“Go on in, let’s have a meal together… By the way, there’s no extra class at school today, right?”

“I’m not hungry.” She shook her head.

Zoe Young’s father was a man used to all kinds of situations. He thought Zoe Young was just throwing a childish tantrum, so he reached out, wanting to pat her head—but unexpectedly, at that moment, Zoe Young looked up, her clear gaze fixed straight on his hand, which was raised in midair.

He awkwardly put his hand down and said, “Then… let’s just take a walk.”

Is studying stressful? Which school are you planning to apply to? Have you had any more exams recently? How late do you study every night… One question and one answer, though distant, it was peaceful.

Zoe Young had to admit, she seemed to have not a single memory of the man beside her. She just really wanted to know why her mother loved him for so many years.

She thought she’d never find the answer. Maybe she should just ask her mother directly in sixty or seventy years—if her mother still remembered the reason by then.

Lazily answering the questions, just as she was about to find an excuse to leave, she suddenly saw, through the window of a small supermarket by the street, a row of four small individually packaged drinks, with beige bottles and foil seals, called “喜乐”.

She remembered that sweet and sour taste. Back then, they would always buy just one small bottle, stick in a thin straw, and sip it slowly, reluctant to finish it.

Zoe Young stopped, looked at the man beside her, then at the 喜乐 in the window.

It was probably when she was three or four years old, the first time she had any impression of her father, and it was when her mother, in a fit of emotion, kicked this “uninvited guest” out and accidentally scratched her arm. This man took her mother to the hospital, then took the still-hungry Zoe Young out to buy snacks.

She remembered he bent down and said, “Zoe, I’m your father.”

She also remembered he bought her a pack of four 喜乐, all sealed with plastic film. To Zoe Young, it was simply the most wonderful gift, and she was overwhelmed.

She couldn’t bear to open it, but on the way home, her mother caught her and threw it straight out the window.

She didn’t even dare to cry.

Even later, she never dared to drink 喜乐 in front of her mother. Because there was no 喜乐 in their lives.

Things she thought she’d forgotten suddenly came back to her.

“Dad,” she called for the first time, deliberately avoiding the look of surprise in the man’s eyes, “buy me a pack of four 喜乐, that one.”

She pointed at the window. Her father nodded, and, as if warning a child, said, “Wait here, I’ll be right out.”

Born of obsession, for all beings—Zoe Young remembered, if it were her mother, she would definitely add, “No matter who comes to get you, don’t go with them, okay!”

Her nose stung a little.

No one would come to get her. She would walk her own path.

That was enough.

When Zoe Young’s father walked out of the supermarket with the pack of 喜乐, Zoe Young was already gone from the entrance.

That day, Zoe Young finally mustered the courage to take the bus back to the little home she shared with her mother. She didn’t go upstairs, just wandered downstairs, following the route she and her mother used to take for after-dinner walks: the comic rental shop, the pavilion, and the grocery store.

Meixiang Grocery Store.

When Zoe Young turned the corner, she happened to see the demolition workers in the old city taking down the “Meixiang Grocery Store” sign, throwing it to the ground and raising a cloud of dust.

She looked up and unexpectedly saw Ray Cindy.

“It’s finally being torn down,” Ray Cindy said.

Zoe Young nodded.

“It’s been a long time since we went home together.”

Zoe Young smiled.

“You still don’t want to talk to me. It’s okay, I owed you too many words in middle school, now I can pay them back.”

Zoe Young shook her head. “Ray Cindy, you don’t owe me anything.”

“No,” Ray Cindy’s smile was calm, “I owe you a lot. But I can’t help it, I don’t know how to repay you, I’m still jealous of you even now. I think, I did that because I was jealous of Charlotte Lee. Because… because I liked Thomas Chase.”

Zoe Young suddenly burst out laughing.

“Ray Cindy, even now, you’re still so dishonest.”

But Ray Cindy didn’t laugh anymore.

“I thought you’d already figured it out.”

“It’s not because you liked Thomas Chase that you were jealous of Charlotte Lee. It’s because you were jealous of Charlotte Lee that you liked Thomas Chase. Actually, you’re not jealous of anyone, you don’t like anyone, you’re just too pitiful.”

Zoe Young spoke slowly, her voice not loud, but she knew Ray Cindy could hear every word.

When they graduated from middle school, Mia Waters told Zoe Young that Ray Cindy wasn’t unable to say thank you, nor unable to smile. She could even speak ambiguously, hinting and stirring things up—but only in private, to Mia Waters, not to her true benefactor Zoe Young.

“My dad says, great kindness unreturned will turn to resentment.” Mia Waters tugged Zoe Young’s ponytail and whispered, “You need to be careful of Michelle Cindy. She’s sick.”

The loud sounds of demolition seemed so distant, and for a long time, Ray Cindy said nothing.

“Actually, you don’t like Mia Waters either. You just hate me.”

Every word from Zoe Young was like a snapshot, each one revealing the most unbearable side of Ray Cindy.

Ray Cindy stared intently as the little grocery store was dismantled piece by piece, the words “Meixiang Grocery Store” smashed into three pieces.

She squatted on the ground, sobbing uncontrollably.

She was finally no longer Michelle Cindy.

After a short winter break, Andrew Lane and Zoe Young both buried themselves in intense review, and rarely saw each other. The next time they ate together in the cafeteria was when Andrew Lane once again “accidentally” ran into Zoe Young using his old trick.

Halfway through the meal, just as he was about to stammer something, Zoe Young had already pulled a small booklet out of her pocket.

Made of stiff cardboard, very simple, the cover and contents were all black-and-white silhouettes, the drawing style as basic as a child’s doodle.

“This is…”

“Today’s your birthday, right?”

Born of obsession, for all beings—Andrew Lane felt a bit embarrassed, as if his trick had been exposed, but then a sweet feeling spread—she actually remembered on purpose.

Andrew Lane took the homemade comic and opened it. On the first page, a group of kindergarten kids were running with calendar pages, the two leading children, a boy and a girl, only their backs visible, running toward the sunset.

The second page, no people, just a mess on the ground, with a lunchbox toppled to the side. The artist seemed afraid he wouldn’t understand, so she drew an arrow pointing to a stain on the ground, with six characters: “tomato and egg soup”.

It must have been drawn so badly, she was afraid her only reader wouldn’t get it.

Andrew Lane suddenly felt his heart stop. He carefully turned each page, and on the last page, there was no picture, just three words.

To beontinued. (To be continued) Zoe Young tilted her head and smiled at him. “Well?”

He opened his mouth, not knowing what to say, and finally smiled. “It’s really ugly.”

Under the table, Zoe Young stomped hard on his foot, but Andrew Lane didn’t even notice, enjoying it all.

There was something he wanted to ask, but he kept it in his heart.

There would be time later. They both had a long, bright future ahead.

The tradition at Zhenhua was to hold the graduation ceremony at the end of May, before the college entrance exam.

It was said that a principal from a certain year once said, after the exam, who knows what will happen, people’s feelings change, and the kids will become a bit world-weary whether they succeed or fail. The most beautiful and pure graduation ceremony, when everyone is still young, should be held before the dust settles.

Zoe Young was surprised. She didn’t know there had been such a romantic principal in Zhenhua’s history.

On the way to the graduation ceremony, she ran into a boy at the corner, still so short, his face full of wariness.

They both froze. In three years at school, they had never run into each other. At that moment, Zoe Young actually wanted to greet him kindly.

But Ryan Johnson clearly didn’t think so. He sneered, just about to speak, when Zoe Young suddenly said loudly, “Please, just shut up.”

He was stunned.

Zoe Young very solemnly put her hands behind her back, just like every time when she was little and wanted to say something serious.

“I’ve never been interested in fighting you for Dad.

“You don’t have to worry.

“I always thought it was your family that cast a shadow over me.”

She paused and smiled.

“Now I realize, actually, it’s you who’s been living in my shadow all along. It’s not my fault, it’s your own choice.”