Lost Winter

十清杳Dook Media Group Limited · ChinaApr 2025

3.4

Word count: 207K words
Chapters: 56

Summary

[Coming-of-age + bittersweet unrequited love + BE aesthetics] "Any regrets, you coward too afraid to confess?" Another bittersweet tale of unrequited love from the popular author Shi Qingyao, following You Broke Your Promise!

To outsiders, childhood friends Ren Yusu and Jiang Ruan seemed destined to go from bickering pair to couple.

At first Ren Yusu thought so too, but he forgot that stories can go more than one way—childhood ties are no match for a newcomer.

On Jiang Ruan's eighteenth-birthday celebration, Ren Yusu rushed over with a bouquet of roses.

He had prepared for this day for a long time; the garden full of roses was his birthday gift to Jiang Ruan.

Joyfully he handed her the bouquet, hoping to invite her to see her birthday gift, only to hear her laughingly tell a friend: "Roses used to be my favorite flower." "And now?" "Now eustoma is my favorite."

Ren Yusu never told her about the sea of flowers he had prepared for her. The party went on merrily, but he looked out at the falling snow.

It was the first snow in Lin'an in all these years.

He wondered whether the roses in the garden could survive this cold winter.

Editor's review

Shi Qingyao continues her signature bittersweet coming-of-age unrequited-love vein in The Winter That Was Lost, rendering the emotional misalignment between childhood sweetheart and newcomer with delicacy and restraint. The story's core lies not in dramatic conflict but in Ren Yusu's feelings that never find words: the carefully cultivated rose garden, the bouquet rushed to the birthday celebration, set against Jiang Ruan's casual remark that eustoma is now her favorite. The author uses flowers and snow as images carrying the young man's unspoken timidity; when the first snow of the year falls on Lin'an, readers feel keenly the regret of "one step short, yet never able to cross it." The pace is slow, emotions accumulating layer by layer, suited to continuous reading in quiet hours so that the dull ache of unrequited love can settle. For readers who enjoy BE aesthetics and narratives of youthful regret, the book offers not fulfillment but a resonance of being understood: even a coward's secret feelings deserve to be written seriously.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy coming-of-age campus unrequited-love stories and accept unhappy endings
Young readers who resonate with narratives of emotional misalignment between childhood sweetheart and newcomer
Literary readers who prefer delicate psychological portrayal and slow-building emotion
Adult readers wishing to revisit through fiction the unspoken feelings of their youth

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting a happy romantic ending and unwilling to accept a BE trajectory
Readers who prefer strong plot conflict and fast-paced narrative
Readers uninterested in unrequited love and seeking light, sweet romance

Reading tips

Read continuously in quiet hours so the pent-up emotion of unrequited love accumulates without frequent interruption.
Note the recurring images of roses, eustoma, and snow, which carry the characters' unspoken feelings.
After finishing, revisit the chapters around the birthday celebration to feel the omitted sea of flowers from Ren Yusu's perspective.
If the ending affects you strongly, cushion it with light reading or by discussing the book with friends.

About the publisher

Dook Media Group Limited China · Founded in 2006

Dook Media Group Limited is a book planning and publishing company focusing on literature and the arts, social sciences and children's books. Its publishing areas cover quality fiction, science fiction, wuxia novels, foreign literature and history. Representative titles in the library include The Complete Short Stories of Isaac Asimov, Yu Hua's novellas and short stories, Gu Cheng's collected works on Ming and Qing history, and Huang Yi's Twin of Brothers and A Step into the Past. Its authors include Isaac Asimov, Yu Hua, Gu Cheng, Huang Yi, Alberto Moravia and Liu Cixin. It plans books using the "super sign" methodology, with a list that brings together science fiction, literary fiction and genre fiction. As public information is limited, this profile is based only on the books in the library.

版权信息
第1章转校生
第2章他妈妈
第3章是宋缘
第4章藏情愫
第5章去补习
第6章谈过往
第7章少年事
第8章嫉妒心
第9章篮球赛
第10章差一点
第11章喜欢你
第12章属于她
第13章游戏（一）
第14章游戏（二）
第15章游戏（三）
第16章游戏（四）
第17章被编排
第18章受伤了
第19章无偏爱
第20章被人护
第21章都一样
第22章现承诺
第23章失眼泪
第24章错时间
第25章三退步
第26章去研学
第27章落败者
第28章月季花
第29章温果汁
第30章小蛋糕
第31章逃离这
第32章不懂她
第33章芭蕾鞋
第34章未来路
第35章不生气
第36章外祖母
第37章一个人
第38章家里事
第39章一元钱
第40章郑瑛家
第41章志愿表
第42章无力感
第43章怪异感
第44章钢琴前
第45章撕破脸
第46章消失了
第47章反义词
第48章初雪下
第49章她知道
第50章只怪他
第51章知真相
第52章挑明了
第53章陪伴你
第54章满城花
番外过季的月季

FAQ

Does this book have a tragic ending?

It is labeled BE aesthetics, and the story centers on unrequited love and regret. Ren Yusu never tells Jiang Ruan about the sea of flowers, and the ending points toward the unfulfilled regrets of youth. If you do not accept tragic trajectories, prepare yourself before reading.

Can I read this without having read the author's previous work You Broke Your Promise!?

Yes. This is a standalone story about Ren Yusu and Jiang Ruan and does not depend on the previous work's plot. It shares the author's style, however, so readers who like the bittersweet unrequited-love tone may also want to look at the earlier book.

What age group is it suitable for?

The subject is coming-of-age and unrequited love, with delicate but restrained emotional writing, making it suitable for middle-school-age readers and above who are interested in campus romance narratives. Younger readers are advised to read with parental guidance.

What special meaning do the flowers and snow have?

The roses are the birthday garden Ren Yusu prepared for Jiang Ruan, symbolizing his long-unspoken feelings; Jiang Ruan's switch to saying she likes eustoma hints at a shift in her affections. The first snow in Lin'an at the end underscores the suspense over whether the roses can survive the cold winter, heightening the atmosphere of regret.

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About the author

十清杳 Author

Shi Qingyao is a writer of youth literature active on Chinese online literature platforms, with her works first published on Jinjiang Literature City. Her writing centers on modern romance and youth literature, commonly categorized as modern romance, youth literature, and fine fiction, and four of her works are currently included in the collection. Her representative works include the short story collection White Paper and Liking, along with Lost Winter and Scarlet Farewell, as well as a collected two-volume set, BE Aesthetics Bittersweet Tear-Jerker Set. She focuses largely on campus crush themes, using restrained and delicate prose to portray adolescent feelings and regretful emotions, forming a bittersweet style that readers call "BE aesthetics." White Paper and Liking was published by Sichuan Literature and Art Publishing House in 2022 and collects eight bittersweet crush stories, offering a representative example of her style. As public information is limited, details of her personal life, nationality, and dates of birth and death remain unclear, and readers chiefly know her through her works.