Little Aunt’s family did not make a big show of mourning; even their crying was subdued, as if this was something shameful.

Later, Mrs. Chen, who ran the tofu shop, had her house broken into again, and two hundred yuan in the drawer was stolen. Suddenly, everyone in the compound was on edge, unsure if it was an outsider or an inside job, and everyone was terrified. Mom no longer dared to leave Zoe Young at home alone. When she worked during the day, she kept her child with her at all times.

Zoe Young’s mother had failed her college entrance exam that year and only got into the provincial medical college’s associate program, majoring in traditional Chinese medicine. After a series of misfortunes, she lost her job early on and opened a small clinic for Chinese massage and acupuncture, where she was the only one working inside and out. When providing therapy and massage for clients, she often had to go to their homes alone, so she spent most of her days riding her bicycle all over the city.

Now, there was an extra Zoe Young on the back seat of the bicycle. Her mother always felt extremely, extremely guilty for making her daughter toil and rush about at such a young age, believing her daughter’s bleak childhood was a reflection of her own guilt as a mother. But Zoe Young was actually delighted. She felt like a little bug that had escaped the spider and was flying again, seeing a different world.

All walks of life, the world was so big. She learned to interact cleverly with adults, speaking when she should, staying silent when she should. Sometimes clients, worried she’d be bored alone, would find her toys or comic books, and sometimes there were fruits and snacks to eat. But they didn’t know that she never felt bored at all. Every different house, with its different people, gave her brand new inspiration. She could no longer perform boldly, so she could only curl up quietly in a corner, internalizing her wild imagination, and then let it carry her off to distant worlds.

When winter came, the roads in the north were always covered with a thick layer of ice. Except for the main roads, which could be cleared in time, the snow on many small streets was packed down hard by passing cars, so even walking in anti-slip shoes required caution, let alone riding a bicycle. Zoe Young started walking with her mother, squeezing onto buses, sometimes so crowded her feet left the ground and she was suspended in the air. But she liked walking, because whenever they passed a fragrant jianbing stall or a cart selling candied hawthorn, her mother would always buy her a little treat.

She saw this as an unexpected bonus, while her mother saw it as compensation. That year, Zoe Young walked the longest road of her life, and at the end of that road, she met Alan Carter.

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4. Blue Water

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Zoe Young remembered it was the winter solstice of 1993. Mom said they’d make dumplings for dinner when they got home. The heavy snow had blocked traffic, and no matter how long they waited, the bus didn’t come. There were still forty-five minutes until the appointment with the client. Zoe Young felt her mother squeeze her hand tighter, then, as if finally making up her mind, she looked down and asked, “Zoe, shall we walk there?”

“Okay!” She actually really wanted to walk, so she could step through the fresh, soft snow that was already over her shoes. Walking through the snow was fun, but after twenty minutes, her face was numb from the north wind, and her feet alternated between numbness and pain. She tried to pull her scarf up, but the outside had already frozen into a hard ring of ice from her breath, making her face feel even colder.

She looked up and saw her mother’s eyes were red. The place they were going today seemed especially, especially far. When they reached a quiet spot, only the mother and daughter’s crunching footsteps could be heard on the snow. “Zoe?”

Mom called her, but after waiting a while with no response, she looked down to see her silly girl staring blankly ahead, grinning at some point in the distance.

To be precise, Zoe Young was chatting with her two good friends—Duke Bunny and Viscount Bunny. Earlier, when they passed the orthopedic hospital, she saw someone passing boxes out of a first-floor window, and somehow, she suddenly imagined an orange airplane circling in the sky, trailing smoke as it crashed headfirst into the window.

Zoe Young’s soul floated out of her body and drifted over, pulling out two rabbits from inside. They wore blue suits and red bow ties, with no pants, their short, fluffy tails exposed.

“Hello, miss,” the big rabbit smiled, showing two big front teeth, “I’m a guest from another planet, Duke Gregory, and this is my son, Viscount Clark.”

Zoe Young was very polite, smiling as she said, “Hello, Your Grace.” She didn’t realize her silly grin had startled an old lady in a wheelchair at the hospital entrance, who stared blankly at her as she walked away with a strange smile. Zoe Young was busy the whole way, with Duke Bunny constantly asking her questions. They pointed at cars and shouted, asked how houses could be built as tall as the Wangjiang Hotel, and what burned inside chimneys. Did the candied hawthorn vendors sleep in their carts at night? She patiently explained everything, and the two rabbits were so moved by her elegance and kindness that they sincerely invited her to be queen of their country...

Zoe Young was startled and quickly declined. “Our country needs a kind and beautiful queen like you, please say yes!” Zoe Young blushed, grinning shyly, a little embarrassed, but felt they weren’t just flattering her. She politely refused again. Maybe she was too focused, but she couldn’t help acting out the scene in her mind once more.

So the first time Alan Carter saw Zoe Young, she was a little girl wrapped in a red scarf and hat, with only her beautiful eyes showing, smiling with curved eyes at the bushes on the right side of the complex, saying in a muffled voice, “Thank you for your kindness, but I must stay on Earth.”

The north wind whistled by, and Mom, holding back laughter, patted her head. Only then did Zoe Young snap out of it, glancing nervously at the person in front of her. A boy in a white down jacket, his ears red from the cold, smiled gently, a head taller than her.

“Sorry, have you been waiting long?” “No, I just came down. Auntie, please come in.”

His voice was very pleasant. Though still a child’s voice, it was so much nicer than the hoarse shouts of the wild kids in Zoe Young’s compound.

Led by Alan Carter, they entered the security door. Alan Carter lived on the twelfth floor, and it was the first time Zoe Young had ever taken an elevator. When the elevator started and she felt the weightlessness, she laughed at the godlike experience. Alan Carter looked back at her and laughed too. This experience made Zoe Young’s daydreams for days afterward leave behind the age of cold weapons and magic, and instead fill with elevators, spaceships, and other high-tech machines.

Alan Carter’s home was a duplex, and it was the first time Zoe Young had seen such a big house, with stairs actually inside the room—it was amazing, just like a palace! Many years later, in politics class, the teacher jokingly asked what the difference was between the homes of the rich and the poor. Zoe Young’s answer was, it depends on whether the stairs are inside or outside the house.

Mom went to give a massage to Alan Carter’s paralyzed grandmother, and Alan Carter’s mother just greeted them before going back to her room, leaving Alan Carter to look after Zoe Young. For some reason, Zoe Young, who was always poised and calm inside, was only calm on the surface that day, but actually very nervous.

Of course she was nervous—today, this was no longer a stage, but a real palace, and before her was a real prince.

Only, Zoe Young had forgotten to bring her glass slippers. That should have been the ID code for every little Cinderella. Of course, this was just a girl’s nature, even though she was only six. But it had nothing to do with love—after all, she was only six.

Alan Carter wore fluffy white seahorse slippers, and his light blue sweater was fluffy too, making his face look even paler. He poured Zoe Young a cup of hot milk, and the housekeeper brought a blue crystal plate full of fruit and milk candies. Zoe Young sat on the sofa, hardly daring to breathe, but still smiled sweetly and said to the housekeeper and Alan Carter, “Thank you.”

Alan Carter smiled and affectionately ruffled her hair. “What’s your name? How old are you?” “Zoe Young, six years old.” After a pause, “And you?” “My name is Alan Carter, twelve.”

“How do you write it?”

“Hm?”

“hén, ān, how do you write it?” Alan Carter was stunned for a moment, then realized, got up and ran to his room, took out a stack of manuscript paper, and wrote “Alan Carter” on it with a ballpoint pen. Then he smiled and asked her, “Do you recognize it? Can you read?” Zoe Young nodded, then shook her head, pointing at the character “桉” and said, “I don’t know this one. Is it pronounced ‘ān’?” Alan Carter scratched the back of his head. “Uh, yes, this is the ‘an’ from eucalyptus tree. My mom and dad met under this kind of tree, so I’m called Alan Carter. There aren’t any of these trees in the north. But, you write your name for me, Zoe Young is such a nice name.”