During Song Shiyu's girlhood, her desk was buried under mountains of exam papers, and the only ripple in her plain, quiet life came in her second year of high school, when an extraordinary new neighbor moved in across the hall.
Xie Jiashu was the darling of the heavens, fawned over by everyone and a fixture on the honor roll and campus forums of Nanhui No. 1 High School.
Their first encounter came when she forgot her keys and sat on the stuffy stairwell steps, fanning herself with a workbook.
He came up the stairs with a basketball in his arms.
She awkwardly stood to let him pass, only to watch Xie Jiashu enter his home and come back with a bag of chilled green tangerines for her.
"Want one?" The boy's lips curved slightly. His amber eyes were clear and bright, and a touch of gentleness softened his roguish air. Her heart couldn't help but flutter.
*
After that day, a locked diary appeared in Song Shiyu's desk drawer.
She made him her goal and worked hard to get closer to him.
Just when she finally worked up the courage to confess her feelings, she learned that he was moving away and transferring schools.
From then on, Xie Jiashu vanished without a trace.
Her affection became a secret she could never tell.
*
Four years later, Song Shiyu had graduated from university and long since put her youthful crush behind her.
She never imagined she would see Xie Jiashu again, much less live under the same roof as him.
One day, a male coworker gave her a ride home, and Xie Jiashu happened to see them.
Under the amber glow of the streetlights, Song Shiyu stared at the two black shadows on the ground, one tall and one short, close yet distant. Then Xie Jiashu's clear voice suddenly sounded by her ear: "Is he pursuing you?"
She thought for a moment and answered honestly: "You could say that."
He stopped and lowered his eyes. An unprecedented jealousy spread through his gaze. "Then where do I rank now?"
[The secret feelings of a seventeen-year-old girl are like a green tangerine that's not quite ripe. At first it's sour, but the next taste is sweet.
It was only many years later, when she saw his diary, also locked, that Song Shiyu learned she had once been Xie Jiashu's green tangerine too.]
High school first, then city life
The heroine has a crush but isn't insecure
Theme: Youth is invincible
