Moonlight Across Six Cities

Chen Yan, a New Year picture artist, spends years away from home sketching from life, and everyone in his circle says he is free-spirited and unrestrained. Over four years, he travels through the Mohe snowfields, the old towns of southern Yunnan, the fishing harbors of the South China Sea, and the ancient streets of Chang'an, and the moonlight over mountains and rivers in his paintings is moving. No one knows that this long wandering was never about finding inspiration for his art. At seventeen in Gusu, he met Su Wan and quietly sketched her profile by the river in a rainy alley. Before his feelings could be spoken, a sudden tragedy struck. Word came from others that Su Wan had died in an accident. Chen Yan believed it, shut himself away in the Mohe snowfields, and stopped painting for two years, his heart like dead ashes. Then, in the crowded flow of people in an old town in southern Yunnan, a figure flashed past, exactly like the Su Wan in his memory. In that instant, his dead heart began to beat again. Carrying his sketchboard, he kept moving forward, watching the tides day after day in the fishing harbors of the South China Sea, seeking out old acquaintances in the ancient streets of Chang'an, and piecing together bit by bit the truth that had been deliberately covered up. It turned out that the so-called death was only a lie fabricated by someone. In the eyes of others, he traveled everywhere, carefree and amorous. But only Chen Yan knew that all the scenery was merely the backdrop on his road to find her. After four years of wandering, on a night of the full moon in Jiangcheng, he was sketching by the river. He looked up, and the moonlight he had painted a thousand times fell upon the person who had vanished for so many years. — Description from novelcodex.orgFull novel: Moonlight Across Six Cities — read the rest free on N​o⁠v​e⁠l​C⁠o​d⁠e​x⁠.​o⁠r​g⁠