollow of her spine. "Is this really going to take three days to fade?" She tilted her head to look at Li Hao, who was tying his belt.

"The clerk said they need a special solvent..." Li Hao's voice suddenly stopped. His wife's slender neck was reflected in the mirror, the fluorescent lines undulating along her shoulder blades like a river of stars flowing in the night sky. He suddenly remembered the luminous beaches in Okinawa during his honeymoon, and the luminescent plankton that drifted with the tide at high tide.

Lin Yue keenly caught her husband's momentary distraction, and her ears felt slightly hot. Just as she was about to turn around, there was a knock on the locker room door. "Guests, this is a souvenir for passing through customs." The clerk handed over a sandalwood box containing two meteorite fragments. "When you find the frequency that belongs to each other, it will glow."

On the way to the hot spring hotel, Li Hao placed the meteorite under the steering wheel. Every time they turned, the soft sound of gravel and metal clashing reminded him of Lin Yue's rapid breathing as she solved a puzzle the night before. In the rearview mirror, Lin Yue was studying the "Memory Book" given by the arcade. The previously blank pages revealed snapshots of their journey through the game: Li Hao blindfolding himself, holding Lin Yue in his arms. The glass floor reflected the cherry blossom trees from their first encounter ten years ago.

"Did you know?" Lin Yue suddenly pointed at the star trails on the edge of the photo, "What you wore on your white coat that day was the Orion badge." Li Hao was stunned. It turned out that the old things from the medical school's astronomy club had already planted the seeds of cause and effect in her memory.

As the hot spring mist drifted across the cobblestone path, the fluorescent light on the back of Lin Yue's neck suddenly began to flicker. The dome of the open-air bathing area was a projection of an artificial starry sky, with the Orion Triple Constellation hovering directly above her head. "It looks like there's a sensor installed here," Li Hao said as he dipped into the pool. The flickering light on the surface of the water crept up his collarbone. When they closed to within half a meter, the ivy patterns suddenly blossomed into a nebula, drawing the attention of the other guests.

"Don't move." Li Hao scooped up a handful of hot water and poured it over the back of her neck, trying to dim the fluorescent light. Droplets of scalding water slid down her spine, and Lin Yue shrank back into his arms. The other female guests' snickers drifted through the mist, and she bit her husband's shoulder in embarrassment, "It's all your fault for insisting on choosing a double room..."

Waking awake in the middle of the night, Lin Yue found Li Hao standing by the edge of the mountain, gazing upwards. The real starry sky between the mountains was even more stunning than the projection, the Milky Way cascading down like an overturned diamond box. His bathrobe was loose, revealing his chest, and meteorite fragments shone coldly in the moonlight.

"I got an email from my advisor," Li Hao's voice tinged with mountain breeze. "There's a two-year joint research project with the Chilean Observatory." Lin Yue clutched the window frame, a splinter piercing her palm. Three years ago, when she gave up an overseas assignment to support Li Hao's doctoral studies, the wish tied to the cherry tree read, "I wish to be your gravitational lens, bending the starlight towards you."

As the hot spring mist dissipated in the morning light, Lin Yue noticed something unusual in her locker. Her meteorite fragment was gone, replaced by a yellowed piece of paper with familiar handwriting: "His experiment failed again today. I secretly spiked his coffee with brandy. — 2018.3.17"

"Is this what you're looking for, sir?" The proprietress appeared holding a clay pot with more than twenty plastic-sealed letters at the bottom. "A gentleman came this morning to deposit a time capsule, saying he wants to open one every year." Lin Yue pulled out the top one. The wax seal had a pattern of the Orion Nebula, and on the back was written "Opened in 2025."

On the way back, the car radio suddenly interrupted with an astronomical bulletin: "Juno will be at opposition tonight." Li Hao turned the steering wheel with one hand and opened the star map app on his phone with the other. As the dot of light representing Juno flashed across the screen, the meteorite fragment in Lin Yue's bag suddenly began to buzz, resonating with her heartbeat.

"Actually, I turned it down," Li Hao suddenly said, as the car passed the observation deck where he had proposed. "Compared to observing the stars billions of light years away..." He pressed the sun visor, and a laminated photo fluttered down—a photo he'd taken last night while Lin Yue was sound asleep, a superposition of fluorescent patterns and the real starry sky. "I'd rather protect the light sources that are within my reach."

Lin Yue found the seat adjustment knob and, as she reclined the seatback, a starry sky projector rolled out from the storage compartment. As the Milky Way's light enveloped the cabin, she unbuttoned Li Hao's shirt and drew a new constellation on his heart: "This is your love coordinates."