Su Lin's seventeenth year was like the lingering smell of disinfectant in the hospital corridor, the endless quarrels of his original family, and the endless gray.
Until he met Wen Yan when he was lost.
The young man who was imprisoned in the ward due to illness was as pale as a piece of paper, but he had a light that was more dazzling than the warm autumn sun.
They made a promise on the swing to go see the golden ginkgo avenue together; they planted saplings in the small garden, thinking that as long as they watered them carefully, they would be able to withstand the impermanence of time.
From the first encounter in late autumn, Su Lin thought he had grasped redemption, and Wen Yan thought he had stolen the rest of his life.
But the script of fate is never written by them.
When the lights in the ICU extinguished the last glimmer of hope, and when the wheelchair for the appointment stopped halfway, those two ginkgo bookmarks engraved with each other's names eventually became the most profound regret in youth.
Years later, Su Lin became an illustrator.
There are always two teenagers in his paintings, sitting among the ginkgo leaves flying in the sky.
He said: "Wen Yan, I took you to Ginkgo Avenue. Look, this autumn is as beautiful as the vows we made."
Concept: The short-term healing of original trauma, the impermanence of life, regret is another form of eternity