"That Summer, the Sea Breeze Tasted of Salt"
In 1997, summer in Hsinchu was damp and sweltering.
Yang Xiaodong, Guo Caijie, Ke Zhendong, and Feng Xiaoyue were childhood friends and junior high classmates. Xiaodong was quiet and reserved, always watching over Caijie like a shadow. But Caijie's eyes were always following Ke Zhendong, whose brilliance on the basketball court was like sunshine. Feng Xiaoyue was the dangerous boy, from a wealthy family and unruly by nature, with an almost obsessive possessiveness toward Caijie.
On graduation day, the group agreed to go to the beach. Caijie was trying to retrieve a hair clip blown away by the wind when a huge wave swept her out to sea. As everyone screamed, Yang Xiaodong was the first to leap in without hesitation.
He used all his strength to push Caijie onto the rocks, but a bigger wave swallowed him. By the time the lifeguards pulled him out, his heart had stopped. He gave his life for the girl he had silently watched over all his life.
Yang Xiaodong's death was like a boulder thrown into a lake, changing the course of everyone's lives.
Overwhelmed by guilt and shock, Caijie could no longer face the vague feelings she had once harbored for Ke Zhendong. She locked those feelings, along with her guilt over Xiaodong, away in her heart. Ke Zhendong, too, was tormented by guilt for not having jumped in to save her first. He gave up basketball and grew gloomy.
As time passed, fate brought Caijie and Ke Zhendong together again in high school. As they comforted and understood each other, a deep and complicated love began to grow between them. It was no longer the pure infatuation of their youth. They leaned on each other, both carrying the past and seeking redemption in one another. At last, they became a couple.
But Feng Xiaoyue watched it all. He couldn't bear to see the things he wanted repeatedly taken by someone else. Fueled by intense jealousy and alcohol, during a heated argument with Ke Zhendong and Caijie, he lost control and shouted the truth: Yang Xiaodong could have been rescued sooner that day at the beach. Feng had hesitated for that crucial second when handing over the lifebuoy, jealous that Xiaodong had always stayed by Caijie's side.
Worse still, Feng Xiaoyue blamed everything on Ke Zhendong's arrival.
On a rainy night, the three confronted each other, and everything spiraled out of control. In a fury, Feng Xiaoyue knocked Ke Zhendong to the ground. Caijie rushed to stop him, but Feng shoved her away. Seeing Caijie protect Ke Zhendong at all costs, Feng went completely mad. He grabbed a metal baseball bat nearby and swung it at Ke Zhendong, roaring, "Yang Xiaodong, this one's for you!" But the blow landed squarely on Yang Xiaodong's father, who had broken free of Caijie and tried to rush over to save them. The old man had never recovered from losing his son and had secretly followed them, hoping to learn more about his son's past. He collapsed on the spot and died after being taken to the hospital.
Feng Xiaoyue's blow didn't kill Yang Xiaodong, who had already died. Instead, it killed the only family he had left in the world and destroyed the last spark of hope anyone had.
In the end, Feng Xiaoyue was imprisoned for manslaughter. Caijie and Ke Zhendong's love had been built on the original sin of Yang Xiaodong's sacrifice, and now it was soaked in new blood. Their love was so heavy they could hardly breathe.
After the university entrance results came out, Caijie left Hsinchu and never returned. She left Ke Zhendong a letter with just one line:
"It feels like the days we spent together were all a way of punishing ourselves. Yang Xiaodong taught me what love was with his life, but I spent the rest of mine trying to forget you."
Many years later, Ke Zhendong still thought about that summer in 1997. He often dreamed that Yang Xiaodong came walking out of the waves, soaked through but smiling at them. "You idiots, live well."
That year, they lost someone, and with him, the right to ever know simple happiness.
The sea breeze from that summer still blows, its saltiness lingering in the lives they must each bear forever.
Core theme: Young love in junior high
