Drowning in Autumn

- Childhood Sweethearts in a Small Town -

Time passes slowly in a small town. A single day feels like a whole year.

Public housing, incandescent lights: everything is hazy, yet within reach.

Chen Ni is always the first to charge ahead, fearlessly plunging into the mist.

Shen Qiu is always right behind her, calling again and again, "Chen Ni, wait for me!"

The pace of the city is fast. A single moment can fly by like three autumns.

Skyscrapers, neon lights: the whole world lies before you, yet it's all an illusion, like flowers reflected in a mirror and the moon in water.

Chen Ni falls behind, desperately trying to catch up.

She doesn't dare call out. She can only scream in her heart, "Shen Qiu, wait for me!"

The day Chen Ni finally catches up with Shen Qiu, she picks up her pen and writes the opening paragraph of Drowned in Autumn. She writes about the small town where she was born and raised, the dazzling city she can't keep up with, her own timid stubbornness, and Shen Qiu, who has been waiting for who knows how long.

The small town in the book is where it begins. The small town outside the book is where it ends.

At a signing, a fan asks what her pen name, Mountains and Rivers, means.

She signs "Mountains and Rivers" on the title page, then suddenly turns to the very last page.

The names "Chen Ni" and "Shen Qiu" sit close together.

She says, "Mountains rise high, while rivers flow low."

Theme: Keep striving upward.