However, she admitted that this song was beautiful and pure. Back then, if there was someone in her heart, maybe she really would have wanted to sing this song with him—but it was destined that there would never really be such a chance.

If you could be brave and reckless enough to hold hands and sing 《Crystal》 together at that age, perhaps that kind of feeling wouldn’t even count as particularly shy or transparent.

Michelle Cindy wasn’t very confident; she didn’t sing off-key, but her voice trembled, like a little lamb. Yet Zoe Young listened intently, holding her breath, as if she really was cradling a piece of crystal in her hands at that moment.

The love between you and me is like crystal.

Even though she didn’t understand love, it didn’t stop her from smiling.

After Michelle Cindy finished singing, her face turned red as she glanced at Zoe Young. Zoe Young smiled at her and said very sincerely, “You sang really well.”

Later, they started singing together—not the popular songs of the time, but those old Hong Kong and Taiwanese pop songs they’d heard when they were much younger and barely understood, from Zoe Young’s disastrous performance of 《A Dashing Life》 at the old cadre activity center, to 《Choice》, 《When I Gently Cover Your Eyes》, 《Love Amidst the Rain》, 《A Life of Longing》, 《Iron Will》...

When they were little, they had no idea what these songs were about, but they could still belt them out at the dinner table, livening things up and pleasing the adults.

It wasn’t until that moment, when they sang those songs again, that they finally understood the meaning of the lyrics.

“From Mary (玛丽) to Sunny (阳光) and Ivory (象牙), but my name is never there.”

“Why is it that what I’ve lost turns out to be everything I had.”

Sometimes they’d get choked up halfway through a song, and the lingering, sentimental lyrics would make them exchange a smile, then turn away, grinning shyly.

Later on, Zoe Young couldn’t remember whether they actually chatted that afternoon, or what they talked about—but in her memory, there was always a patch of dazzling, brilliant white: the most blazing sunlight at two in the afternoon, and the endless chirping of grasshoppers by her ears.

Once the conversation started, Michelle Cindy gradually became more lively.

“Not the kind you’re talking about, I mean the big bags of tamarind, not the ones with just three or four pieces in a bag.”

“I think the small bags taste better. Licorice apricots, preserved plums, and figs are all better in small bags.”

Zoe Young rolled her eyes in exasperation, but when it came to which was tastier, big bags or small bags, she really couldn’t out-argue the stubborn and composed Michelle Cindy.

“So actually, I think Tuxedo Mask really likes Moon Princess, not Bunny Moon.”

“I think he likes Bunny Moon, not Moon Princess.”

“If Bunny Moon’s previous life wasn’t Moon Princess, how could he possibly fall in love with her? Bunny Moon and Moon Princess are so different!” Zoe Young felt like she was about to bite someone.

Michelle Cindy just shook her head gravely.

“No way.”

Calm down, Zoe Young, you have to stay calm. She warned herself, trying to steer the conversation back: “Look, Moon Princess is so gentle and quiet, and Bunny Moon... well, you know. They really seem like two different people, so how could Tuxedo Mask like two completely different people at the same time? That just doesn’t make sense!”

Michelle Cindy paused, then slowly said, “They’re the same person... she just changed later.”

Zoe Young scratched her head. “If the person you like changes later, would you still like them the same?”

When Zoe Young asked this, her heart was pure as could be. She was thinking of Benny.

Moon Princess became Bunny Moon, like two different people.

But the word “like” made Michelle Cindy visibly uncomfortable.

Zoe Young was still boldly letting her mind wander.

“Do you think the reason teachers and parents don’t let us date early is because we’re growing up, the other person is changing, and we ourselves are changing so fast, so it’s easy to fall out of love?”

Michelle Cindy promptly gave the most correct answer possible: “It’s because it affects our studies.”

Zoe Young turned away in defeat.

Michelle Cindy was just too frustrating.

------------

2. Concentration Camp

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“By the way, have you ever had a kind of candy?”

“What?”

Zoe Young propped her chin in her hand and said slowly, “It’s called lipstick candy. You can’t buy it anymore.”

Actually, that candy was very small, red, just a stub. But the packaging was made to look like adult lipstick, and with a gentle twist, the candy would stick out like real lipstick. The girls would all imitate adults, carefully smearing it back and forth on their lips, then licking their lips with their tongues. That cheap sweetness became especially tempting because of how realistic it looked.

But Zoe Young’s mom never allowed her to buy that kind of candy like the other girls. Zoe Young never understood why—was it because it wasn’t hygienic? Or was she afraid she’d learn to be vain too early? She didn’t get it.

Unexpectedly, Michelle Cindy beside her suddenly said, “Do you want to eat one?”

Zoe Young was startled. “You have one?”

Michelle Cindy didn’t answer right away. She frowned and stared at the floor tiles for a long time before finally looking up with a determined expression and saying, “Yes.”

At that moment, Zoe Young still didn’t understand why Michelle Cindy could look so righteous and ready to face death just to find a lipstick candy.

Later, when she followed her through twists and turns toward “Michelle's General Store,” Zoe Young finally realized.

But Michelle Cindy didn’t know that Zoe Young behind her had already figured it all out. She stopped at the corner near her house, looked at Zoe Young seriously, and said, “Wait here. Don’t follow me.”

Zoe Young would remember the conflicted look on Michelle Cindy’s face for the rest of her life.

Risking the danger of having her secret discovered, just to find a lipstick candy.

Zoe Young suddenly felt very touched. She nodded hard and said, “Okay.”

She didn’t even ask why.

So Michelle Cindy turned and left.

Lipstick candy was a very old snack, and you couldn’t find it anywhere. The only reason Michelle Cindy’s family’s store had it was simple.

Overstock. Stuff that wouldn’t sell.

Like... like the Maltesers Michelle Cindy brought out at the sports meet, covered in dust and already expired.

Zoe Young could guess that a little grocery store like that, squeezed by the newly opened, cheap warehouse supermarkets, probably wasn’t making much money anymore. The only things it might have over the supermarkets were soy sauce, vinegar, and beer, because all the neighbors knew each other, and sometimes it was fine to take two bottles of beer on credit.

In Zoe Young’s memory, there was a cramped, crowded little shop. Back then, she was still Benny’s neighbor. The shop was dimly lit, the room smelled musty, and the auntie who ran it was always fierce, loud, and cursing at her. The bread she bought was either too greasy or too dry, wrapped in thin plastic, basically unbranded, and sometimes even moldy. Back then, people didn’t have any consumer awareness, had never heard of “3.15,” there were no supermarkets in the city, and there had never been a kindly shopkeeper who handed out delicious candy to children. He would sell expired, moldy things to kids or fools.

But Zoe Young still thought those things were delicious: tamarind, bayberry, snow plums, shrimp chips, Bubuxing, milk candy, popsicles, fifty-cent bags of orange ice water—even though they were all just artificial flavors and colors.

Maybe if she ate them now, they wouldn’t taste as good?

Everything is always best in memory. Always.

After a while, Michelle Cindy came running over, acting all sneaky, and handed her a stub of light pink plastic tube, about as thick as a thumb, like a piece of a long whistle.

Zoe Young was excited. The two of them hid in a corner, glancing around furtively like a couple of little punks doing a drug deal. Zoe Young struggled to twist open the lipstick candy, watched the magenta candy core pop out like real lipstick, then carefully ducked into a spot where no one could see and licked it. She frowned a little, feeling a bit disappointed—it tasted terrible.

It was just to fulfill a wish.

But acting so sneaky—was it to hide from her mom? Zoe Young thought about it and suddenly burst out laughing.

“Not good?” Michelle Cindy looked nervous, as if she’d made the candy herself.

“No, it’s great. Let me keep it.” She carefully put the lipstick candy in her pocket. “Thank you, Michelle.”

Michelle Cindy smiled a little awkwardly, lowered her head, and said, “Then I’m going home.”

Zoe Young waved. “Okay, see you.”