Hidden Summer

This is a delicately told novel about a youthful secret crush and a long farewell, featuring two male leads. The story follows Lin Jianqing and Xu Yuhan, university roommates and the closest of friends in everyone else's eyes.

Outgoing and cheerful, Xu Yuhan has a colorful love life, yet always leans on Lin Jianqing after a breakup. Lin Jianqing remains by his side as a friend, silently enduring the bitterness of one unrequited love after another. His greatest secret is that every time Xu Yuhan starts a new relationship, he needs an entire summer to come to terms with feelings he cannot put into words.

The turning point comes on the night of their graduation dinner. Drunk, Xu Yuhan puts an arm around Lin Jianqing and says, "If only you were a girl. I'd definitely marry you." The seemingly joking remark is the final straw for Lin Jianqing. He laughs and plays along, then turns away and vomits his guts out in the bathroom.

Ten years later, at a class reunion, Xu Yuhan arrives with his new wife. As their glasses clink, the tattoo hidden beneath Lin Jianqing's watch, the initials "YH" for Yuhan, once a symbol of his entire youthful love, has finally faded away completely. In that moment, his decade-long unrequited love comes to a silent end.

Theme: Explore the dignity and weight of "love left unspoken," witness how silence shapes a person, and show how letting go can bring ultimate self-redemption.