Secret Fruit cover

Secret Fruit

Rating 3.4
Word count
115K words
Chapters
34
ISBN
9787544727037

Tags

Summary

This is a story about secrets. Seventeen-year-old Duan Bowen lost his mother in childhood and has long been at odds with his stepmother. At Tianzhong, he meets "Xiao Erduo" and falls in love with this "young, beautiful, and classy" teacher—his biggest secret. But he does not know that Yu Chizi likes him—that, too, is Yu Chizi's secret. In their second year of high school, Yu Chizi discovers that her friend Scarlett has an unusual relationship with Duan Bowen, and she also uncovers Scarlett's secret. Yu Chizi then carefully designs a plan to get back at Scarlett. It proceeds very successfully, but the outcome is not what she expected. The truth leaves her utterly unprepared.

Editor's review

Secret Fruit is a full-length novel by Rao Xueman set against a youthful campus backdrop, centering on the intertwined secrets among seventeen-year-old Duan Bowen, Yu Chizi, Scarlett, and others. Its readability comes from the layered structure of multiple secrets: Duan Bowen's crush on his teacher "Xiao Erduo," Yu Chizi's feelings for Duan Bowen, the unusual relationship between Scarlett and Duan Bowen, and Yu Chizi's carefully designed revenge plan that veers into the unexpected—all keep the narrative turning with suspense. The novel continues Rao Xueman's forte in writing youthful emotions, rendering with concrete immediacy the hesitation and impulsiveness of adolescents caught between longing, jealousy, friendship, and family fractures. Duan Bowen's family thread—losing his mother young and clashing with his stepmother—also adds depth of growth to the youth story. It is suited to concentrated reading after school or during holidays, following shifts in character perspective to see how secrets change relationships; after reading, note the gap between the outcome of Yu Chizi's revenge plan and the revelation of the truth, and consider the role of "knowing" and "misunderstanding" in youth narrative.

Who it's for

A good fit for

  • Middle school, high school, and college readers who enjoy youthful campus emotional stories
  • Fiction readers interested in multi-perspective narration and suspenseful reversals
  • Readers concerned with adolescent growth psychology and family relationship portrayals
  • Readers hoping to ease into a full-length story after school or during holidays

Not a good fit for

  • Readers who prefer serious historical subjects or hard science fiction
  • Readers with little interest in campus emotional entanglements and secret-driven narratives
  • Young children seeking simple fairy-tale-style campus stories

Reading tips

  1. Read in chapter order first, noting the information gaps held by Duan Bowen, Yu Chizi, and Scarlett.
  2. Pause where the revenge plan advances, guess the ending, then check against later text.
  3. Pay attention to Duan Bowen's conflict with his stepmother and use it as background for understanding his behavior.
  4. After finishing, trace the order in which each character's secrets are revealed and appreciate the reversals created by the narrative structure.

About the publisher

Yilin Press China · Founded in 1988

Yilin Press focuses mainly on translated foreign literature. Its current catalogue of 318 titles covers common categories such as mystery and detective fiction, foreign literature, world classics, biography, and social novels. Representative books include The Complete Sherlock Holmes 2: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Pride and Prejudice, To the Lighthouse, The Great Gatsby, The Grapes of Wrath, and Lives of the Artists: Michelangelo, often presented in bilingual or English-language editions that serve both original-text reading and language learning. Its author resources include foreign writers such as Arthur Conan Doyle, Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf, and Romain Rolland, as well as translators including Li Jiazhen, Gao Fen, and Ma Ye. The catalogue also includes Chinese works such as Li Jieren's Ripples Across Stagnant Water. The press shows a concentrated publishing strength in foreign classics and bilingual readers; given limited public information, this overview is based only on catalogue data.

Contents

  1. 版权信息
  2. 上部 段柏文
  3. 第1章
  4. 第2章
  5. 第3章
  6. 第4章
  7. 第5章
  8. 第6章
  9. 第7章
  10. 第8章
  11. 第9章
  12. 第10章
  13. 第11章
  14. 第12章
  15. 第13章
  16. 第14章
  17. 下部 于池子
  18. 第15章
  19. 第16章
  20. 第17章
  21. 第18章
  22. 第19章
  23. 第20章
  24. 第21章
  25. 第22章
  26. 第23章
  27. 第24章
  28. 第25章
  29. 第26章
  30. 第27章
  31. 第28章
  32. 第29章
  33. 第30章
  34. 后记:我是草根我最大

FAQ

What is this book mainly about?
The novel revolves around the intertwined secrets among seventeen-year-old Duan Bowen, Yu Chizi, Scarlett, and others, including Duan Bowen's crush on his teacher "Xiao Erduo," Yu Chizi's feelings, and her carefully designed revenge plan with an unexpected outcome.
What role does Duan Bowen's family background play in the story?
The material shows that Duan Bowen lost his mother in childhood and is greatly at odds with his stepmother. This family background forms an important foundation for the character's growth and helps in understanding his emotional and interpersonal state, rather than serving merely as a backdrop to campus romance.
How does Yu Chizi's revenge plan end?
Yu Chizi's carefully designed plan to get back at Scarlett proceeds very successfully, but the outcome is not what she expected, and the truth leaves her utterly unprepared. The novel thus creates a suspenseful reversal; the specific truth must be revealed through reading.
What reading pace suits this book?
The story advances through multiple secrets and reversals, so it suits relatively concentrated reading after school or during holidays to keep track of relationships and information gaps; if reading in segments, take brief notes where the revenge plan advances to avoid confusing perspectives.

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About the author

Rao Xueman Author · China · 1972

Rao Xueman, born in 1972 in Zigong, Sichuan, is a Chinese writer, screenwriter and lyricist. She graduated from Sichuan University of Science and Engineering and once served as editor-in-chief of the magazine Man Nüsheng. She has long devoted herself to youth literature, focusing on young people's confusion and choices in growth, relationships and family life. Her writing is delicate and close to reality, and she is good at capturing the sensitive and stubborn feelings of adolescents. Her representative works include Left Ear, Hourglass, Li Ge and Secret Fruit, many of which have been adapted into films and television series. She has had a broad influence in the field of youth literature and is known as the "leading figure of youth literature." The library holds 35 of her works, including Yi Ai, Left Wing and Betta, commonly categorized as youth literature, social fiction and modern romance.

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