When he was seven years old, Bai Ye met Liao Shihao for the first time. That day, the nine children in Room 11 were woken up very early by the aunt in charge, washed their faces with cold water, and put on the gray uniforms of the orphanage. The November morning was bitingly cool, and Bai Ye shrank back and forth in his gray rat-hair uniform, silently moving to the end of the team. The aunt led them to a row of ginkgo trees in the small playground. The rays of the morning sun shone through the leaves, casting bright yellow shadows on the nine children.