Jiang R Nuan was never the Jiang family's "young master," only a shadow they had adopted.
He grew up within gilded walls, yet lived like a silent sprig of mint dependent on someone else's hospitality.
Auster was the son of a diplomat who had transferred to the school. Golden-haired, with a gaze that met everything head-on, he was the very embodiment of light beneath the sun.
And when he first saw Jiang R Nuan, his heart stirred with startling clarity, like a gust of wind knocking a pen cap to the floor: slight, yet impossible to ignore.
They met in spring, drew close amid rumors and gossip, and slowly fell into one another through an art studio, a desk, and a postcard.
From tentative advances to kisses, from holding hands to leaning on each other, before that summer came, they believed they could escape fate together, that they could be each other's home.
But reality weighed far more heavily than love.
Jiang R An's shadow, the family's control, the shackles of power, a love that could never be made public
A sudden plunge after a moment in the spotlight, a secret hidden in an envelope, would eventually drag them into an ending beyond their control.
"I want to be with you forever."
"But the spring waters are cold, and the dream is too bleak."
They had once loved each other with all their might and embraced like mad.
Then, in the lives that followed, each learned to quietly forget the other.
But ten years later, Auster stood before a familiar painting, his eyes red-rimmed:
"Have you never really been far away?"
Theme: Caught between love and power, fate drives people toward the abyss. Through the tragic romance between Jiang R Nuan and Auster, who cross boundaries of class and culture, the story reveals how small and helpless individuals are when faced with family, institutions, and prejudice. With its extreme premise that "all the good people die while the wicked prosper," it denounces the injustice of fate and the coldness of human nature, prompting readers to reflect on truth, freedom, and love.
