He was the only person who had ever entered Zoe Young's little world, so naturally he knew how impressive Zoe Young was in it. In fact, he truly believed she was remarkable, but for some reason, he just believed that one day her little world would eventually envelop everyone, and she would become a true heroine.

Then he would watch her with those kids, cheering her on with envy on his face. He hoped that when her radiant gaze swept over the crowd, she would still be able to recognize his face at a glance. 035? So it turns out, the best way to make someone strong is to have someone they want to protect.

? Mom said, a smile is always something you show to people who are useful to you.

? "Forever" is like a spell: "together forever," "love you forever," "forever friends," "always believe in you"… These kinds of spells are meant to summon "separation," "change of heart," "betrayal," "doubt."

So, never say forever.

? The happiest kind of happiness is knowing nothing at all.

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The Second Kind of Happiness: The Boys Who Once Appeared in Life

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1. Who Doesn't Have Secrets

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Everything was going smoothly in the new life at grandma's house. Mom found a new job, and with the help of an old colleague of grandma's, she started working in sales for a cosmetics import-export company. This job sounded much more sophisticated than doing home visits for massage therapy, but Zoe Young didn't like her mom's new job, because she could feel her mom getting busier and less and less happy.

More importantly, Zoe Young felt like a guest living under someone else's roof at grandma's house. Although Third Aunt and Little Aunt rarely said anything, their lukewarm attitude was especially glaring to the sensitive and perceptive Zoe Young.

Not to mention the two cousins who were resentful and dissatisfied because their room had been taken over. Lily was twelve, Tilly was seven. Wearing her red scarf and going to and from school every day, Lily was like a deity to Zoe Young—she was an elementary school student, my god, she was an elementary school student. This status made Zoe Young respect her deeply, especially since she had secretly watched Lily do her homework, and all those multiplication and division problems looked like mysterious symbols from a cartoon treasure chest, leaving Zoe Young in awe.

She was amazing.

Zoe Young watched her obsessively as she sat at the round table in the living room, holding a pink Kiki&Co mechanical pencil, twirling it while frowning in thought. Her snow-white skin, the neat and clean math notebook, and the fancy tin pencil case...

However, Lily was very impatient with her. Whenever she saw Zoe Young staring at her in a daze, she would frown and scold, "Don't bother me!" Of course, Zoe Young was not a spineless child—please, she was a heroine! So after being scolded twice, she never again showed the slightest interest in stationery, and even when passing by Lily's study desk, she kept her eyes straight ahead—this only made Lily even more annoyed. What could be more frustrating than being looked down on by a six-year-old brat?

So when she closed her homework notebook and started fiddling with the dozen or so stuffed animals and dolls spread out on her bed, she snapped at Zoe Young, who was looking down, "You, come here!"

Zoe Young edged along the wall, ready to run at any moment—she told herself, even if she was a heroine, the reincarnation of Seiya, sometimes she had to go through some hardships, get beaten black and blue, and then unleash her cosmos to defeat the enemy in one blow.

But right now, it didn't look like a good time for a one-blow victory—on the contrary, what awaited her was probably a beating. Lily Young shoved the three ugliest bears in front of her and gruffly said, "Play!" Making her play with the ugliest toys was the best punishment Lily Young could think of. While Lily was busy changing her doll's clothes, she suddenly noticed that Zoe Young was just staring motionlessly at the edge of the bed, and the three bears she had handed her—one white, two brown—had been lined up in a row, sitting shoulder to shoulder along the foot of the bed, facing the wall, silently keeping Zoe Young company, doing who knows what.

"What are you doing?" Lily Young crawled over from the other end of the bed. Zoe Young looked up, sighed softly, and pointed at the white bear, "Xiaoxue doesn't know who she should go with."

Lily Young was silent for a moment, then scooped all three bears into her arms and pointed at the door, "Stay away from me." Zoe Young calmly stood up and left without a word. Lily sat on the bed for a while, then suddenly screamed, throwing her dolls all over the floor.

That night, she solemnly told Tina Young never to talk to Zoe Young, that Zoe Young was crazy. Although she didn't like Tina Young either—a girl who had always been vain and liked to act cute to get her way—at least she had lived with Tina Young for years and knew how to handle her. But Zoe Young was like an alien, and she still had no idea how to deal with her.

So, in Zoe Young's life, "sister" was never a gentle or beautiful word. In her childhood at grandma's house, the word basically meant "big boss."

Sometimes Lily Young would suddenly push open Zoe Young's door and see her draped in all kinds of scarves, pillowcases, and sheets, from headscarves to veils to shawls and long skirts, striking a peacock dance pose in the room, her eyes full of defiance. Even when Lily Young barged in, her gaze was still sharp and unflinching, sweeping over her.

Lily Young would hear her shout, "Hey! Monster, where do you think you're going?!" From then on, Lily knew that this little sister wasn't just an alien—she was the kind that was very unfriendly to earthlings.

But soon, they couldn't keep to themselves anymore. When a panicked Lily Young was searching everywhere for her lost diary, she saw Zoe Young sitting cross-legged in the corner of the living room, reading her pink diary with great interest. "Ah—" Lily Young screamed, startling grandma, who rushed out of her room, "What's wrong with you, trying to scare me to death? Who stepped on your tail?!" "Grandma, she..." Lily Young pointed accusingly, but suddenly remembered there was very private stuff in that diary, which grandma absolutely couldn't know, so she quickly swallowed the rest and waved her hand, "Nothing, nothing." After finally coaxing grandma away, Lily Young stormed over to Zoe Young, snatched the diary, and pointed at her, her voice trembling, "You, you, you... how could you read my diary?" "Is that not allowed?" Zoe Young tilted her head, "I found it under the coffee table." "You can't read a diary!" How could this kid not understand anything? Lily Young hissed, "There are secrets in here, secrets!" Secrets? Zoe Young spread her hands. What are secrets?

Is it " Richard Lane, actually I don't hate you, I like you more than they do, but I don't want to see you go astray, don't want to see you not paying attention in class"?

Or "The home ec teacher is such a busybody, I can't stand her"? Or "When we had the character test today, Joy and I were cheating under the desk, that old hag couldn't see us at all"? But she didn't ask—her instincts told her that asking would bring big trouble. "I didn't read it." She shook her head.

"I caught you and you're still lying? You didn't read it?" Lily Young was about to lose it. "I can't read," she shook her head again. Lily Young grabbed the Aesop's Fables Zoe Young had brought from the shelf: "You think I'm stupid?!" This time, Zoe Young was the one who got impatient: "I said I can't read to make you feel better, are you done yet?"

Many years later, when Lily Young finally put on her wedding dress, she couldn't even remember what Richard Lane, Joy, or the home ec teacher looked like, but seeing Zoe Young standing beside her in a bridesmaid's dress, she still remembered that little kid from back then. No matter how gracefully the bridesmaid Zoe Young smiled, she still felt a chill, and that calm "I just said it to make you feel better" echoed in her ears.

After a long, long silence, Lily Young finally muttered as if in a dream, "Anyway, you can't tell anyone, not a soul, it's a secret!"

Just thinking about this kid possibly shouting " Lily likes Richard Lane " made her break out in goosebumps. Zoe Young shook her head, "I won't say anything." That was almost the same as saying "I know everything," which was even more devastating. Lily Young slumped and stormed out.

But sitting there, Zoe Young began to seriously ponder the meaning of "secret"—it seemed that a secret was a subtle thing, often related to something a bit shady, like badmouthing a teacher or cheating... But why was liking someone also a secret?