Every now and then, romantic trending stories pop up on Chinese social media in which people try to reconnect with people they’ve met. But the story of Mr. Sun, who tried to find the girl he met in a bookstore by suing her, has caused unease among netizens.

When a man named Sun saw a young woman during a visit to the Wangfujing bookstore in Beijing, it was love at first sight for him.

He first saw the woman in the afternoon of September 24th in the well-known bookstore, where she was wearing a yellow hoodie and “skin-colored stockings.” The two allegedly had prolonged eye contact, which is when he realized he had a special connection with her, according to Chinese news platform Pear Beijing.

Within no time, he lost sight of the girl, and was not able to find her again. Without knowing her name, age, or other details, the search for the woman was virtually impossible.

But Sun was reportedly so desperate to see the young lady again, that he went back to the store in the fifty following days to wait for her. Since the man went to the bookstore instead of to work, he had to borrow money from friends and family to sustain a living.

According to Chinese media, Sun has waited in the store all those days from 11 in the morning to 7 in the evening.

On December 10th, the man went down to the local Dongcheng courthouse in order to sue the woman, hoping to find her through the legal system.

According to the petition for appeal, the man sought to sue the woman for emotional distress. By tracing her down through the legal system, he further hoped to get some answers that would “solve his mental anguish.”

The Dongcheng courthouse, however, has advised the man not to sue the woman, and his case was not accepted. Sun now says he will think of another way to find the woman – whom he thinks might be the love of his life, – telling reporters that he will “figure out other ways if the normal way is not working.”

On Weibo, Sun’s case has received a lot of attention today. One Toutiao News post dedicated to the story received almost 30,000 shares and over 40,000 comments at the time of writing.

More than 170 million people have now viewed the Weibo hastag “Man Attempts to Sue the Person He’s Looking for” (#男子欲起诉寻人#).

Many netizens think there is nothing romantic about this story. Instead, they label Sun as a “maniac” and are worried about the safety of the girl if he were to find her. One Weibo user writes: “This is sexual harassment, not LOVE. He is a stalker, and totally has no respect for the girl. The girl should stay far away from him.”

Others suggest that reporters should find out more about the man and his situation. In the papers he prepared for court, which were readable in the Pear Video report of the case, he wrote down that he “possibly lost the love of life, as well as the meaning of life,” leading to some worrying about the man’s mental well-being.

In 2016, another bizarre love story also went trending on Chinese social media, involving a Dutchman who waited for over ten days at Changsha airport in hopes of meeting his online Chinese girlfriend – who failed to show up. After eating nothing but instant noodles and sleeping on airport benches, the man was even admitted to the local hospital due to physical exhaustion.

For that Dutchman, the story unexpectedly took a happy turn when it was widely reported in Chinese media. It turned out that due to poor communication, the ‘online girlfriend’ did not know the Dutchman was waiting for her, and still wished to pursue a romantic relationship with him.

As for Sun, if it were up to the people in the social media comments sections, he will never find his “true love” again. “Girl, if you see this Weibo post, please remember how this guy looks, and stay far, far away from him,” one popular blogger writes.

By Manya Koetse and Wendy Huang

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