When Xu Zhixia arrived at her grandmother's house with a suitcase, she told everyone she was just there for a vacation.
She'd done badly on the college entrance exam and had no idea where she'd end up going to college. When her friend asked about her admission results, she made up a nice-sounding answer, thinking she just had to get through the summer.
But her grandmother's little restaurant needed someone to deliver meals, the old house was about to be vacated, and her uncle, mother, and aunt each had their own plans. She could shut her bedroom door, but she could still hear the arguments and the clatter of pots and spatulas downstairs.
From delivering a lunch to the wrong person to earning her first paycheck, she began to face things that had nothing to do with exam scores, and that she would have to take responsibility for herself.
This summer, Zhixia has more to move on from than just her luggage.
She still owes her friend the truth, her mother a phone call she doesn't hang up on, and herself a future she's actually thought through.
Her grandmother didn't rush her. She just left a meal warming in the pot.
