Original title: "The Cicada's Chirping Ends in the Summer of Senior Year"
In the summer when I was seventeen, the chirping of cicadas made the air sweet
When the transfer student Xia Xingmian burst into the classroom holding a picture folder, the sun was falling on the side of Lu Shiyu's face. The pen spinning on the young man's fingertips suddenly stopped. Later he realized that this pause was the heartbeat of his entire youth.
They are deskmates half an arm's length apart, "competitors" for the last piece of sweet and sour pork ribs, and partners holding an umbrella together and touching each other's shoulders on a rainy day. Xia Xingmian would sneak ice-cold soda into Lu Shiyu's school uniform pocket, and would hand him a note with a crooked smile on his face when he couldn't solve a physics problem; Lu Shiyu would block the flying basketball for the reckless Xia Xingmian, and would silently leave a desk lamp on until dawn when he stayed up late to catch up on drawings.
On the rooftop on New Year's Eve, fireworks exploded overhead. Xia Xingmian raised her face and asked, "Lu Shiyu, will we always be friends?"
Lu Shiyu looked at the light in his eyes, his Adam's apple rolling slightly: "Yeah, forever."
At that time, they all thought that youth would be as warm as the sunshine in Xia Xingmian's paintings and as sweet as the soda in their pockets. However, they did not expect that some of the love hidden in the chirping of cicadas would turn into an obsession across mountains and seas in the years to come.
——After all, who would refuse a boy who will always keep strawberry candies for you and will always tilt his umbrella towards you?
(The cover shows two overlapping hands, one holding a pen and the other holding a paintbrush. The background is a sunny classroom window sill.)
Intention: youth
