The night wind howled, and after the gas stove was turned off, the terrace lost its previous lively atmosphere.

At first, none of the boys spoke, perhaps stumped by the question, or maybe they were thinking of good comebacks.

“Teacher, are you about to start lecturing us?” Chen Jianghe asked.

“Are you going to educate us now? You finally couldn’t resist!” Qin Ao said.

“Does wanting to eat and loaf around count?” Qi Liang lazily raised his hand.

“Of course eating and loafing around counts,” Lin Wanxing laughed.

“If that counts, does wanting to eat Nanxiang xiaolongbao count too?”

“Sure, but Xiaolongbao from Xishengyan is better, right?” Lin Wanxing said.

“Even dogs wouldn’t eat sweet buns!” Zheng Feiyang shouted in anger.

The boys started chatting again, one after another.

Lin Wanxing leaned against the railing, quietly listening to their conversation. Her hair tie had loosened, and the wind blew strands of her hair.

Until at some point, when someone failed to pick up another’s conversation, a brief pause fell over the terrace. The bright moon hung low in the night sky, and Lin Wanxing was still quietly watching them.

“Teacher, what are you thinking about?” Chen Weidong couldn’t help asking.

“I was wondering if you wanted to continue discussing this topic, I mean the topic of ‘what you want to do,'” she said.

“How should we discuss it? We’re not the type who can talk about these things.”

“Yeah, there are too many things we want to do. What’s the point of discussing them?”

“Too many?” Lin Wanxing thoughtfully and curiously asked.

“Of course there are many. Didn’t you say wanting to eat something also counts?”

“Yes.”

“Then there are countless things!” Lin Lu happily raised his voice.

“Is that so? Then I’m relieved,” Lin Wanxing walked happily toward her room. Before long, she returned to the terrace table with a notebook in her hand and a bulging pocket full of pens in various colors.

Lin Wanxing casually placed the notebook on the railing by the edge of the terrace and opened it.

Facing the vast playing field, with a “rip” sound, she tore out the first blank page.

The students were stunned.

Then came the second page, the third page…

The evening breeze blew, and draft paper with light blue horizontal lines fluttered in the night sky.

Lin Wanxing finally tore out enough pages. She straightened the stack of paper in her hand, turned around, and approached the students.

Under the dazed gaze of the group of boys, she went from left to right, handing each of them a sheet of paper.

“What… what are you doing?” Qin Ao stammered.

“Write them down,” Lin Wanxing said.

“What?”

“Write down the things you want to do in the future,” Lin Wanxing said while taking out the colorful pens from her pants pocket. She went from right to left, distributing the pens.

The boys stood there holding the paper and pens, in a daze.

After a while, they slowly came to their senses, “You want us to write them down?”

“Are you joking? Is that necessary?”

“I’m not joking,” Lin Wanxing stood before them and said seriously, “You said there are many things you want to do in the future. Writing some down shouldn’t be difficult, right?”

The boys’ faces appeared somewhat dark in the night. They showed confused expressions as they looked down at the white draft paper in their hands.

Lin Wanxing said, “When I was in university, our teacher had us write down 100 things we wanted to do. I’ll lower the difficulty for you—I think writing 50 things is enough.”

“You’re saying our heads are empty, aren’t you?” Qi Liang suddenly spoke up.

“That’s not what I meant. I’m afraid this paper isn’t big enough for you to write everything down,” Lin Wanxing said.

“If we can’t fit everything, can’t we just ask you for more paper?” Qin Ao suddenly said.

Lin Wanxing smiled, “You’re right.”

“What if I don’t want to write?” The troublemaker Chen Jianghe suddenly asked.

“That’s great! Someone can clean up the table!” Lin Wanxing said happily.

At this moment, the lingering smell of hotpot broth still permeated the terrace, and the night wind carried a natural coolness.

Lin Wanxing slowly said, “Don’t worry too much. If you don’t want to write, you can also return the paper and pen to me, then leave. But I think this is actually a good opportunity—why don’t you try asking yourself?”

The time that followed didn’t pass very quickly.

At least for the students, it was a very long period.

The boys began to hesitate, so they remained in a “statue” state holding the paper and pens for some time.

Then, the first person moved.

Fu Xinshu pulled over a chair, sat by the hotpot table, pushed aside some sauce dishes, and began to write.

It seemed that once the first person claimed a spot, the boys realized they needed to act quickly, or they wouldn’t be able to secure a place to write.

So with a flurry of activity, some dragged plastic chairs, those who couldn’t get plastic chairs began to clear spaces on the brick piles of the terrace, and those who couldn’t find any place simply sat on the ground.

At first, they all wrote very quickly.

After all, there were too many options—places they wanted to eat at, things they wanted to play with, things they wanted to own…

The world was colorful, and they were so young—there were indeed too many things to do.

Qi Liang, with his unique personality, wrote “eat and loaf around” as his first item.

Qin Ao happened to be writing “want to earn one million yuan.”

Lin Lu maintained his desire to “eat Nanxiang xiaolongbao.”

And Chen Jianghe was writing “want to watch a match at Wimbledon.”

The sound of pen tips against paper created a soft rustling on the terrace. Lin Wanxing made a round and came to Wang Fa’s side.

From the time she started chatting with the students, the coach had found himself the only recliner on the terrace. He neither smoked nor played with his phone, but just closed his eyes, lying in the night, as if asleep.

Lin Wanxing took a sheet from the torn draft papers and placed it on the armrest of the recliner.

He didn’t open his eyes; his eyelashes cast a small patch of dense shadow.

His breathing was even.

Lin Wanxing also quietly took a pencil and put it on top of the draft paper.

Just then, Wang Fa opened his eyes.

Their gazes met.

The young man had typically light-colored eyes, a high and straight nose bridge, and very fair skin. At that moment in the hazy night, Lin Wanxing wondered if he might be of mixed heritage.

This thought came from nowhere, just as a girl’s admiration for a handsome man comes from nowhere.

Lin Wanxing smiled, blinked once, and gestured toward the paper and pen on the armrest. Without giving Wang Fa a chance to speak, she turned and left.

Time always seems to pass quickly at first, then slower and slower.

The real difficulty in writing these 100 things came later.

After the random brainstorming phase, facing the large blank space left on the paper, it seemed like time to think harder.

Lin Wanxing browsed through the snacks they had bought today and opened a bag of Oishi corn sticks, strawberry flavored. She stood by the railing, eating while observing the students.

The people on the terrace were now extremely scattered.

Some were at the table, some had already run into the room, and others were leaning against the railing, deep in thought. Some were even scratching their heads, trying to peek at what others had written.

Lin Wanxing immediately caught them, “Write your own, that student over there, pay attention.”

“But I can’t think of anything else!” Yu Ming, who had just been caught peeking, said.

“Have you filled out 100 items?”

He shook his head.

“50 then?”

Still shaking his head.

“Think harder…” Lin Wanxing said, “Perhaps broaden your scope. For example, what you want to achieve in the future, what you want to do, what industry you want to work in—you can write all of these down.”

“Is wanting to go to space okay?”

“I think that’s fine,” Lin Wanxing continued, “This is your future. In your imagined world, all magnificent possibilities can exist, but I hope you can think as much as possible about what you want to do.”

The air was quiet, and the boys began to try writing more. Some made things up, while others thought seriously.

The minute hand moved forward a few more notches.

Suddenly, Yu Ming threw himself flat on the cement floor, legs in the air, and let out a long cry, “I can’t write anymore!”

The students also put down their pens one after another.

At this point, Lin Lu spoke up as if he couldn’t hold back anymore, “Teacher, let me be honest with you. We’re not trying to discourage your enthusiasm!”

“Huh?”

“We’ve had classes like this before. You just want us to find our life goals, right?”

Zheng Feiyang, “Yes, we have mental health classes, and we’ve taken that… what was it… career test?”

Lin Wanxing wasn’t surprised. For high school seniors, it was natural for schools to have guidance courses on life, goals, choices, and such for graduating students.

“Like the Vocational Interest Inventory or MBTI?” Lin Wanxing asked with interest, “That’s quite professional.”

“I don’t remember, but there were a lot of questions,” Lin Lu said.

“Oh, then do you think those classes were useful?” Lin Wanxing asked.

“Do you want the truth?” Lin Lu asked weakly.

“Tell me.”

“I don’t think they’re very useful,” Lin Lu patted his chest, “We’re already immune to everything, you know? These things are useless.”

“Yeah, a lot of these things are just impractical,” Qin Ao said righteously, “When I was in elementary school and the teacher asked about my future dreams, I said I wanted to be a scientist. But am I cut out for that?”

“If we could do whatever we wanted and have whatever we desired, we really could go to space,” Chen Jianghe said coldly.

“Do you all feel this way?” Lin Wanxing looked toward those who hadn’t spoken.

The students exchanged glances, no one speaking. Finally, Lin Wanxing looked at Fu Xinshu.

“Teacher Lin,” Fu Xinshu pressed his lips together, then finally mustered courage and said, “We’re not like you. You probably succeed at everything you do, but for us, there are many things we can’t achieve. Even if we write down so many things, it might feel good while thinking about them, but many are impossible to achieve.”

Most of them were just standing at a crossroads, thinking. Just thinking was enough.

“Mm,” Lin Wanxing seriously considered their viewpoints.

“Then why are you making us go through all this trouble?”

“First of all, I’m not trying to help you find your life’s purpose. After all, that’s a big proposition,” Lin Wanxing put down her snack, gently brushed off the crumbs on her hands, and said, “On this topic, I have a quote I can recite for you. It comes from Abraham Maslow, the founder of ‘Humanistic Psychology.’ Translated into Chinese, it goes like this—’Knowing what you want is not a commonplace thing. It is a rare and difficult psychological achievement.'”

The students quieted down.

Qi Liang smacked his lips, getting the flavor, “Teacher, this ‘translated into Chinese’ is very sophisticated.”

“Even more pretentious than quoting famous people.”

Lin Wanxing laughed, “But it’s true,” she said, “We ordinary people, from childhood to adulthood, constantly develop many new ideas as we accumulate life experiences. When I was little, I wanted to be a roadside cotton candy maker, but as I grew up, I didn’t want to do that anymore. So those who know what they want from a young age and work hard all their lives to achieve it are truly remarkable. That is indeed their gift, a great psychological achievement.”

“Since that’s the case, why are you making us write these things? Just to make us think?” Qin Ao said, shaking the draft paper in his hand.

“No,” Lin Wanxing turned to look at Fu Xinshu and said gently, “I want to say, if there are things here that you believe are impossible to achieve, then cross them out,” Lin Wanxing said.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, now, please cross out ten things from what you’ve written,” Lin Wanxing said seriously in the evening breeze.