But now, she could still smell his scent. This scent of lime was the cleanest and clearest scent of the young man in her memory. It was the smell of the young man in the afternoon after playing basketball, when he was covered in sweat. It was the smell of the sun setting when he carried a school bag, wore a black baseball cap, and had a lollipop in his mouth.
Jin Nian suddenly realized that she liked him.
This feeling of liking had quietly planted a seed in her heart at some point.
The seed took root and sprouted, growing wildly in a corner she hadn't paid attention to. By the time she noticed it, that small seed had already grown into a towering tree with luxuriant branches.
Today, someone gently but firmly shook that tree, making Jin Nian suddenly aware that this towering tree had always been in her heart, but she hadn't noticed it before.