The Aloof Top Student Is Cold Yet Flirtatious

Jiang Yan is the coldest name on the honor wall at Yuying High School. His physics competition certificates are the wall he has built to shut out the world. Then Xia Zhuo crashes into his orbit like a wildly out-of-place flame. The sprinter, who scores 68 in math yet wears a dazzling smile, recklessly imprints his promise, “Let’s go to Peking University together,” beside Jiang Yan’s meticulously planned life blueprint.

From then on, the library’s late-night lights illuminate two sets of notes side by side, while the wind across the track carries away their playful banter: “Run one more lap and I’ll help you with the problems.” Between competition proofs, Jiang Yan finds himself unconsciously sketching Xia Zhuo’s running silhouette. After crossing the finish line at the provincial games, Xia Zhuo slips his medal into Jiang Yan’s school-uniform pocket in front of everyone. Through each other, they glimpse the laws of another world: warmth beyond reason, thought beneath the sweat.

When Jiang Yan defines their relationship as “resonance” during his Peking University admissions interview, and Xia Zhuo pushes past his limits on the track at his athletic recruitment test, running for himself and for the gaze fixed on him from the stands, they finally understand that the future was never a solitary track. The inkstone is warmed at last by the glow, and the flame finds direction through the inkstone. From classroom desks to the shores of Weiming Lake, from school uniforms to white coats, these two boys compose the most passionate equation together, in ways utterly different yet perfectly complementary: You are the heart of inspiration that flares as I solve problems; I am the wind that fills your sails as you run. Youth never fades. Yan and Zhuo thrive together.