Shen Zhizhi was a girl as enthusiastic and cheerful as a sunflower until her sophomore year of high school when a boy named He Siyan moved next door.
He was gentle and restrained, embracing all her brightness like the deep sea. They became neighbors and inseparable companions on the way to and from school. That summer after the college entrance examination, orange soda was bubbling and the sunset filled the sky. They exchanged their futures at the highest point of the Ferris wheel and agreed to move towards the perfection of life together.
Later, rumors tried to tear them apart, but he protected her behind him in front of everyone and told her: "Don't be afraid, I'm here."
They overcame the criticism and were admitted to the same university. They were only one step away from the promise of "getting married after graduation."
In the summer of the next year, Shen Zhizhi happily prepared a birthday surprise and looked forward to proposing to him. But a sudden heavy rain and a shortcut taken to get to her made the boy who said he would spend every summer with her sleep forever in the mud and darkness.
He Siyan tried his best to love her, but he could not give himself the life to walk towards her.
It turns out that the cruelest thing in the world is not not having it, but being one step away from growing old together.
"He Siyan, you said you wanted to marry me."
"You are one step away, just one step away..."
Purpose: To explore the impermanence of life and the eternity of love through a tragic love that is "one step away from perfection". Although love has disappeared, love transcends life and death and becomes the force that supports the heroine through the long years. This commemorates those passionate but short-lived youth and tells readers: Even if the summer will end, the people I loved will always live in the memory.
