Flying Toward Spring

[The title was inspired by: "And so, like two swallows, they flew toward spring." - Les Miserables]

A show-off and troublemaker in public, but an awkward, sincere, all-around good boy in private x a strong, independent, clear-headed girl who isn’t interested in romance

When Wen Shan is assigned to a new class in her second year of high school, she gets a new deskmate, Li Jinyue.

Li Jinyue is famous at Number One High School, with all kinds of labels: "rough crowd," "study genius," "good at fighting," "cool and handsome." He sounds like a delinquent who’s bad at everything except studying.

A younger schoolmate asks Wen Shan, "Sister Shan, is Li Jinyue really mixed up with bad company?"

Wen Shan: "No. He works under the table at a gym."

"Is it true he sleeps in class and never studies, but is still top of the grade?"

Wen Shan: "He’s faking it. He stays up every night doing homework, so he sleeps in class during the day."

"Is he good at fighting?"

Wen Shan: "He throws a brick and runs away."

"...At least it’s true that he’s smart and handsome, right? I heard he was born with a split eyebrow."

Wen Shan: "Oh, someone beat him up. The hair never grew back."

The younger girl is speechless for a moment. "...At least his grades and looks are real."

Wen Shan wraps the scarf someone knitted for her more tightly around her neck and eats the three dishes and soup someone cooked for her. She thinks, he’s good at cooking, too.

*

Wen Shan still remembers the rainy season when mist hung over the school. Li Jinyue, drenched from head to toe, placed all the medals he’d won in her hands and asked carefully, "Wen Shan, can I work hard alongside you?"

That day, the spring rain fell softly, and the troublemaker’s ears became the first red thing she remembered from that spring.

"Can I work hard alongside you?" - "Can I be with you?"

[Years later, as Wen Shan looks at the snow falling just as it did when they first met, she finally understands: when they met in the snow that year, neither of them realized that spring was on its way.]

[Reading Guide]

1. The campus arc includes a best friend.

2. The female lead is only half-awake to her own feelings at first, but she will gradually grow.

3. The female lead and the second female lead are true best friends.

4. The second female lead’s only hostility toward the male lead is that he stole her best friend.

5. In the campus arc, the female lead is saved. In the modern arc, she goes on to save other girls.

Theme: Growing together.