Up to now, the homebound person hailing a ride with their phone and the passerby just off work looking to give someone a lift have found themselves on a collision course. When they suddenly meet, after a brief moment of surprise, aside from “Your profile picture looked familiar, but I didn’t expect it to really be you,” there’s actually nothing left to say about any old, dust-covered love or hate.

…The phone chimed. William Carter glanced at it—Brian Cooper had even given him a positive review.

At this moment, the sky was still clear, the earth still solid, traffic still congested, the world had not yet ended, and the years ahead were still abundant.

But the old school buildings, books, and pens from those days had already grown worn.

Only old friends have become new.

Author’s note: I’ve written similar stories before—BL’s “A Tree of Life” and BG’s “Fifteen Years of Flowing Light”—both were pretty bad, so based on historical statistics, there’s a good chance this one will be bad too.

【Volume One: Youth】

Chapter 2: A Bad Beginning

Thirteen years ago, the young man running the flower shop hadn’t yet grown his neat, straight beard, and Brian Cooper was just a transfer student in his rebellious phase, hating the world.

As for William Carter, whether he admitted it or not, he was truly a little troublemaker—

“Move aside, move aside.” William Carter nudged their family dog away with his toe, snatched his backpack from the dog’s mouth, and stuffed the corner of a cigarette pack back into the bag.

The dog must have smelled something and started howling at him hysterically.

The dog’s name was “Doudou.” It was a mutt—at a glance, it seemed to have foxhound, sheepdog, and Chinese rural dog in its blood, a little mongrel in every sense.

As the saying goes, “People are divided into classes, and dogs have loyal, treacherous, wise, and foolish ones.” Doudou was the lowest of the low among dogs. This wretched creature was a master at bullying the weak and provoking trouble. William Carter was endlessly annoyed by it and wished he could secretly strangle it every day: “You’re everywhere, always meddling.”

Unfortunately, someone in the family always backed up this useless dog.

As soon as it barked, his grandma would call out from inside, “Xiao Lin, are you bullying Doudou again?”

“How would I dare?” William Carter slung on his backpack. “Grandma, I’m off to school.”

“Leaving so early?” A middle-aged woman came running out from the kitchen. The moment she saw William Carter’s outfit, she started fussing, “Why aren’t you wearing your down jacket again? What are you wearing underneath? Did you put on your thermal underwear? Unzip your coat and let me see.”

This was Mrs. Bennett, the housekeeper they’d hired, who was distantly related to William Carter’s mother’s side. Supposedly, by seniority, William Carter should call her “cousin aunt.” Helpless, he unzipped his jacket, then quickly zipped it back up and dashed out the door: “I’m wearing it! I have something at school, Auntie, bye!”

Mrs. Bennett had eyes sharper than a needle. She immediately spotted that he was only wearing a short-sleeved T-shirt under his thin jacket and started yelling after him, “Come back here! You’re not even wearing long johns, are you? Showing off again in this cold weather—just wait till I tell your mom!”

William Carter ran off at top speed, disappearing before she could finish.

Seriously, what handsome young guy at eighteen wears long johns?

School started at 2:20 in the afternoon, and students were required to arrive by 2:00. It wasn’t even 1:30 yet. William Carter went downstairs, looked around, hailed a taxi, and with a backpack full of Soft Zhonghua cigarettes, headed to “Crescent Moon” to deliver a gift.

“Crescent Moon” was a local entertainment venue. Though it was run fairly legitimately, there were still plenty of decadent and scandalous “urban legends” about it, and it was one of the places strictly off-limits according to the student code of conduct. William Carter endured the driver’s disapproving glances all the way, pretending not to notice.

William Carter had an older friend named Edward Harris. When Edward Harris was a child, his family had received help from William Carter’s mother, so every holiday he would bring gifts to the Xu family, rain or shine, considering himself half an older brother to William Carter. Normally, there was no need to be so formal with a big brother, but this time it wasn’t just Edward Harris helping out, and William Carter couldn’t let Mr. Harris owe someone else a favor on his behalf.

This time, it was because of his deskmate.

William Carter’s deskmate was named Henry Clark, a very talented student whose essays were often submitted by the Chinese teacher for publication. He had a good personality, too—whenever he got paid for an article, he’d buy drinks for classmates who had helped him out. But he wasn’t very lucky. His parents died young, leaving him in the care of his uncle’s family. The uncle was a drunk, gambler, and womanizer; his wife and child kicked Henry Clark out. With nowhere else to go, Henry Clark had to make do living with his uncle, working odd jobs during holidays or writing short pieces with the Chinese teacher to earn a little pocket money to scrape by.

But lately, even scraping by was impossible, because his bastard uncle owed loan sharks.

Unable to find the real debtor, the collectors sent a few thugs to hang around No. 6 Middle School every day, waiting for Henry Clark. A few boys from the class would take turns walking with him every day. But this couldn’t go on forever—Henry Clark didn’t even dare leave the house on weekends, and the McDonald’s that finally agreed to give him weekend shifts was now off-limits.

William Carter thought it over and decided that the only way to deal with thugs was with thugs, so he spent his own money and called in his seasoned gangster, Mr. Harris.

After running this errand, William Carter was already late when he got to school.