Lin Wan, a high school junior, was the most distinctive student at the city’s No. 1 High School.
Cheerful and independent, she had her own thoughts and her own pace. She never followed gossip blindly or compromised for the sake of convention. Amid the fiercely competitive rush of youth, she remained clear-headed and true to herself, living boldly and openly.
Jiang Yu, a freshman, fell in love with her at first sight when she spoke at a school flag-raising ceremony.
The shy, reserved boy kept his feelings hidden for two whole months. He carefully learned her schedule, took long detours just to run into her, and clutched a postcard filled with everything he wanted to say, preparing to confess beneath a parasol tree.
But before he could speak, his sincere feelings were exposed by classmates who teased him.
The others crowded around and joked, pressing Lin Wan to reveal how she felt. She had always hated having her private affairs discussed in public, and the pressure put her on guard. “We’re not close. Don’t joke about that,” she said, creating the first rift between them.
A youthful misunderstanding took root.
He thought she was cold and arrogant, and his own insecurity kept him from approaching her. She thought he was timid and rash, and that their personalities were incompatible, so she had no interest in getting to know him better.
The pressure of preparing for the college entrance exams swept over them. Lin Wan came down with a high fever after days of illness, and all contact between them ended. Their innocent first love was swallowed by the tide of the exams, and they went their separate ways for seven years.
Seven years passed, and each went their own way.
The boy who had once looked up to her shed his youthful awkwardness and became a steady, gentle man. The dazzling upperclasswoman remained independent and clear-headed, establishing herself in the workplace.
A partnership between their industries brought the two together again after all these years.
Old feelings surged back, and their layers of misunderstanding slowly unraveled. The apologies left unspoken in their youth, the knots that had never been untied, and the love crushed by public scrutiny all resurfaced as they navigated the push and pull of adulthood.
