Once We Lived in Nanjing

The Chinese essay topic for this exam was "The Time Accidentally Slept Away."

Bai Yang frowned.

He was someone who struggled with essays, and would frown deeply whenever faced with these material-based essay topics.

"On the journey of growth, maybe you take a nap and miss many wonderful things. Even more disheartening is, you didn't want to sleep; you were just pretending, or planned to rest your eyes a bit, but ended up really falling asleep..."

Rereading the essay prompt in silence, Bai Yang felt a little nervous hearing the rustling sounds of his classmates writing furiously behind and in front of him. During exams, he wasn't worried about time passing quickly but others writing quickly.

But with essays, the more anxious you get, the less you can produce, like constipation.

When could he write as freely as his peers, thoughts gushing like a burst pipe?

Bai Yang took a deep breath to calm himself and unconsciously drew an oval on the draft paper; his pen point constantly circling the existing lines. Staring at it, it looked more and more like a time capsule.

Time capsules are round.

—Right, time capsules are round.

Ban Xia stood in the water, pondering.

It was a capsule, it should be a round, rolling cylinder.

The girl had been fishing in the lake for two hours, searching thoroughly under each pillar of the restaurant foundation. The amount of silt she dug up could have built the Babel Tower, and what was left might construct a Hoover Dam, yet she found nothing.

She retrieved plenty of trash: empty soda cans, broken glass bottles, large pebbles – everything but a time capsule. Sometimes Ban Xia thought she had found it; round, hard, with a smooth surface, but upon extracting, it turned out to be a skull someone had thrown into the lake.

Who would carelessly discard a skull?

After all these years, the owner hadn't come to claim it.

How careless.

She stood in the knee-deep lake, her white dress dotted with stars of water and mud, like a black-backed egret that had landed there, looking around.

Could it be that this plan had also failed?

The Sun became increasingly harsh, Ban Xia had hurried out without an umbrella, she'd get sunstroke and dehydrate if she continued to be exposed.

She decided to go ashore to rest and rehydrate.

Keep searching, she would find it, there was still enough time.

Ban Xia reassured herself.

"It rained all night, and it's good weather when you wake up early."

The girl hummed softly, wading towards the shore step by step.

Thinking as she walked - the time capsule had been hidden under the restaurant foundation twenty years ago; it had been there twenty years past. If nobody else had taken it, then why couldn't she find it?

She often came here to harvest lotus roots, seed pods, and water caltrops. If there really was a time capsule, she should have discovered it long ago...

Ban Xia pulled aside the weeds on the bank and extracted her foot from the muddy water below, stepping onto the shore.

Had she ever seen that thing before?

One foot on the shore, she exerted force to release the other foot.

A round, rolling, dark and muddy capsule?

"Last night I dreamed about you again, we played joyfully..."

The girl suddenly froze.

"Played joyfully..."

"Played..."

A round, rolling, dark and muddy capsule!

That was the time capsule!

She had found it.

It was as if lightning struck through the girl's brain, followed by her whole body trembling.

She had seen it before, she had seen it already! It was during a previous lotus root harvesting trip when Ban Xia dug up a cylinder full of mud from the lakebed, not knowing what it was she carelessly placed it on the shallow shore—no, no, she was certain that wasn't her first encounter with the time capsule. Over the years, Ban Xia had passed Crescent Lake countless times, entering the water countless times to gather lotus roots, and time, and again, her searching hands had touched that capsule.

Long before Ban Xia knew of BG4MXH, that time capsule had been waiting for her.

Countless near misses, all for a final encounter.

"There are ten minutes left until the end of the exam," the invigilator glanced at the wall clock and announced, "Those who haven't finished, please hurry up."

Bai Yang was immersed in writing his essay.

What kind of damn essay topic was this?

The Time Accidentally Slept Away?

Having to rack his brains and cobble together eight hundred words for each Chinese exam was as painful as constipation for Bai Yang, practically counting one by one how many empty spaces were left on the answer sheet, wishing he could count an ellipsis as six words.

"In conclusion, time is precious to each of us, as the saying goes, why sleep away life when death brings eternal rest; we must cherish every second of life..."

My goodness, what am I writing?

Bai Yang thought.

Bai's essay-writing technique number one! Even if what you write is a pile of mud, you must elevate the notion of the essay.

Bai Yang reviewed what he had written.

Not lofty enough.

That wasn't high enough, it needs to be even loftier!

"To count the heroes of the time, look to the present. In today's world, striving hard is the keynote, and as the youth of today, we must not oversleep, but work tirelessly for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation!"

Bai's essay-writing technique number two! No matter what irrelevant stuff you write, always end with "striving tirelessly for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation!" – for the sake of this sentence, the grader would give you an extra two points.

The bell rang for the end of class.

The exam was over.

Bai Yang exhaled deeply, capped his pen, and waited for the teacher to collect the exam papers and answer sheets.