The autumn wutong-lined lane at Xingzhou University was where Su Wan and Lin Yu's story began. On her first day on campus, she got her suitcase stuck between the flagstones. Just as panic brought tears to her eyes, a boy in a light gray hoodie handed her a hand-drawn map. Stars decorated its edges, and in one corner, the words “Shortcut to the library” were written in handwriting as gentle as the autumn breeze.
She was a sweet, sensitive new literature major who loved reading Wang Zengqi's essays and often filled the window-side seats in the library with her little thoughts. He was a kind, thoughtful upperclassman in computer science. Good at programming and a lover of words, he would search the university archives for old photos for her and fill her essay drafts with colorful stars and notes. He even remembered to ask for double the tapioca pearls in her strawberry milk tea.
From Wang Zengqi's Supplement to His Essays in the library to the old stone bench on Wutong Lane, from editing submissions for the literature club to working in perfect sync in an elective class, from sharing a strawberry cake to promising to search for Professor Chen's “time capsule,” their hundred days on campus were filled with countless tender details: a maple leaf bookmark tucked into a book, star-shaped keychains engraved with “Yu” and “Wan,” an unopened time capsule, and a research presentation still being revised late at night in the lab...
There are no grand, dramatic twists, only affection hidden among fallen leaves, heartfelt notes on sticky notes, and fingertips inching closer as they walk side by side along tree-lined paths. This is a sweet hundred-day romance at Xingzhou University, about two people on the same wavelength, and how, amid falling wutong leaves and red maple foliage, they turn “the first meeting” into the opening chapter of “the rest of their lives.”
