Episode 2 recap: A young student is obsessed with a married woman.
Nan Ya, the most beautiful woman in the small town, attracts attention with every move she makes. She is the dream that men want to touch and the nemesis that women envy and resent. Despite Nan Ya's efforts to live a respectable life in this small town society filled with familiar violence, rumors about her promiscuity have escalated, making her the object of everyone's disdain and giving Xu Yi a reason to justify domestic violence.
Everyone has different opinions when questioned, including Xu Yi's ex-girlfriend Chen Ling. Only Zhou Luo truly feels sorry for Nan Ya. You can see a hint of restraint in his expression and tone as he slowly recounts how he met Nan Ya and witnessed her misfortune.
Eight months ago, in the lively town of Qingshui in April, peace reigned supreme, but it was disrupted by Zhou Luo's return. When Zhou Luo was admitted to a prestigious university, his parents were proud and hosted a banquet in their yard to entertain relatives and friends. Everyone praised Zhou's parents for raising a good son who would surely achieve great things in the future. However, within a few months, news of Zhou Luo dropping out of school spread.
Returning to this small town the size of a palm, Zhou Luo faced criticism from the neighbors. His mother worried endlessly and couldn't sleep at night. She sat alone in the yard, lost in thought, and Zhou Luo watched her with mixed emotions. After several days of silence, his parents finally asked Zhou Luo about his plans for the future. Zhou Luo said he would stay in Qingshui Town and manage the shop, which made them uneasy. They hurriedly sought Principal Zhang Huashan for advice and decided to have Zhou Luo repeat the year.
Soon, Zhou Luo was enrolled in Huashan High Remedial School by his parents and met Chen Jun and others who were also repeating the year. Qingshui Town was too small, so small that it was often forgotten in a corner of the world. If you shook it out, it would only be covered in dust. Among these students who were outspoken and had poor grades, Zhou Luo stood out as being too independent.
Because Zhou Luo had good grades, Zhang Huashan didn't care about his solitary and rebellious personality. He instructed the teachers to give Zhou Luo special privileges and praise him publicly. Only in this way could they make other students jealous, stimulate competition, and improve everyone's academic performance. That night, Chen Jun and the others invited Zhou Luo to dinner, formally welcoming him into their "non-studious" group.
Zhang Qing Li was the principal's daughter. She had already been admitted to university, but it wasn't within the top-tier range, so her father ordered her to repeat the year. Although Zhang Qing Li was a bit rebellious and always went against her father, when she saw Zhou Luo, she suddenly felt fortunate to be repeating the year at school. From then on, her heart was filled with admiration for him.
In the following days, Zhou Luo became friends with Chen Jun, Zhang Qing Li, and Jiang Bing Bing. Their dull lives became more joyful. Then, on a certain day during summer vacation, a stunning presence entered his world. Nan Ya opened a clothing store called "Zijin" in the town. When Zhou Luo passed by the clothing store, he was instantly captivated by her, every move she made bewitching his heart and soul.
However, the whole town, except for Zhou Luo, was familiar with Nan Ya. Whenever her name was mentioned, it would provoke lascivious thoughts in men and contemptuous glances and insults from women. Although Zhou Luo had heard many things, he couldn't help but be surprised when he saw the nosy women openly discussing Nan Ya. They believed that the clothes Nan Ya made were meant to be sold in the city to attract promiscuous women. They also said that if men visited her shop, there must be something fishy going on. They claimed that she was a seductress even before getting married and that she didn't adhere to proper behavior even after getting married and having children.
Nan Ya seemed oblivious to all the gossip. She walked over to the two nosy women with a basket of vegetables, deliberately causing the vegetables to spill out and pressing down one of the women's skirts onto a chair, embarrassing her in front of everyone. Zhou Luo happened to witness this scene. It was siesta time, scorching hot like an oven, and there was not a soul on the street. Nan Ya was wearing an elegant cheongsam, standing outside the music store. Zhou Luo, who had been feeling a bit drowsy, immediately woke up and nervously introduced her to music tapes, even if she left with her daughter, the sweat drops on his arm still made his heart flutter.
Chen Jun also had negative opinions about Nan Ya. Even though he admitted that it was distasteful for a man to hit a woman, he firmly believed that Nan Ya was cuckolding her husband. As soon as he finished speaking, Zhou Luo retorted sharply, refuting Chen Jun's baseless character assassination as if it were a matter of fact. He didn't find anything wrong with it, but an inexplicable gloom covered Zhou Luo's mood.
On the third day after the incident, it was preliminarily determined that the car was deliberately set on fire. Lin Fang Lu found something suspicious from eyewitness Zhou Luo - he had an unaccounted-for period of about half an hour. Lao Chen testified to Zhou Luo's good character and was certain that he had nothing to do with the case. That evening, Lin Fang Lu came to talk to Zhou Luo and noticed that there were many detective novels in his room. He deliberately brought up a topic related to crime to lead the conversation. Zhou Luo pretended to remain calm and didn't let him find any loopholes.
After Lin Fang Lu left, Zhou Luo tightly closed his eyes, as if he had returned to that summer. In the evening, Zhou Luo sluggishly made his way to the Xu family's yard and suddenly heard vulgar and offensive cursing from inside, accompanied by intermittent tearing sounds. Unable to contain his curiosity, Zhou Luo climbed over the wall and saw the furniture in disarray in the yard, Nan Ya's hair disheveled, and her cheongsam no longer intact. He hurriedly ran back home in a panic and locked himself in his room, his mind filled with thoughts of Nan Ya's alluring body, finding solace only through cold showers.
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