Gardenias Bloom in Summer, Sunshine Dawns at Daybreak

The wind has been blowing down Zhihua Lane for more than a decade.

From the day little Xia Zhi grabbed Gu Xiaoyang by the hem in kindergarten, she became the “little shadow” he couldn’t shake. When she started high school, she was still the adorably clueless girl who got lost and always failed math, while he was already the aloof academic star known throughout the school. He kept everyone at arm’s length and rarely spoke, yet he would work out the routes she might take when she got lost and wait for her at the corner of the classroom building. He would break down cone formulas into “cake-making steps” and patiently explain them three times. When she twisted her ankle, he would crouch down without hesitation and carry her to the nurse’s office, the tips of his ears turning red.

Her feelings were hidden in every “Gu Xiaoyang, wait for me,” in the scarf she insisted on giving him despite its botched stitches, and in the confession she never got around to making on the Ferris wheel. At first, he thought it was just a neighborly habit. But when he saw how disappointed she was after giving another boy a love letter, and later found their photos from childhood, he finally realized that all those “just happened to be there” moments and “by coincidence” acts of concern had long since become an unspoken devotion.

There are no melodramatic misunderstandings, only three years of little acts of tenderness: whole-milk drinks after morning study, flashlight beams during evening study when the power goes out, lychee soda handed to her at the sports meet, and her hair carefully tied up backstage at the New Year’s Eve party… When Gu Xiaoyang finally hands her a note with the feelings he has kept for three years, in front of the gardenia bushes, Xia Zhi realizes that the light she has chased for more than a decade has been waiting for her all along.

This is a story of young love that grows from “neighbors” into “us,” the academic star’s one-of-a-kind tenderness, and two people choosing each other. Gardenias bloom in summer, warm sunshine arrives at dawn, and you happen to be here.