In the summer when I was sixteen, the sycamore trees were leafy and the cicadas were chirping noisily. For Shen Chuxia, a freshman in high school, the boy who walked into her world had the coolness of bamboo and the heat of summer.
His name is Lin Xiuzhu.
His name is the most poetic secret in her heart. He was sitting diagonally behind her, not too far away, just enough for her to use her peripheral vision to trace his calm profile when he lowered his head to do the questions, and to capture the tiny light in his eyes when he was talking and laughing with his friends. That ignorant love is like a vine creeping over the whole heart. It has not been expressed, but it has already flourished.
However, the liberal arts and sciences department was like an unexpected shower, washing away the newly familiar each other. He went to the key science class, while she stayed in the liberal arts classroom. The corridor leading to his class suddenly became long and empty. Her world seemed to suddenly become quiet.
Just when that throb was about to be sealed by time as a regret, she saw the name again - Lin Xiuzhu at the top of the grade list. The three characters were neat and cold, hanging high above everyone, so dazzling that it made people's hearts tremble.
At that moment, sourness and admiration were intertwined, but he did not give up. An unprecedented stubbornness burst out from the bottom of my heart.
"Lin Xiuzhu, just watch." She silently vowed in her heart, "I will catch up step by step, so that one day my name can appear next to you in an upright manner."
From then on, this one-person secret love turned into a lonely and grand two-way rush. The first ray of sunshine in the early morning in the library witnessed her concentration, and the empty pen refill under the desk lamp late at night was her silent battle. Every question she has read and every knowledge point she has written down has become a ladder for her to build her way into his world. She is no longer running for a vague shadow, but for a clear goal - to become a better Shen Chuxia who can stand alongside him.
This is a story about secret love, but it is more than just secret love. It is also a youth epic about self-growth and striving for excellence. When the hard-working girl finally stands on tiptoes and touches the bamboo sea that was once out of reach, what she will hear is her own echo throughout the summer.
Intention: I love you, so I become a better version of myself.