Ice in Warm Tones

Xia Qingyou spent her senior year of high school wedged between piles of exam papers and two eccentric desk mates. On her left was the chatterbox Zheng Haodang; on her right, the sharp-tongued Liu Ruiwei. She secretly liked Lin Zejia, who rode the school bus, received a little flower Xin Rui had hidden in her workbook, and had her heart thrown into disarray by Liu Ruiwei's hug on graduation day. But her real youth began when she stepped onto the campus of Jiangcheng University. A boy named Xu Jiayang came into her life like a sudden ray of light. He was gentle, dazzling, and always knew just how far to go, bringing plenty of sunshine to her college years. And Xin Rui, the boy who had always stood behind her since high school, spent four years letting chances slip by. In the end, he finally understood one thing: the brave are the first to have it all, from secret love to being loved in return, from looking up to standing side by side. It took Xia Qingyou her whole youth to understand that the best kind of growing up isn't waiting for someone else to love you, but learning to find yourself in love. This is a long story spanning high school and college. There are no golden fingers, no fated encounters from the heavens. Just an ordinary girl who, through one stumble after another, finally became her own light.