Tales from Xiangyang Street

After her mother passes away, Song Nuan returns to Xiangyang Street and reunites with her high school friends. After divorcing, Zhou Ran, one of those friends, reconnects with the boy she had a crush on as a teenager. But after a one-night stand, her low self-esteem drives her to flee at once. Academic star Yang Xiao returns from abroad and starts dating a former classmate, but he has only recently divorced, and Yang Xiao’s mother strongly disapproves. When they were in high school, Song Nuan accidentally hurt a boy and never got the chance to apologize before he went abroad. When she hears news of him again, he is already dead. The emotional scars left by her parents’ divorce during her adolescence also make her afraid to accept the feelings of someone she likes or take the first step toward love. Now these three women have reunited, and the stories of their youth begin again.

Can the friendship they formed as girls endure after all these years? Can the three women support and help one another, and untangle the knots in each other’s hearts?

This is not a story about one all-conquering heroine. Everyone has a little of Song Nuan, Zhou Ran, and Yang Xiao in them during their teenage years. But the adult habit of weighing costs and benefits means many of the friendships we made as girls don’t survive. What I want to write is this: no matter how long we’ve been apart, I will still reach out to you in friendship through the pouring rain.

Author’s note: This is really an ensemble novel, and every woman is a protagonist. Their parents’ stories are connected, yet each can also stand on its own.