Chapter 63 Helpless: "Love isn't everything."...

"Lele, where are you going so late?" Grandma slowly walked out, supporting herself against the wall. Seeing Li Leshan putting on his shoes, she glanced at the clock on the wall, which already pointed to 10:30 p.m. "Don't you have an exam tomorrow? Go to bed early, my dear grandson..."

Li Leshan helped his grandmother to the bedside and told her that he had gone out on business and would be back soon.

After settling his grandmother in, he gently closed the door. At 10:30, only the dim streetlamp at the alley entrance cast a hazy, yellowish glow in the summer night breeze. Li Leshan stood downstairs at Jiang Yueming's house, looking up. The familiar window was completely dark, like a silent eye. A cool night breeze brushed his neck; he didn't linger, turning and disappearing into the deeper darkness.

Walking on the familiar road, at the end of Haihe Road, the sign for the Iron Pagoda Park was already dark, the gate was tightly closed, and only the security room around it had a sliver of light.

Tomorrow is the high school entrance exam. Li Leshan lay in bed and inexplicably remembered a few years ago, which was five years ago. At that time, Jiang Yueming, who was still a child, mysteriously told him, "If you walk around the Iron Tower three times, all your wishes will come true."

An old legend he'd heard somewhere in his childhood had stayed with Li Leshan for so long. Actually, Li Leshan didn't believe in these things, but for some reason, he ended up in front of the Iron Pagoda Park.

Standing at the entrance, the iron gate stood tall. There were no menacing spikes at the top, as if it were a silent invitation; however, the main gate was tightly shut, and the right path was blocked.

There's another trick: flip it over.

The surroundings were eerily quiet, without even the barking of stray cats or dogs. There might have been cicadas chirping, but their calls were barely audible.

He took a half step back, ran up, pushed off the ground, and firmly gripped the top edge of the cold iron door with both hands. He then pushed upwards with his core muscles, the movement so clean and precise it seemed as if he had practiced it a thousand times.

"Hey! Where did this kid come from! What are you doing!" The gatekeeper, who was listening to a crosstalk performance with great interest, turned around and saw that there was another person on the gate, about to climb over the wall.

He suddenly picked up a broom and came out to check, his eyes meeting Li Leshan's.

Without a second thought, Li Leshan ignored the gatekeeper's shouts, climbed over the gate, and jumped down the two-meter-high wall. His movements were as swift and decisive as if he were filming a martial arts movie, and he ran towards the silent and massive silhouette of the iron tower in the darkness.

The wind whistled in his ears. He even considered the worst-case scenario: himself and the gatekeeper each running three laps around the iron tower, one running in front and the other chasing behind.

However, when he finally reached the base of the tower, panting heavily, he suddenly stopped.

A jagged, deep ravine, like a crack in the earth, lies between the base of the tower and the ground.

The area, spanning several meters in width, was piled with excavated soil and rubble on one side, while a sign next to it clearly read "Under Construction" and "Danger, Do Not Approach".

Li Leshan stopped a few steps away from the Eiffel Tower. So many years had passed, yet the tower remained exactly as he remembered it from his childhood—still so tall and mysterious. Even though Li Leshan had grown considerably taller since then.

But he could only look up and gaze upwards to see the spire.

Both the person and the tower stood silently, a sense of stillness permeating the air.

Suddenly, without warning, Li Leshan's lips twitched slightly, a faint, almost self-deprecating smile appearing on his face. Recalling his actions of scaling the wall and escaping, he suddenly found it particularly amusing. Hadn't he never believed in these things?

He felt a little self-deprecating; of all the wishes he had made, had any of them ever come true?

He even occasionally felt that some wishes became unfulfilled precisely because he had made them.

"Young man..." The gatekeeper finally caught up in his creaking sightseeing vehicle, still panting heavily. "Why are you running? I wanted to tell you that there's construction inside the park and you can't get in."

Using the car headlights as a guide, the old man looked the silent young man up and down. Having lived most of his life, this was the first time he had ever seen someone "attack" the iron tower in the dead of night.

"Did you drop your money or your gold?" the gatekeeper muttered. "I've lived most of my life and I've never seen a young man like you. Tell us and we'll have the staff look for it for you tomorrow!"

The old man continued rambling on, completely oblivious to the fact that the boy next to him hadn't said a word for so long. "The park is going to be renovated, but the tower won't be. If you want to see the Eiffel Tower in the middle of the night, there will be plenty of opportunities in the future. It's not like it's a once-in-a-lifetime event. Besides, there aren't even any lights on at this hour. What's the point?"

Li Leshan listened quietly and nodded. He gave the gatekeeper an apologetic smile, then, without glancing again at the iron tower separated by the ravine, turned and strode away along the path he had come from.

This time, there was no lingering, no turning back.

The Eiffel Tower still watches him silently, standing quietly in the very center of the park. Decades have passed without it changing; it's there whenever you need it, never going anywhere, but it doesn't belong to anyone.

It won't leave; it will always remain. But some people may never again feel the urge to wander around and gaze at this tower on a summer night.

/

The three-day high school entrance examination has come to a spectacular end, marking the end of their junior high school careers.

Jiang Yueming successfully, or rather, somewhat haphazardly, transitioned out of junior high school. As for exams and their results, let's put those aside for now. The college application was already submitted; the rest was up to fate. What's the difference between worrying about something that hasn't happened and taking out a loan to eat shit? Jiang Yueming wasn't that kind of person.

Li Leshan hadn't visited their home for quite some time; the last time he came was... Lin Cuiqin continued her enthusiastic research into recipes and cookbooks. She had also gone to Zhenhua Restaurant to learn a few more dishes, which she planned to cook for them this time.

"Lele, stop picking and choosing, okay? Even if you go empty-handed, who dares to say a word?" Jiang Yueming sat on the stone bench under the locust tree, watching the old men play chess, and called out to the entrance of the convenience store.

He glanced into the convenience store, deftly grabbed the palm-leaf fan from the old man next to him, and ran over to Li Leshan to fan him, being very attentive. As he fanned, he said, "Isn't it nice? Han Jiang always kicks down the door when he comes to my house."

"No good." Li Leshan shook his head, ignoring his comment.

Jiang Yueming took a breath behind him, sighing as she continued to fan him, until Zhou Xiaoyu broke the silence by coming out from behind the curtain at the back door.

“Jiang Yueming, you’re like Brother Leshan’s little follower.” Zhou Xiaoyu said. This year, Zhou Xiaoyu is in fifth grade and has grown quite a bit taller than before. She is wearing a floral dress, has her hair in pigtails, and speaks with a bit of a grown-up tone. “Even Brother Leshan doesn’t want to talk to you.”

"Hey, hey, what are you saying?" Jiang Yueming said reluctantly. Didn't he know whether Li Leshan wanted to talk to him or not? "He just likes this kind of thing."

Li Leshan laughed along with him, without correcting Jiang Yueming's ambiguous remark. In the end, he took a few bags of things and went to Jiang's house.

"Leshan is here?!" Lin Cuiqin, wearing an apron, hurriedly came to greet them. Before she could even wipe the water droplets off her hands, she said, "Oh, you're here so fast! I wasn't ready at all."

Her gaze fell on what Li Leshan was holding, and she said, "You're already here, why are you carrying this! You child, Yueming, didn't you stop him?"

“Auntie—” Jiang Yueming’s voice came from behind, “It’s in the Chinese people’s bones to bring a few boxes of things when they visit someone’s home. You should let us in quickly, and besides, I can’t stop him.”

Lin Cuiqin didn't know how persistent Li Leshan was, but Jiang Yueming knew it all too well. It would be strange if he came without a shirt.

Li Leshan nodded to Lin Cuiqin, bowed slightly, and then followed her into the house.

"Don't be so polite, you're already familiar with us." Lin Cuiqin took the things from his hands and gestured for them to go inside and play.

The elementary school final exams were in early July. At that time, Tian Tian was still cramming for the final exams. She moved a small stool to sit on the balcony, and when she heard the noise, she peeked out and called out, "Brother Lele."

A romantic drama was playing on the television, and the farewell dialogue echoed repeatedly in the stuffy living room. The breakup saga had been going on for over ten or twenty episodes, and even Jiang Yueming was getting impatient. She kept glancing at Lin Cuiqin's shows, and every time she looked in, they were still going through a breakup. The next day, they were still going through a breakup.

He was confused and asked his aunt, "Don't the male and female leads love each other anymore?"

"Yes, I love it." Lin Cuiqin's eyes didn't leave the screen, and she was still picking vegetables in her hands.

"Then why haven't they made up yet?" Jiang Yueming asked, puzzled.

Lin Cuiqin laughed heartily, "Yueming, when you grow up, love isn't just about pure love anymore; there are many other things too."

She paused, and the vegetable leaves in her hand quietly fell into the basin. "That's life. Sometimes you know exactly where you should go, but the path you take is completely different. What you think and what you actually do are often different."

She turned her head, looked at Jiang Yueming's youthful face, and said, word by word, "In this world, there are many things we can't control. You'll understand when you grow up that love isn't everything."

The last rays of the setting sun pierced through the branches of the locust tree, casting dappled patterns of light on the concrete ground. In the distance, the sounds of children chasing and playing drifted up, mingled with the crisp ringing of bicycle bells.

Jiang Yueming nodded as if she understood, but her gaze unconsciously drifted to Li Leshan, who was watching Tian Tian do her homework on the balcony. The boy's profile was particularly clear in the dimming light.

Many years later, when he wakes up alone in the dead of night in a foreign land, that light-hearted phrase "I have no choice in the matter" will repeatedly come to mind in the years to come.

But at this moment, he was too young, so young that he believed all partings would lead to reunions and all vows would never expire.

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Author's Note: I know some readers might not like this narrative style of "many years later," "they couldn't have imagined it back then," or "no matter how many years have passed," feeling it's a spoiler or something. But this is my personal writing style (referencing Northwest). I need this method to lay the groundwork and foreshadow later plot developments, so that subsequent events don't seem so abrupt.

In my opinion, this is necessary and essential. I haven't found any better alternative yet, so I hope you guys will be understanding or offer your guidance [please].