Just then, Gray saw a big yellow beast. “Tiger!” He grabbed Spoon to stop her from going any farther.

The tiger paced contentedly up and down in the pine grove ahead. It was hard to tell whether it noticed them or not. One thing was certain, though: it did not intend to attack them.

For some reason, Spoon fought to break free of Gray.

“What are you doing, Spoon?” Gray asked anxiously.

In the fierce look that Spoon gave him, Gray saw the old Spoon from the past. He was so shocked and depressed that he felt he was falling into hell. Just as he was struggling in the dark, Spoon angrily broke away from his grip and ran recklessly toward the Amur tiger.

The tiger immediately snatched Spoon up with its mouth, and dragged her into the bushes. Gray raced over madly to hit it with his two-toothed hoe, but the tiger dodged away each time, and his hoe connected only with the ground. The tiger carried Spoon off, and soon ran out of sight. Only Spoon’s excited voice echoed in the air: “Gray, I’m leaving you, I will not come back! You’re on your own now!”

Gray stood there alone. He saw the cliff, and he saw the wild lilies on the slope and some other herbs across from the wild lilies. But now the herbs no longer attracted him; he seemed to be looking at them through another man’s eyes. What had happened just now? Maybe it was a show that Spoon had put on to get away from him? But it was a real tiger, and he could distinctly hear it stepping on the dead leaves. Spoon wouldn’t have been so excited if it weren’t a real tiger. He knew this much about her temperament. She was tired of their work and had impulsively joined the tiger. As Gray imagined scenes of Spoon with the tiger, he unexpectedly felt excited, too. The excitement was followed by frustration. He alternated between excitement and despair for a long time. Finally, he slowly calmed down. “I will be someone like Mrs. Yi,” he said to himself. It was as if his voice were coming from another person. He dug up some wild lilies and trudged down the mountain.

It was late afternoon when he got home. He didn’t understand how time had passed so quickly. It should have been just a little past noon.

While he was eating dinner, Dad was doing his bookkeeping. Gray didn’t pay attention to his father, but his father was observing him. No sooner had he finished his meal than his father came over and sat down at the table.

“Spoon said good-bye to us this afternoon. I wished her luck. She’s a brave girl, and she will be okay in the outside world. We don’t have to worry about her, do we? “

“No, we don’t. But what’s going on?” Gray asked blankly.

“There’s always something in life that you can’t explain at the moment. Earlier this afternoon, your mother and I sat here looking out the window. We saw the you of twenty years from now. Can you believe it?”