Summer Outside the Window

I'm a slow writer, but I keep writing, so there's no need to worry.

Twenty-one-year-old Xia Youqing returns to her grandmother's home in the countryside to spend the last summer vacation of her university years, hoping to recover from depression. There she meets Jiang Xiwang, nearly thirty, whose marriage has failed and who has returned to her hometown to escape reality.

Jiang Xiwang walked over barefoot. Her toenails were painted red, bright and bewitching as ten red roses just beginning to bloom. Each step brought another flower into bloom, until they were all in full flower. Then the owner of those roses stopped beside Xia Youqing's legs.

She bent down and took the drawing board from Xia Youqing's hands. Her hair smelled of mint, its coolness softening the scent of roses and tempering the room's suggestive atmosphere. But Xia Youqing was the only one caught up in that atmosphere.

Xia Youqing looked up from Jiang Xiwang's feet, along her slender, straight legs, to her belly, smooth and free of an ounce of fat. Higher still was the unique sensuality of a woman. Finally, her gaze settled on the woman's slender, fair fingers, callused from painting as they held the drawing board.

Xia Youqing realized that the seed she had been suppressing, keeping from growing, was now climbing upward like a vine. Then she heard her own voice.

"Jiang Xiwang, I like you. The kind of like that means I want to be with you."

"Xiaxia, you'll meet someone who's more right for you."

Jiang Xiwang was blunt, so blunt that it was as if she had taken a painting that could have been a landscape in ink and wash and carelessly marked it with a single stroke. She had the finest brushes and the most beautiful colors, yet she was stingy and unwilling to share even a little.

Theme: Love should be given without holding anything back