Chen Mo once thought his life would be nothing but the endless clatter of keyboards in an office tower. Reports were tossed carelessly onto his desk, his coworkers casually passed their responsibilities to him, and he was like a waterlogged sponge, quietly absorbing every grievance. He even waited until the stars came out before daring to leave work.
Then, one Wednesday, Su Qing appeared in the break room. She crouched down to scrub at a stubborn coffee stain and said, “It’s enough if we get today’s mess cleaned up.” She brought him a potted succulent and said, “When you’re tired, look at it. It’ll soothe your eyes.” With a breeze that smelled of mint, she swept away three years of dust that had settled in his heart.
He went from not daring to say no to his director to standing up for his work with reason and conviction; from huddling in his rented room, gnawing on cold bread, to sitting in the park watching pigeons fly and heading to the old neighborhood for a latte; from thinking life was a cup of unsweetened Americano to tasting the sweetness of a popsicle melting against his fingertips. Chen Mo slowly realized that what changes a life isn’t some earth-shattering event. It’s having someone make you believe that an ordinary person like him deserves a windowsill warmed by the sun, and the courage to tell life, “I’m willing.”
This is a story about “being brought into the light.” When a crack opens in a gray life, light will find its way in, and so will the wind. And the person hidden beneath the shell of an “ordinary office worker” will slowly awaken, too.
