The July Promise Between the Pages

An old copy of Leaves of Grass, kept at the old city library, becomes a secret letter spanning seventeen years.

In July 1998, Shen Yan, a high school senior, does poorly on a practice exam. In the blank pages of an old book in the library's literature section, he pours out his feelings, thinking no one will ever know what he wrote.

In July 2015, Yu Li, a girl who has transferred schools, spends her summer in the library. She accidentally finds the writing from seventeen years ago and replies.

They exchange messages in the book's blank pages, talking about poetry, college entrance exams, family troubles, and their hopes for the future. Feelings quietly blossom between the lines, and they make a promise to meet in the book every July, year after year.

At first, each thinks the other is a pen pal from the same era. It is only when Yu Li looks up the borrowing records that she realizes the boy she has been talking to belongs to a distant past. A gulf of seventeen years stands between them, impossible to cross.

Their stories unfold in parallel. The boy goes to university and becomes an editor at a publishing house; the girl continues her studies and specializes in the restoration of ancient books. Times change, the old city is demolished, and the library moves. Soon, this copy of Leaves of Grass will be sealed away in the special collections archive.

The passage through the pages will eventually close, and they know they will never meet in person in this life. There is no forced transmigration, no defying fate to change their lives. This love, born among the pages of a book, is a spiritual resonance belonging to time alone. Some love needs no meeting. As long as the ink remains, their July promise will be eternal.

Theme: Time cannot be crossed, yet souls can still understand one another. Regret can also be a kind of fulfillment. This story celebrates a restrained, pure spiritual love and tells of souls resonating across the years and leaving an indelible mark amid changing times.