The Age-24 Rule

Is there such a thing as pure friendship between men and women? I used to believe there was, but after so many things happened to me and the friends around me, I suddenly understood that in those supposedly platonic friendships, one person is always giving in silence while the other pretends not to notice. What was that saying? "How can you sit beside a fire and not feel its warmth?"

So many ridiculous, dramatic things have happened to me and my friends, things that made us laugh even as they left us in tears. That's why I wanted to write this novel, for our youth: a youth that was passionate and free.

This may be my first time writing, and I may not be able to write the kind of story I want, one that makes readers feel what the characters feel. But I remember reading something a famous person once said: "For a writer, the first and last stories they write in their life should be stories connected to themselves. They should begin with themselves and end with themselves."

In this youth, what choice will Chen Wanxing make as she struggles against illness? And what exactly is the age-twenty-four rule? Perhaps every kind of youth has its regrets.

I hope you'll enjoy it. This is not just a burst of pink bubbles from youth, but also a look at the past we can never return to, and the regrets that no longer matter much.