Thirty-two-year-old Song Yu quit his job in an investment bank and returned to his hometown to open a campsite in an abandoned quarry. On the first morning, he was awakened by someone digging bamboo shoots - the person wielding the hoe was actually his first love in high school, Lin Xiaoman. When the hoe hit her foot and blood seeped out, Song Yu had only one thought in her mind: She should hate me this time. Lin Xiaoman is the only art teacher in town. He is divorced and has a five-year-old daughter. Fifteen years ago, he said "wait for me to come back" and then disappeared into the autumn of Beijing. Fifteen years later, he came back with a tent and belongings and found that she had been living in the same alley and had not changed her mobile phone number. But what I owe over the past fifteen years cannot be made up by just making up for it. His ex-husband came to seize custody, investors wanted to buy the camp, and his parents forced him to return to Beijing—all things came together to force him to make a choice. Song Yu stuffed the yellowed ginkgo bookmark back into his wallet, thinking: If I can't keep it this time, I won't come back again in this life.
