“When girls grow up, they no longer have a home.” At first, she hadn’t understood what those words meant. Looking back now, she was already far from home. Leaning against the train window, Xu Yi’an watched the scenes outside flash past, her gaze empty. At that moment, she was like duckweed drifting through an endless void, with nowhere to belong and no hope that anyone would come for her. By the time the train arrived, night had completely swallowed the city, its lights just coming on. Standing on the platform, Xu Yi’an watched people hurry toward their next destinations, then joined them. She knew she had to go back to school. But as she sat in the car and watched one lively scene after another flash by outside the window, the loneliness inside her grew powerful enough to consume her. Xu Yi’an closed her eyes and made up her mind: she would light a lamp of her own among the countless lights shining in people’s homes.
