[Campus, academic ace, growing together, secret crush]
At twenty-nine, Jiang Yijia had a dream from long ago.
In it, she was back in a classroom at seventeen, on a sunny day in December.
Outside, the ginkgo trees had turned gold. Fallen leaves stood out against the blue sky as flocks of pigeons flew over buildings of varying heights.
She pressed her milk tea against the boy's face. “You're already so good at geography. Why are you still looking at a map?”
“Here, milk tea for you.”
The boy chuckled softly. Taking the drink, he traced the outline of the map. “The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau stretches from the Pamirs in the west to the Hengduan Mountains in the east, and is bordered to the north by the Kunlun and Altun Mountains...”
“Jiang, have you got the Altun Mountains down?”
Her face reddened, and she grew a little flustered and annoyed.
“Cheng Siyi!”
“I memorized it ages ago!”
The scene shifted. The boy stood beneath a lush Chinese banyan tree, the sun blazing overhead. He stood frozen in time, his gaze cool and distant.
Jiang Yijia turned and saw him part his lips. His cool voice softened as he asked, “Why didn't you come back?”
Then she woke.
The rain fell without end. The map lay silent.
Jiang Yijia looked toward the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. She wouldn't make that mistake again.
[A beautiful journey, a regretful ending]
