There Is Still Bitterness and Sweetness

This is a realistic novel that uses an extremely delicate line drawing technique to present the entire process of a love "trapped by morality" from its germination to its release. It writes about a dark love, but what it really writes about is how one person learns to stand by loving another person - she stands in the sunshine, he stands in the darkness of losing her, and they both become more complete people than before in this four-year shining of each other. It is not a novel about "love conquers all". It is a novel about "how love changes a person, even if the love itself has no results." Han Zhuo changed from a numb man who was trapped in responsibilities and obligations and couldn't even feel his heartbeat, to a living person who could cry, be in pain, and lose his hair. Su Hanzhang changed from a girl with a blushing face and trembling hands in the hallway to a woman who ranked first in the exam and could say "I want to move forward." They have all become more complete selves because of this relationship - this is the only and best thing this relationship has left for them. Just as the bitterness of grapefruit peel and the sweetness of honey are inseparable, the love and pain, gain and loss, encounter and separation between them are also inseparable. The whole significance of this novel is that it uses 210,000 words to prove: some hardships are worth eating. Somewhat sweet and worth the wait. Some feelings that others may see as "wrong" are just medicine called "growth" in the minds of the people involved. The whole book uses a restrained narrative tone to present the complex game between three adults between love, responsibility and morality. Intent: This is a novel that explores "how love makes people whole". On the surface, it is about a morally unacceptable relationship - a four-year secret entanglement between a married man and a young girl. But its real core is not love itself, but the use of this relationship as a mirror to reflect the fundamental changes between two people in each other's lives: he has changed from a body that has been emptied of sensibility by responsibilities and obligations, to a living person who can feel pain, cry, and lose hair; she has grown from a girl waiting to be loved to a woman who can actively choose and stand alone. They have all become more complete because of this relationship - this is the only and best thing this relationship has left for them. The novel uses "honey grapefruit tea" as the core image throughout. The grapefruit peel is bitter, the honey is sweet, and it has a shelf life after being simmered slowly - the whole fate of this relationship is in this pot of tea. It is not pure sweet love, nor is it pure painful torture, but a complex formula of traditional Chinese medicine. Bitterness is not a bad thing, it is a medicinal inducer that leads sweetness to where it should go. The book uses taste to describe emotions, and daily life to describe fate. In extremely restrained line drawings, readers are allowed to taste the unexplained tastes - the sourness of waiting, the spiciness of hiding, the bitterness of separation, and the sweetness of return. The novel is also a literary exploration of the "technical mediation" of contemporary emotions. In the age of social media, traces of one person's life are scattered in Weibo accounts, Zhihu answers, job announcements, and weather forecast positions, while another person can, like a lonely archaeologist, piece together her entire trajectory from these digital fragments. Video calls, WeChat screenshots, encrypted folders—these technical objects are not background props, but components of the emotion itself. Han Zhuo's "attention" to Su Hanzhang is possible precisely because a person in this era will inevitably leave digital traces. This kind of writing finds a brand new answer that belongs to this era to the ancient proposition "how to continue to love someone after a breakup". On a moral level, the novel resists simple judgment. Su Hanzhang is not a pure victim, Han Zhuo is not a pure coward, and Xia Jie is not a pure victim. The three of them are all struggling in their own predicaments, and they all have their own last resorts and unspoken concerns. The novel presents the gray area of ​​human nature with almost cold honesty - a person can be a passionate lover and a neglectful husband at the same time, a true bestie and a betrayal friend at the same time, and can love someone and hurt her at the same time. This complexity is exactly the respect that serious literature should have for human experience. Ultimately, this novel answers a question: Is there any meaning to a fruitless love? The answer is: yes. Its significance does not lie in the ending, but in the process - the sweetness that is hidden, the bitterness that is swallowed, the moments that are cut off, and the growth that is endured are all real. The meaning of some love is not to achieve positive results, but to have illuminated each other. Just as the bitterness of grapefruit peel and the sweetness of honey are inseparable, the love and pain, gain and loss, encounter and separation between them are also inseparable. And the whole significance of this novel is that it proves: some bitterness is worth eating; some sweetness is worth waiting for; some feelings that others think are "wrong" are just medicine called "growth" in the hearts of the people involved.