.She suddenly had the impulse to palm her face…...only a pa.s.sionate
young teenager would read this kind of magazine. It was kind of embarra.s.sing
to let grandma, who was an eighty year old intellectual, to read it. She
grabbed the magazine, quickly closing it. “Grandma! Just ask me any
question you might have right now. Don’t read this!”
“Why did you close my magazine…...I think it was pretty good reading.”
Qianxi insisted on holding the magazine tightly, refusing to let go. Grandma
finally compromised and smiled. “Are you shy?”
“......” Qianxi lowered head silently. She happened to see the cover of the
magazine. The t.i.tle for Xu Jimo’s interview was in the largest font on the
cover page. She bit her lips and finally summoned up the courage to raise
her head. “Grandma……”
“Uhm?”
“You, dad, and mom…...what do you think about him?”
“You need to ask your parents. As for me, I don’t understand what"s popular
among young people anymore.” Grandma took off her gla.s.ses and smiled.
“But grandma likes him. He isn’t frivolous and is motivated, that’s enough for
a young man. As for what profession he’s in and how successful he is, those
are all minor issues.”
“Grandma was old-fashioned and stubborn when I was young. Grandma was
sorry for what had happened to your aunt. Now I let you young people decide
for yourself.” Her hand, which was full of wrinkles, stroked Qianxi’s hair a
couple of times. She gently said, “Grandma’s confident in my little Qianxi’s
good taste.”
Qianxi, moved by her words, embraced her grandmother. They talked deep
into the night. She went back to her room only after grandma was readying
to go to bed.
She lied on her bed to check her cell phone. As expected, there wasn’t any
new messages.
He simply didn’t have the habit of reporting to her his whereabouts at all.
Somewhat gloomy, she messaged him. “Are you back to base yet?”
Qianxi went to open the drapery on the window. The rain outside seemed
to grow heavier and heavier. The leaves of the paG.o.da tree in the yard rustled.
Standing in front of the window, she messaged again. “Did you find ten
thousand creeks or hundreds of thousands of creeks?”
“No. I am still downstairs.”
! ! !
Qianxi stood on her tiptoes and leaned on the window. She saw a familiar
car parked outside the yard. She sent a string of exclamation marks. “What’s
wrong with you?”
But Xu Jimo replied very slowly.
The screen displayed that he was typing. It was on and off, he typed for what
seemed like ages.
She waited patiently. What came were a few short messages-- --
“I had to act as if I was calm earlier, but actually I felt like I was playing the finals.”
“I have never gotten wet from the rain for anybody. And I have never gotten
soaked from the rain and still missed that person.”
“I promised your parents that I will wait for you. It doesn’t matter whether you
plan on staying abroad four or five years, or even longer. I will always wait for
you.”
“So I’m getting used to the feeling of waiting for you.”
The messages appeared on screen line by line.
They weren’t in any particular order. It seemed like he was only typing whatever
came to mind. But her mood was rose and fell with each sentence like the waves
on the ocean.
Her phone continued to ring.
“I will wait for you regardless of wind and rain.”
He said.
There was lump in her throat, tears began to well up in her eyes. It seemed that
soon her eyes would pour rain for him too.
This was the key problem.
Two people from different worlds. They met because they were at the same
intersection of two roads, but they would continue to keep walking on their own
chosen path. They didn’t know where their next intersection would be.
Neither of them was willing to give up their own dreams and so they had to
tolerate the separation.
But she was quite an attached child. She would rather drag him to city hall for
a wedding certificate whenever she was made fun of by her cousin and her
husband. She wanted to be with him twenty-four hours a day.
But they had to tolerate the separation of more than ten thousand kilometers apart.
Qianxi dialed his phone as fast as she could.
The sound of rain falling filled the speaker. They were only more than ten meters
apart, but the pouring rain on the phone sounded fiercer than what she saw.
“Three years.” Qian gripped her teeth and said., “No matter how hard it is, how
impossible it is, I will get my degree in three years.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It does matter.” She said, “I want to come back as quickly as I can. It’s not
because four or five years is very long, it’s because a lifetime is very short. So
I won’t allow you to waste any time without me at your side.”
Translated by Team DHH at