"River Corridor"

The deep winter in Rongcheng is always enveloped by a damp and cold evening breeze. The smell of food wafts from the houses in the old alleys, quietly hiding the thoughts of young girls and boys in the world of fireworks. During the winter vacation of the third grade of junior high school, He Xun, who was in the city for tutoring, temporarily stayed at Qi Lingzhi's home due to the ties of a distant relative. The two young people, who were already strangers and full of alienation, spent day and night together under the same roof. From the initial deliberate alienation and silent avoidance, they gradually developed a tender bond through the trivial daily life and became an indispensable presence in each other's lives. No one knows that this seemingly accidental encounter already contains deep love that spans the ages. Qi Lingzhi's heartbeat quietly took root as early as the second year of junior high school. A secret love that no one told her had been dormant in her heart for many years. She even breathed with cautious joy; she thought she was a lonely hero with unrequited love. , But I didn't know that He Xun's feelings had sprouted earlier. They had been deeply in love since they first met in junior high school. This time he moved into her house under the pretext of tutoring. This was all because of his long-planned approach, just to be able to stay by her side legitimately. The youthful thoughts finally bloomed in midsummer, and as the cicadas chirped at the end of the high school entrance examination, He Xun broke the long silence and turned his enthusiasm into a confession, opening the door of Qi Ling Zhi's heart that had been hidden for a long time. The two joined hands to enter the same high school, and secretly fell in love in the sea of ​​books and questions. Like all ignorant and pure campus lovers, they avoided the eyes of their teachers and hid the warmth of holding hands. They blended the sweetness into the glances between classes, the classmates after school, the exercises handed to them, and the warm milk tea. The two of them lived in the same room, had three meals and four seasons, and were so gentle that they were irreplaceable. As time goes by, the wind in the senior year of high school brings a fork in the road. Qi Lingzhi cherishes the ideal of going overseas, and the support of her family makes her decide to go to Canada to pursue her future; while He Xun has already anchored on the goal of starting a local business and takes root in his hometown to pursue his dream. What lies between the two is a long separation of five years. The endless waiting, the gap between the unknown future and reality made Qi Lingzhi full of fear and powerlessness, and finally reluctantly broke up, severing this unforgettable bond. For the next five years, mountains and seas separated us, and the sky separated us. Qi Lingzhi grew up alone in a foreign country, while He Xun worked hard in his hometown to fight for his career. The two people, who seemed to have no intersection with each other, always cared about each other in a secret way. He Xun traveled across the ocean to Canada every month just to see her from a distance without disturbing her; Qi Lingzhi learned that he was in trouble in starting a business and invested a huge amount of money anonymously to help him tide over the difficulties. She had glimpsed him on the streets of a foreign country countless times, but she did not dare to come forward to recognize him due to timidity and regret. He Xun had already found out the truth about the anonymous funding and buried this deep feeling in her heart. Five years passed in a blink of an eye, and Qi Lingzhi was invited back to Rongcheng to attend an old friend's wedding. Visiting the old place again, the scenery of the city remains the same, but things have changed. The wedding scene was noisy and bustling, and He Xun's best friend couldn't bear to see her kept in the dark, so he revealed the truth that had been sealed for many years - the deliberate encounter, the secret love that spanned six years, the silent watch in a foreign country, the anonymous help in times of need, all the deep feelings and obsessions buried by time, all unfolded before her eyes. It turns out that this two-way secret love has never been one-way from beginning to end. They both devoted their tenderness to each other in a corner that no one knew about. At the wedding, He Xun originally wanted to express his gratitude in person for this accomplishment across mountains and seas, but he looked up and saw the calmness and stability between Qi Lingzhi's brows and knew that she had found her own perfection in the distance. In the end, he chose to stop moving forward and turned all the unspoken thoughts, regrets and gratitude into blessings for each other, and dissipated in the evening breeze of Rongcheng. Those heartbeats and waiting, regrets and fulfillment hidden in the folds of time have finally become an exclusive memory of tenderness and sadness engraved in youth. Purpose: The work focuses on the story of two-way secret love and reunion after a long separation. Through the protagonist's experience from being together day and night to being separated by mountains and seas, it explores the impact of youthful timidity and realistic distance on relationships, and conveys the core of growth of cherishing the present, understanding choices, and reconciling with regrets.