[Mutual redemption × coming-of-age × subtle undercurrents] You are the light in my cracks, and I am the sweetness in your loneliness
“His soul, though he seems perfect, is half-immersed in shadow. Her palms, though she seems resilient, are covered in the scabs of healing.”
Shen Zitong was the bright, ever-smiling sunflower of her school: an excellent student who was always willing to help. No one knew about the blisters on her fingers from working late nights at a bubble tea shop, let alone the sight of her curled up in a leaky attic in a crowded neighborhood, her shoulders trembling as she counted her medical bills.
Huo Yu was a prodigy from a prominent family who transferred to her school. His features were sharp as knives, and he was so cold even his shadow seemed frozen. Then, on a day of torrential rain, he saw Shen Zitong running through the downpour, soaked to the skin, and suddenly hit the gas to chase after her.
He taught her that “you don’t have to make yourself small to be loved.” She taught him that “there’s no shame in being vulnerable.”
The medicine hidden in the lining of a schoolbag, the shared study room at four in the morning, their fingers entwined as they fled through the storm…
In the end, it all became that fountain pen he handed her at graduation in front of the entire school, exactly like the one she had stared at countless times through a shop window but could never afford.
“Sunflowers don’t need the sun to apologize, but the sun will remember to bend down and kiss their petals.”
I dedicate this book to making up for the imperfect youth I have already lost.
