The story of someone who used to patrol the mountains as a scout.
"As people grow older, they forget many things."
"The girl I secretly loved back then but never confessed to, the thrill of playing games together in the computer lab, the innocence and awkwardness of those days, all gradually blurred with the passage of time."
"The scene that remains clearest in my mind, instead, is of that unremarkable cleaner, security guard, and gatekeeper. He always joked that he was the last forest ranger of Shituo Mountain."
"I still remember sitting by the school gate that day, watching the campus bathed in the golden glow of the setting sun. The gatekeeper held a broom and slowly swept the ground, humming some mountain song he must have picked up somewhere. I can still hum it now. Whenever I hear that tune, it calms me from deep within. Many times since then, when I was sad or in pain, it would faintly echo in my ears."
"Yi-er-yo, na yi-er yi-er yo..." It began with a tune that made no sense, accompanied by the mournful wind and the swishing of the broom, long and lingering.
