Back then, the sky was vast, all things flourished, and even the sunlight felt leisurely and simple.
That was our millennium.
Zhang Jiaci was a tiny little thing back then, and most of what she knew about the world came from the cartoons that aired promptly at six every evening on the children's channel.
The little girl had lots of small wishes
She wished she had snacks in her pocket like everyone else.
She wished she had a room of her own.
She wished Bambi could return to his mother's side.
Standing in the summer of 2025 and looking back toward the millennium, she realized just how far she had come.
Twenty-eight-year-old Zhang Jiaci was doing well. She had found a way to make things right with the little girl who had two homes but couldn't return to either, shivering in a street corner.
But it seemed fate always paired a circle with a gap.
The dreams she had once thought impossibly distant in childhood had all come true, while the person who had once been right beside her, quietly watching her dream, was gone.
From her first old flip phone fifteen years ago to the present, Zhang Jiaci had changed phones seven times. Each time, she transferred every contact in her address book one by one.
There was one number she hadn't called in a very long time.
It was as if there were an indistinct thread between them, one she could believe would never snap as long as she didn't tug at it.
Theme: Fate gives gifts to the brave
