The first time Lin Xi met Jiang Yi, he was a day laborer in a faded T-shirt, hauling bricks at a construction site. She was a confused freshman, assigned to an obscure major and unsure of her future. Neither could have imagined that their dusty first encounter would intertwine their lives for the next ten years.
He had once topped the science track in the national college entrance exams, but after his family was struck by misfortune, he dropped out to work. By day, he hauled steel rebar; at night, he studied mechanics textbooks under a streetlamp. She was an idealist mocked for "trying to live on drawings alone." She repeatedly hit dead ends in the design world, and even her graduation project nearly got plagiarized.
He saw her crying in a rented room as she tore up the designs others had rejected, only to get up again before dawn and revise her proposal. She saw him break down in a hospital corridor, clutching his mother's critical condition notice, yet still show up on time for his retake exams the next day.
They tested the waters across the gulf of reality. Ashamed of his working-class background, he didn't dare approach her; held back by her family's constant criticism, she didn't dare pursue her dream. They also pushed each other away amid the waves of fate. To give her a "better future," he hid his illness and left alone; to prove herself, she gave up love and moved far away.
But setbacks were never the end. Through self-study, he rose to become the youngest structural engineer in the industry, turning the muddy path he'd once walked into an open road. She persisted with her original designs despite the doubts, making Lin Xi Design an industry benchmark. When they reunited onstage at a prestigious architecture forum, he held the old fountain pen she'd given him years ago, while she wore the metal bookmark he'd made for her through the night on her chest.
It turned out that every run against the wind had been for the chance to stand beside you at the summit; every twist and turn had been part of the journey toward finding each other.
