The Path We Walk

Strong x Strong. The first volume is childhood friends; the second is a second chance at love for mature adults. [Synopsis A] From the Hudson River to Xierqi. After years apart, Feng Jiang and Bu Heng meet again. In many people's eyes, the compatibility they shared as teenagers has turned into a different kind of perfect match: ruthless decisiveness against utter disregard for family, a heart of stone against cold indifference. Friends who have watched them grow up have tacitly agreed that each is a knife lodged in the other's heart, and they stumble over their words whenever the subject comes up. Only President Chi Zhang can't hold back from speaking up for her: "You've known each other for over ten years. Sure, a lot can happen in that time, but she's abandoned you more than once. That's just too damn cruel, isn't it?" [Synopsis B] Years later, little Feng asks Feng Jiang, "When did you start liking my mom?" When did it start? In 1999, Bu Heng stepped across the threshold of the new millennium, coming from the lush, shaded mountains into the capital, where neither the Fourth Ring Road nor Subway Line 1 had opened yet. He helped her with the strap of her broken backpack, and that's how they met. During his two years in the army, torrential rain lashed the reefs and islands of Xisha, while the blazing sun beat down on the distant South China Sea. On sleepless nights, he would sometimes think of the girl with her Guanzhong accent, as thin as a chopstick. Just as he thought of her, she crossed a thousand miles, trudging through mud, and suddenly appeared at his camp. At that moment, before his eyes stood the unyielding soldiers who had been buried along the frontier for thousands of years. In his eyes was her, caught in a fierce storm and unable to open her eyes. In that instant, he knew what he would spend his life guarding and protecting. [Synopsis C] At the end-of-year banquet in 1999, Bu Heng left the Guanzhong region, where she had lived for years, and headed to the capital. Before entering her home, she heard the soft crunch of footsteps in the snow behind her, sometimes close together, sometimes farther apart. She instinctively turned around and saw Feng Jiang approaching from a distance, holding a black umbrella and lowering his eyes against the wind. Amid a view full of frost-covered branches and snow, at the center of the scene she had unwittingly narrowed her gaze to was him, wrapped up so completely that nothing but his face and figure could be seen. That was the beginning. Over the next year, she ran into him 132 times. [Meaning of the title] All these years, the steps we take and the direction of our hearts have led us toward boundless, shimmering mountains and rivers, old eaves in narrow lanes and new swallows, a little courtyard full of spring greenery, and you by my side. They are ideals, and love. Su Er's column: Theme: Stand side by side, and meet again at the top