New Road (Big Chapter Seeking Monthly Ticket)

Scattered snowflakes blew onto the broad balcony.

The white-haired old man looked up at the sky.

"It's snowing again."

The blonde girl with twin ponytails beside him also held out her hand, catching the drifting snowflakes.

"The last time we met was nearly eight years ago, wasn't it?"

The old man watched the snow melt in the girl's palm, then looked up at her and said softly, "In the blink of an eye, you've grown so much."

He slowly raised a hand, as though recalling something. "I remember when I last saw you,"

He held his hand at about waist height. "You were only this tall."

"Even though we haven't had time to meet all these years, we've always kept in touch online, Uncle Endier."

Vili withdrew her hand and looked at the old man with amused eyes. "It's not as though we've never video-called. You watched me grow taller bit by bit."

"Hahaha."

Endier laughed, turning to glance at Vili. "When you get old, you always like reminiscing about things from when you were young."

He reached out and picked up the book on the table.

"Come to think of it, when I was young, I hated hearing people say things like, 'The last time I saw you, you were only this tall,' or, 'I held you when you were little.' I never thought I'd become the sort of person who sighed over how others had changed."

"Rather than sighing over other people's changes, you're sighing over the passage of your own time."

Vili clasped her hands together, using the warmth of her palms to melt the snow that had just fallen into them. She looked at Endier's aged face. "Uncle Endier, you've grown much older too."

"Yes."

Endier turned around and looked at the empty, lonely office. "Time