Minus 2.8 Degrees

[Cool on the outside, passionate within vinegar-factory owner x unemployed photographer who has given up and chosen to lie flat]

[Mutual devotion + reunion after a long separation + secret crush + two strong leads growing together + healing]

[Intangible cultural heritage + memories of the city]

The year Qiao Siran turned twenty-six, she quit her glamorous curatorial job and fled back to her hometown of Longcheng in disarray.

On the day her plane landed, she dragged her suitcase through the dry, cold northern air and ran into that man for the third time.

He offered her a handkerchief and said in a calm voice, “It's been a long time.”

Eight years after high school graduation, Shen Jinyu, once a quiet boy, had become the new owner of Longcheng's century-old vinegar factory.

Everyone called him “President Shen” and said he was a shrewd businessman who had somehow brought a struggling old factory back to life.

Only Qiao Siran knew that this steady man directing the work among the vinegar vats had confessed his love to her in a rainstorm when he was sixteen, only to be hurriedly rejected.

She thought their reunion was just a coincidence.

Until she accepted the cup of warm tea he offered and saw the yellowed graduation photo tucked deep inside his wallet.

Until she went to his vinegar factory for a project about the city's memories and, amid the rich, fragrant aroma, heard him say softly, “Some flavors must never change.”

Only then did Qiao Siran understand that this reunion was a miracle he had carefully brewed for her over eight years, a miracle called “waiting.”