Su Xi was a small-town girl, and studying was her only ticket to the world beyond.
But to take that path, she would have to work a hundred, a thousand times harder.
Everyone naturally labeled her an unlikable bookworm.
Then one day, a mischievous figure came barreling toward her, as if descended from the heavens.
And she became "abnormal."
By instinctively seeking safety and avoiding trouble, she discovered that the only place she wouldn't get bullied was by his side.
So she shamelessly became his little shadow.
In return, she would tutor him!
She wasn't freeloading.
Then one evening, as the sunset fell across his shoulders, she suddenly understood:
She liked him.
But as it turned out, she could walk through deep, stinking alleyways and along spotless streets, yet she could never find her way into his heart.
Unrequited love was impossible to make work, wasn't it?
–
Han Yuanzhao was a low-class hoodlum. His grades were terrible, but he excelled at fighting, brawling, and all sorts of troublemaking.
One day, while cutting class, he saw a girl clutching her textbooks and crying. He didn't understand what was going on, but he took a brand-new textbook from his schoolbag and traded it for hers.
After all, a book with muddy footprints on it suited his image better.
Later, that girl became his shadow and even started tutoring him...
Oh, come on. This had to be her repaying kindness with spite!
Later still, he watched her leave town and heard her ask, "Will you come visit me?"
He understood the unspoken meaning and jokingly replied, "The ticket's too expensive. I'm not going."
–
She thought they would never cross paths again. Who could have known she'd come back, then leave once more?
The feelings she'd poured into her secret crush grew wildly beyond her control.
* Childhood friends
* Mutual unrequited love
Theme: A beautiful flower can bloom even in the mud
