Three years later, at the beginning of summer.
Yun Sisi stood on the champion's podium of the women's division at the D City Taekwondo Championship, watching the cheers from the crowd, the flashing lights from various online media, with a sense of being in another lifetime.
Three years, thirty-six months, one thousand ninety-five days.
These days have been far too long.
When the award presenter hung the gold medal around her neck and handed her the trophy, she didn't feel as happy as people would imagine.
In these three years, she worked hard every day to make ends meet, studying, practicing Taekwondo, and running her specialty restaurant, with still half a year to go before the lunar New Year's Day agreed upon four years ago.
Winning the championship in the women's division came as a surprise to her and meant she would directly represent D City in the preliminaries of the national Taekwondo championship a month later.