A Promise Made at Seventeen

Su Wan escapes her gambling-addicted father and transfers to County No. 1 High School, where she unexpectedly becomes deskmates with Lu Zhiheng, a boy ostracized by the entire school. With an alcoholic father who subjects him to endless domestic violence, the boy is covered in bruises, and everyone else keeps their distance. Only Su Wan sees the tenderness beneath his cold exterior. Two teenagers trapped in the mire find warmth in each other. They work through problems under the lights of evening study hall and make a promise on a rainy night by the river: after the college entrance exam, they’ll head together for the warm south and escape this stifling little city. Rumors, bullying, and the shackles of their families close in one after another. They fight with all their might to hold on to a glimmer of hope, but the evening breeze of their seventeenth summer never reaches the south. Their farewell that summer becomes a regret neither of them can ever let go. This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to actual people or events is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.