On her first day at a new school, He Lingling runs into Nan Er, the school bully, standing at the gate with a cigarette in his mouth. With his uniform buttons undone, the boy boldly declares, “From now on, I’ll protect you.” She hunches her shoulders and avoids him, never seeing the red marks his clenched fingers leave behind.
The handsome boy in the seat in front of her, Shu Yu, always wears a gentle smile. He gives her exercise books full of notes and encourages He Lingling to join the debate club. With him watching, she dares to raise her chin and speak up for the first time. Then one day, she finds a note hidden in one of his books: “Are you free this weekend?” He Lingling’s long-silent heart begins to beat for him.
In the shadows, Nan Er’s bulging veins and clenched fists reveal his fury. Yet when she’s cornered by thugs, he stands in front of her, gripping a broken bottle. The day blood drips onto her white sneakers, he turns away and snaps, “You idiot! Why didn’t you run?”
Amid the haze of alcohol at the graduation party, He Lingling hears her own ragged breathing in the darkness. Nan Er’s burning breath brushes her ear as he tempts her: “I’m Nan Er, not Shu Yu!”
When a truck comes hurtling toward them, Nan Er shoves her out of its path. In that instant, she finally sees the obsession in his eyes: a devotion hidden beneath his sharp tongue, one he won’t even admit to himself. Outside the ICU, He Lingling rests a hand on her swollen belly. Amid the monitor’s steady beeping lies the youth of three young people, crushed by fate.
