"It's really unlucky." The first thing Ji Chen said to his deskmate Zhou Yu'an on the first day of transferring school.
Ji Chen, who is number one in the grade, is rational and arrogant, while Zhou Yu'an is as gentle as water. They were originally from two different worlds, but they became estranged due to an accident. Ji Chen hated Zhou Yu'an's ever-present smile, hated how easily he gained everyone's love, and even hated the way his eyes fell on him involuntarily.
For three years, Ji Chen used the harshest method to hide his feelings - he tore up the notes handed over by Zhou Yuan, but glued them piece by piece late at night for collection; he mocked Zhou Yuan's paintings, but secretly bought every one of his discarded paintings. He planned to send out the seventeen letters he had written for three years at his eighteenth-year-old coming-of-age ceremony, and hand-deliver the eighteenth letter of confession.
In the early morning of his birthday, Ji Chen received a package. Inside is Zhou Yuan's diary for the past three years. The ink on the last page is still wet:
"Ji Chen, you are finally free. Please forget about me that makes you hate me. I wrote the eighteenth letter for you forever."
Attached is the police report: Zhou Yuan threw himself into the sea at three o'clock in the morning, which was the time Ji Chen was born.
Only then did Ji Chen realize that the back of Zhou Yuan's gentle smile was already full of cracks carved by his indifference. And that confession that could never be uttered became the eighteenth letter that could never be sent.
Intent: "The Eighteenth Unsent Letter" is not only a story about youth and death, but also a mirror reflecting the abyss of reality. It tears away the label of "gentleness" and reveals the wounds that may be festering underneath - those who always smile gracefully may be sinking silently. With extreme tragic tension, this book criticizes emotional expressions that use indifference as armor and acrimony as blade, and questions the forbearance and belated confession of those who think they are guardians: When love becomes a one-man show that touches oneself, who can hear the gradually weakening breathing behind the curtain? It aims to awaken people's awareness of the psychological plight of teenagers: true care lies in seeing the cracks behind the smile and reaching out in time, rather than offering outdated roses on the ruins.