Old Times in an Old Note

In 2023, middle-aged Bai Yu returns to his hometown, a small county town, to sort through old belongings in the family’s former apartment. A bundle of yellowed notes slips from his high school workbook, instantly transporting him back to the summer of 2002. Back then, shy and reserved Bai Yu became deskmates with the gentle, lovely Song Jiayi. One note after another became their secret way of sharing their feelings: hints for solving problems, words of comfort, tentative overtures, and the affection they kept hidden in their hearts. When SARS struck in 2003, the two leaned on and looked after each other in their sealed-off school. Amid the panic of the epidemic and the pressure of the college entrance exams, their feelings quietly deepened, but youthful insecurity and outside complications kept them from saying the words “I like you.” Graduation came, and their sudden parting sent them to different cities. The confessions they never made and promises they never kept were tucked away in those old notes. Twenty years passed. The notes remained clear, while their youthful longing had long since settled into memory. All that remained was the yearning and regret hidden in time, a moving imprint of youth they would always share.