The September sunlight was so gentle that you could see dust dancing in it.
Lin Zhian ran into a boy outside the library. He picked up the copy of Stray Birds she'd dropped and smiled. That one smile marked the official beginning of her youth.
Later, he became her deskmate. Lu Zhian: Zhi means "to stop," and An means "peace." His name belonged to the person who brought her peace, the name that came to rest in her heart. She spent three years with him, and neither of them ever stopped or turned away from the other...
They took shelter from the rain together, watched sunsets together, and waited on the overpass for the lights to come on at the evening study session. She thought these were secrets known only to her, until much later, when she learned that every time she turned to look at him, he was looking at her too.
In their second year of high school, they were both assigned to the science experimental class, Class 1, the best class.
One hundred days before the college entrance exam, he asked her in the hallway where she wanted to go. She named a city. He smiled and said, "Then I'll go take a look, too."
Their graduation photo was their first picture together, and their last.
Later, he went to Beijing to study physics. She went to Shanghai to study biology. Like two rivers flowing into different seas.
Many years later, she returned to the school. The plane trees were still there, and so was the library door. She pushed it open, and sunlight poured in, exactly as it had when she was eighteen.
Only no one would ever come walking toward her out of the light again.
This is a story about unrequited love. All the words they never said became secrets hidden in the wind.
Theme: Youth is an all-consuming secret crush, and you are its brightest star.
