An aging businessman sits alone in a room full of old trophies, until a phone call from his granddaughter makes him pick up the pen again.
Dust on the Trophy
李明搬了把矮凳，坐到前面。
Li Ming pulled over a low stool and sat down in front of the display cabinet.
架子上一排，最大的那个是二〇〇五年的，他用袖口擦了擦上面的灰。
A row of trophies lined the shelf; the biggest one was from 2005, and he wiped the dust off it with his sleeve.
玻璃上映出他的脸，比上刻的那个名字老多了。
His face was reflected in the glass, far older than the name engraved on the trophy.
桌上的座机三个月没响过一次了。
The landline on the desk hadn't rung once in three months.
他把杯子放回原位，手停在半空，又轻轻挪正了一点。
He set the trophy back in its place, paused with his hand in midair, then gently nudged it a little straighter.
The Old Curled Map
他从抽屉底下抽出一张地图，边都卷起来了，还沾着茶渍。
He pulled a map out from the bottom of the drawer; the edges had curled up, and it was still stained with tea.
Li Ming
二十三岁那年，就靠这张破图走了一千多公里。
When I was twenty-three, I walked over a thousand kilometers with nothing but this beat-up map.
图上有个用红笔画的圈，旁边歪歪扭扭写着“老周请客”四个字。
There was a circle drawn in red on the map, and scrawled beside it in crooked handwriting were the words "Old Zhou's treat."
那天他们没钱住店，几个人挤在路边的小庙里熬了一夜。
That day they had no money for an inn, so the few of them squeezed into a little roadside temple and toughed out the night.
如今老周不在了，这张图也再没人看得懂上面的。
Old Zhou was gone now, and no one was left who could make sense of the marks on this map.
The Granddaughter's Phone Call
座机突然响了，他愣了一下才接起来。
The landline suddenly rang, and he froze for a moment before picking it up.
Granddaughter
爷爷，老师让写一篇“家里最老的人讲故事”，我能写您吗？
Grandpa, my teacher told us to write about "the oldest person at home telling a story"—can I write about you?
Li Ming
我有啥好写的，不就是做了几年买卖嘛。
What's there to write about me? I just ran a business for a few years, that's all.
Granddaughter
可妈妈说，您年轻的时候比谁都呀！您写下来嘛，我照着念。
But Mom says when you were young you were braver than anyone! Just write it down, and I'll read it out loud from that.
挂了电话，他盯着那张旧地图看了很久。
After hanging up, he stared at that old map for a long while.
Picking Up the Pen Again
他翻出一个旧笔记本，第一页空了二十年。
He dug out an old notebook; its first page had sat blank for twenty years.
在纸上顿了顿，他先写下“老周”两个字。
The tip of the pen hesitated on the paper, and the first thing he wrote was the name "Old Zhou."
写着写着，他忽然想起庙里那夜，几个人冻得直，却笑个没完。
As he wrote, he suddenly remembered that night in the temple, the few of them stamping their feet against the cold yet laughing without end.
Li Ming
那灰啊，让它落着吧，故事可不能也跟着。
Let the dust settle if it wants to—but the stories, those can't be left to gather dust too.
窗外天快黑了，台灯下，那一页终于不再是空的。
Outside the window the sky was darkening, and under the desk lamp, that page was finally no longer blank.