Chapter Twenty-Six: Floating on air
It climbed up from beyond the mountains, then sank again into the glow of dusk. Leaves grew thick on the trees, then spiraled down and withered. Those summers on the school playing field, the shadows beneath the horizontal bar, the patchy paint kicked off the walls by balls, and the girl you had once thought you could stay with forever, even in the vast, uncertain future-at graduation, you still smiled sadly and said goodbye. See you in five years, in ten years, or perhaps never again.
The days and years we had thought we would never forget faded quietly away amid classrooms where ceiling fans turned every day, cicada-filled shade, and familiar bus routes we rode with schoolbags on our backs, routes that remained unchanged even many years later.
But for Su Can, all those things once forgotten were slowly being recovered as he walked through this real life.
When he arrived at his family's shop, Wang Yue was no longer working there. She now accompanied his mother, Zeng Ke, on buying trips, learning the supply channels and the whole process. She traveled between the two shops to clean and count stock, then arranged where the goods would go on the shelves.
She was reading more books now, covering an increasingly broad range of subjects. Her horizons, her outlook, and everything else were worlds apart from before. Of course, she still held to her belief that even without following the path of exam-oriented schooling, she could make something of herself and build a good future in a big city.
Whenever Su Can's mother, Zeng Ke, earnestly advised her, "You should still go and study something. Even a vocational school would let you master a skill. At least you'd have something to fall back on."
Wang