The Wind Through the Treetops

When people have once had the chance to love passionately, they spend the rest of their lives chasing that same fervor and that same light.

---- Albert Camus, Summer

The one her mother hoped for when she got pregnant again was her. The one whose baby brother was sent to live with their maternal grandfather in the countryside for three years was her.

The one who became her father's adversary was her. The one who swore she would never work so hard to keep a marriage together as her mother had was her.

The one determined to escape her family of origin was her. And the one who fought to pursue her dreams, unwilling to be shackled by the hand she was dealt from the start, was her above all.

And he was a bird of paradise, accidentally marked as part of her territory while she was drawing boundaries with fierce conviction.

In the fertile soil of her heart, he put down roots and flourished.

That year, Xia Di was seven. In the sweltering summer that seemed impossibly long to a child, she met a boy two years older than herself.

In her memory, he was always the one charging ahead at the head of their two-person squad, until he vanished that summer.

"Let's go catch fish in the little pond together."

"My dad's a doctor. He'll definitely be able to cure your grandma."

The boy's tender face was flushed red by the sun, like a freshly picked Fuji apple. A little embarrassed, he touched the bridge of his nose. The light in his brown eyes was as bright as the stars she'd seen in the countryside as a child.

And the little mole at the end of his eyebrow was a secret code she'd stumbled upon by chance.

After their last meeting, her little brother broke the Rubik's Cube toy the boy had given her. The toy, along with the memory of that summer, was put away in an iron box on the top shelf of the wardrobe.

When Xia Di started her new year as a high school sophomore, she was seated beside Lin Lang, a repeat student who should have been a senior.

Her usually orderly, cautious high school life took an unexpected turn.

"What? Is the good student going to report me to the teacher?"

"Are you sure you're okay? Did you get heatstroke?"

"Do you need someone to take you home?"

How was this new deskmate any different from the people who made up rumors about him? Maybe he was just a nerd who happened to be a little better-looking.

His professional basketball career had hit a wall. Now he was just a down-and-out stray.

He and a good student who shared study tips in front of the whole school were like two parallel lines that could never meet.

But perhaps fate really is a closed circle. After going around and around, the people destined to meet will meet again.

Clear-minded, independent heroine x sunshine-boy hero

Unconventional female writer x passionate professional basketball player

Theme: A woman's growth, self-discovery, and youth