"You don't have to mutter to yourself from now on, I will understand what you are saying."
In junior high school, Lin Ruonan and Yang Yikan became roommates because of the two "fifth" grades on their report cards.
One is a cheerful girl who is top-notch in English but has a headache in math, and the other is a delicate boy who is a genius in math but struggles with English.
Teacher Wang said: "You two, help each other."
So began a long journey of being at the same table
————
She taught him English grammar and he taught her mathematical formulas;
She is ninth, he is tenth; he is ninth, she is tenth.
Under the plane trees in Jiashi, on the snowy night in the Northeast,
The two teenagers awkwardly learn how to be side by side and how to separate.
A misunderstanding in high school made them the most familiar strangers.
She went to study Marx and he went to study law.
Two parallel lines, growing silently on their own tracks.
Until we meet again in Kyoto
————
She is a graduate student struggling with her dream of being a screenwriter, and he is a budding intellectual property lawyer.
A plagiarism case revived the tacit understanding in the old days.
From thirteen to twenty-six years old,
From the classroom in Kaichi to the courtroom in Kyoto,
From "helping each other" to "achieving each other".
This is a youth narrative spanning thirteen years.
About growth, about dreams, about those unspoken likes that have already taken root.
