Sunshine Every Day

During the last few days of his freshman-year winter break, Li Yang and his roommates agree to go hiking in the wilderness.

The mountain is wild, the kind of place hardly anyone ever visits. The group climbs up full of enthusiasm, then trudges back down with their heads hanging. Before they even make it halfway, they get hopelessly lost.

Just as the group of young men are wailing that they'll soon become lonely ghosts, a thinly dressed, shivering little boy emerges from the forest. He says he's grown up in these mountains and can lead them safely down, but not for free.

When your life is on the line, what does money matter? Pay up!

Once they make it down safely, Li Yang hands the boy his wallet, including the three thousand yuan inside. The boy takes out the agreed-upon five hundred and gives back the remaining two thousand five hundred.

On the bus ride home, Li Yang notices an official QR code on the seatback for "one-on-one student sponsorship." On an inexplicable whim, he clicks it. Among the photos of seventy-three students in need of sponsorship, he spots a familiar face...

(I've been planting lots of little seeds lately. These are short stories under ten thousand words, quick and fun to read. Come check them out!)

Theme: Hope is everywhere.