Thirteen Wonders (ShíSānYāo) : Chapter 17 - Four Five Six Tong
Chapter 17: Four Five Six Tong
Back in third or fourth grade, Zhou Yao’s leg condition wasn’t particularly noticeable. She moved little, often staying seated, and worked hard to walk like everyone else. Kids had short attention spans, overflowing energy, and could spend half an hour studying a pebble on the side of the road.
But some things couldn’t be hidden forever. No matter how much she tried to cover it up, Zhou Yao’s awkwardness in movement was impossible to fully conceal. Still, at that time, it wasn’t a common topic for her classmates to mock—at least, not until she made that ‘friend.’
Their first meeting happened in a classroom bathed in the warm glow of the setting sun. Zhou Yao had just returned from taking out the trash when the girl smiled at her and said, “Thank you.” After sweeping two rows of desks, the girl suddenly asked, “Hey, Zhou Yao, is it a little hard for you to walk?”
Zhou Yao froze. She turned to look at her but saw no malice on her face. Instead, the girl warmly wrapped her arms around Zhou Yao’s waist and said, “It’s okay! I think you’re really nice. We can play together—shuttlecock kicking, maybe? Or jump rope… Oh, wait, never mind. We can do crafts instead! Folding paper stars is fun—we can do it together.”
Her sincerity was so natural, so certain, that Zhou Yao simply went along with her. When they played shuttlecock, Zhou Yao would stand to the side and count. When they jumped rope, she wouldn’t participate, but she was always one of the two holding the rope, never switching out like the others.
It wasn’t exactly happiness, but it was something. Sometimes, the other girls would ask her about Chen Xuze—how he was smart but quiet, yet always walked to and from school with Zhou Yao.
She rarely answered. At those moments, they would sigh in disappointment and wave her off. “Ugh, fine, don’t tell us. But come on, you’re neighbors! What could you not know about him?”
Zhou Yao never responded. She endured their complaints, but she really didn’t want to turn Chen Xuze into a casual topic for gossip.
This friendship didn’t last long. It ended the moment Zhou Yao found out that the girl had secretly imitated her awkward walking posture in front of a mirror to make her classmates laugh. Unspoken but understood—friendship over.
Zhou Yao hid in the bathroom, wanting to cry, but strangely, the tears wouldn’t come. She scooped up a handful of cold water and splashed it on her face. Her eyes turned red, veins visible like blood streaks, yet not a single tear fell.
Perhaps, from the moment she accepted that her leg was different, she had also started accepting everything that would come with it in the future.
She never told Chen Xuze about this. But the next day, he stormed into their classroom, face dark, and without a word, kicked over that girl’s chair. The girl trembled with fear. A group of students huddled together, their eyes filled with condemnation and fear, accusing him of ‘bullying the weak.’
Chen Xuze made a girl cry and was punished by the teacher. From then on, Zhou Yao was completely ostracized.
Whenever she encountered them, they would glance at her sideways, whispering behind her back. During PE class, when the others ran, they would point at her sitting under the tree and laugh. She couldn’t hear what they said, but she knew it wasn’t anything good.
After running laps and finishing exercises, when the students split off into small groups to play, no one invited Zhou Yao. She was always alone.
Compared to the past—when neighborhood kids had thrown stones at her and sung cruel rhymes—this elementary school brand of rejection was simple and direct: “Pinky swear, hang yourself, we’ll never play with you again.”
No one talked to her.
She thought life would continue this way—contradictory yet peaceful. Even without others, at least she still had Chen Xuze to walk to and from school with, to whom she could say all the things on her mind.
‘The flowers today bloomed beautifully.’
‘Why would they plant jasmine next to the restroom? It smells so good, but I don’t want to go near it.’
‘The principal was so scary today when he scolded that student! The poor kid bit his tongue during his speech…’
Day after day, their time together stretched and deepened between sunrises and sunsets, becoming something that no one could separate.
Until the school organized an outdoor activity. Their grade was assigned to a city park, coincidentally the same one chosen by another school. With only one grade from each school and four classes in total, there was plenty of space, so each school took a section without dispute.
As usual, no one spoke to Zhou Yao. When students from the other school saw her sitting alone while her classmates shared snacks, some came over curiously to talk to her. But before she could respond, one of them would grab the newcomer’s sleeve and whisper, “She’s crippled—don’t play with her! Come on, let’s go jump rope instead.”
Zhou Yao acted as if she hadn’t heard it, again and again, one after another.
A fleeting world, passing strangers. Zhou Yao cleared the weeds around a flower’s roots and told herself: They don’t matter. Why should I care?
But reality didn’t let her ignore it.
The boys and girls had separate activity areas. Zhou Yao stayed in the girls' section, minding her own business. Occasionally, a teacher, out of pity, would come over to chat. But she wasn’t good at conversation, and wasn’t warm enough to keep it going, so they eventually gave up.
She was adjusting the petals of a small purple flower when a girl suddenly came running over in a panic.
“Zhou Yao! Zhou Yao!”
“Something’s wrong—Chen Xuze fell into the lake!”
Zhou Yao, crouched on the ground, turned her head in confusion. The unfamiliar girl gasped for breath before delivering the terrible news: “The boys were playing by the water, and it looks like Chen Xuze fell in! They haven’t pulled him out—he’s about to drown! You have to go—hurry!”
Before the girl could finish, Zhou Yao had already turned and bolted toward the lake.
She ran like a clown—her awkward gait attracting the eyes of every student from both schools.
Those who knew she was crippled stared with subtle disgust—not out of malice, but because she was different. And in young minds, that kind of difference naturally created distance, an instinctive discomfort.
Those who didn’t know about her leg simply widened their eyes and whispered: “That girl runs so weirdly…”
“Whoa... is she crippled?”
At that age, some boys were so unruly that even the teachers couldn’t control them. They clapped and laughed. “The cripple! Haha! The cripple is running…”
Those voices, carried by the wind, drilled into her ears before vanishing without a trace. But Zhou Yao didn’t hear anything else. In her eyes, there was only the park’s central lake—so close yet seemingly so far away.
When Chen Xuze noticed the commotion and felt the strange gazes around him, he turned to look at Zhou Yao. She had already run right up to him.
“You…”
She stopped in front of him, panting heavily, her breath laced with something that sounded like a sob.
“Chen Xuze?”
“…Huh?” He was confused. He reached out and lightly touched her arm. “What’s wrong?”
“Chen Xuze!”
“Yeah? Zhou Yao, you—”
She suddenly burst into tears, standing right in front of him, her face scrunched up and flushed red from holding it in. Tears and snot streamed down her face—it was an ugly sight.
“They said you fell into the water.”
“They said you drowned…”
“I thought you were really dead…”
“You didn’t fall in, did you?”
“You didn’t go under?”
“You’re okay, right?”
She cried as she asked, again and again, as if the fact that his clothes were still perfectly dry didn’t exist in her eyes.
Chen Xuze quietly watched her break down. His gaze swept across the crowd. Everyone was watching the spectacle, including the girls who had past conflicts with Zhou Yao. They had followed her to the lake just to enjoy the show, linking arms, covering their mouths, and giggling. Some of them were from the other school.
It only took one glance for Chen Xuze to realize—Zhou Yao had been played. And now, her foot—her biggest flaw—had once again been thrown under the spotlight for everyone to see. When they returned to school, even students from other grades who hadn’t known before would now be aware that their grade had a girl who was a cripple, a girl whose running looked ridiculous.
Zhou Yao remained as she always was. Nothing about her changed.
……
This was the second time Chen Xuze had seen Zhou Yao cry. When she thought he was drowning, teetering on the brink of life and death, she had thrown all caution aside, exposing her biggest weakness to the entire world. Without hesitation, she had rushed toward him.
Back then, when he raised his hand, he had caught one of her tears. For the first time, Chen Xuze realized— A girl’s tears, when they fell onto one’s palm, were scorching hot.
Before finishing elementary school, Zhou Yao transferred away, parting ways with Chen Xuze. They were no longer classmates. Later, they ended up in different middle schools. It wasn’t until senior year of high school that she was recruited into No. 7 High School.
But in the long, endless years in between, they had gone to school together every day, met at the bus stop, and walked home side by side—just like they had in the beginning. They took the same path. They saw the same scenery. They had never been apart.
Every year on his birthday, Chen Xuze made a wish. To him, wishes didn’t matter. Sometimes, Zhou Yao would joke, “What did you wish for this year?”
Without the slightest hesitation, he would tell her.
She would frown and scold him, “If you say it out loud, it won’t come true.”
He would just purse his lips and shrug. “Doesn’t matter.”
Whether they came true or not—he didn’t care.
Only one time was different. The year Zhou Yao transferred away from that elementary school, on Chen Xuze’s birthday, he made a wish as usual. Zhou Yao quietly asked, “What did you wish for this year?”
He pressed his lips together, silent for a few seconds. Then, for the first time, he said, “Not telling you.”
“Why?”
“......”
Because if he said it out loud, it wouldn’t come true.
That year—
Before the candlelight, before the spirit of birthdays, before countless unspeakable emotions—
Chen Xuze, in front of his enormous birthday cake, made his first serious wish: “I want to become strong. And then— I want to protect her.”
----------
If you like my translation, please support me by buying me a coffee:
Previous Chapter | Table of Content | Next Chapter
0 comments: