This is a long-form story about a youthful, unrequited crush, with a tragic ending. Set against the middle-school years in the small town of Suiyang, Qianzhou, it follows the growth of a boy named Jia Jia in Qianzhou from primary school onward. In 2021, he meets Xiao Xing in seventh grade at the county middle school. They grow closer in eighth grade through their work on the class committee, and from then on, he begins a secret crush that lasts for years. From the confession letter he repeatedly revises in his notes app, to a courageous confession in the height of July's summer, from an unexpected leave of absence at his family's home in central Henan, to a devotion that spans a thousand miles, the story ultimately presents three parallel youth endings that take different paths. Hidden in the book are the poems the boy could never finish writing, the affection he couldn't bring himself to express, and all the secrets of adolescence: courage, regret, friendship, and the stirrings of love.
Theme: Courage, regret, friendship, and the stirrings of love
