Three days before the high school entrance exams, the school gave the students a break.
Zheng Su Nian had no trouble with his academic subjects. He had already signed up for art entrance exam training and was spending most of his time practicing his basics in a studio outside the Fifth Ring Road. On the first day of the break, he called Shao Xue during lunch.
“We’re going on a field trip for some sketching tomorrow. I probably won’t be back in time for your exams.”
“It’s fine. What good would it do if you came back just to see me for a bit?” she replied lightly.
“Hey, you,” he chuckled on the other end of the phone, “you make my presence sound so insignificant.”
Shao Xue laughed too.
“Just treat it like a mock exam. That way, you’ll feel more relaxed.”
“Alright, good luck with your ‘mock exam’ then.”
After hanging up the phone, his roommate urged him to pack his things. Zheng Su Nian stuffed a few changes of clothes into his bag, then suddenly asked, “Isn’t the place we’re going for sketching near Tanzhe Temple?”
“Yeah, but they didn’t say we’d be going there.”
He nodded, packed his art supplies, and zipped up his bag.
There was actually a studio near his home, but he had signed up for this one purely for the peace and quiet. The studio was located in a remote area and housed quite a few students who had come from other cities to take the art entrance exams, some of whom were already in their twenties.
When asked, they admitted they had been trying to get into the Academy of Fine Arts for years but still hadn’t succeeded.
Zheng Su Nian had learned some basic drawing skills as a child, but he hadn’t formally studied art in years. Perhaps because he had grown up around people working in this field, many things came naturally to him. After getting through the basics, his drawings seemed to have a certain liveliness to them. His teacher, who had been training students for years, looked at his work and then glanced at him.
“Planning to apply to the Academy of Fine Arts?”
Feeling a bit self-conscious, he answered quietly. The teacher patted his shoulder, saying in a serious tone, “If you push hard for the next six months, you’ve got a shot.”
Seeing his wry smile, the teacher shook his head. "Don’t laugh. Some people work themselves to the bone and still don’t make it in."
As summer arrived, with trees and grass flourishing, the teacher scouted a few locations and arranged for them to go sketching in the mountains for two days. They stayed at a rural guesthouse on the mountain. In the middle of the night, a girl turned on the light and saw a gecko on the ceiling, screaming loud enough to wake up half the building.
After that commotion, no one could sleep, so they all gathered in a larger room and played cards through the night. One of the twenty-something students asked Zheng Su Nian, "How old are you?"
"Seventeen."
"So young," he smiled, looking a bit forlorn, "I’m envious."
"Du Ge," another boy with him asked, "do you really have to get into the Academy of Fine Arts? Why not apply to another school?"
"I’ll try for one more year," he replied with a sigh, "if I still don’t make it, I’ll go back and help my dad run the restaurant."
"Come on, even if it doesn’t work out professionally, you can keep it as a hobby."
"It’s not like that," Du Ge sighed deeply, "when you truly love something, keeping it as a hobby only leads to the pain of never having it. It’s like loving a woman but not being able to marry her. If you keep thinking about her all the time, something bad is bound to happen."
The boys all laughed knowingly.
Life is full of struggles and unattainable desires.
As the night went on, a few people dozed off. Zheng Su Nian packed his things and, glancing at the sky outside, quietly slipped out the door.
Step by step, he climbed higher, the faint sound of a distant bell echoing through the air.
This place was old, with ancient rocks and pine trees full of history. The mountain path was rugged, and though the morning wind was cool, by the time Zheng Su Nian reached the top, he had worked up a light sweat.
The sky wasn’t fully lit yet, but the morning glow outlined the silhouette of the mountains. His footsteps startled the early birds, sending them flying into the sky with a flutter. He climbed to the top of the Tan Zhe Mountain slope and looked down to see a vast, uninterrupted expanse of beautiful landscape.
At the highest point of the mountain stood an ancient pine tree.
It was truly old. The bark was blackened, and the branches twisted. The ancient pine, nourished by time, soared into the sky, its needles so thick that sunlight barely penetrated. Hanging from the tree were countless wooden plaques, each carrying the wishes of thousands.
Zheng Su Nian felt a little foolish.
He took the wish plaque he had prepared earlier and hung it on a hidden branch of the ancient pine, tying a tight knot.
There was a legend that an immortal resided on Tan Zhe Mountain, taking the form of the ancient pine, carrying the hopes and dreams of the people. On his plaque, he had written just seven words—
"Protect her, help her pass her exams."
Thirty kilometers away, Shao Xue stepped off the earliest subway.
It was only her second time at this place, so she wasn’t very familiar with it. After asking a few elderly men out for their morning exercises, she finally found her way to the right street.
The attendant, seeing she was just a young girl, didn’t give her a hard time and let her in even without the proper documentation. Aunt Jin’s urn was kept in the memorial hall on the basement level. The urn was engraved with her birth and death dates, and even in the black-and-white photo, it was clear how beautiful she had been.
It was still early, and the large room was empty except for Shao Xue, yet she surprisingly wasn’t scared. The security guard stood by the door smoking, and the faint sound of their conversation echoed in the empty space, as if there was a faint reverberation.
"Aunt Jin, I’ve got my exam in two days," she said softly, placing the flowers she had bought that morning beside the urn. "I miss you so much.
"I did really well on the practice math exam. Even if I don’t get into Su Nian-ge’s school, I should be able to get into a good one.
"I’ve been looking through the books you gave me. I’ll read them over the break. My English scores have been stable. If it weren’t for the essay, I’d almost have a perfect score.
"A guy who likes Qiao Mu-jie sent her a bouquet of roses, but she left them with my mom and kept the cactus Si Yuan-ge gave her on her desk. My mom said it means she probably likes Si Yuan-ge, but my dad doesn’t believe it.
"Si Yuan-ge planted an apricot tree in their courtyard. He said by the time I get into college, it should bear fruit. That’s still a long way away, though. I don’t know when I’ll actually get to university. But my dad says the Olympics will be here before we know it, so college should come quickly too.
"Oh, and Aunt Jin, Su Nian-ge said he’s going to study art and apply to the Academy of Fine Arts. He’s finished the painting you didn’t complete.
"It was really hard, but I believe he can do it. You have to watch over him, too.
"Help him with his art exam."
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