HE / 1v1
1.
Song Xunhe has the surname Song, but thanks to the small favor her grandmother once did for the Gu family and the kindness of Madam Gu, she is allowed to stay at the Gu estate.
She has nothing to offer Madam Gu in return. All she can do is read aloud from the books the elderly woman wants to hear, on weekend afternoons when her eyesight is no longer very good.
Sometimes she reads a few essays, sometimes a few short poems.
Later, someone else joins Madam Gu to listen: her most beloved eldest grandson, and the future heir to the Gu family, Gu Langzhi.
2.
Gu Langzhi lives in Beicheng all year round, returning to the old estate in Nancheng during summer and winter breaks just to spend time with his elderly grandmother.
He never expected this summer to be different, with a girl his age appearing at the Gu estate.
The girl is just like her name: graceful and poised, with the bearing of a lotus. When she speaks, it is as if a warm breeze has passed through, and every word is perfectly judged.
But Gu Langzhi knows perfectly well that no lotus like her can bloom in the pond at the Gu estate.
Sooner or later, Song Xunhe will leave.
3.
After Song Xunhe left, no one at the Gu estate ever again read aloud, word by word and in a gentle voice, the passages Gu Langzhi had casually copied down.
A sheet of letter paper lay on the desk, the window left open as rain poured in. The thin page grew soaked, and the black writing blurred.
In the end, a cleaning maid took it away with the other wastepaper and tossed it into a black plastic bag, sealing it away along with the memories of that midsummer.
2025/08/24 [Detailed blurb added on 2025/10/09]
Theme: Grow resiliently even in adversity
