Sometimes, the Outcome Really Does Matter——Thoughts on The Best of Us

Although finals are approaching, college life is always boring, so I took a classmate's suggestion and watched the recently popular TV series The Best of Us from the beginning.

The Best of Us tells a story that begins in the student years and wraps up with a happy ending. In the story, Geng Geng and Yu Huai were deskmates for three years of high school. During the college entrance exam, Yu Huai underperformed and didn't get into a university in Beijing, and from then on he lost contact with Geng Geng. Years later, Geng Geng, having finished her studies and returned, had become a well-known photographer. Faced with Lu Xinghe, who was pursuing her relentlessly, what Geng Geng still couldn't stop thinking about was her former high school deskmate Yu Huai. After a series of twists and turns, the two finally cleared up all the misunderstandings, let bygones be bygones, and got back together.

As far as the plot goes, this TV series doesn't strike me as having much that's new; it's much like an ordinary love story, even a bit more bland. Yet most of the scenes in the series depict high school life, and they come quite close to real high school life: military training, exams, changing seats, talking back to teachers, teacher-student romance... all of these are portrayed in the series, especially the college entrance exam storyline, which can't help but make you feel a sense of urgency as you watch.

This series isn't just writing a love story; I think it's more a kind of healing. The pace of life in contemporary society keeps speeding up, and people are all toiling away just to get by. In the great maze of society, some have drifted apart, some have gotten lost, and some go back and forth yet are still standing in the same place. This series may be meant to heal people's hearts. Through the high school lives of the characters, people see their younger selves in them and remember their original dreams, so that those still in school will cherish their youth, and those who have already entered society will not lose their original aspirations, and not let themselves get lost in a society overflowing with material desire.

Sometimes when you've failed, you often hear the line that the outcome doesn't matter, that a beautiful process is enough. I don't think so. Don't deceive yourself: if it weren't for a beautiful ending, would you really be willing to spend your youth on a process that leads nowhere? In the series, Lu Xinghe pursued Geng Geng for ten years. Geng Geng was very moved, but she never liked him. If it weren't so he could finally be with Geng Geng and find happiness, would Lu Xinghe have needed to put himself through such a sorry state? And Geng Geng—in the nearly ten years after she parted from Yu Huai, she never dated anyone, and kept searching for Yu Huai without stopping. For Yu Huai, she gave up the iron rice bowl of a civil-service job, quit her job at a well-known magazine, and went back to her small hometown. Was this merely so she could experience life? In fact, the outcome really does matter. At the end of the TV series, Yu Huai and Geng Geng are finally reunited, and the whole series thus feels complete. This also counts as giving the audience some closure...

Let me also talk about the characters in the series. Among the guys, I think the best is Zhou Mo. Zhou Mo not only has a high IQ and is good at studying, but also has strong social skills—he can make friends wherever he goes. And toward the person he loves, he bravely steps forward to pursue her and gives selflessly. Beyond that, he also values loyalty; he and Yu Huai had been friends for so many years, and he helped Yu Huai a lot.

Among the girls, Jian Dan is pretty good. She simply and kindly liked someone for so many years, and after seeing him together with someone else, she quietly chose to leave. Fragile on the outside, yet inside she has her own firm convictions..

And then there's the female lead, Geng Geng. Well... this character, in the early part, was mischievous and willful, and later became very mature—that's quite a good transformation.

Although Yu Huai is the male lead, he is indeed the person least worth admiring. Yu Huai's personality is too strong-willed; whatever happens, he forces himself to bear it alone and refuses to share with others. He's also a bit selfish and disregards others' feelings. After failing the college entrance exam, he cut off contact with Geng Geng. Poor Geng Geng waited bitterly for him for ten years—that's wasting ten years of that girl's youth for nothing. In high school, he clearly liked Geng Geng but didn't dare admit it. By contrast, Lu Xinghe and Zhou Mo bravely went after love; in this, Yu Huai falls far short of these supporting characters.

But it's precisely because Yu Huai is someone with so many flaws that this character feels more real. Real-life stories aren't like those in TV series and novels; there are no perfect people, and not every story has a happy ending. In Yu Huai I see the shadows of many people, including myself: strong-willed, concerned with face, jealous, weak in some subjects, slipping a lot the moment you let your guard down, cowardly…….

A lot of people, when they write stories, are actually writing about themselves. I believe that.

The best of us is meeting an ordinary you in the most ordinary days, yet in my eyes, you are so special…….