【Small-Town Fiction | Mutual Healing | Coming of Age | Reunion After Years Apart】
【Bright, resilient heroine × Steady, taciturn hero】
When Nan Xiaoying was in seventh grade, something happened to the family next door, and they moved back from the city to town. Only two of them remained: an old man and a child.
The old one had dementia. The younger one was in ninth grade, and his name was Chen Xia.
Nan Xiaoying was terribly curious. A few times, she secretly leaned over the wall and called to Chen Xia, but he never answered.
**
One night, sneaking home, she found him wiping away tears.
Without giving it much thought, Nan Xiaoying held out her hand, revealing a piece of candy that had melted from being kept warm in her palm.
“Here, have some candy. It’s really sweet.”
Chen Xia looked at her, tiny stars reflected in his eyes.
**
During the coldest days of winter in the north, Nan Xiaoying added more charcoal to the brazier.
Overnight, her grandparents died, and everyone began calling her a murderer.
Nan Xiaoying went from being a left-behind child to having no one at all.
When her classmates found out, they turned on her with all the malice they could muster.
Winter passed, but it felt as if Nan Xiaoying’s summer would never come.
**
After Nan Xiaoying was left all alone, another pair of footsteps began following behind her.
He walked with her along those lonely, endless roads.
Again and again, he pulled her back from the brink.
On a midsummer night, he held out his hand to her.
“Nan Xiaoying, come away with me.”
**
【After making it through the bitter winter, Nan Xiaoying was grateful to have found her own summer】
【But she never knew that she was also the only light in Chen Xia’s dark life】
