He turned away with pride, yet wept with sorrow. He kept his silence with dignity, yet searched the crowd time and again for a familiar face. That winter, Zhong Yuezhen burst into his life like a blazing sun, warm and forceful, as if she belonged there. She melted the ice and unsettled the passing years.
He said, "If fate is a lonely river, I'm afraid to travel it alone, too."
When he graduated from high school, he could finally leave behind the storm-tossed home and the mountain city that had imprisoned him for eighteen years. For the first time in his life, he eagerly hoped to travel into the future alongside that person. But before he could savor his happiness, an upheaval shattered his young hopes.
He smiled bitterly and mocked himself: "What a wretched person I am. In the end, I've become a little desperate."
Theme: The misfortune of his family of origin made him strong yet sensitive, insecure yet determined. He is conflicted, yet sees things more clearly than anyone. He desperately seeks the warmth of human kindness, but is too timid and cowardly to accept it. He keeps breaking free from the shackles of family ties and the constraints of human nature, moving forward toward the sun.
