The Ageless Parasol Tree

Looking back on her middle school years, Yezhi always thought of herself as ordinary. She had never been top of her grade, had no outstanding looks, and had never been thin throughout her entire adolescence. She had never dated anyone in her school uniform or seen a fight while wearing canvas shoes. The abortions, miscarriages, and tangled love triangles in angsty teen dramas had nothing to do with her or her friends.

Her youth was uneventful and peaceful. She always thought the memories she held on to wouldn’t have anything to do with failing an exam, or be tied to just one boy. Then, one day many years later, as the plane trees at Jiangcheng No. 3 Middle School began shedding their leaves again, Yezhi suddenly remembered a silhouette. That was it: in her ordinary youth, she had once liked someone who wasn’t quite so ordinary. Many years later, though, that person had become ordinary too. Back then, she had classmates she sat with and talked to about what the homeroom teacher had done that day or who had fallen out with whom. Later, they all went their separate ways and stopped keeping in touch.

It’s a quiet, fleeting story that lingers for a long time.

Theme: Growth