From the Beginning of Summer to the End of Summer

At twenty-six, Chen Xubai's tech company was running smoothly. On the day he returned to his alma mater at its invitation, he unexpectedly pushed open a rusted iron door on an abandoned rooftop. Beyond it lay not the familiar city skyline, but a silent corridor in another space-time, filled with blue irises.

He became a teacher at the high school. By day, he taught the rigorous logic of coding; after dusk, he ventured alone through the door to explore the unfinished traces of youth that existed only in a parallel world. One evening, in a classroom desk in that world, he found a paper rose whose creases had been smoothed away by time.

He knew that once some doors were opened, they could never be closed again. Just as some encounters, though they cross a torrent of stars and data, happen only to repay the unspoken tide between one flower and another.