Summer's Passing

[Main story complete] The summer of his second year in high school, Chen Yao was packed off to a seaside town in his hometown. Everything was unfamiliar, and he couldn't stand any of it. It was a rainy evening, with darkness as thick as ink. Chen Yao sat behind the counter, doing homework while watching his uncle's shop. A tall, handsome boy pushed open the door. "Got a light?" the boy asked, leaning against the doorframe. Chen Yao looked at the boy's blond hair, white shirt, school trousers with the same insignia as his own, and the cigarette between his fingers. He said nothing. After a moment of silence, the boy curled his lips into a smile. "I'm an adult. Got a light?" Chen Yao: "..." . Ding Zhuo was the big brother to all the boys in town. Chen Yao was an outsider from the city. They were like the neatly arranged exercise books on the shop counter and the glowing cigarette ember in the rain and fog: they seemed destined never to cross paths. So Chen Yao said nothing and barely even looked at him, trying to endure this miserable summer as if he could simply outlast every other worry in his life. Then, one Saturday morning, as Chen Yao sat behind the counter, a few of Ding Zhuo's underlings barged in. Chen Yao thought they had come to cause trouble, since the day before he had made Ding Zhuo redo every single test paper at school. Instead, one of them set a bunch of dewy chamomile on his desk, looking conflicted. "Brother Zhuo sent these for you." Chen Yao: "...?" Summering: Spending the summer, escaping the heat. A delicate beauty in trouble VS a blond bad-boy puppy A school story. A restless, agitated summer, and a clear, refreshing one, too. Three upcoming stories on my profile: 1. A showbiz second-chance romance, Would You Talk to Me Now? 2. Modern setting, a sweet, timid little exorcist and the Lord of the Underworld, I Was Too Scared, So I Ended Up Dating the Lord of the Underworld 3. Modern setting, the college lives of immortal cultivators, Daily Life for Newbies at the Cultivation Academy I'll see how things go~ The next one will probably be 1 or 2. Theme: Stay passionate about life and keep your goals firmly in sight