When Lin Wan started university, she got a part-time job at a bubble tea shop outside the east gate of campus. There she met Xu Jiajia, a fellow student. The girl was chatty and friendly, able to talk for ages over a single cup of bubble tea. Once they got to know each other, she came by every day to study with Lin Wan and grab the seat beside her. The two went from coworkers at the shop to inseparable friends. They stayed up late studying, built ugly snowmen together in winter, and took the high-speed train south to see the sea. After graduation, Xu Jiajia moved first to the seaside city. Six months later, Lin Wan followed. They rented a small apartment, each with her own room. In the mornings, they left for work together; in the evenings, one cooked while the other gathered the laundry. They had their share of hard times: jobs on the line, family members pressuring them to marry, and trouble with friends. But neither of them let go. Eventually, they found the words to say what needed saying, and their days gradually became a life of doing the bills together and shopping at the supermarket together. Two ordinary young women, from the age of eighteen into their twenties, made a life together.
