With Bianka's leap, the two of them stopped their forward momentum.
The lights that had been following them quickly overtook them, spreading forward as they watched.
A small cabin lit up in front of them, and then the light stopped changing.
It was as if the ball of light they had been chasing had finally stopped running and was waiting for them at the end of the road they had paved.
"'Kiana', you can put me down now..." Aizahár's dark pupils reflected the light from the cabin. Bianka quickly put her down and helped her to stand steadily by her side.
Looking at the unique Ferris wheel cabin, the two of them glanced at each other, then stepped forward and walked towards it.
Compared to their previous mad dash, the two of them now carefully entered the cabin. Bianka helped Aizahár to sit down, and she herself sat opposite her.
The two of them sat opposite each other for a moment, looking at each other. This time, without anyone starting, both of them smiled at the same time.
"That was exciting..." Aizahár took a deep breath, leaned back, supported herself with her hands, and looked up at the ceiling of the cabin.
Bianka nodded in agreement. The light was running unusually fast, and she almost couldn't catch up.
"That was really close..." Bianka sighed, wiping away non-existent sweat with a lingering fear in her heart.
Aizahár waved her hand at Bianka with a look of shame. "No, no, I don't think we're talking about the same kind of thrilling."
"Is that so?"
Bianka was a little surprised, but after thinking about it, she understood what Aizahár found thrilling.
After all, it was a height that would surprise even her. It was normal for Aizahár to be afraid.
"This should be the end of it, right..." Aizahár didn't want to dwell on this matter. She looked through the cabin window at the direction they had come from, at the lights that were constantly lighting up around her, and felt an indescribable emotion in her heart.
This feeling was very strange. Aizahár didn't know where the sense of fulfillment in her heart came from. It was a feeling of not having lived in vain.
It seemed that life... was enough at this point, right?
No, no, no.
Aizahár gently shook her head, took a deep breath to fill her chest, trying to make her small body a little straighter.
Life was still very long! Although there was only one cabin, she had already seen the Ferris wheel light up...
The air was let out...
Aizahár's heart, which had not yet calmed down, suddenly became silent at this moment. The frantic heartbeat became a long, flat line, and in the electrocardiogram in her mind, it became a straight line.
Her childhood... had it ended just like that?
Aizahár looked down at her hands. Her thin, withered hands were definitely not good-looking. The prominent knuckles made the whole hand look like a ferocious ghost's claw, and her fingernails were also pale yellow.
Most importantly... it was small, definitely not the hand of an adult.
But she was already an adult...
It was a little... sudden.
Aizahár only now realized that she seemed to be unprepared to grow up. She was like a student who had been forced to end her studies, stepping into a society she didn't understand with a mixture of ignorance and trepidation.
"I..." Aizahár wanted to say something to encourage herself, but after opening her mouth for a long time, she couldn't utter a single word.
The movement in front of her made Aizahár regain some of her attention. She looked at Bianka, who was leaning forward and looking around the cabin curiously, and couldn't help but feel a little envious.
Even though Bianka was a few years older than her, she seemed to be the one taking care of her, the more mature one.
With this comparison, Aizahár felt a little better. At least she was a little more mature than ordinary people...
Wait, she wasn't an ordinary person, was she?
"'Kiana'..." Aizahár said in a low voice. Bianka immediately sat up straight and looked at her.
"What's wrong?" Bianka asked curiously.
"Uh... nothing," It was impolite to ask Bianka who she was or why she had such extraordinary abilities. Aizahár could only suppress her curiosity and say:
"What do you think... growing up is like?"
Growing up? Did she mean getting bigger physically?
Bianka recalled the process of her own body shrinking, then tried to reverse it, and thus got the experience of "growing up."
"Maybe it's just unknowingly discovering that you're different from before..." Bianka said very seriously.
"Is it... unknowingly?"
"It's like you suddenly feel that you've grown a lot, but in reality, you've been growing quietly every minute and every second, but you just didn't notice," Bianka explained her心得体 (xīndé tǐhuì - insights and experiences) in detail.
Aizahár nodded thoughtfully, and her clenched fists slowly relaxed.
So that's how it was?
Growing up was not a result, but a long process. In fact, she had been growing up all along, but now, she had just reached the end.
Childhood was the entire process of growing up. It started with a peaceful carousel and ended here on the Ferris wheel.
But, why the Ferris wheel?
Just then, a certain mother who was in a hurry to make repairs kicked a handle down, and the two of them only heard the roar of a motor. The next moment, the cabin they were sitting in trembled slightly.
Aizahár's thoughts were temporarily put on hold. She frantically grabbed the handrail on the Ferris wheel to steady herself.
When she looked up, she saw that the light had changed again.
This time, she climbed up the pillar of the Ferris wheel and lit up one empty cabin after another.
Aizahár's gaze moved with the light, watching the entire outline of the Ferris wheel be illuminated by this beam of light.
The roar of the motor began to ring in their ears. With a slight tremor, Aizahár suddenly discovered that the world outside the cabin had shifted.
The Ferris wheel... had started to turn!
Her childhood still had a lingering charm. Aizahár and Bianka both leaned against the window of the Ferris wheel cabin, their eyes wide as they looked at the world outside.
As the Ferris wheel turned, their view became higher and higher, gradually passing over the amusement park rides that had already been lit up.
The world of light began to spread out below them, and the fleeting glimpse they had in the air was quickly reassembling in front of Aizahár.
The two of them got higher and higher...
...until they were looking down on the entire amusement park.
So that's it...
The end point is on the Ferris wheel precisely because only on the Ferris wheel can you see everything you have experienced...