This is the story of Lu Li’s short but profound life. At seven, the death of his paternal grandmother introduced him to death for the first time. At ten, he was diagnosed with an incurable hereditary heart condition, and his life was put on a countdown.
Under death’s shadow, his youth was full of struggle and pretense. He rebelled, venting his sense of injustice through fights. With his looks and brains, he played both the campus heartthrob and the school bully. He even ventured into the school’s shady underworld just to survive.
At seventeen, he fell in love with Su Qing, tasting both the sweetness and bitterness of first love. But knowing he could never give her a future, he made the painful decision to break up with her after the college entrance exams, sending her toward a wider world.
At nineteen, nearing the end of his life, he met a volunteer named Lin Xiao in the hospital. Her companionship and her words, “Even a limited life can still have dreams,” lit up his final days. He found his ultimate purpose: to write a book recording everything about himself, to prove, “I was here.”
At twenty, fate gave him its final test: his condition worsened, his father suffered a heart attack, his mother developed cancer, and the family went bankrupt under crushing debts. In his final days, he stopped taking his own medication to save money, wrote with all his strength, shouldered his family’s burdens, and calmly said goodbye to the people he loved.
In the end, Lu Li died at twenty. His book, Winter Left Behind, was published. His story made countless readers reflect on the meaning of life, love, and death. Through his words, he transcended the length of his life and fulfilled his wish to leave a mark.
