Zoe Young couldn’t help but laugh, and her uncle frowned: “Don’t listen to your aunt’s nonsense, she’s been like this for days. When I used to fly, she was always like this too… Anyway, just be careful and have fun. Leave all your worries behind, don’t bring them back.”

She nodded hard. The worry and care in the eyes of the two elders across from her made her nose sting a little. She squeezed her aunt’s hand and shook it; those hands had once wiped her forehead with alcohol over and over again in the middle of the night.

Sometimes, the feeling of relying on someone isn’t so bad.

She turned and walked straight into the security checkpoint without looking back.

Zoe Young lifted the sunshade and looked down to see the clear outline of a peninsula in the blue sea.

It looked exactly like it did on the map. She pressed her nose to the window and suddenly remembered watching “Prime Variety Show” as a child. The segment called “The World is Wonderful” was born from obsession, for the sake of all beings.

It seemed that back then she’d even told her mother that when she grew up, she wanted to be a field host for “Prime Variety Show”, traveling the world, tasting food from everywhere, leaving her footprints in every corner of the earth.

She hadn’t fully grown up yet, but “Prime Variety Show” seemed to have already stopped airing—or maybe not, she just didn’t watch it anymore.

Time changes all things. She stared at the peninsula below, feeling a bit wistful.

Like many people, she carried countless dreams. When she closed her eyes, she was She-Ra, granted power from above, drawing her sword, able to cut through any darkness.

But inevitably, you’re quietly pushed into a corner, trapped in the world, forced to learn to weigh and choose, until one day you look back and can’t remember how you became who you are now, and only then do you admit: you’re not Squeaky, and I’m not Beta, we’re just two busy mice, and life is just a search for food.

Suddenly, the view outside the window blurred with mist, as if a thick fog had rolled in. A few seconds later, her vision cleared again, and an endless sea of pure white clouds rolled beneath her feet. The sunlight was unfiltered, so bright that tears streamed down Zoe Young’s face.

She had imagined heaven countless times, and now she finally saw it.

Were Mom and Uncle Quinn here?

Zoe Young smiled.

So, Mom, be sure to put on plenty of sunscreen.

The sunlight grew even more dazzling, and her tears kept flowing.

“Is this your suitcase?” Zoe Young asked, pointing at the black leather case slowly moving toward them on the conveyor belt. Alan Carter walked over, picked it up, put his arm around her shoulder, and said, “That’s it, let’s go.”

They flew together from Shanghai to Bangkok, then transferred to Phuket. They queued to fill out entry forms, went through customs, and finally got their luggage, ready to leave the airport.

Zoe Young didn’t know why she’d skipped the first summer make-up class of her senior year and traveled so far. Alan Carter never seemed to care about the things that others thought were important, whether it was her senior year or his own.

“If you study all the time, you’ll turn stupid.”

The words sounded familiar, but last time it was in the dead of winter.

Alan Carter’s hair had grown a bit long and was dyed a deep chestnut color. When Zoe Young first saw him at the Shanghai airport, she stared at him for a long time. He touched his head and smiled, “What is it?”

“Your hair looks like Kenny Thomas’s,” she laughed. “It used to look like Samuel Mitchell’s… I mean, Samuel Mitchell after he got his tooth fixed and cut his hair short.”

Alan Carter tugged her ponytail: “You haven’t changed a bit. Not since you were little.”

Stepping out of the heavily air-conditioned airport hall, Zoe Young smelled the humid, hot air rushing toward her. Under the overpass were palm trees she’d only ever seen on calendars as a child, so green they looked fake.

The dark-skinned airport staff bustled about, shouting words she couldn’t understand, directing the loading and unloading of containers. Alan Carter called to her from a distance, pointed at the airport bus, and told her to get on.

Like a little girl who’d wandered into a wardrobe and found herself in a magical world, Zoe Young ran over, her face breaking into a pure, long-lost smile.

They stayed at a five-star hotel in Phuket. It wasn’t the towering skyscraper Zoe Young had imagined.

The hotel had only a dozen or so four-story buildings, three sides surrounding an open-air pool in the courtyard, the other side opening directly onto the beach. Looking out the window at an angle, it almost seemed as if the pool led straight to the sea, forming a blue waterway. Two brightly dressed women led them to their room, and when they left, they pressed their palms together at their noses, closed their eyes, bowed their heads, and said, “Sawasdee ka.”

Zoe Young imitated them, pressing her palms together in return.

Then she looked up and asked Alan Carter, “What do you actually do for work? Smuggling?”

Alan Carter laughed at her joke: “Why smuggling?”

“This place is expensive, isn’t it?”

Alan Carter tilted his head: “I took 200,000 yuan from home, then cut ties completely. It’s fine, it’s not my own money, so I’m treating you too—don’t be shy.”

Zoe Young was speechless. This was the first time Alan Carter had mentioned his family.

Born from obsession, for the sake of all beings—but she didn’t ask. It really wasn’t the right way to start a trip.

They visited a local Buddhist temple. In places where tourism is highly developed, every opportunity to make money is exploited. The moment they entered the temple, Zoe Young heard a “click” but didn’t think much of it, continuing to chat and laugh with Alan Carter as they walked forward. When they came out, vendors surrounded them, saying nothing, just smiling as they showed a photo and two round badges.

In the photo, Zoe Young and Alan Carter were just passing the temple gate sign. The eyes of the tall bronze Buddha statue, gleaming in the sun, were lowered as if compassionately watching the two below. Zoe Young was beaming as she said something to Alan Carter; they looked at each other, completely at ease.

The badges had their faces on them.

There are many such moments in life, gone in a flash, perhaps only God can capture them—or someone snaps a photo, prints it, and sells it for a few baht, which converts to several yuan.

Zoe Young felt the price was a bit painful, hesitated for a few seconds staring at the photo, but Alan Carter had already paid for it.

The photo went into the bag, then Alan Carter pinned Zoe Young’s badge on his own chest, and pinned his own big-headed badge on her chest.

Zoe Young looked down at the badge on her chest and couldn’t help but smile gently.

She stepped forward and gently took Alan Carter’s hand, their fingers entwined. Even Zoe Young herself couldn’t say why she did it, but she didn’t hesitate.

She lowered her head, deliberately ignoring the thoughtful look from Alan Carter beside her.

She even felt Alan Carter’s fingertips trying to pull away. She held on tightly, saying nothing.

The tropical rainy season air made people’s hearts soft and damp.

Zoe Young had always known her boundaries and how to behave. But sometimes, you just want to throw caution to the wind, like a moth to a flame.

Michael said: “When you’re young, you have the right to pursue everything. The offer doesn’t last forever.”

“Let’s not go see the ladyboys,” Zoe Young said softly as they planned the next day’s itinerary.

“That’s fine,” Alan Carter smiled. “They’ve been taking female hormones since childhood, their gender is distorted, and they die young. If we saw that kind of show, we probably wouldn’t feel good either.”

On their last day in Phuket, they went snorkeling at the beach. Beautiful yellow and green tropical fish swam in schools past Zoe Young’s calves, close enough to touch. The slippery gentleness of that moment felt almost like an illusion.

She bit down on the yellow tube, her eyes wide with amazement behind the big goggles.

Then she tentatively reached out toward the fish, like a kitten hunting for the first time.

She almost forgot that the world has always been this beautiful, from ancient times to now—it’s just that people bury themselves in their own pain and never want to step outside.

With her whole body submerged, she looked up from underwater, sunlight filtering through the surface like a sheet of shimmering liquid crystal.

In that moment, she forgot her own name.

In the evening, she and Alan Carter walked barefoot along the long white beach. With every step, Zoe Young buried her toes in the sand, and when she lifted her foot, a spray of white sand flew forward.

The coast faced west, the sun slanting into the sea, the boundary between them blurred and warm to the extreme.

“Did you have fun these four days?”

Zoe Young nodded hard: “Yes, I had a great time… I almost forgot who I am.”

They didn’t speak again. Every time Zoe Young met Alan Carter, no matter the season, the road always seemed especially long, as if they’d never reach the end.

“Alan Carter, why did you leave home?” She finally asked.

Alan Carter smiled: “Well then, let me start from the beginning.”

“Okay.”