The Cicada Doesn't Understand Summer

My name is Bai Shen. I live in an isolated fishing village in the northern mountains called Old Anchor. I'm the person in the whole village with the best chance of making it out of the mountains by getting into college, but I don't want to leave these remote eastern waters, cut off from the outside world. As luck would have it, my grandfather once took in and helped the only son of the Chen family, Chen Yongshun, who had been trafficked to the mountains. So my family sends me to the city to experience city life and its people. I arrive in the springlike city of Saltmark, carrying my mother's secret hopes and the scallion pancakes my grandmother made. There's a sea here too, called "Dyed Blue," and an artist lost in its depths, named Chen Tong.

At sixteen, I'm always afraid our fates are too slight a thread. I cling to her, unwilling to leave. I don't want to heed the monk's words. I even foolishly try to cut the line of "fate" into my palm with a knife. My blood drips onto the white conch-bead bracelet she gave me, the whitest thing in the world, making it look even whiter against the red. My love is the purest thing in the world.

It isn't until eleven years later, in the first snow of Fog City, when I see her again, like a person repeatedly scraped with a knife until only a thin sheet of white paper remains, that I realize our fates are hopelessly entangled, bound together through life and death, never to come apart.

"Chen Tong, what do I do when it hurts?"

"Chen Tong."

Content warnings:

1. Nonlinear storytelling, with a side couple.

2. The female lead, Bai Shen, is the child of mountain-dwelling fishers, and is poor at sixteen.

3. The female lead, Chen Tong, has bipolar disorder. Please don't read if mental illness is not for you.

4. This story is grounded in everyday life. Please don't read if you dislike simple meals and the daily grind.

5. Contains tattoo-related elements.

6. The ending is open, with a happy ending. The extras present two different scenarios.

7. Most importantly, the novel is divided into two periods. The first takes place around 2014, when I was still very young and didn't know much about society. Though I've tried hard to research things, there may be some details that aren't realistic. Please don't read if that bothers you. If you're only concerned about this and have firsthand experience of life in 2014, please point out anything unrealistic in the comments. I'll do my best to improve the story.

If you notice any other content warnings while reading, please let other readers know. Thank you!

Theme: We remember through pain, and we mend through pain.