Regret Grows Wild in Love

Chu Jianhuan grew up in a loveless home. Her parents' neglect made her sensitive and rebellious, with a deep-seated lack of security. In high school, the aloof girl never spoke to her classmates first. Her teacher, Sun Xingyao, was the one who reached out and warmed her. When Chu Jianhuan fell ill, Sun Xingyao cared for her so tenderly that, for the first time, she felt a warmth akin to a mother's love. Chu Jianhuan, who had never been one to fall for anyone, felt her heart stirred and helplessly fell in love with a woman fifteen years her senior.

Their relationship, one the world would never accept, took a cruel turn in the wake of a car accident. Chu Jianhuan spent months hospitalized with injuries, but Sun Xingyao never contacted her, not even once, and never came to see her. Still stubbornly devoted, Chu Jianhuan went to find Sun in her wheelchair, only to see her tenderly caring for her husband. In that moment, Chu Jianhuan felt as though she had fallen into an icy abyss. Her heart froze completely. Faced with society's judgment and the institution of marriage, she had never even been a consideration for Sun.

Covered in wounds, Chu Jianhuan fled, and was gone for seven years. She neither asked after Sun nor contacted her, trying to rebuild herself. But consumed by her obsession, she fell into depression and struggled through the pain. Seven years later, she returned with a fierce edge, only to hear that Sun Xingyao had divorced and was now in a sorry state.

At a gathering, the two inevitably met again. Chu Jianhuan had only meant to come and enjoy the spectacle, but as Sun Xingyao wept and spoke of her grievances, she awakened the "beast" inside Chu Jianhuan. A rainstorm swept them back to seven years ago. Chu Jianhuan realized in a daze that she had never let go.

After learning that Chu Jianhuan had fallen into depression because of her, Sun Xingyao finally began to regret her choices. She blamed herself for caring too much about what others thought and avoiding every feeling. Now she wanted to help Chu Jianhuan emerge from the darkness.

"You were the one who came after me first. Why were you the one who ran away?" "I was just a passing scene in your life." Faced with Sun Xingyao's belated attempts to make amends, the grievance and despair Chu Jianhuan had bottled up for seven years finally erupted. Sun Xingyao thought she could make it right, but Chu Jianhuan finally understood that the one she loved was the illusion of the person who had once saved her, not this cowardly woman who ran away.

Once all the suffering had finally run its course, even the gentlest tenderness was no longer something she needed. Chu Jianhuan refused to open her heart. She didn't want to repeat the past, and this time she chose to cut it off with her own hands.

This is an unequivocal bad ending. As Chu Jianhuan says at the end: "She warmed my entire youth, then destroyed it with her own hands."

Theme: It began as a salvation, but ended in the clear-eyed acceptance of worldly conventions. She warmed my entire youth, then buried it.