Back to the Millennium

On the last night A Yan Noodle Shop was open, Shu Yan was so busy she didn't close up until four in the morning.

She pulled down the rolling shutter and stepped into the pitch-black night, her nose tingling.

To her surprise, after crossing a clear line in the snow, the buildings on either side of the street changed. Shu Yan had somehow returned to twenty years earlier.

Amid the heavy snowfall, a frail little girl, stumbling about in every direction, threw herself into Shu Yan's arms.

The girl apologized again and again. Shu Yan stared at her in shock. "Shu Yan?"

Twenty-seven-year-old Shu Yan held her seven-year-old self tight.

.

In the winter of 2000, Shu Yan was seven.

Her mother told her, "The authorities have been cracking down lately. Go to the special education school for a while, or your dad and I will both lose our jobs."

Shu Yan's parents wanted both a son and secure jobs. They pulled some strings to get her a disability certificate, making her legally classified as intellectually disabled.

Shu Yan ran out of the house in tears. She shivered in the snowy night, refusing to go back.

As an adult, Shu Yan dreamed countless times that someone had held her in their arms that snowy night.

In this lifetime, her dream came true.

The only difference from the dream was that she was the one offering the embrace.

Reading note: Updated daily, before midnight

Theme: Heal yourself and make peace with life