Chapter 24: Not Knowing
Mu Yichen walked home alone that evening.
Not because he had to.
Not because he liked the cold.
But because walking gave him the one thing his old life never did:
Time.
Time to slow down.
Time to not be needed.
Time to just… listen.
His boots crunched softly through the snow-covered path.
His breath came out in visible waves.
Streetlights blinked on one by one.
He passed a frozen stream, the old bookstore, the tiny café he never entered.
And as he turned the corner onto a narrow lane, he stopped walking.
No reason.
He just… felt like stopping.
There was an old bench under a bare tree.
He sat.
Let the silence grow.
Let the cold press against his skin like a memory.
And after a while,
he reached into his coat pocket
and pulled out the small, leather-bound notebook he no longer used for notes.
He opened to a blank page.
Stared at it.
Then slowly, began to write.
I knew everything once.
By ten, I could read hundreds of languages.
By twelve, I solved problems that haunted governments.
By thirteen, I stood before leaders and told them how to fix the world.
They called me the 'Golden Mind.'
The Miracle Boy.
The one who would never fall behind.
And yet…
Today, I watched a girl drop her pen into her tea,
and it was the first time in years I forgot to be perfect.
I didn't solve anything.
I didn't correct her.
I just… laughed. Inside. Softly.
It felt like breathing again.
Han Seri doesn't know who I was.
And maybe that's the most precious thing I've ever been given.
Because when she looks at me,
I'm not the boy who saved the world.
I'm just the boy who remembered what warmth felt like.
He stopped writing.
Closed the notebook.
Sat there in the snow until his fingers tingled.
And just before he stood to leave,
he looked up at the bare branches overhead,
and whispered to no one:
"I don't want to know everything anymore."
The next day, he would go to school.
He would sit in the same seat.
She would sit beside him.
And they still wouldn't say much.
But their glances would las
t longer.
Their silences would feel closer.
Their presence—stronger.
Not loud.
Never loud.
Just… honest.
And human.