“You did not return as promised, and that is what parting means.”
Beidao, “Daydream”
The first time Shukui met Bianjing, Bianjing was about to kill himself.
He had prepared a rope and was about to climb the elephant slide that had long since fallen into disuse when a sudden figure startled him speechless.
The newcomer had a lollipop in his mouth, legs swinging idly as he listened to the cicadas.
When Bianjing looked up at him, the guy suddenly grinned, sprang to his feet, and opened his arms to him.
“Hey!” the boy called with a laugh. “If I jump, will you catch me?”
What a lunatic. That was what Bianjing thought, but he still caught him soundly.
His hand hurt so badly from the fall that he couldn't play the guitar for a whole week.
*
Shukui really was a lunatic.
His escape from the psychiatric hospital could have inspired several movies, and his so-called “love life” was scandalous enough to fill many trashy novels.
Bianjing knew he should stay as far away from this madman as possible. But Shukui knew his guitar.
He said, “Before your brother died, he played this guitar for me.”
He said, “You and your brother are a lot alike, in every way.”
He said, “Do you want to kiss me too? Like your brother did?”
*
The flower language of hollyhocks is “dream.” It seemed Shukui had been born a fool who lived in a dream.
And in that languid summer, Bianjing stepped straight across the border into the fool's dream.
#A transparently eccentric little madman bottom × a seemingly obedient but inwardly repressed guitarist top#
[May have a bad or open ending]
Tips:
1. A campus story set around the turn of the millennium, about poetry and music, rebellion and freedom.
2. More or less a sister-in-law romance. [Many potential triggers], not listed in detail.
3. A stream-of-consciousness work that's artsy, overwrought, and full of angst for no reason.
4. An intense coming-of-age story about youthful pain.
Theme: Freedom and art.
