He Came from the Depths of Winter

The day Shen Yuzhou transferred to Nancheng No. 1 High School, the first snow of the winter began to fall.

He sat in the last row, tucked away in a corner, mud on the tips of his shoes and an old scar on the back of his hand. As usual, he planned to be invisible.

Then Xu Nanxing turned around and smiled at him.

The sunlight fell just right on her, bright as her name.

In the corner of his textbook, he wrote two characters: Nanxing. He kept writing them for an entire youth.

He stood in the pouring rain for her, waited through the night, weathered the rumors, and walked ten muddy years. He made himself into a silent bridge, just so she could cross without getting her feet dirty.

And she knew all along.

She knew the “Nanxing” in the corner of his textbook was written for her, knew he had tied the hair tie around the umbrella handle, knew he was the one who stood outside her dorm all night, and knew he left to pay off his debts, so that one day he could stand before her with his head held high.

She never said a word. He had spent so long trudging through the depths of winter, and she couldn’t bear to tell him that she had seen his footprints.

From sixteen to thirty-one, from a five-square-meter rental in an urban village to a home with windows, sunlight, and sunflowers, from a boy afraid to lift his head to a father who named his daughter Zhichun.

It took him fifteen years to make the journey from deep winter to spring.

“Ever since the day I was sixteen and you turned around and smiled at me, I’ve liked you. I’m sorry I’m so late.”

“You’re not late. You’re right on time.”

He came from the depths of winter and finally made it to spring.

#PureLove #SchoolToCity #UnrequitedLoveFromHim #HeSuffers,SheDoesNot #EnsembleComingOfAge #HealingAndRedemption #FromSchoolUniformsToWeddingGowns #HappyEnding