La flor que florece tras una década

Prologue: Past Events

Yu Lele was only 12 years old when she met Xu Chen.

Many times afterward, Yu Lele would find it amusing to recall her time as deskmates with Xu Chen. She could still vaguely see him with one foot on her chair, his smug, arrogant demeanor truly infuriating. He was good at English, she wasn't, and the English teacher loved to punish students who answered questions incorrectly by making them stand in the corner. So, every English class, Xu Chen would occupy the entire desk, putting on a seemingly well-behaved and honest face, but deep down, he was utterly smug and malicious. At that time, Yu Lele seemed never to have considered what kind of future they would have.

If God gave Yu Lele another chance to be 12 years old, she guessed she would still curse him a thousand times, ten thousand times in her heart, cursing him to choke on water, stutter, and trip over his own feet.

Looking back now, 12-year-old Yu Lele and Xu Chen were destined to be enemies.

Until her father's death—a Santana sedan that caused an accident and fled the scene, taking her father's life when Yu Lele was 14 years old.

In fact, Yu Lele could tell that after learning about her ordeal, Xu Chen had suddenly stopped playing all his pranks: he began to help Yu Lele wholeheartedly, such as secretly pushing a notebook in front of her when she encountered difficult English problems, comforting her when she was sad and crying, and telling her that hope was always ahead when she was in despair...

Is it sympathy? Perhaps.

Yet, I am clearly very happy.

Having friends who care, who love, who listen to you when you're feeling down, and who even tolerate your tears staining their clothes—these are moments she can cherish.

I thought time would flow by quietly, that the tall, handsome, and outstanding boy was merely my deskmate who had turned from enemy to friend, nothing more. But fate is a strange thing; it takes a subtle turn when you least expect it—the moment the truth comes to light, all that care, gratitude, and the friendship that was lost and then regained are torn apart.

She never imagined that the driver who caused her father's sudden death would be escaping justice under the protection of Xu Chen's father!

Yes, she only knew that Xu Chen's father was the police chief, but how could she have imagined that this chief, who held the sword of justice in his hand, had lost the heart of fairness!

Xu Chen's father was imprisoned when he was 17, and from that day on, Xu Chen and Yu Lele became like strangers.

Those were the most aggrieved and heartbreaking times for her: her friendship with Xu Chen was abruptly severed by the feud between their parents, leaving her resentful yet unable to overcome the situation; she studied diligently in the regular class, but never had the chance to enter the honors class; the college entrance exam seemed imminent, but whether her grades would be good enough for university was a complete mystery; a boy from the next class constantly harassed her, and rumors were rampant throughout the grade, leaving her powerless to defend herself; her mother remarried, and although her stepfather was a good man, she still harbored a lingering annoyance and resentment…

Even today, Yu Lele still feels lingering fear whenever she thinks back to those days.

But in all fairness, those resentments towards Xu Chen, those misunderstandings towards his mother, and those disappointments with the world around him now seem like self-inflicted wounds.

I was just young then, and it was hard to be rational when so much suffering was weighing on me.

Fortunately, I am growing.

Although the road to growth was so tortuous and bumpy, I still made it through in the end, didn't I? Gradually, I stopped despairing, gradually I stopped feeling lonely, and gradually I melted the hatred into water that could be dried in the sun. In the winter of her 17th year, when Xu Chen lost his eligibility for admission to university and ran away from home, the moment she learned the news, she seemed to understand in an instant: she no longer hated Xu Chen. As long as he was alright, she didn't hate him at all.

She traveled across the city to find him, unsure if he was there, but she remembered him saying that when he was feeling down, he would sit on a mountaintop. She ran quickly up the mountain, the path so slippery, falling and getting back up. She felt no pain, only a clear fear rising within her—she was afraid, afraid that just because she was a step too slow, she would never see him again.

It wasn't love back then, was it? It was just complete trust and reliance between friends. It was simply a certainty: he couldn't be hurt; he was her friend!

That day on the mountaintop, he embraced her for the first time.

She would remember that hug for the rest of her life: awkwardness, timidity, shyness, nervousness...

She knew that as the son of a prisoner, what he needed at that moment was comfort and warmth. But she was still very nervous; she rem

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