Seeing Winter

Ling Xiaoqiu’s youth was filled with four names.

Chu He was the mutual secret crush neither dared to confess in the corridors of ninth grade. Xu Zhixia was the gentle boy in the back row of high school who kept getting rejected. Jiang Wanyu was the college love that always seemed within reach, yet ultimately slipped away. Wen Jinyao was the steady, enduring companionship he found after entering the working world.

From 2018 to 2026, he tucked a scarf burned through by a cigarette, a classmate yearbook with only four words written in it, and a pale blue letter that arrived too late into the metal box under his bed. Only later did he understand that growing up didn’t mean forgetting. It meant carrying those regrets with him and still finding a way to make it through the winter without letting the wind in.

“Every unfinished greeting is a regret written in advance.”

And at the end of all those regrets, someone finally said to him, “I’m here.”