In the midsummer of seventeen years old, with the shade of ancient camphor trees covering the road in front of the teaching building, Lin Xubai noticed Su Zhixia for the first time in the corner of the library. She was tiptoeing to reach for the law-related books on the top floor. The sunlight filtered through the window and fell on the tip of her slightly frowned eyebrows, like a layer of fine gold dust.
At that time, Lin Xubai was a silent boy in the front row, always drawing sketches on the edge of the exercise book. Nine out of ten pictures were of Su Zhixia - her hair hanging down when she lowered her head to take notes, her eyes shining during a debate, and even the corner of her clothes raised when she picked up a badminton and ran across the playground. He hid these paintings in the middle of the textbook, like hiding the most turbulent secrets of his entire adolescence.
Later, they went their separate ways. Su Zhixia studied political science and law as she wished, and became a lawyer with clear logic in court; Lin Xubai became a teacher, and when he stood on the podium, he would occasionally think of the shining girl back then.
We met again at the high school anniversary. Su Zhixia spoke as an outstanding alumnus. When she came down from the stage, she was stopped by a student holding a picture album: "Teacher Lin said that this is the person he has been painting for many years." In the picture album, time stayed at the age of seventeen, and the last page read: "It turns out that every step you take towards the starlight, I am watching behind you."
Su Zhixia raised her head and ran into Lin Xubai's smiling eyes, just like that afternoon many years ago, when the sun was just right and her heart was still beating.
Purpose: A man has a crush on a woman