The First Intimate Contact

The First Intimate Contact (simplified Chinese: 第一次的亲密接触; traditional Chinese: 第一次的親密接觸; pinyin: Dì yī cì de qīn mì jiē chǔ) is a 1998 novel by Taiwanese writer Tsai Jhi-heng (蔡智恆, with pen name 痞子蔡 and userID jht).

Background

The First Intimate Contact was first published by Tsai in the form of online installments on a bulletin board system. The complete story became popular in Taiwan, attracting a publisher and being released in print.

Plot summary

The protagonist (who shares the same name as the author) meets and falls in love with a girl, FlyNDance, on the Internet. They eventually meet up in real life and become a couple, going out by day and chatting online by night. After some time together, however, FlyNDance is diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus (erroneously translated as erysipelas in the English translation), which symbolically causes a butterfly-shaped rash to appear on her face. The disease proves to be fatal and the novel ends with the protagonist finding and reading a letter FlyNDance had written for him before she died.