Jack Young, Ethan Zhuo, and the Fate Guide, plus a female counselor, hanging out by the lake, roasting each other and cracking jokes like total goofballs. A martial arts grandmaster, a master psychologist, a fortune-telling prodigy—none of them are acting the way you'd expect. Calm, reliable, composed, transcendent, approachable... that's how they're supposed to be—role models, even the counselor. Even if a couple of these so-called mentors are faking it half the time.
Anywhere else, any other situation, these four would never act like this. That calm side is what everyone knows—and it's their real personality most of the time.
But who says calm people can't act goofy? Everyone has the right to be silly—especially when graduation is near, and your best friends are about to scatter to the ends of the earth, maybe never to meet again. At moments like this, nobody cares about keeping up appearances. Maybe you cry, maybe you laugh, but it's always more real than usual.
The counselor girl, acting silly with everyone, suddenly found her eyes getting wet. It was like she’d crossed a bridge through time, right back to that night two years ago. That night, after four years of hard work, Number Two’s debate team finally won first place in the whole school. That night, the four guys from her class and her—five people in total—went out to celebrate, singing, dancing, drinking, joking—and, of course, confessing their feelings.
If it hadn’t been for Number Two that night, everyone would’ve probably cried their eyes out. But Number Two beat them to it—he bawled his eyes out, totally unashamed. After he finished crying, he led everyone in laughter, making sure each person could get through that unforgettable, bittersweet night with a smile.
That night, it was her and four guys, happily chatting, joking, and sharing their hearts. Pouring out four years of friendship, venting all the little grudges from life. Back then, she listened more and spoke less, and it’s the same this time. She still remembers the guys roasting each other—hogging the router for video games, stinking up the place with unwashed socks, crushing on the same girl only for one of them to swoop in first… So many stories.
That night, the five of them stood right here on this platform, singing to the lake.
No KTV, no backing tracks, nobody cared if the tune or lyrics were right. The five of them just yelled out song after song. Whoever remembered a tune, started singing; whoever knew the words, joined in. Under the night sky, above the lake, their voices never seemed to end. Never-ending—because when the songs stop, the people drift apart.
But.
No matter how much you want it to last, it always ends. Voices go hoarse, strength runs out.
You don’t want to say goodbye, but you have to. I have to go, you have to go.
"Leaving this place soon—suddenly, I kinda don’t want to go. Guys, how about we do something crazy?" She remembers Number Two’s eyes lighting up, his voice all slurred from too much booze: "Let’s charge straight across the lake!"
Who knows what life will look like after graduation? Maybe you’ll go into finance, I’ll do sales, he’ll study abroad—maybe he’ll never come back.
Who knows what it’ll be like next time we meet? Maybe you’ll still be single, I’ll be married, he’ll end up in Thailand and get gender reassignment surgery.
If we don’t do something wild now, we’ll be old before we know it. No memories—what’s there to reminisce about?
So the four guys burst out laughing and dashed into the water, racing to the other side. Four boys, each with their own personality, but right then, they were just a bunch of lovable idiots.
But sadly, four went in, only three came out. One stayed in the water forever—stayed in the memories of their youth.
The counselor girl’s eyes blurred with tears.
"Come on, toss him in!" Jack Young shouted, and with the Fate Guide, he hurled Ethan Zhuo into the lake with a splash. Then the two of them howled and jumped in after, splashing and playing in the water, soaking each other for fun. In this, Jack Young would normally win hands-down, but he didn’t use his martial arts. Skill isn’t a magic weapon—you need heart to deal with Number Two.
From the very beginning, Jack Young’s strategy for the exorcism squad wasn’t about stuff like "still a virgin, failed exams" and all that. Those were just tactics, just surface stuff—not the real heart of it. As Number Two’s college years flashed through his mind, Jack Young suddenly felt a deep connection with him.
So, all the mentors turning around, the goofy lines, the comedy routines—it was all just for a laugh, just to wake up Number Two. And now, it looks like it worked.
What was Number Two’s obsession, anyway?
Even now, with his mind all tangled up, he’s still hung up on one word: graduation.
And Jack Young, everything he did, came back to that same idea.
"Come on, let’s wade across!" The three men—or really, boys—shouted and jostled, racing for the far shore. The lake wasn’t deep; at its deepest, it only reached Jack Young’s shoulders. Amid splashing water, laughter, and forward strides, a mysterious energy seemed to settle around them.
"Number Two, I don’t know why, but I really get you," Jack Young murmured. "You stayed in this water, never finished the journey. You stayed in graduation season, never finished that chapter of life. I think your regret isn’t about resentment—it’s just pure reluctance to let go. I’ve asked myself: If I were you, what would my last wish be? I thought about it for ages, and finally got it—don’t cry, don’t mourn, just mess around and laugh like before. Remember when you want to, forget when you need to. Did I guess right?"
Whoosh—just as he finished, the three of them suddenly seemed to step into a dream world with a vast white backdrop. The sky, the water—nothing changed. But besides the three, there was someone else, laughing, joking, chasing, and running with them. He had no clear form, but somehow everyone knew what he looked like. He had no body, but it felt like he was everywhere.
"You exist, deep in my mind. In my dreams, in my heart, in my songs…" Someone was singing—it was the counselor girl. She stood on the lakeside pavilion, just like two years ago, watching, her eyes shining with tears. She remembered Number Two once secretly telling her that, if he ever made it onto The Voice, he’d sing this song for his classmates. He said that even if they were far apart, they could still hear each other, never forget to cheer him on.
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"You exist, deep in my mind! In my dreams, in my heart, in my songs." Jack Young was singing too, walking and singing, the splashing water his symphony, his Supreme Sentiment Path unfolding. His singing was rougher, bolder. He didn’t know Number Two, but he remembered his own youthful days. At graduation, his buddies ran circles around campus until they collapsed, exhausted.
Number Two isn’t just Number Two. You, me, all of us are Number Two.
That fool running under the night sky—that’s our lost youth.
Without realizing it, the far shore is just ahead.
"Come on, Number Two, get up there!" That "get up" meant a lot of things.
Splash—waves rolled, water churned, and Jack Young was the first to reach the other shore. Then someone else came up too. He had no body, just an idea, not even words to communicate, but Jack Young knew he’d succeeded. The strange white world vanished, and the night sky returned to normal.
A breeze picked up, blowing toward the endless sky, scattering into the vast world.
"Oh man, I’m wiped out." Ethan Zhuo crawled up, flopped onto the grass like a dead dog, panting hard. "Didn’t expect it to be so exhausting. But anyway, Big Bro’s obsession is gone. I don’t know if there’s reincarnation, but here’s hoping he gets to live his best life wherever he ends up!"
Jack Young just smiled, saying nothing. He was back to being the calm Teacher Yang, sighing with a smile that mixed nostalgia and unexpected satisfaction. He rarely sang, but those two heartfelt lines he’d just belted out made the crown chakra bloom with ten more petals, reaching nine hundred sixty. Even his heavy inner demons seemed to loosen a bit in the wake of Number Two’s enlightenment about life and death.
The counselor girl ran over—naturally, she’d crossed the bridge.
"Number Two’s finally free, and so am I. Now I can finally date with nothing holding me back. This feeling—" The counselor girl stretched, showing off her curves. "Ah, so comfy! Hey, you two, want to apply to be my boyfriend? Now’s your best shot—don’t miss out!"
"Hahaha!" The two burst out laughing, then suddenly stopped, like they’d both realized something.
"Just the two of us...?" You look at me, I look at you—yep, definitely two. But weren’t there three who jumped in? "Where’d the kid go?!"
All three whipped around—out on the lake, under the night sky, a pale hand reached up, struggling toward the heavens. The fingers twitched, then finally went limp, sinking slowly like the ending scene of Terminator 2.
"It’s gotta be because you threw your stick and gloves in, pissed off Big Bro! Seriously, is there something wrong with this artificial lake? Why does weird stuff always happen in the middle, dammit!" Ethan Zhuo’s rant echoed across campus.
A minute later, Jack Young zipped over with a triple-swallow lightness skill—well, not really, he had to keep it low-key for the bystanders. But even swimming normally, he was fast. He grabbed the Fate Guide’s hand and hauled him out easily. The kid was tangled up in lake weeds, tied up in a way that looked suspiciously familiar, like a weird party trick.
"Cough, cough!" The Fate Guide hacked and gasped for breath. Jack Young used his internal boxing to gently tap his chest, finally clearing out the water from his lungs and stomach. Once he could breathe, the kid slapped Jack Young on the shoulder, bursting out: "I—I finally figured it out when I was about to die! I finally got it!"
"Figured out what?" He was so excited, he’d forgotten he’d just nearly drowned—had to be something big.
"Hahaha! That old man said I’d never figure it out before my time, but turns out there’s secrets in life and death—I totally caught the cosmic hint!" The Fate Guide was so hyped he nearly ripped his shirt off and streaked to celebrate. "Listen up, what I figured out is—" But just then, the Fate Guide froze, mouth opening and closing, unable to say a word. His eyes flicked past the counselor girl and Ethan Zhuo, finally landing on Jack Young.
"Uh, what I figured out is… your fate is up north." The Fate Guide’s excitement fizzled out; he scratched his head awkwardly. "Don’t dwell on the past, don’t look to the future, don’t worry about now—just focus on the road ahead. You should go north. Inner Mongolia, Baotou City—there’s a clue there to solving your problem."