Excited voices rose one after another in the internet café.
Pu Yu composed herself before going home. Her grandmother was still waiting for her.
She had barely reached the entrance to the lane when Li Suhua spotted her and hurriedly asked, "How much?"
"658." Pu Yu forced a smile.
"Oh!" Li Suhua slapped her thigh in excitement. "Good! Good! That's a wonderful score! Such a lucky number!"
Only when Pu Yu came closer did the old woman notice her granddaughter's reddened eyes.
"What's wrong? You did so well. Why are you crying?"
Pu Yu lifted her head, her eyes red. "Grandma... I checked Yuan Su's score. He could have come first... He's so smart. He never needed scrap paper for the science exam. One look at a question, and he knew how to solve it..."
She couldn't go on.
Something seemed to lodge in her throat, aching and raw.
Li Suhua fell silent.
The old woman came over and gently drew her granddaughter into her arms, patting her back again and again.
"Little Rain."
Only after a long while did Li Suhua speak. "Everyone has their own fate. That boy has mountains to climb and rivers to cross. Those are the trials he has to face."
"But it's not fair." Pu Yu buried her face in her grandmother's arms, her voice muffled. "It's not fair to him."
"There's precious little fairness in this world." Li Suhua sighed. "I've lived most of my life, and I've seen far too much unfairness. Some people are born with everything, while others give everything they have just to scrape by. But Little Rain, we can't stop living just because life isn't fair."
"You have to look ahead."
"For him, and for yourself, live out the future he gave up."
Pu Yu cried in her