The Crack of Light
Chapter 1: The Grey Window
Lin Xiao sat on the bay window of her rented apartment, her knees drawn to her chin, her gaze fixed on the bare plane tree outside. It was midwinter, but she felt the chill had seeped into her bones half a year ago and never left.
Her phone screen lit up and dimmed again—it was a voice message from her mother: "Xiaoxiao, are you coming home this weekend? Your dad stewed your favorite pork ribs..." She didn't play it back. Her fingertip hovered over the delete button for a long time before she erased the words "I don't want to come back" and typed instead, "Working overtime, maybe next time."
In fact, she had already been laid off from her company. At last week's team meeting, her boss had called her into the office, where the proposal she'd spent three days on lay spread across the desk, covered in dense red annotations. "Xiao Lin, it's not about your ability—it's your state... You've been so listless all the time; clients won't feel confident about us, will they?" The boss's words were gentle, but she understood the implication—she was a dead weight, her very presence carrying a sense of gloom, unworthy of being part of that dynamic team.
After leaving the office, she didn't take a taxi but walked along the street for two hours. The reflection in the shop window showed a pale face, eyes devoid of light—no different from the plastic mannequins inside. Passing an overpass, an old woman selling balloons called out to her: "Miss, buy a balloon! Red, blue—they fly real high!" Lin Xiao shook her head, but the old woman pressed a transparent balloon into her hand: "It's free, just to share some good cheer with you!"
The balloon felt light in her grasp, yet she couldn't shake the feeling it would slip away at any moment and drift beyond her reach. Back home, she tied it to the foot of her bed and watched it sway under the ceiling, like a lost soul without direction.
That night, insomnia struck again. Her mind was a tangled mess—one moment her teacher saying "Why are you so worthless?" from her school days, the next her ex-boyfriend's words "Being with you is too tiring," then the whispers of colleagues in the pantry. She reached into the nightstand for a bottle of pills, poured out two white tablets, and swallowed them with cold water.
As the medication took effect, she thought drowsily: Maybe tomorrow, a new leaf will grow on that tree outside?
Chapter 2: A Stranger at the Door
The doorbell rang when Lin Xiao was huddled on the sofa wrapped in a quilt. She peered through the peephole for a while before recognizing her neighbor from across the hall—Su Yang, a young man she'd run into a few times in the elevator. He was quiet, always wearing a faded denim jacket.
"Um... I made some porridge and thought you might not have eaten," Su Yang said, holding up a thermal container, his eyes a little uneasy. "I seemed to hear noises from your place last night, was worried about you..."
Lin Xiao was stunned—she hadn't thought anyone would notice her. After a moment's hesitation, she opened the door: "Thank you, but I... I'm not really hungry."
"Just have a little. It's millet and pumpkin porridge, good for your stomach," Su Yang said, changing his shoes and walking in on his own. "Why is it so dark in here?" He pulled back the curtains, and sunlight flooded in—Lin Xiao raised her hand instinctively to shield her eyes.
The room was messy: empty takeout boxes piled on the coffee table, crumpled clothes strewn over the sofa. Only the transparent balloon tied to the bed swayed gently in the air. Su Yang said nothing, quietly tidying up the trash on the table and opening the window to let in fresh air.
"I didn't mean to intrude," he said, sitting down across from her on the sofa. "I used to be... much like you are now."
Lin Xiao looked up sharply, a flicker of hope she hadn't noticed in her eyes.
"Right after graduation, my startup failed and I was drowning in debt. Every day felt like the end of the world," Su Yang pointed to his head. "It was like being wrapped in a dark cloth bag—no way to breathe. Later my sister dragged me to see a doctor, and that's when I found out it was depression..."
He pulled a crumpled notebook from his bag: "I wrote this back then. You can read it if you want."
As Lin Xiao took the notebook, her fingertips brushing the cover, she suddenly felt that bit of sunlight had truly found its way into her heart—tearing a narrow crack through the thick grey clouds above.