On the first day of the second year of high school, Lin Gardenia was assigned to the science experimental class.
Ranked last in the class.
Her deskmate is Shen Yubai—number one in grade, always wearing a white shirt, always writing, and never talking to anyone. In math class, she was called on the blackboard, and her hands were shaking so much that she couldn't write a word. That night, there was an extra book of wrong questions in the hole in her desk. It has a dark green cover and two words written on the title page: "You can read it."
She didn't know that this silent boy had been looking for her for six years.
Fourth grade of elementary school, county bookstore. She squatted in the corner and read "The Little Prince" and gave up half of the only small bench to a little brother who was standing and reading. When he left, he took off a rabbit pendant from his schoolbag and placed it in her hand. "If someone bullies you in the future, just tell me. My name is Shen Yubai."
She forgot. He remembers.
From 62 points to 94 points, from the last row to side by side with him, from "I can't" to "I can't turn". Over the past three years, she used a wrong question book to measure her growth, and he used a line chart to record her every step. Fang Jiayi wrote "Tsinghua" on the draft paper and changed it to "Chinese Department", Tang You read her novel at the radio station, Lu Bei's MP3 stored the voice of three years of secret love, and the strong tea in Chen Qiushi's thermos cup changed again and again.
In the summer when I turned eighteen, the college entrance examination ended. On the rooftop, he played a song called "Summer Solstice". As the sun set, he said: "Nanjing. Seven subway stops. Four hundred and twenty meters."
"I remember."
Youth is an equation with no standard answer. The important thing is not what you solve, but every trace you leave on the scratch paper.
Intention: Growth is not about becoming what others define, but becoming oneself through "learning" again and again.