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Chapter 43 – Submitting (2)

When Su Tian found Liu Kaiyan, he was sitting on the steps in front of the People’s Plaza. The dim street lights cast long shadows that covered him up entirely. Twisted and ferocious, they look like monsters from comics that were baring their teeth and waving their claws, threatening to swallow him whole.

The young man sat there with his arms around his knees. Fluttering in the wind was a stack of tore up papers in front of him held down by a piece of rock.

His head was lowered. He was staring at the ground. He didn’t even notice Su Tian walking over to his side.

The notebook that he drew Kaka on was torn into pieces and covered in footprints. Su Tian could more or piece together the entire event in her head from the violent remains.

One small piece of the paper floated up from under the rock because of the wind and landed in front of Su Tian’s feet. On it, she could still make out half of Kaka’s body and half of its face.

She bent over, picked it up, and put it back under the rock.

Liu Kaiyan’s eyes moved. He had finally noticed Su Tian’s presence.

He didn’t look up. When he called her, he only wanted to tell her that the ending she had drawn for Kaka had been destroyed.

He never thought she would find him.

Su Tian sat down next to Liu Kaiyan. She didn’t say anything to console him, nor did she ask what had happened. She just sat there next to him.

After a long while, Liu Kaiyan finally started to talk.

“My mom found Kaka. She forbid me to draw again. She said it’d affect my school work.”

And that’s all he said. He didn’t mention how Lin Xiuping had hidden a surveillance camera inside the house; how she found out about him sneaking out at night; how she found the notebook he had hidden outside; and how she tore the notebook into pieces right in front of him.

Of course his well-educated parents understood the metaphor of who Kaka was, who was the circus was, what the whip represented. Yet, that only made them angrier. They felt that Liu Kaiyan was being ungrateful. And that later in life, he’d understand that they have done all these with his best interest in mind.

Ho ho, with his best interest in mind.

Su Tian did not comment on whether Lin Xiuping’s behavior was justifiable. Criticizing Lin Xiuping at this point would do no good other than aggravating the already emotionally unstable Liu Kaiyan.

Lin Xiuping would not change the way she thought because of her.

Su Tian bent over and picked up all the pieces and then said to him, “Let’s tape Kaka back together!”

Tape it back together?

Liu Kaiyan was dumbfounded. Then he lifted the corners of his mouth sarcastically, “It will just be torn up again.”

Su Tian, “Then we come up with a way that Kaka can never be torn up again.”

Liu Kaiyan lifted his head and looked at Su Tian quietly.

Holding the pieces in her arms, she gave it some serious thoughts.

Suddenly, she had an idea and her face was filled with joy, “I got it, Liu Kaiyan. Let’s submit Kaka to a publisher!”

Liu Kaiyan looked at her dumbfounded.

The more she thought about it, the more she thought it was a good idea. Invigorated, she said, “If a publisher accepted our submission, Kaka will be printed into comics and circulated on the market. Then, comics of Kaka will be available at bookstores all over the country. Many will come to learn about Kaka, and grow to love him....”

Su Tian painted a bright future.

She said, “Look, that way even if one book with Kaka printed on it was torn up, he will continue to live in people’s hearts.”

Under the warm glow of the street lamps, Su Tian’s eyes were sparkling, like stars. She reached her hand out and placed it gently on Liu Kaiyan’s chest and asked, “Just like the ending of Kaka. Even though it was torn up, it will continue to live in your heart, right?”

Many years from now, Liu Kaiyan would still remember this moment.

Su Tian had saved him twice.

Once was outside the front entrance of the school when she had caught the basketball, and pulled him out from the cold and endless darkness.

The second time was right now. She had opened up a new path for him. It might be full of obstacles; it might be rough and lonely; it might lead to nowhere....

But, he was willing to go down this path.