Deadlock

After graduating from primary school, Jiang Shaoning and Yu Jinghuai enter the same middle school. Through class assignments, switching classes, sports meets, field trips, and other experiences, the two grow closer. In ninth grade, Jiang Shaoning becomes absorbed in romance novels and develops feelings for Yu Jinghuai that go beyond friendship. Yu Jinghuai doesn’t realize his own feelings until their second year of high school, by which time Jiang Shaoning sees him only as a friend. On a graduation trip, Yu Jinghuai loses a game of truth or dare and anonymously leaves a love letter for Jiang Shaoning in her desk. Jiang Shaoning mistakenly believes it was written by their classmate Ming Si'an. Touched by his “sincerity,” she starts dating Ming Si'an in her second year of university. That same year, Yu Jinghuai’s mother dies in an accident. By the time he has come through his grief, Jiang Shaoning and Ming Si'an have already been dating for over a year. After graduation, Jiang Shaoning and Ming Si'an marry and live happily together. Yu Jinghuai has secretly loved Jiang Shaoning for six years, but ultimately chooses to give up, ending his life.

(The perspective returns to reality, revealing the divergence between the novel and real life.)

The preceding story was a novel written by Yu Jinghuai. In reality, Jiang Shaoning and Yu Jinghuai have been together for a long time and live happily. In the novel, Jiang Shaoning has a “happy family,” but in reality, her father is an alcoholic who beats and berates her when drunk, then wakes up sober and tries to make it up to her. Her parents argue constantly, and Jiang Shaoning has spent years living under this oppression. In her senior year of high school, she takes her own life because of depression. By the time Yu Jinghuai learns that Jiang Shaoning has depression, it is already too late. He wants to follow her in death, but chooses to live on because his mother is still alive. In university, his mother dies in a car accident. After arranging her funeral, Yu Jinghuai ends his life in the same way Jiang Shaoning did. In his final moments, he remembers the snow in Jiang Shaoning’s hair, his mother smiling at the two of them...

Theme: Cherish the people who are here with you.