Lin Shengmiao: "Please treat me to candy."
"You only remember the candy. I was just nervous, and I happened to have some candy in my pocket, so I took it out."
Xu Xingyan laughed and scolded, then said, "I think this must be a match made in heaven."
Absolutely not to be missed!
Lin Shengmiao paused for a second, then said, "I want to kiss you."
Xu Xingyan laughed, "Then hurry up!"
...
Fang Yi, who was strolling hand in hand with her husband in the house, froze as soon as she stepped into the corridor. Looking at their intertwined figures, she felt a mix of emotions.
Xu Yuming glanced at her, then half-embraced his wife and took another route, saying softly, "It's nothing, it's just that our little princess has fallen in love with another family's little princess, so we'll have two princesses in the future."
Fang Yi pinched him and chuckled, "Do you think this is a royal palace?"
Xu Yuming kissed her forehead and whispered, "Is there anything wrong with that, my Queen?"
...
This small balcony was hardly a secluded place. Not long after Fang Yi and her husband left, Chen Yue and Luo Bin, who had just put their son to sleep, also came here for a walk.
Luo Bin clicked his tongue and said, "He's really young."
Chen Yue grabbed his collar, "Stop looking."
"Let me look at her a little longer," Luo Bin said in a low voice, his eyes sparkling. "I always thought Yan Yan was frigid, and I was worried about it for a long time."
In the end, Chen Yue violently drove him away.
As they were going down the stairs, Luo Bin said, "Do you remember when we weren't dating yet, there was this time when we went out and a little bug flew into your eye? You asked me to get it out for you, and your face was so close to mine that I almost thought you wanted me to kiss you?"
Chen Yue patted him on the shoulder, "My eyes were hurting at the time, I didn't have any of your fancy ideas."
"That's not necessarily true," Luo Bin said with a smile, leaning closer. "With my good looks, you might just fall for me."
Chen Yue thought for a moment, "If you had kissed me back then, I might not have refused."
After all, Luo Bin was a real campus heartthrob during his university days, which made people's hearts flutter.
"but……"
Chen Yue: "I might not marry you later."
Luo Bin: "We might not be able to go that far."
The two spoke at the same time, then looked at each other and smiled.
Happiness is never accidental. All the good things we have today are the result of choices made over the long years to come.
--------------------
Author's Note:
Happy reading!
My longing for you is like the full moon, its light waning night after night—[Tang Dynasty] Zhang Jiuling's "On the Departure of My Beloved"
Chapter 40: A Lingering Melody, Ultimately a Fading Echo
Tao Jie, carrying her laptop bag, asked, "Our work in Kyoto will end next month. Will you go straight back to Shanghai, or go to the southern part of the city first?"
“I’ve already spoken to Yan Yan about Shen Cheng,” Lin Shengmiao sighed. “She has an art exhibition to attend in February and some other things to prepare, so she’s very busy.”
"Shouldn't Xu Xingyan be going back in the next couple of days?"
"Yes, my flight is at nine o'clock tomorrow morning."
“There’s nothing much to do here,” Tao Jie said with a smile, flipping through the documents in her hand. “You can go on your date if you want, I’ll take care of the rest of the work.”
“Okay,” Lin Shengmiao said cheerfully without being polite, “I’ll bring you milk tea tomorrow.”
...
"Where are you taking me?" Xu Xingyan touched the amethyst chain hanging on the rearview mirror. Her sister-in-law loved crystals and had one in every car.
"The zoo, didn't you say you wanted to see tiger cubs? Well, I happen to have a college classmate who runs a small private zoo around here." Lin Shengmiao glanced at her during a red light and, sure enough, saw her sneaking snacks that Luo Yang had left in the car again.
“Eat less. When I picked up Luoyang yesterday, he counted them again and was very upset when he found that a few were missing. It wasn’t easy to collect so many.”
“You’re almost closer to Xiao Shiwu than I am now,” Xu Xingyan said, scattering the cheese stick and chewing it in two bites. “My sister-in-law called me yesterday and said she found a bunch of candy under Xiao Shiwu’s pillow. That kid was so stubborn and wouldn’t say a word. My sister-in-law had to trick him into revealing you.”
Lin Shengmiao blinked: "...I bought it last Thursday, and he hasn't finished it yet?"
Xu Xingyan shrugged: "He's like a hamster. He's always been like this since he was little. He likes to hoard everything and only starts eating it slowly when he has a huge pile of it. If you didn't know better, you'd think he was preparing food reserves for winter."
"Liangzi," Lin Shengmiao waved to the young man waiting at the door with Xu Xingyan.
Zhao Raoliang smiled and walked over quickly: "Shengmiao, it's been a long time." He then turned to Xu Xingyan, showing no emotion at their clasped hands. "You must be Miss Xu. I heard Shengmiao mention you before. You've come at the right time. We just had two tiger cubs born here last month, and they're just able to come out and bask in the sun on their own."
Zhao Raoliang was a young man who looked very mature. Although he was the same age as Lin Shengmiao, he already had very obvious silver hair on his head, making him look like a generation older at first glance.
"You can just call me Xingyan," Xu Xingyan said, her eyes brightening slightly. "Will a one-month-old tiger cub bite? Can we pet it?"
Zhao Raoliang chuckled and said, "No problem, I'll take you there."
"This lively, big-eared one is called Leha, the older brother; this quiet one is called Meigu, the younger sister. The older brother was born five minutes earlier than the younger sister..."
Zhao Raoliang bent down and skillfully picked up Meigu, pinching its little paws.
Xu Xingyan grasped it, rubbed its thick paw pads, and couldn't help but reach into the little tiger's belly to rub it. The joy of petting the big cat made her excited, and the fear of facing the king of the forest was quickly forgotten. Xiao Meigu also ran from Zhao Raoliang's arms to her own.
"Miaomiao, look, it's smacking its lips."
Although it was Xu Xingyan's first time teasing tiger cubs, she was a master at petting cats. In less than ten minutes, Xiao Meigu was impressed by her skillful technique and took the initiative to rub against her palm. Under the warm sunshine, Lin Shengmiao squatted down and rubbed the other tiger cub, looking at her with a smile.
When Zhao Raoliang returned carrying two bottles of jasmine tea, he saw this scene. His fingers tightened slightly, his expression became dazed, and a sour feeling welled up in his heart.
In his memory, there was always a little girl with a round face, a pair of bright and clear almond-shaped eyes, and two little tiger teeth that would show when she smiled. She especially loved furry little animals and was the most beautiful and best girl in the world... If only he could see her again.
Lin Shengmiao appeared beside him at some point, her eyes never leaving Xu Xingyan, and whispered, "Are you planning to keep running this zoo here forever?"
“Yes,” Zhao Raoliang came back to his senses, blinked his sore eyes, and smiled, “I quite like these little guys. Anyway, one person is full and the whole family isn’t hungry.”
Lin Shengmiao didn't say anything more, only saying, "Indeed, it's quite good."
Zhao Raoliang glanced at her sideways and said, "I thought you were here to persuade me too."
“You’re overthinking it. I’m just accompanying Yan Yan to see the tiger cubs and to see you by the way,” Lin Shengmiao said with a faint sigh. “Besides, if you were really going to be persuaded, it wouldn’t be my place to do it.”
"That's true, you've never liked to meddle in other people's business."
Zhao Raoliang's gaze fell on Xu Xingyan, who was playing happily with the little tiger cub. After a long while, he chuckled and said, "They always think that I am wasting my talent here, wasting my time, and being discouraged into self-destruction. But I don't think so. I am at ease and enjoying myself."
“It’s rare for you to come all this way, so I should do my best to be a good host,” Zhao Raoliang said, picking up the two tiger cubs with one hand each. “Although my place isn’t big, the soil and water are pretty good. I’ve planted some vegetables and raised a few chickens in the back of the yard. You can also try my cooking.”
Xu Xingyan felt a little embarrassed. After all, she had come all this way, and it was already a lot of trouble for them to take the time to entertain her and even cook for her.
Lin Shengmiao put his arm around her shoulder and laughed, "Don't be polite with him. He used to be our class monitor. Every time we organized a picnic, he was the one who prepared the ingredients and watched the fire to grill the skewers. He was very good at it."
Zhao Raoliang clicked his tongue, "You guys are just bullying honest people, a bunch of heartless bastards."
"Come on," Lin Shengmiao rolled her eyes. "We're all just ordinary people who've been tricked by you, you sly fox, so of course we're going to team up and get our revenge when we finally get a chance."
In just a few words, Xu Xingyan recounted their harmonious university days, resting her chin on Lin Shengmiao's shoulder and listening with a smile.
...
On the way back, Xu Xingyan made a point of asking about Zhao Raoliang. There was no way around it; his half-gray hair and melancholic demeanor made him look like someone with a story to tell.
"He... was one of our teacher's favorite students. He was a prominent figure in school, excelling academically, humorous, and generous..."
Lin Shengmiao recalled the past with a slight sigh, "However... after his girlfriend left, he remained silent for a long time, and I heard that he later dropped out of school."
Lin Shengmiao didn't know much about what happened after that, since she had already gone abroad as an exchange student by then.
"Gone?" Xu Xingyan was startled and asked, "Did...transfer schools or..."
Lin Shengmiao: "Car accident."
“They studied in different cities. Liangzi’s family wasn’t well-off, and plane tickets were too expensive. Back then, we often worked part-time together. I earned tuition and living expenses, and he earned money for plane tickets. However, his girlfriend’s family was quite wealthy. When she found out, she felt sorry for him and always rushed to buy her own plane ticket and fly over. She died in an accident in a taxi on her way to the airport. It’s said that she was on the phone with Liangzi at the time, and she said… she wanted to have a daughter, and her nickname would be Grape…”
Xu Xingyan closed her eyes; this was too cruel.
One second his beloved girl was laughing and chatting with him about the future, and the next second everything was desolate, the person he wanted to see was lying in a pool of blood, and he would never see her again. The future became cold and pale.
“His girlfriend’s name is Han Yuyin,” Lin Shengmiao took a deep breath, her voice choked with emotion, “Back then, we always joked with them, saying that even their names were so well-matched, it must have been fate…”
Unfortunately, the lingering melody, though beautiful, has become a thing of the past.
Lin Shengmiao recalled the summer vacation of her sophomore year. She and Zhao Raoliang worked part-time at a milk tea shop. During the midday sun, there were not many customers, so they took the opportunity to steal a break. She took the time to study Russian, while Zhao Raoliang was writing something on the bar. She asked him out of curiosity, and Zhao Raoliang smiled and told her that he was thinking about proposing in advance.
At the time, Lin Shengmiao jokingly said that he was too impatient, and that graduation was still a long way off, yet he was already thinking about getting married.
Looking back now, even that most ordinary noon has become a source of sadness. No wonder Zhao Raoliang preferred to stay in the zoo and live a mundane life rather than come out. It's because the other person had left too many deep marks on his life, and seeing any familiar people or things would inevitably evoke painful memories.
Actually, during her university years, seeing her classmates in pairs, Lin Shengmiao once had the idea of going to find Xu Xingyan. However, she was slapped hard by this incident. When she was most devastated, Zhao Raoliang asked her if Han Yuyin would not have gone to the airport and would not have died if they hadn't been together.
Lin Shengmiao firmly refuted him at the time, logically and righteously, but... that long-debated phone call was ultimately not made.
After that, until they drove to the hotel, neither of them spoke again. The scenery outside the car window changed, but the two inside the car had no interest in appreciating it; each was lost in their own thoughts.
...
In the warm spring of March, the peach blossoms in the southern part of the city are in full bloom.
Xu Xingyan gently stroked the orange cat, her voice sweet and affectionate: "Bubble, look at the little mat Auntie bought for you, do you like it? It's for when you have babies..."
The orange cat's belly was slightly protruding. It whimpered softly, its eyes half-closed, and the whole cat looked warm and cozy as it curled up into a ball on the blanket by the bookstore window.
Seeing that she was about to feed the orange cat cat treats again, Chen Tianhe, a bookstore employee who was slacking off nearby, laughed and said, "Sister Xingyan, don't feed it any. Last time we went to the vet for an ultrasound, the doctor thought it was carrying three or four kittens because its belly was so big. But when the machine came up, it turned out to be carrying two kittens. Its belly is just from eating too much."
Bubble probably realized that this guy was going to cut back on its food, so it immediately stopped acting like a lazy lady, sat up abruptly, and bared its teeth at Chen Tianhe.
"Oh, don't be angry," Xu Xingyan pulled the cat into her arms and whispered to comfort the pregnant woman, "We'll ignore him, Auntie will buy you lots and lots of snacks..."
"Huh..." Xu Xingyan looked around and asked, "We've been here for so long, why haven't we seen Sister Ying? Where did she go? Isn't she in the shop?"
"Oh, she went out to catch cats," Chen Tianhe sighed, somewhat wistfully.
Xu Xingyan: "Catch a cat? What kind of cat?"