Sometimes I ask myself: What exactly did I come back to Hangzhou for?

The last few days have been nonstop. Somehow, between all the buses and metro rides, I burned through the entire 50 yuan on my citizen card. (Realized this halfway through the sentence and immediately switched to another transit card. That was close—I nearly went into the red.) Every day, whether I’m meeting classmates or working as a teaching assistant, I seem to hit my exercise goal without even trying, haha.

Today I met up with Zhaobai (using internet handles still sounds every bit as chuunibyou as ever). We demolished an all-you-can-eat hotpot and finally tried the escape room I’d wanted to play! Exhibit A: two elevator repairmen. (Who missed the Hangzhou Paradise escape room on our last middle-school trip because the line was too long? Oh, right. Me.) Sometimes one tiny choice really does send you down an entirely different path.

Years from now, I will probably still remember the delight of charging into Sisyphe seconds before closing just so we could browse for all of a few seconds. (Pretty faithful to the actual Sisyphus story, come to think of it.)

Honestly, there still has not been enough time. Every classmate I’ve seen either contacted me first or was contacted with help from my dear mother. (Apparently I really am an “I” online.) And once we meet, the conversation wanders everywhere without ever finding a destination, even though I had planned to talk about everything I learned and how I changed over the past three years… Well, writing it down might work too.

So, back to the opening question: what did I return to Hangzhou for? To commemorate that “happy time tinged with regret”? The past will not return, and an unknown road unfolds before us. But this much I know: I made the right choice.