Wildfire and Poetry

Shen Xuezhou and Lu Yanzhou: one is called “Xuezhou,” the other “Yanzhou.” Their names come from Bai Juyi’s poem: “You lie buried beneath the spring earth, your bones turned to dust; I remain among the living, my hair white beneath the snow.” One is a drifting boat in the snow with nowhere to call home; the other, an isolated island burdened with debt. They meet in a narrow alley in Nancheng, wrapping themselves up tight in indifference and jokes, yet seeing at a glance the emptiness in each other’s eyes.

This is the story of two boys saving each other. From paying off debts to the college entrance exam, from a rented room to the university track, they are each other’s wildfire, burning away one another’s wastelands; each other’s lines of poetry, filling the world with wind and snow. There’s heartbreak and sweetness, breakdowns and embraces. From eighteen to twenty-five, from having nothing to becoming “a family.”

“The wildfire burned the wasteland bare, and the lines of poetry filled the world. Xuezhou found a shore, and Yanzhou no longer despairs.”