Summer of Foam

Summer of Foam is a representative coming-of-age romance novel by Ming Xiaoxi, published in three volumes (I, II, and III), centering on the growth and emotional entanglements of the heroine, Yin Xiamo. Xiamo and her younger brother Xiaocheng grow up in their adoptive parents' home; in their youth, a boy named Luo Xi, who shares a similarly troubled background, comes to live with them. Two children scarred by childhood shadows guard against each other, yet gradually draw closer through daily life. The wealthy young heir Ou Chen, deeply in love with Xiamo, schemes out of intense possessiveness to send Luo Xi to study in England. On their way to the airport to bring Luo Xi back, Xiamo's adoptive parents and brother suffer a severe car accident: the parents die and her brother is gravely injured, and Xiamo, in rage and grief, breaks up with Ou Chen. Five years later, Luo Xi returns from abroad as a celebrated star, while Xiamo enters the entertainment industry as a rookie at a record company; the two reunite and become a couple. Meanwhile, the amnesiac Ou Chen gradually recovers his memories after meeting Xiamo again, and old debts and new wounds entangle the three once more. With delicate, lyrical prose, the work portrays orphans' longing for love and belonging, the glamour and cruelty of the world of fame and fortune, and Xiamo's choices and growth between family and love. It is a classic of youth romance that shaped a generation of readers in the early twenty-first century and has been adapted into comics, a TV series, and a film.