Yes, that cheap woman who seduced Dad has finally disappeared.

However, he knows that, in fact, she never really existed.

Ryan Johnson pulls himself out of the tangled memories. In the blink of an eye, so many years have passed, and he’s already preparing for graduate school.

“You… what are you here to buy?” He’s really not good at small talk; he hasn’t inherited any of his father’s poise or eloquence.

“Just home for the New Year, got bored and came out for a walk.” Zoe Young smiles lightly, stretches lazily, and sits on the windowsill by the shelf. “What about you, what are you here to buy?”

“Just looking around.” After saying that, he looks down and sees the graduate exam prep book in his arms, feeling a bit embarrassed.

“Hmm… how are you? Any plans after graduation?”

He’s about to lie, but suddenly shuts his mouth, awkwardly pointing at what he’s holding.

Zoe Young smiles understandingly, her eyes curved, looking just as delicate as she did when she was a child.

“It really is cold at home, I can barely stand it. How are your parents? Are they well?”

She tilts her head, speaking with complete naturalness.

Ryan Johnson is a little absent-minded.

Outside the window is the bleak northern street scene, bare and desolate, with only the sound of the biting wind.

They’re actually talking about the weather so smoothly and nonchalantly, exchanging bland updates about their lives.

Ryan Johnson laughs at himself: “They… are both fine.”

Mom is making a scene at home again.

Because she suspects Dad has a woman outside.

She gave all her passion to two men. One never comes home, the other is a disappointment.

On a summer night before the college entrance exam, he sat alone on the bench in his neighborhood, lost in thought. He smoked for the first time, stealing a pack of Soft Zhonghua from his dad’s cabinet, paired with a one-yuan plastic lighter from the supermarket, which took several tries to light.

He just sat there, blank-minded. A black Lexus silently glided up beside him, the window rolled down, and his dad leaned out and said, “There are a lot of mosquitoes out here, come sit inside.”

He hurriedly tossed away the cigarette butt, wanting to explain. His father’s face was hidden in the shadows; he moved his lips but ended up closing his mouth and opening the car door.

Ryan Johnson can’t even remember the last time he was alone with his father. It’s as if he and his mother had been packaged together and dealt with by his father, so he always heard his father say to his mother, “Just keep acting up, you’ve ruined a perfectly good kid.”

“Oh, if you miss that bastard so much, just bring him back!”

If you miss that bastard so much, just bring him back.

Ryan Johnson’s youth lived under the shadow of this harsh remark from his mother. He couldn’t tell what was real, always feeling that one day, a bright-eyed, more outstanding, prettier little witch would sneak into his home and quietly take his father away.

He lived like a weary shadow, only ever baring his fangs to bite at her pain.

Proactive defense.

He believed he wasn’t wrong. At least, he used to believe that.

Until that girl, at the graduation ceremony, smiled and put her hands behind her back, as if casting a spell on him, and gently said, “I never wanted to compete with you for Dad.”

She said, “Ryan Johnson, it turns out you’ve always been living in my shadow.”

On the passenger seat where Ryan Johnson sat, there was a row of drinks. He picked them up before getting in, and under the light, glanced at them.

“Xile (Joy).”

Facing his questioning look, his father just smiled: “If you like it, drink it. I don’t know if it’s any good. Hard to say, you’re such a big kid now.”

He was silent, gently rubbing the cheap plastic packaging.

“Ranan, Dad knows he’s let you and your mom down. The things between me and your mom, you kids don’t Ryan Johnson番外 understand. I’m busy with work, never had time to really talk with you, it’s always been your mom taking care of you, she…

She means well, but I have to admit, you’ve picked up a lot of bad habits. But fortunately, Dad knows you’re good at heart. You don’t have any of those spoiled rich kids’ bad habits that the others have.”

Ryan Johnson gives a bitter smile. Yes, he really doesn’t have any of those wild habits of the official kids.

If he did, would life be less bleak?

“But a lot of things, once formed, can’t be changed. It’s all my fault, I didn’t care enough about you.”

Ryan Johnson quickly turns his head to look at his father.

The man’s features are sharp, that deep and resolute aura—none of it seems like it should belong to Ryan Johnson’s father.

She’s more like that.

In the end, she’s more like that.

“Don’t be too nervous about the college entrance exam. Just do your best. It’s not that Dad has low expectations for you, I just don’t want you to keep comparing yourself to others.”

Others.

Ryan Johnson clenches his fists, tears welling up.

Dad, in your heart, who exactly is “others”?

“Ranan, Dad has always known you’re a good kid, and that’s enough.”

In the end, he couldn’t hold back and broke down in tears.

“Ryan Johnson?”

Pulled out of his memories again, he smiles awkwardly.

“My parents… they’re both fine. Both fine.”

This brief encounter seems to be coming to an end. Zoe Young jumps down from the windowsill, as if preparing a better farewell.

He seizes the chance to ask the question that’s been circling in his mind.

“That thing you mentioned earlier, the monkey from the Himalayas—what is that?”

Zoe Young is surprised, then laughs.

“I don’t know why, my brain just short-circuited earlier. I saw the name of a book and suddenly remembered this story. It doesn’t really have anything to do with you.”

“No, tell me about it.”

Zoe Young looks at him intently, then nods.

“It’s a simple story. In a small village by the sea, an immortal who could turn stones into gold arrived. The villagers treated him with great hospitality, hoping he would teach them the secret of turning stones into gold.

“After eating and drinking his fill, the immortal generously told them the method, but at the end, he solemnly added—You must remember, above all else, if you want to use the magic to turn stones into gold, when you recite the spell, you absolutely must not think of the monkey from the Himalayas.

“The villagers were puzzled: Why would we think of the monkey from the Himalayas? What does that have to do with us? So they happily saw the immortal off and couldn’t wait to try the spell.

“But ironically, the more they tried not to think about it, the more, without exception, they thought of the monkey from the Himalayas while casting the spell, as if it was stuck in their heads and couldn’t be chased away. So in the end, not a single person succeeded in turning stones into gold, and they remained as poor as before.

“The spell was passed down from generation to generation, and the funny thing is, everyone remembered to tell their apprentices: never think of the monkey from the Himalayas—so to this day, not a single descendant in the village has ever managed to turn stones into gold…”

She shrugs: “That’s it. I don’t know why I suddenly remembered it, just a little story…

Ryan Johnson, Ryan Johnson, what’s wrong?”

Zoe Young looks in surprise at the big boy in front of her, who, without warning, turns his head, eyes red, and strides away from her, disappearing into the crowd in the store.

Zoe Young will never know that she is the “monkey from the Himalayas” that has always lived in Ryan Johnson’s heart.

After more than twenty years, Ryan Johnson finally understands that from the very beginning, it was impossible for him to turn his life into gold. They told him, in this world there is a monkey from the Himalayas, and that monkey will steal your happiness, and you can’t resist it—but you mustn’t be afraid of a monkey, what kind of attitude is that, your life is brilliant and golden, as long as you scornfully forget the monkey from the Himalayas, as long as you forget her, as long as you forget her, it’ll be fine.

They gave him a Zoe Young, all the arguments and unhappiness were called Zoe Young, and then they told him, you have to forget Zoe Young, you have to pretend she doesn’t exist.

That lively, bright, dazzling monkey shone brilliantly in his world, never leaving, leaving a trail of messy footprints in the snow on the mountaintop.

But he never knew before, he was the thousands of piles of snow.

Passersby all looked in surprise at the big boy rushing through the crowd, crying his heart out.

“It’s okay.” he choked out to himself.

He will forget her, eventually.

One day.