AUTHOR: WU ZHE (weibo | jjwxc)

Snowflakes drift over bare branches and old industrial buildings. The day is cold and bleak, but a sliver of sunlight peeks through a gap in the clouds, coating the frozen city in a golden glint. Alone save for a suitcase, a boy steps off the train and onto the platform of a station that has seen better days. He’s come “home.” Unwanted by his adopted parents, Jiang Cheng has returned to a city he’s never known, a family he never asked for. He lights a cigarette and looks up at the sky, wondering what his future holds.

The orange glow of a lone street lamp illuminates a dark side street, lined on either side by dirty snow piled against dingy buildings of brick and concrete. The hazy silhouettes of smokestacks atop deserted factory buildings outline the horizon. This has been Gu Fei’s home for the last seventeen years. Held here by the weight of his responsibility and guilt for his mute younger sister, Gu Miao, he has long resigned himself to this limited life.

…That is, until Jiang Cheng appears in his life.

Jiang Cheng: an atypical honour student returned by his adoptive family to live with his biological father in the city where he was born.

Gu Fei: a problem student who inspired both curiosity and fear from those around him.