The thing Jiang Xingzhi has always been best at is showing up late.
Late for school, late after school, late to buy her a bow hair clip, and late to find her.
In the second year of junior high, a new girl from the city became his deskmate. Her name was Shen Yuerou, and she hardly ever spoke. He thought she was mute, until she punched him and proved otherwise.
Later, they went fishing in the river, caught cicadas at night, and walked home together along the field ridges under the moonlight. She said one thing that he remembered for the rest of his life:
"I want to go to Yuzhou University someday."
After the high school entrance exam, her parents took her back to the city. He used the money he'd saved collecting recyclables to buy the bow hair clip she liked in town. By the time he returned, she was gone.
She had left him a note with her phone number. But he didn't have a phone.
Later, he got one, but the writing on the note had already faded beyond recognition.
During their three years of high school, they missed each other three times: they brushed past one another on a bus, left the supermarket back to back, and when she saw the words "Yuzhou No. 2 High School" on his uniform, he had already walked away.
Every summer, she went back to Nanxi Village to look for him, but never found him. She slipped letters through the crack beneath his door, and he never saw a single one.
On the day of the college entrance exam site visit, he sat at his desk and glanced around. Then he suddenly saw a name taped to the desk in front of him:
Shen Yuerou.
He pinched his cheek.
It wasn't a dream.
Theme: Sometimes, just making it all the way to someone's side takes every bit of luck you have.
