In the summer of 2023, the parasol rain in H City is always filled with moisture, and the chirping of cicadas in Y City is wrapped in the smoke of fireworks. The two parallel lines would not have intersected until Lin Zhixia met Gu Shen in an online game.
One is a sophomore who hides his delicate thoughts among the shelves of his mother's supermarket; the other is a senior in high school who hides his youthful spirit in the ticking sound of his sick father's monitor. The similar situation of single parents makes greetings across the screen an anchor for each other - he shares the raindrops on the sycamore leaves in H City, he describes the aroma of hot pot on the slopes of Y City, and the sound of breathing when connecting to the microphone late at night is more reassuring than the sound effects of the game.
From online confessions in the midsummer to offline hugs in the cold winter, they stepped on the high-speed rail track to measure the distance, but were repeatedly pulled between family pressure and the weight of reality. Gu Shen said, "Wait until I am qualified to stand by your side," and Lin Zhixia said, "I will wait for you," but the malice of fate always breeds in the dark: the shadow of the factory warehouse, the coldness of the hospital diagnosis, the insurmountable self-disgust...
When the boy from City Y rushes towards the light of City H with scars all over his body, when the word "not worthy" crushes all the promises, those concerns hidden in dialects and promises soaked in tears will eventually undergo the cruelest torture on the railway track between the north and the south - can love cross the mud? Can waiting fight collapse?
This is a tug-of-war between two teenagers, a collision between northern and southern cities, and a long journey about redemption and courage: some wounds will scab, and some threads can be reconnected even if they are broken.
As sweet as that summer was, the subsequent autumn was so painful. When the slopes of Y City could no longer hold the boy's secrets, and when the rain of H City could not wash away the scars in his heart, they only knew they had some love after being separated by more than a thousand kilometers, and they were destined to struggle in the mud from the beginning.
——"I once traveled thirty hours on a hard seat to see you, but when I should hug you most, I was afraid of staining your white shirt."
Purpose: Through the love of two single-parent teenagers spanning thousands of miles, it shows the crushing of pure emotions by differences in native families and class gaps, tearing apart the struggle between survival and dignity of the lower-class teenagers, and exploring the cruel proposition of "can love withstand the sharp edge of reality" - when a clean love encounters a muddy fate, every humble persistence and helpless letting go is a stinging commentary on the emotional plight of contemporary youth.