If you haven't already figured it out, the main lead "Gu Mingxi" is disabled, he lost both of his arms in an accident which partially Pang Qian 's fault too, but they both were kids and didn't know what they were doing. So, I will give that a pass, but it just gets worst every chapter.

To be honest, before writing this review, my plan was to hype this to the highest heavens. But I understand that doing that will result to unrealistic expectations, which can destroy the story itself.

I don't want that. This story is really good, a gem within the shithole that is Novelupdates. There is no grand cultivation/dao whatever, no testosterone-filled manliness, no I am Mr. Perfect. This isn't a CEO story, not a puppy love story, not a Cinderella story.

This is a beautiful love story between a man and a woman.

The story can be divided into 3 major arcs. The first arc is the childhood arc, consisting of 3 mini-arcs, the elementary years, the middle school years, and the high school years. This arc is also the largest of the 3 and has the most number of subplots. The plot progression in this arc is slow, interspersed with shocking events here and there. From the earlier reviews, I've seen people drop the book during this time, either due to too slow progression, or just the events turn them off. I consider this the most important part of the book, however. It isn't my favorite, but this is what sets off the events that will follow in the next 2 arcs, and what makes the conclusion of the book so satisfying. In terms of character development, the female lead was more the focus of this arc than the male.

The second arc is the shortest arc, but it is also the most emotional one. This arc also concentrated more on the male lead. The plot progression was also turned up a notch, as if to push the male lead to catch up to where the female lead is, emotionally. It was also in this arc where I cried. The book is bittersweet in and of itself, but arc 2 was just much more emotional. And it just so happened that when I was reading this arc, Mother's day was just around the corner (wrote this in 14th of May 2017), so it was double the punch.

Consequently, this arc is my most favorite.

The third arc contains the climax and conclusion of the story. I personally find this part (save for the climax) pretty boring. But it was also satisfying, what with the emotional roller-coaster that was the 2nd arc, and the world building done in the first.

On to characters. Both leads are well-developed, although the female lead was more developed than the male. It also feels like the male lead had a regression in the third arc, but maybe it is because he was just too goody-two shoes in the first arc. The 2nd arc really made the male lead much more human-like and more believable.

As for secondary characters, they're pretty deep too. Even the characters that only showed up once or twice in the story feel like they can be walking around somewhere in China. Really well written, especially so with the characters close to the main leads.

Mad props to the father of the main lead. He's a s*umbag, but I just can't hate him completely. He's two-faced and just plain dirty, but he still does his role as a father and husband. He isn't evil, just too caught up with saving face. Which is a very rampant idea, not only in China, but everywhere in Asia. And as an Asian, he resonates with me to a certain extent. Everyone might want to be like the male lead, or the female lead, but who, while reading this book, actually wanted for the male lead to somehow get his arms back? (edited 22/5/17) Let me rephrase that:

Everyone might like the male lead as he is, but haven't you, in the back of your minds, just wished the male lead somehow got his arms back? And when I realized that I had those thoughts, I feel like the main father's lead was like the reader injected into the story too. Striving too much for perfection, that we don't see the good in the person; I feel that besides the love story, the author wants to tell this message to us readers.

It's essentially the story of a disabled boy (he has no arms) and a young girl who are childhood friends who grew up together. It's about how they navigated their younger years together, parted, but ended up finding each other again, against all odds. They have an incredible friendship and a moving love story.

About Gu Minxi's father. Please don't read this if you haven't read the novel yet! Big spoiler. It's worth waiting to read it in the story.

He is an a**hole. As simple as that. I somewhat understood his character in the beginning, when he was being harsh on Gu Mingxi in the hopes of making him more independent, but after that things just went downhill. He is the only character I have true resentment for. He was a coward who was ashamed of his son. Man, when he cheated and abandoned Gu Mingxi and his mother I was ANGRY. I get it, he wants to be filial by having a "healthy" child, but that's no excuse.

Divorce if you want a child that badly! You'll still be an absolutely horrific person, but it's better than keeping mistresses, that your wife knows about and is heartbroken over too. It's better than getting your mistress pregnant while you are still married. It wasn't Gu Mingxi's mother's fault that she couldn't conceive after her miscarriage. If you wanted to have another child, you could have had one earlier. If you knew you wanted one so badly, that you would be willing to abandon your family in the future, then you had the choice to discuss the gravity of the situation your wife and work it out when you both were younger. What a shitty husband and father.

Honestly, this was one of the most heartbreaking elements of the story for me. I'm glad his second wife divorced him and he had a spoilt brat of a daughter (oops, am I being too harsh? Nah). But even then, at your own son's wedding, after being an absent father for so many years, and feeling "guilty", you leave early because your daughter is throwing a fit?

I'm so glad Gu Mingxi had Pang Qian, and her family, to stand beside him. Pang Qian's father was honestly a gem in the way he stepped up to take care of Gu Mingxi, and do some of the things his father ought to have done (making a special desk for him for school, making a special bicycle for him to get to school with, accepting him wholeheartedly, to the point where he has no qualms about letting him marry his precious daughter.

Ok, I should end this rant now. I could go on. If you've read this before reading the novel, don't let it put you off, please! I say all this because I'm often the type of person who reads spoilers lol.