Restrained Turn

Night falls early in the small town of State, and the light begins to fade by 3 p.m. Chen Wang stood in the pine forest across from the observatory, watching the lights in the wooden houses light up one by one. The snow continued to fall, forming a thin layer on the brim of his down jacket.

He remembered that Lin Weixi was afraid of the cold. In high school, every winter, she would always wrap herself up tightly, with the scarf covering half of her face, leaving only a pair of eyes exposed. And now, she was working in an extremely cold place wearing heavy winter clothes, skillfully operating various instruments.

The door of the cabin suddenly opened. Lin Weixi came out, camera in hand, said something to the people in the cabin, and then walked alone towards the fjord. Chen Wang subconsciously hid behind a tree, and the snow on the pine branches fell.

She stopped at the shore and set up her tripod. Ice floes drifted on the sea, and the aurora borealis loomed in the sky. Chen Wang watched her back as she focused on adjusting her camera, and suddenly remembered that she had taken the award-winning photo at the high school art festival in the same pose beside the basketball court.

At that time, he just thought that the girl was taking the photo very seriously. Now he realized how much affection was hidden in the camera that he had not noticed.

Lin Weixi would frown slightly while working, the same expression she had when solving math problems in high school. Occasionally, she would raise her hand to tuck her hair behind her ear, a gesture that reminded Chen Wang of the day of the graduation party when she did the same thing when she went on stage to receive the award.

He was applauding in the audience at the time, and only now did he understand who she was looking for when she scanned the audience.

For a moment, he almost walked out. He was halfway through, the snow crunching softly under his feet. But he stopped.

He saw Lin Weixi answer a work call and communicate with the other party fluently in Norwegian. He saw her smile of satisfaction when she checked the photos. That smile was confident and bright, completely different from the girl who always kept her head down in his memory.

She is fine like this. She doesn't need anyone to disturb her.

Chen Wang slowly retreated deeper into the pine forest. Branches scraped against his cheek, leaving a chilling sensation. He recalled a line from his diary: "It's never just the Pacific Ocean that separates us."

Now he understood that what separated them was an entire youth. The time he had missed had become the wind beneath her wings, carrying her to greater heights.

On the way back, the snow fell even harder. The bus drove slowly along the winding mountain road, icicles forming on the windows. Chen Wang unconsciously drew on the glass, and when he came to his senses, he realized he was drawing the windows of a high school classroom.

He got off the train early at the next station. There was a small post office on the side of the road, so he went in and bought a postcard. The back of the card showed a view of the State Fjord, almost identical to the one he had just seen.

He thought for a long time, and finally wrote just one line: "The aurora is beautiful. Take care."

When he dropped the postcard into the mailbox, it fluttered lightly, like a snowflake. He knew the letter would travel very slowly, and by the time it arrived, he would have returned to his laboratory in Princeton.

On the plane back to Oslo, he opened the sunshade. A sea of ​​clouds spread out beneath his feet, and the sun was glaring. When the flight attendant brought the meal, he noticed that the napkins were printed with constellations, very similar to the ones Lin Weixi used in high school.

He carefully folded the napkin and put it in his pocket, just like how she had secretly collected every little thing about him back then.

When the plane landed, the phone got a signal. Zhou Xu sent a message asking, "Have you seen Wei Xi?"

Chen Wang replied: "She is doing well."

After a moment, he added, "It's better than we thought."

On the way back to the apartment, he passed by a convenience store and bought a cup of coffee. The clerk handed him a candy with a star-patterned wrapper as his change.

He peeled off the candy wrapper and put the candy in his mouth. It was very sweet, so sweet that it made his eyes sore.

That night he dreamed of a high school classroom. The sun was shining brightly, and Lin Weixi was sitting diagonally behind him, lowering her head to take notes. When he turned around, he happened to meet her raised gaze.

In the dream, she smiled and said, "Look, we have all grown up."

It was still dark when he woke up. He turned on his computer and began writing a new research plan. In the corner of the document, he subconsciously drew a small camera image.

Just like many years ago, a girl traced his profile over and over again in the blank space of her physics notes.

As the morning light filtered through the curtains, he saved the file. The filename was "A New Beginning."

He knew that some turns were not the end, but the best farewell to the past. Just like the aurora will always disappear, but those who have witnessed it will always remember how the starry sky once illuminated them.

At this moment, in the distant Norwegian fjords, Lin Weixi was raising her camera, aiming it at the newly formed aurora in the sky. In the viewfinder, the starry sky was brilliant, just like the light in the boy's eyes on the basketball court that year.