At 11:17 p.m., I deleted my dating profile description for the third time. Inspired by my friend’s success on a dating app, I’d downloaded it, but struggled to describe my job as a children’s 绘本馆 manager.
A match notification interrupted me. Lin Shen’s profile caught my eye—his bio simply read, “A coder by day, an amateur conversationalist by night.” His photo showed him with round glasses, a drawing board full of sketches behind him.
“Have you ever wondered if pixels hold magic?” his first message asked. That night, we talked until 3 a.m., sharing our love for Monument Valley and Little Blue and Little Yellow. Lin Shen, a game 美术设计师，made code sound like a way to create dreams.
During our third video call, he turned the camera to the rainy window. “This reminds me of your love for Kenji Miyazawa on rainy days,” he said. In that moment, I felt a flutter inside.
When we finally met, Lin Shen arrived at my 绘本馆 with a copy of Night on the Galactic Railroad. Its pixelated cover sparkled with gold. As we walked along the Suzhou Creek, he said, “Code and picture books both build infinite worlds from limited elements.” I realized we were kindred spirits.
Every weekend after, he brought new pixel art to the 绘本馆. The children loved his animated fairy tales. One late night, his message lit up my screen: dancing pixels formed a heart, then the words “Shall we code our own forever?” Looking at the city lights, I knew my answer was a resounding yes.
good