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<div class="container-outer">
<p class="title_name">How Is Your Day?</p>
<p class="author">Tim Jia</p>
<p class="start">[[start]]</p>
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This autumn morning is clear and crisp. 7 AM on a busy street in Beijing, an old man is riding a tricycle on the side of the stream of roaring cars. At the back seat of the tricycle seats a little boy. He carefully holds a colorful box with both of his hands.
The little boy yells on top of the noise of the cool wind and traffic, "Grandpa, what if Duoduo doesn't like my gift?"
The grandfather yells back, "Don't worry my boy. I'm sure she will like it!"
"That's great!"
The boy's voice joyfully penetrates the dense air around people on the street. They all turn to look at the boy, and his blushed cheek puts smiles on their faces.
Where does the blush come from? Is he shy or is it the autumn wind?
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<div class="next">[[next|autumn wind]]</div>
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In front of a kindergarten, a small pile of fall leaves drifts along by the curbside and eventually stops by the tricycle.
The boy jumps off from the back seat, and the grandfather is standing by to hold him. The boy has both hands sticking to the colorful box, so the grandfather can only hold him on the arm.
"Goodbye grandpa!"
The grandfather tidies up the boy's collar and pats on his back. "Goodbye boy. See you after school!" The grandfather smiles, "... and don't be shy when you see Duoduo!"
"Of course!" The boys turns around and heads toward the entrance.
The grandfather stands still, staring at the little boy until he enters the building. He reaches into his pocket, and takes out an unsealed envelope. After taking a quick look inside, he puts it back into his pocket, strides onto the tricycle, and rides away.
Inside the envelope is a faded black and white photo of a young man standing in front of a train station.
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<div class="next">[[next|expectation derail]]</div>
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<div class="boy">
The boy enters the classroom and looks around. Other boys and girls are chattering and playing with each other, but Duoduo is not among them.
He sits down at his seat, and carefully puts the colorful box under his table. He does not join the his classmates like he usually would do. Instead, he sits at his seat and fixates his eyes at the classroom door, making sure no one coming into the door escapes his notice.
People comes in and out, but none of them is Duoduo.
Soon, the bell rings. As the teacher comes into the classroom, everyone returns to their seat. The boy's gaze turns from Duoduo's empty seat to the teacher, expecting her to address his question, but she does not.
The first class of the day begins.
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<div class="grandfather">Various kinds of meat are laid on the board in front of the grandfather, at the same stall that he always buy meat from, but the butcher standing behind is different.
Seeing the grandfather, the butcher asks, "Would you like some meat? They are fresh!"
"Uh...Is Jianguo Chen here today? He used to be here all the time." The grandfather asks.
"Oh, he just transferred this stall to me. He will not come here anymore."
"Oh okay. Thank you." The grandfather walks away, and then he quickly walks back. "Actually, do you know where he went?"
"Sorry, I don't know."
"Alright. Thank you again." The grandfather walks away again.
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<div class="next">[[next|rise to challenge]]</div>
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<div class="boy">
Second class, third class... Duoduo is still not here.
By the end of the third class, the boy finally walks to the teacher. "Hi Miss Zhang, do you know where is Duoduo?" He looks concerned.
"Hi Lele. Her dad called in this morning. Duoduo is sick today, so she is probably resting at home now."
"Oh okay... thank you." The boy walks away disappointedly. Sitting at his seat and looking at the box under his table, the boy pouts.
As the teacher curiously looks at the boy, he stands up again and walks to the teacher, "Miss Zhang, can I borrow your phone to give Duoduo a call?"
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<div class="grandfather">"He must be in trouble...", Grandfather thinks to himself, "...otherwise, he would not give up his stall so suddenly."
As this thought occurs to him, he quickly gets on his tricycle. He does not know exactly where the butcher lives, but he remembers the butcher mentioned the neighborhood he lives in.
That neighborhood is in a less central district, and it takes the grandfather more than an hour of riding to get here. He asks around the local shops, and finally learns the butcher's address.
As the grandfather walks to this address, his heart is immediately tightened when he sees the door is open and a few workers are moving furnitures out of the apartment.
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<div class="next">[[next|defeat]]</div>
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<div class="boy">
"What do you want to say to her? She is sick today so maybe we should not disturb her."
"Today is her birthday. I made her a gift..." the boy looks at the box in his hands, "...I just want to wish her happy birthday."
Seeing the boy's sincere face and the colorful box in his hand, the teacher hesitates, "In that case... okay. We can give it a try... But you can only talk to her if she is not sleeping."
"Okay!" The boy's penetrating voice sounds even louder indoors.
The teacher takes out her phone and dials a number.
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<div class="grandfather"> Knock, knock, kncok... Grandfather knocks the open door.
The workers continue moving things out, as if they didn't hear anything. A few seconds later, a middle aged man walks out from inside the apartment.
"Is this Jianguo Chen's place?" The grandfather asks.
"Yes, this was." This man curiously scans the grandfather's body. "What's your relationship to Jianguo?"
"I'm...his customer. What happened to him?"
This man still looks curious, "He went back to his hometown yesterday. I'm his landlord, just cleaning this place."
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<div class="next">[[boy|defeat-2-boy]] | [[grandfather|defeat-2-grandfather]]</div>
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"Hello. I'm Lele. Can I speak to Duoduo?" The boy immediately speaks after the phone is picked up.
"Hi Lele. Duoduo is a little sick today. Let me see if she is up."
A few seconds later, the phone is picked up again, "Duoduo! Are you okay? I heard you are sick."
"Hi Lele. I'm alright. I just took some medicine and I'm feeling a little dizzy now." Duoduo's voice is soft.
"Happy birthday Duoduo! I made you a gift last night. Do you know what is it? It is a box of crayons! I made the box and I drew a picture of us on it! You can see it when you open it..." As the boy speaks, he opens up the box. On the top of the box, from the inside, there is indeed a picture of a boy and a girl. They are wearing colorful clothes, hand in hand, laughing on a green land. "...I really wish you can see it today!" The boy continues.
"Lele..." Duoduo's soft voice interrupts, "my dad just asked me to rest in bed. Can we talk later?"
The boy's excitement is immediately hanged in the air.
"Thank you Lele. Bye bye." The phone is hanged up before the boy says goodbye.
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<div class="next">[[grandfather|defeat-2-grandfather]] | [[next|trancendence-1]]</div>
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<div class="boy">
The boy lowers his head, silently staring at the box of crayons.
"Lele. Are you unhappy?" The teacher asks.
The boy nods.
"I understand. Your gift is beautiful, and I'm sure Duoduo will be very happy when she sees it. Will you be patient and just wait for a few days?"
"But a few days is a long time!"
"I know, but that's what makes that moment more precious. Right?"
"Is it?"
"Of course! If Duoduo receives your gift at the first moment she's back, when she sees the picture you drew, how happy she would be?"
"Yes! That's great!"
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<div class="grandfather"> The grandfather lowers his head, silently staring at the photo.
At his age, he has seen many departures in his life and this one is probably less significant, but one thing he learns over the years is that people's departure is never trivial -- it always touches you, more or less, especially when you could have been more connected...
The grandfather stops thinking, because he still needs to buy grocery and then picks up his grandson.
At the same stall, he buys his regular from the new butcher. As the butcher cuts the meat for him, grandfather asks,
"Where are you from?"
This time, He wastes no time to know his new friend.
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<div class="next">[[next|transcendence]]</div>
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Hearing the butcher went home, the grandfather releases the breath he's been holding. "Okay... Do you know why he suddenly decided to go home?"
"I don't think it's a sudden decision. Didn't he tell you about this?"
The grandfather shakes his head. The landlord continues, "Why are you looking for him? Do you need anything from him?"
"No..no..I always buy meat from him so we are kind of familiar. He told me he is from Panshi, and I happen to live there when I was young, so I figured he would be interested in seeing this photo." The grandfather reaches to the envelope and brings out the faded photo. "...This is me 30 years ago. He probably remembers this old train station."
"You went through all the trouble to find his place just to show him this photo?" The landlord looks at the grandfather with surprise.
"Yes...I...I thought we were close. He is one of the few people that I regularly talk to outside of my family." The grandfather's voice becomes lower.
The landlord is silent, and then sighes.
"I wish Jianguo would know this..." The landlord continues, "You are probably the first visitor he had in 5 years. He did save some money here, but he has no one to talk to. After such a long time of loneliness, he finally decided to go back home."
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<div class="next">[[boy|defeat-2-boy]] | [[next|trancendence-1]]</div>
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The sun is tilting toward the west. The sunset sheds on the leaves on the trees and on the ground, painting the entire world into golden.
The boy rushes out of the gate of the kindergarten, with the crayon box in his hand. The grandfather is standing outside, looking at the boy running to him.
"Lele, why do you still have the box?"
"Duoduo didn't come today because she's sick. I will give it to her when she's back."
"Then you will have to wait."
"It's okay. The wait will make the gift more precious!"
The word "wait" clicks in the grandfather's mind because he was just thinking about this word, but the boy's penetrating voice suddenly kicks this thought out of his mind.
"How is your day grandpa?"
"I had a wonderful day." At this moment, the grandfather is honest. "What about you?"
"I had a great day as well!" From the grandfather's view point, the sun is blocked by the boy's smiling face, as if all the golden color in the world comes from the boy.
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<div class="end">END.</div>
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