"That summer, the sea breeze was very salty"
In 1997, the summer in Hsinchu was humid and sultry.
Yang Xiaodong, Guo Caijie, Ke Zhendong and Feng Xiaoyue are childhood sweethearts in junior high school. Xiaodong was taciturn and always guarded Caijie like a shadow; while Caijie's eyes always followed Ke Zhendong, who was as dazzling as the sun on the basketball court. Feng Xiaoyue is the young man with a dangerous aura. He comes from a wealthy family, behaves erratically, and has an almost paranoid possessiveness towards Caijie.
On graduation day, a group of people met to go to the beach. Caijie was accidentally swept into the sea by a huge wave while trying to pick up a hairpin that had been blown down by the wind. Among everyone's exclamations, the first one to jump down desperately was Yang Xiaodong.
He tried his best to push Caijie onto the rock, but he was swallowed by a bigger wave. When lifeguards picked him up, his heart had stopped beating. He exchanged his life for the girl he had been watching silently all his life.
Yang Xiaodong's death was like a huge stone thrown into the middle of the lake, changing everyone's trajectory.
The huge guilt and shock made Caijie unable to face her vague affection for Ke Zhendong. She locked this feeling together with her debt to Xiaodong deep in her heart. And Ke Zhendong, living in the shadow of self-blame because he failed to jump to save others immediately, gave up basketball and became depressed.
Time passed, and in high school, the thread of fate once again brought Cai Jie and Ke Zhendong together. In mutual comfort and understanding, a deep and complex emotion grew between them. It is no longer the pure throbbing of youth, but the clinging of carrying the past together and trying to find redemption in each other. They finally came together.
However, all this was seen by Feng Xiaoyue. He couldn't bear to have what he longed for taken away from him again and again. Fueled by extreme jealousy and alcohol, during a fierce argument with Ke Zhendong and Cai Jie, he uncontrollably yelled out the truth - it turned out that Yang Xiaodong could have been rescued faster at the beach, but it was him who hesitated for a critical second when handing out the lifebuoy because he was jealous of Xiaodong's constant presence at Cai Jie's side.
What's even more cruel is that Feng Xiaoyue blamed all his faults on the appearance of Ke Zhendong.
On a rainy night, the three of them confronted each other, and the situation got completely out of control. The furious Feng Xiaoyue knocked Ke Zhendong to the ground. Caijie rushed to stop him, but was pushed away. Seeing Cai Jie desperately protecting Ke Zhendong, Feng Xiaoyue went completely crazy. He picked up the metal baseball bat next to him and swung it at Ke Zhendong, shouting: "Yang Xiaodong, I'm paying this back for you!" But the stick hit Yang Xiaodong's father who broke away from Cai Jie and tried to rush forward to save her - the old man who had been unable to get over the pain of losing his son and secretly followed them to learn about his son's past. The old man collapsed on the spot and died after being sent to the hospital.
Feng Xiaoyue's blow did not kill the long-dead Yang Xiaodong, but killed his only living relative in the world, completely destroying everyone's remaining hope for life.
In the end, Feng Xiaoyue was imprisoned for negligence causing death. The love between Cai Jie and Ke Zhendong was based on the original sin of Yang Xiaodong's sacrifice, and was soaked with new blood. This love is so heavy that they can't breathe.
After the university released her results, Caijie left Hsinchu and never came back. She left a letter to Ke Zhendong, which contained only one line:
"The days we spent together seemed to be punishing ourselves. Yang Xiaodong taught me what love is with his life, but I spent the rest of my life forgetting you."
Many years later, Ke Zhendong still thinks of that summer of 1997. He often had a dream. In the dream, Yang Xiaodong came up from the waves, soaked to the skin, but smiled and said to them: "Idiot, you have to live well."
That year, they lost someone and forever lost the right to simple happiness.
The sea breeze of that year is still blowing the salty astringency they each carried for a lifetime.
Purpose: The beggar student in Fengli of Shishi No. 1 Middle School lies and Qiu Yingying is a harmful person Yang Yanran.