She knew she couldn’t find evidence, so she lowered her head and walked dejectedly toward the light rail station she remembered. The cold of early winter gradually thickened, and the open-air light rail platform was chilly. She tucked her hands into her coat pockets and bounced in place to warm up. The train arrival announcement sounded, but it wasn’t her train. Hurried footsteps approached from behind, apparently someone rushing to catch this train. She glanced at her watch and breathed into her palms, creating a small white misty cloud. The footsteps stopped behind her.
The train arrived, with the sharp, piercing sound of wheels against rails, and passengers preparing to board were noisy. But she heard clearly a low voice, as if afraid speaking too loudly might disturb a fragile dream: “Naily?” The train’s head brought a biting wind, disheveling her hair and fragmenting her view. She turned around.
After the last exam, Naily followed the crowded flow of people out of the teaching building, inhaling a breath of air so cold it was choking, finally feeling a sense of reality. The holiday was near, and students who had finished exams were almost euphoric, their expressions rich enough to perform a mime. Even those shouting “I’m definitely failing! I’m doomed!” were still making plans with friends to go crazy and then face the reality of their grades. “Hey!” Someone heavily patted Naily’s bulging backpack from behind. Turning around, she saw Xiaobai, her good friend since high school. “How was the exam?” Naily touched her nose: “Not bad…” “Come on! Don’t play the underachiever when you’re a study god. Just looking at your review intensity, if you don’t get all A’s, I’ll go argue with the professor!” Xiaobai’s voice was quite loud, causing many around to look back with ambiguous smiles.
Naily embarrassedly coughed a few times: “I didn’t attend classes properly for a while, so I studied that hard…” This was the truth. After the initial excitement of returning to reality, the first mountain Naily had to face was her now-unfamiliar courses. If she hadn’t crammed and studied hard during the exam week, she seriously doubted whether she would avoid failing in her first semester.
