'Till Death Do Us Apart 長相守

Chapter 16

XVI

Ch'in Ching spotted a photograph of the late actress named Juan on a poster sometime in March, and it reminded him that he had met Shen Liangsheng around this time last year. He still remembered the situation - he was bent over looking for his glasses with a stampede of feet before his eyes. The next thing he knew, it became quieter. He found his glasses and stood up, and there Shen Liangsheng was, hands clasped behind his back. Despite his bad eyesight, he could see everything brightening. He had felt a bit lightheaded, and his ears rung a little perhaps due to having bent down for too long. His heart skipped a beat, and he felt nervous for some reason which is why he chose to make a joke to hide it.

Now that he thought about it, it almost felt like fate; this world full of evanescence and meaninglessness suddenly went quiet, and when he looked up, it was him.

It was then that he looked up to see the rippling water at Ningyüan. They were strolling along the lakeside to see the peach blossoms that bloomed early this year.

A group of senior high students were taking advantage of the nice weather and rehearsing in the peach tree garden. Ch'in Ching stopped for a moment to eavesdrop to find that it was a scene from Thunderstorm .

Ch'in Ching had attended the showing of Thunderstorm in Tientsin two years ago. He had also followed Ts'ao Yü's Sunrise in Literature Monthly and completely agreed with the author's afterword.

Shen Liangsheng was not interested, but he would listen if Ch'in Ching wanted to talk. The two ambled amongst the trees, and Ch'in Ching talked about novels and
dramas and a quote from the afterword of Sunrise.

"I thirst for a ray of sunlight. I
have not the chance to see the sun
again, yet I wish that I can see
hellfire rain down upon the earth and
crush the phantoms and the ghouls
overrunning it, even if that means
land shall sink into sea."

The two mostly indulged in romantic
affairs and rarely touched on politics. Ch'in Ching could more or less tell that Shen Liangsheng harboured little love for this country - it was reasonable seeing that his childhood in China left few good
memories, and that he went abroad
at such a young age. He did not want
to condemn the other man, so he
simply avoided this topic. He feared
that they might get into a fight if they
delved too deep because no matter
what reason the man had, Ch'in Ching could not and would not agree
with his views.

Meanwhile, Shen Liangsheng
did not take this to heart as much as
the schoolmaster did. He only kept a
close eye on the politics for business, not for dating. Furthermore, he had learned the Western mindset of allowing
everybody to have their own opinions. Therefore, even if they did discuss it in detail, he would not get into an argument with Ch'in Ching.

Hence, Shen Liangsheng did not pay much attention to the rare display by Ch'in Ching regarding his political stance. He only thought the man looked rather quiet and wistful as he stood under the flowers in traditional ch'angshan staring at the
sparkling ripples not far off, his
expression not as grand and noble
as the quote had sounded. Shen
Liangsheng saw before him a watercolour painting on rice paper reminiscent of the ancient times, and he had the urge to kiss the man. But they were in public, so he instead teased, "Remember, you can't swim, Missus Shen. I can save you if you
fall into the lake, but if the land
becomes sea, we'll just have to
stick it out at the bottom of the sea
together."

With that distraction, Ch'in
Ching couldn't stay worried about
the state of the nation any longer. He
grumbled, as he glared at the other
man with a blush, "Hush, you."

Speaking of the month of March,
Shen Liangsheng had a swell time.
The fact alone that Miss Jenny Wang
had convinced her old man, with her
persuasive tactics, to secure a ticket
back to the United States was
enough to make him a very happy
man.