The Long December
Twenty-two-year-old Lin Xiao abandons a promising job offer to chase one dream: conquering China's brutal postgraduate entrance examination. Confined to a cramped library seat for fourteen hours a day, she battles mountains of review materials, sleepless nights, and relatives who whisper that a woman's worth lies elsewhere. Beside her sit fellow dreamers—a third-time test-taker clinging to hope, a farmer's son gambling his family's savings. Together they discover this single exam measures far more than knowledge; it tests love, friendship, and the courage to defy fate. When results finally arrive, someone's world will shatter—and someone's will bloom.