《炽夏》开篇：一场说好的交易

先说女主角，她叫周挽，是那种典型的学霸。

First, the female lead: Zhou Wan, the classic top student.

成绩好，脑子清楚，看上去什么都难不倒她。

Great grades, a clear head — she seems unstoppable.

可她家里的条件并不好，奶奶又生了重病。

But her family isn't well-off, and her grandmother has fallen gravely ill.

那种进口药，医保不报销，一个月就得三千块。

The imported medicine, uncovered by insurance, runs 3,000 yuan a month.

对一个还在读书的高中生来说，这是一个压得人喘不过气的数字。

For a high schooler still in school, it's a suffocating number.

但周挽没有哭，也没有向谁求助，她选择自己想办法。

But Zhou Wan didn't cry or beg anyone for help; she chose to figure it out herself.

为了给奶奶凑药费，她偷偷在学校里卖自己整理的复习资料。

To scrape together the medicine money, she secretly sells the study notes she compiles at school.

她把每一道题、每一个考点都理得清清楚楚，同学们都抢着要。

She organizes every problem and exam point crystal-clear, and classmates clamor for them.

白天上课，晚上整理资料，她几乎没有给自己留下喘气的时间。

Class by day, notes by night — she barely leaves herself room to breathe.

她不声不响，把自己活成了一个小大人。

Quietly, she's turned herself into a little grown-up.

再说男主角，他叫陆西骁，是和周挽完全相反的另一种人。

Now the male lead: Lu Xixiao, the polar opposite of Zhou Wan.

他不爱读书，家里有钱，整天一副满不在乎的样子。

He hates studying, comes from money, and wears a couldn't-care-less air all day.

他第一次出场，就在全校的晨会上闹了一出。

His first appearance is a spectacle at the school-wide morning assembly.

为了躲检查，他在校园里横冲直撞，一脚踢翻了消防栓。

Dodging an inspection, he barrels across campus and kicks over a fire hydrant.

水一下子喷了出来，在阳光下散成一道彩虹，全校的学生都看呆了。

Water bursts out, scattering into a rainbow in the sun, and the whole school is stunned.

那个画面又狼狈又好看，像极了这个少年本人。

The scene is both a mess and gorgeous — just like the boy himself.

班主任在台上点名批评他，他倒好，直接抢过话筒。

The homeroom teacher calls him out from the stage; he just grabs the mic.

他当着全校的面，大大方方地道了个歉，一点都不怵。

In front of the whole school, he apologizes boldly, not the least bit fazed.

那一刻你就明白了，这个人骨子里有多张扬。

In that moment you understand how brazen this guy is at his core.

班主任气不过，没收了他的车钥匙，还撂下一句狠话。

The fuming teacher confiscates his bike keys and drops a harsh line.

高考能进全国前一千名，钥匙就还给你。

Rank in the national top 1,000 on the college exam, and you'll get the keys back.

谁都觉得这是句气话，可偏偏就为了拿回那把钥匙，这个从来不学习的人，居然真的开始拼命刷题。

Everyone takes it as an idle threat, yet just to reclaim those keys, this boy who never studied actually starts grinding through practice problems.

他几经周折，找到了在学校里卖资料的周挽。

After some trouble, he tracks down Zhou Wan, who sells study notes at school.

他先是抓住她偷偷做生意的把柄，拿这个威胁她，逼她把资料交出来。

First he seizes on her secret side business, uses it to threaten her, and forces her to hand the notes over.

周挽没得选，只能照做。

Zhou Wan has no choice but to comply.

没想到，陆西骁还真靠着这套资料，把成绩硬生生提了上去。

Unexpectedly, Lu Xixiao really does haul his grades up with those notes.

故事讲到这儿，两个人的关系还只是一场冷冰冰的交易。

At this point, their relationship is still just a cold transaction.

但这个夏天，注定没那么简单。

But this summer is destined to be anything but simple.

到了第二集，事情起了变化。

By episode two, things take a turn.

周挽的一个谎言被人当众拆穿，连她好不容易找到的家教工作也丢了。

A lie of Zhou Wan's is exposed in public, and she even loses the tutoring job she'd worked so hard to land.

就在她最缺钱、最狼狈的时候，她在人群里看见了一个人。

At her most broke and cornered, she spots someone in the crowd.

是她的妈妈。

It's her mother.

那个在她小时候就狠心抛下她的女人，如今改头换面，连名字都换了，叫郭湘凌。

The woman who cruelly abandoned her in childhood has reinvented herself, even changing her name — now she's Guo Xiangling.

而此刻，她正满脸堆笑地讨好着一个少年，正是家境优渥的陆西骁。

And right now, she's all smiles, fawning over a boy — none other than the well-off Lu Xixiao.

周挽这才反应过来，自己的妈妈早就盯上了陆家这棵摇钱树。

Only then does Zhou Wan realize her mother had long set her sights on the Lu family cash cow.

那一瞬间，她心里压了很多年的恨，全被点着了。

In that instant, years of pent-up hatred ignite all at once.

她做了一个决定：报复。

She makes a decision: revenge.

她偷偷溜进老师办公室，把陆家的底细查了个清楚。

She slips into the teachers' office and digs up everything about the Lu family.

然后，她在那棵大树下，故意拦住了陆西骁。

Then, under that big tree, she deliberately stops Lu Xixiao.

她说，听说你要出国，英语我可以教你。

She says: I hear you're headed abroad — I can teach you English.

她开口要的，是奶奶的救命钱；她藏在心里的，是对那个母亲的恨。

What she asks for is her grandmother's life-saving money; what she hides is her hatred for that mother.

陆西骁一开始当然不答应，他凭什么听一个陌生女生的安排。

Of course Lu Xixiao refuses at first — why should he take orders from a girl he barely knows?

可两个人在车行里打了一局游戏，他输了。

But the two play a round of a game at the garage, and he loses.

愿赌服输，他只好捏着鼻子认下这个英语家教。

A bet's a bet, so he grudgingly accepts the English tutoring.

从那以后，每天晚自习一结束，他们就在那个废弃的游泳池边上课。

From then on, the moment evening study hall ends, they hold lessons by that abandoned swimming pool.

夏夜很闷，蝉叫个不停，两个人就着一盏灯，一道题一道题地往下啃。

The summer nights are stifling, cicadas endless, as the two grind through problems one by one under a single lamp.

陆西骁从小被父母冷落，早就习惯了没人在意自己。

Neglected by his parents since childhood, Lu Xixiao is long used to no one caring about him.

所以一开始，他根本不相信会有人真的为他上心。

So at first, he simply doesn't believe anyone would truly care.

可周挽偏偏盯着他，逼着他，半点偷懒都不许。

But Zhou Wan, of all people, watches him, pushes him, and permits no slacking at all.

她还从家里带了一个小风扇，放在他身边，呼呼地吹着。

She even brings a little fan from home, setting it beside him, whirring away.

就是这么一点点不起眼的在意，让这个吊儿郎当的少年，慢慢找回了一点自尊，也开始真的认真起来。

That small, unremarkable bit of care slowly gives this feckless boy back some self-respect, and he begins to truly apply himself.

夏天一天比一天热，他们的补习也一节接着一节。

The summer grows hotter by the day, their lessons coming one after another.

周挽本来是带着恨来的，她盘算的是陆家的钱，是对母亲的报复。

Zhou Wan came in carrying hatred, scheming for the Lu family's money and for revenge on her mother.

可真正坐下来，她看到的，却是一个从来没被人好好对待过的男孩。

But once she actually sits down, what she sees is a boy no one has ever treated well.

他做错一道题，会下意识地去偷看她的脸色。

Get a problem wrong, and he instinctively steals a look at her expression.

被她夸上一句，又赶紧别过头，装作满不在乎。

Praised once, he quickly turns away, feigning indifference.

周挽心里那点硬邦邦的恨，开始一点一点地松动。

That hard knot of hatred in Zhou Wan begins, bit by bit, to loosen.

陆西骁这边，也在悄悄地变。

On his side, Lu Xixiao is quietly changing too.

他从前对什么都提不起劲，如今却开始盼着晚自习结束。

Once listless about everything, he now starts looking forward to study hall ending.

盼着那个废弃泳池边上，那盏小小的灯亮起来。

Looking forward to that little lamp lighting up beside the abandoned pool.

他嘴上从不承认，可那是他一整天里，最踏实的一段时光。

He'd never admit it, but it's the most settled stretch of his whole day.

有她在，他第一次觉得，自己好像也是个值得被人管的人。

With her there, he feels for the first time that maybe he too is worth caring about.

两个人谁都没把话说破，只把这件事，轻描淡写地叫做补习。

Neither of them names it, brushing it off simply as "tutoring."

风扇呼呼地吹，题一道一道地做，闷热的夏夜就这么一晚一晚地过去。

The fan whirs, the problems get worked one by one, and the muggy summer nights pass one after another.

她答应教他英语，是为了奶奶的药费。

She agreed to teach him English for her grandmother's medicine.

他答应跟她学，是因为一局输掉的游戏。

He agreed to learn from her because of one lost game.

说到底，这本是一桩各取所需的买卖。

At bottom, it was a deal where each got what they needed.

可买卖归买卖，有些东西，不知从什么时候起，已经悄悄变了味。

But a deal's a deal — and yet something, at some unnoticed point, has quietly changed.

而那天晚上，他发现了一件事。

And that night, he discovers something.

平时他在路边看到那种装在塑料袋里的金鱼，总忍不住多看两眼，却从来舍不得买。

He'd always linger over the goldfish in plastic bags by the roadside, yet could never bring himself to buy one.

他自己有钱，可那点心软，他从来没好意思说出口。

He has money of his own, but that soft spot he'd never had the nerve to voice.

而这一次，是周挽默默地把那一袋金鱼买了下来，轻轻放到他面前。

And this time, it's Zhou Wan who quietly buys that bag of goldfish and gently sets it before him.

塑料袋破了个口，水顺着她的书包，一滴一滴地往下淌。

The plastic bag has torn, and water trickles down her schoolbag, drop by drop.

两个人谁都没说话，可有些东西，已经不一样了。

Neither of them speaks, but something is already different.

这就是《炽夏》的开头。

This is how "Never-Ending Summer" begins.

一个为了奶奶拼了命的女孩，一个被全世界忽略的男孩。

A girl who'd do anything for her grandmother, and a boy the whole world overlooks.

他们在一个最热的夏天里，结结实实地撞到了一起。

In one blazing summer, they collide head-on.

一边是真心，一边是算计，谁也没料到这个夏天会把他们带到哪里去。

One side sincerity, the other calculation — and no one foresees where this summer will take them.

说好的只是一场交易，可交易里，已经悄悄长出了别的东西。

It was supposed to be just a transaction, but within it, something else has quietly grown.

夏天还很长，他们的故事，才刚刚开始。

The summer is still long, and their story has only just begun.