Spring Returns in the Seventh Year

As dusk fell, the evening breeze crossed the long river, just as it had on that summer night years ago, when Xia Zhihan boarded a train bound for a faraway place and parted hurriedly from Lin Li.

Their argument had been left unresolved, and misunderstanding piled on misunderstanding. Neither young heart was willing to yield. They couldn't say what needed to be said, and from then on they were separated by a sea of people. He was trapped in the mire of his career, barely able to look after himself, and thought that letting go would spare them from dragging each other down. She left for another place, carrying a heart full of disappointment, convinced their love had already reached its end.

Years after their parting, Jiang City had changed beyond recognition. Xia Zhihan had shed her youthful awkwardness and become quiet and independent, putting down roots in her industry. She was used to weathering life's storms alone and had deliberately sealed away every memory of Lin Li. Lin Li had made it through one ordeal after another and risen in the business world. He had grown ever more reserved and distant. Though countless people came and went around him, the lonely boat drifting in his heart was still waiting for an evening breeze to guide it home.

A joint project brought them together again in a conference room.

The moment their eyes met, the emotions they had suppressed for years surged beneath the calm facade. Their polite, distant greetings and the space they deliberately kept between them concealed a lingering attraction and old wounds that had never healed.

Their past misunderstandings gradually came to light. At last, they learned that neither had truly wanted to part ways back then. They had simply been too young to overcome the many obstacles in front of them. The long years had opened a chasm between them, and their old wounds still ached. They kept wavering between drawing close and pulling away.

Lin Li pursued her at every turn, hoping to make up for all the years he had missed. Xia Zhihan remained hesitant, afraid of suffering the pain of another parting.

An ancient poem says: The evening breeze blows across a passing boat; a flower-lined path leads to the mouth of a creek.

The evening breeze will eventually reach the passing boat, and the wanderer will eventually find a place to dock.

After all their twists and turns, and after a long wait, could this long-delayed reunion finally help them put aside the barriers of the past and follow the evening breeze in the same direction, never to lose each other again?

Theme: Urban healing