The start of senior year. Cicadas sing in the height of summer. Lin Xi, a quiet and hardworking girl, and Jiang Chen, a distant, impeccably mannered top student, find their lives intertwined after an accidental scramble for the same library book and their homeroom teacher assigns them to a study group. At first, she sees him as an unattainable prodigy, but in her focused, stubborn gaze, he sees a light unlike any other.
From then on, beneath the lights of countless evening study sessions, he becomes her personal math tutor: concise, precise, and endlessly patient. And when he occasionally shows her the smallest kindnesses, her heart quietly begins to stir. From silently accepting a bottle of water, to angling an umbrella toward her on a rainy night, from standing up for her by the basketball court, to walking her home after late-night classes... Beneath his icy exterior, tenderness flows like a gentle stream. As they fight side by side through their final year of high school, an innocent affection takes root, heartfelt yet restrained by propriety.
Together, they face academic pressure, other people's doubts, and the differences between their families. With every exchanged glance and unspoken understanding, they draw closer. He makes a promise with a fountain pen bearing the weight of his family's expectations, and she repays his trust with every improvement in her class ranking. From the fluttering uncertainty of their final year of high school to the sweet certainty of college, this is a long, tender crush that began in midsummer, and a youthful romance in which they help one another thrive and grow together.
