Those Things That Happened at School

September 1, 2005, Luanshui High School. The suitcases of He Beibei and Sun Shuangshuang collide head-on, and a white lace bra floats through the air, landing squarely on his shoe. Laundry detergent bursts into a cloud of powder, and an old Nokia snaps a photo, freezing two crimson faces in time. As if that weren’t enough, they live in neighboring dormitories and are assigned to the same class, having tied for second place in the high school entrance exam. For a few seconds, they stand side by side at the front of the classroom, their eyes meeting before they hurriedly look away. It is the most awkward, purest flutter of the heart at seventeen. Neither of them could have imagined that this one collision would begin twenty years of dust and change, and that their story would never truly end.