When the Flowering Period Fades, the Green Plums Are Sour

Bai Zhiling ranked second in the city in the high school entrance examination and was admitted to the top key high school in the province. Ji Shian, who was in the same class as her, was number one in the city, and he was someone she could not surpass in her three years of high school. In her freshman year of high school, she didn't have any extra thoughts about Ji Shi'an - he was just the name ahead of her on the red list, the goal she desperately pursued. Four major exams, four times in second place, she wrote down every difference in the small book that recorded her results, believing that one day she would stand in front of him. In the first monthly exam in her sophomore year of high school, she only scored 135 in her favorite math test. At her most lost moment, Ji Shian walked into her classroom for the first time and placed a green plum on her desk. "Here you go, it's very sweet." He said. The green plum was sour, but there was a warmth in her heart that she had never felt before. Since then, sharing candies has become a tacit secret between the two, and the rooftop has become a corner where they meet occasionally and escape from stress for a short time. Her affection grew quietly in countless details - taking a detour through a classroom, searching for his back in the crowd, smoothing out each candy wrapper and stuffing it into a notebook. She never named these with "like", she just let them take root in her heart. But her life is more than just these slightly sweet moments. Her mother is a preschool teacher and her father is a waste recycler. In the family, there is both cold violence from her father because she does not call her "Dad" and also her mother's anger and criticism towards her when she is frustrated at work. These family emotions that she could not control or anticipate became the first cracks in her heart. In the second semester of her sophomore year in high school, she picked up the broken glass on the ground for the first time while receiving an award at the school rehearsal, and scratched it towards her wrist. After that, her emotional outbursts became more and more frequent. Her parents took her to the hospital, and the doctor dismissed them by saying, "Children with good grades will not have major problems." After returning home, my parents treated this incident as a joke at the dinner table, and "our family suffers from depression" became a joke in my mother's mouth. Her cry for help was ignored, her pain was treated as hypocrisy, and her hallucinations made her unable to tell whether the figure on the rooftop was real or an illusion. Senior year of high school struggled with drug side effects and emotional breakdowns. She cut her wrists for the second time in the bathroom, nearly died, and was diagnosed with severe depression. In order not to affect the college entrance examination, she secretly stopped taking the medicine, struggling between the painful pain of clarity and the dull numbness. Ji Shian entered closed study under the strict requirements of his mother, and the two gradually drifted apart. The college entrance examination results were released. Ji Shian scored 745 points and was the provincial science champion. Bai Zhiling scored 741 points, 4 points lower than him. After three years of catching up, from the first monthly exam to the college entrance exam, she was still a little behind. During the summer vacation after the college entrance examination, she happened to see Ji Shian's interview. The reporter asked him what was the most unforgettable thing about high school. He said: "Eating green plums with classmates on the rooftop. It felt quite sweet at that time." He did not mention her name, but he remembered the green plum and the rooftop. For her, that was enough. On a morning when gardenias were blooming, she left quietly, leaving behind a sentence - "Green plums make wine with a bitter feeling, but the fragrance of gardenias is unparalleled in the world." Later, when Chen Nian was sorting out his belongings, he discovered that Ji Shian had written a line on the back of the high school entrance examination photo: Gardenias are in bloom, and it's time for the gold medal. I only wish you peace of mind. Her name had always been hidden in his, but neither of them had said it. Copyright Statement This work "When the Flowering Period is Fading, the Green Plums Are Sour" was created independently by the author, and the copyright is protected by law. The full text of the work was first published in Jinjiang Literature City, and no exclusive or contract agreement has been signed on any platform. Without the written permission of the author, it may not be reproduced, excerpted, AI trained, re-created commercially or used for other profit-making purposes in any form. Please indicate the source and original author of fan creations, and may not be used for commercial purposes. The author reserves the right to pursue legal liability for infringement. Intent: Youthful secret love, modern family conditions and the inappropriateness of psychological testing