In the summer of seventeen years old, Shen Zhiche was transferred to Lincheng No. 3 Middle School as an "illegitimate son of the Shen family." Among the whispers in the classroom, only the boy in the front row was writing his homework without raising his head. Later, he sat next to Lu Jin and became his deskmate.
Shen Zhiche is silent and thoughtful, while Lu Jin is cold on the outside and brittle on the inside. In one semester, the two people came together from "Hello classmate, can I sit here?" The sunset on the river embankment, the umbrella on a rainy day, the poetry book with the title "Looking at each other" written on the title page of the birthday book, the late-night phone calls until three o'clock in the morning - some approaches are silent, like the summer water slowly rising across the river bed, and by the time you notice it, it has already reached your ankles.
But Lu Jin's home is falling apart. The stepmother came in, the stepbrother arrived, the father cut off the card and said "take care of your brother" - he stood on the edge of the dining table, like a pot of flowers that had been moved out of the greenhouse. On Shen Zhiche's side, Father Shen was also tightening the rope. A warning in the study room, a slap in the face, and a transfer notice - "Leave in July and be clean."
Lu Jin swallowed all this. He hid his father's coldness, hid the phone call where he was asked to "don't be embarrassed", and hid the thorn in his heart when he heard Shen Zhiche say "I know". He still smiled in front of Shen Zhiche, and only he knew that the smile was borrowed light.
He died on his birthday. June 21st is the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. He died of drowning in the bone-chilling coldness of the lake, which formed the cruelest contrast to the only bit of warmth he had received in his short life.
When Shen Zhiche found him, there was only a pair of canvas shoes floating on the water.
"Wang Feng" - two words written by Shen Zhiche on the title page of the gift book. It means "I hope you meet what you want to meet." Lu Jin did meet him. But the light he encountered was borrowed. It's time to pay it back.
Concept: The summer is long and the lake is very cold. It takes a person a year to learn to be loved, and a whole summer to learn to let go.
