Summer cherry tree

Author: Shen Xingyu
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: In the campus, there are two lonely cherry trees. They share only one root, so they rely on the limited patch of soil they have. The larger tree says to the smaller one, "If you lack water, draw it from my branches." The smaller replies, "If you lose nutrients, absorb them from my veins." The larger adds, "If your leaves turn yellow, I will shield you from the sun." The smaller answers, "If you bloom but do not bear fruit, I will attract bees and butterflies for you." The two trees support each other, growing increasingly lush. However, neither ever asks the other, "Do you love me?"
Encountering The Cherry Trees of Summer, it feels like sharing a magnificent feast in this world. It is an extremely bitter journey that is hard to surpass, yet the heart becomes so deeply entangled that it becomes someone else—a person standing at the peak of despair but still able to see pure love. Xiaochui and Xiaomi are siblings born in the early 1970s, living on the fringes of poverty. Their bleak circumstances and the pressure of survival cause them to drift into a morally questionable emotional vortex, despite their initial mutual rejection and their near-total reliance on each other spiritually.
Facing such love, the author's writing is so delicate, serene, composed, and calm, much like Xiaomi's enduring patience and almost cruel resilience, as well as her repeated sacrifices to free her brother Xiaochui from the of fate and his hopeless love, allowing him to pursue a future. That is the kind of love everyone in the world longs for—pure, unregretful, untainted by the world. The struggle between two siblings separated by an inherent bloodline seems even more noble and sacred.
When you put the novel down, your heart is filled with an indescribable sense of awe, realizing why the author's writing is so straightforward and clear—even reluctant to express "I love you." This makes the characters of Xiaochui and Xiaomi incredibly real and moving, and it surprises readers with the unique creative talent of a young female writer—writing moving love with simple words.
Did Xiaochui and Xiaomi possess the purest love in the world? Those extreme, unwavering convictions that we repeatedly abandon due to our own cowardice? Those deep-seated soul-stirrings that make us increasingly unable to recognize our true selves as we give up? Time and space are infinitely expanded by their love, stretching to the sacred edge of humanity that is forever beyond reach.
Such love ultimately confuses us, making us see through the shallow hearts that no longer believe in love, forcing us to question who we truly are in the mirror. Are we the solitary beings who constantly compromise with the real world, instinctively seeking escape in the despair of betraying purity, yet forever trapped in suffering? Or are we the foolish souls endlessly yearning for beauty and purity between the two?
Yet, Xiaochui and Xiaomi bravely bloom under the dazzling cherry tree, symbolizing their ultimate fate. Thus, we can only gaze up, as if looking at a faith that has long vanished from the world—a faith that is fundamental, pure, and human.