Just then, the doctor pushed the door open and came out. Zoe Young stood up and said a very TVB-like line: "Doctor, how is it?"

The doctor was amused by her eager gaze. "It's all right now."

The three most wonderful words in the world are not "I love you," but "It's all right now."

Maybe it was Andrew Lane's certainty that worked; at midnight, Michael just made it safely into the next day, out of danger.

Zoe Young was patting her chest in relief when she suddenly saw Benny at the end of the corridor.

He hurried over, gave a hasty greeting to Zoe Young and Andrew Lane, then leaned anxiously at the door, peering inside.

Zoe Young had a lot she wanted to ask, but suddenly didn't want to interrupt him. Benny, peering through the glass, looked so anxious and uneasy, so unfamiliar, yet so warm.

She and Andrew Lane quietly said goodbye to Michael's father.

At that moment, Andrew Lane received a call from Charles Johnson. Charlotte Lee had already been taken home by him.

"She's more stable than I expected, really," Charles Johnson laughed. "Trust me, everything's fine."

It was only after hanging up that Andrew Lane suddenly realized he couldn't remember when it started that Charles Johnson no longer sniffed when he spoke.

Everything was fine, everything kept moving forward with time.

The hospital was in a remote area, and by the time they left, only the orange streetlights remained on the street, not a single car in sight. At the wide intersection, there were only lonely crosswalks and traffic lights.

The taut string in Zoe Young's heart finally relaxed. She smiled tiredly. In the deserted midnight, it felt like the whole world was just the two of them.

"You know, when I was a kid watching Doraemon, my favorite episode was when they used the shrink ray to make themselves tiny, then built a miniature city in their backyard—a city that belonged only to them. In that city, they could do whatever they wanted, fulfill wishes they couldn't in real life. Nobita wanted to stand in the comic shop reading new manga for free without being chased out by the owner, Gian could eat as much pork cutlet rice as he wanted, Doraemon bought lots of dorayaki without paying, and Shizuka had her own toy store..."

Andrew Lane smiled. "Those are all great wishes."

"But," Zoe Young looked at him, her bright eyes glistening with tears under the orange streetlight, "my favorite was the dream of a nameless side character. It was just a single frame, barely mentioned."

"What was it?" Andrew Lane looked at her gently, as if coaxing a child who'd secretly drunk baijiu and gotten tipsy.

"That kid lay down in the middle of an empty road, arms and legs spread wide, and shouted at the sky, 'I can finally lie freely in the middle of the road!'"

Zoe Young shouted loudly too, as if for a moment she was possessed by that little side character.

Andrew Lane suddenly grabbed her hand and started running toward the center of the intersection.

"What are you doing?"

"Of course, lying in the middle of the road!"

Andrew Lane dragged the dumbfounded Zoe Young to the very center of the intersection. All the traffic lights, as if deranged, turned red at once, enclosing the intersection in a safe dead zone. The four deserted, endless roads seemed born of obsession, leading all beings into infinite darkness.

They lay down together in the intersection, forming two "大" shapes, like the simplest paper-cut figures from childhood, holding hands tightly.

The overcast night sky was a stifling blood-red. Zoe Young didn't feel the thrill she had imagined from doing something so reckless.

Instead, she felt herself returning to the earth's tranquility.

A day like this had finally come to an end.

In this grand exam, everyone would ultimately make their own choice.

Even Michael chose to keep on living.

They walked through intersection after intersection, parting ways again and again. Maybe they'd meet again after circling around, maybe they'd be separated forever. But at this moment, each of the four roads led in its own direction, and Zoe Young didn't want to think about the future. In the end, they would say goodbye, grow up, and decay.

Since childhood, she'd had so many dreams, not one of which had truly come true.

She wasn't Bai Suzhen, wasn't a heroine, wasn't She-Ra, wasn't Candy, wasn't anyone.

She was just a nameless side character who wanted to lie in the middle of the road.

Growing up was the process of Zoe Young realizing she was never a heroine.

In all her wandering, she ended up losing the holy water and giving up the blue water.

But so what?

She gently squeezed Andrew Lane's hand, looked up at the sky, and shouted loudly, as if no one else were there.

"I can finally lie in the middle of the road!"

She cried in Andrew Lane's arms until she was choking.

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13. The Old Days That Will Eventually Fade

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Zoe Young only found out much later that, in the time when Benny was no longer Benny and not yet Charles Morgan, his real name was Jesse Hunter, probably named by that alcoholic adoptive father. When Benny, as Jesse Hunter, fought his way through that chaotic elementary school with his fists, the top student in the class, Michael, was his best buddy.

He returned to his biological parents, kept being a delinquent, came to Zhenhua, and dated many girlfriends.

Zoe Young clung to those faint childhood memories.

But just like Zoe Young, Benny's life also had too many paths belonging to others.

Zoe Young felt that Benny would always be Benny, while Michael firmly believed that Jesse Hunter would always be Jesse Hunter.

That was a stretch of time with too many blanks. Zoe Young didn't want to ask Michael, nor did she want to ask Benny.

This was good.

Just like in ninth grade, Zoe Young lost her deskmate again in twelfth grade.

On the day Ian left school, his complexion had regained its color. His eyes gradually became more spirited.

"So next time we meet, I might be your junior," he said with a smile.

Zoe Young didn't know what made him finally decide to repeat a year, leave Zhenhua, and return to his original high school to prepare for the next year's art exams.

Maybe it was because Michael told him, "If you keep hesitating like this, you'll get old."

When that pale figure disappeared at the door, Zoe Young suddenly wanted to tell Mia Waters, who was studying in Singapore: You know, if we were brave enough, Tokyo really isn't that far.

As long as you have the courage to burn your bridges.

Because Michael said, this is youth. Simple and a little sour.

Youth that won't wait.

Ray Cindy eventually went to the office to plead for Charlotte Lee. She didn't have the courage to tell the truth, but she still vouched again and again that Charlotte Lee had just forgotten to put the materials in her bag before the exam. She sat behind Charlotte Lee and saw clearly that she never reached for those materials.

Even though it was useless. Even though it wasn't brave enough.

Born of obsession, for all beings—but there are so few things in this world that are one hundred percent.

Charlotte Lee never came back to school. She stayed home to prepare for the college entrance exam; it was said she had a lot to think about.

All the school papers were organized by Zoe Young, then delivered to her home by Andrew Lane or Charles Johnson.

Zoe Young, Andrew Lane, and Charlotte Lee all lost their school recommendation spots. While Thomas Chase and the others were busy going to Beijing for interviews, the three of them plus Charles Johnson went to a snow amusement park.

Zoe Young found it funny. Along the way, it really felt like she was following in Alan Carter's footsteps, even losing the most crucial opportunity at the most crucial moment.

At the beginning of March, she got another call from her dad.

On the phone, he didn't mention a word about missing out the whole past year, and Zoe Young didn't ask. She readily set a time, then waited early at the hotel entrance.

This man always made promises easily, broke them just as easily, and never mentioned the past, yet could still call in a gentle tone. Whether it was with her mother back then, or with her now.

Zoe Young really wanted to know if she was like him in some way—maybe in the way she bullied Andrew Lane?

The man in the trench coat walking toward her looked like he needed to dye his hair again; the new white roots made him look elegant but old. Zoe Young stared at him, feeling nothing special at all.

He was too much of a stranger.

"Zoe? You've grown so much... You look more and more like your mother."

Zoe Young smiled and nodded.