Four Seasons of Sorrow

"Once you've seen the ocean, no other water will do; after seeing the clouds of Mount Wu, no others can compare." Lin Yuyan never imagined that only when everything had come to an end would she finally understand the agony of longing. Only then would she realize that perhaps, for the rest of her life, she would never forget, never attain, never let go, and never be willing to part.

"Graceful and slender, just thirteen years of age, like a sprig of cardamom in early spring. Along the spring-blown streets of Yangzhou, not even rolled-up curtains could rival her."

When they were thirteen, they first met on an autumn day at school. The summer heat had not yet faded, and the lilacs on campus were in full bloom. Everyone looked forward to a new beginning, imagining what those three years would be like, what middle school would hold. If Lin Yuyan had known, she would have wished she had never entered that classroom, the place that held all her youthful dreams and the longing of decades, but also extinguished the love she would carry through the years to come.

But did Lin Yuyan truly dislike it? No. Her friends for life were there, along with the most beautiful memories of her youth. If she could choose, she would rather remain lost in that dream of lilacs, asleep for a thousand years, never to wake.

After passing through Awakening of Insects, the Summer Solstice, White Dew, and Great Cold, as the seasons cycle round, can we still meet again on the far shore? I miss you. Do you still remember me? I love you. Did you ever love me?