Shen Jingwei stood alone, queueing for the entrance to the fountain blast area while the other three people went to stand in line for glazed apples.
Other than him, everyone had at least one partner or family member or friend to accompany them.
Shen Jingwei was the only lone soul in the long line.
Funnily, he felt less alone when the other three people were not around.
Sometimes, solitude was much preferable to being an unwanted company in a crowd.
He must have stood almost an hour when the people standing before him grew less and less, but Yan Renzhong and his two sisters had yet to make their appearances.
Shen Jingwei started craning his neck around to look for them to no avail.
"Excuse me, is it possible for me to delay my turn?" Shen Jingwei asked the gatekeeper.
"No," he said. "If I do that for you, I have to do it for everyone else. The line is never going to diminish."
Shen Jingwei heaved an exasperated sigh.
