The Healing Sunshine (一厘米的阳光)

Chapter 13.1 - Hidden in the Depths of the Heart (1)

As several things had happened one after the other after she passed her sixteenth birthday, she had not had the time to go get her resident identity card. It was only when her college entrance examinations were almost upon her that she remembered this. She still had enough time to get it in time for the registration for college entrance exams, but it was too late to have the identity card for her application to Peking University's foreign small languages program. As a result, she had no choice but to make a trip back home and ask for her hukou booklet from Grandfather.

Ever since all those things happened, she had already decreased her frequency of going home.

Jì Chengyang seemed to understand all that she was thinking. On Friday night, he personally drove her back to the military compound. However, to avoid arousing suspicion and creating issues, he also went home to visit his brother, sister-in-law, and Nuannuan. The two arranged that in two hours, at eight o'clock, they would meet up again at the grounds of the former primary school.

When Jǐ Yi walked out at the agreed time, she happened to be in time to see Nuannuan also stepping out, holding on to Jì Chengyang's arm and reluctant to see him go. She hastily turned away.

Catching sight of her backside, Nuannuan called, "Xixi."

Jǐ Yi turned back, a feigned expression of surprise on her face.

"How long has it been since you last saw my little uncle?" Nuannuan's eyes were curved into a smile. "Hurry. Come and say a few words."

"... Little Uncle Jì." Jǐ Yi felt a little discomfited. "Have you been busy lately?"

Jì Chengyang gave her an insipid glance. "A little busy. You guys are having your college entrance exams soon. You'll need to make every minute count and study more." In a solemn manner, he said a few more sentences, though most were directed at Nuannuan.

In the end, Nuannuan could not handle him anymore and kept shoving Jì Chengyang away, saying, "Hurry up and go, hurry up and go. I wanted you to talk to Xixi for a bit. How did it become a mini meeting to criticize me?"

Jǐ Yi could not hold back a giggle. She watched as he pulled out his black car remote key from his pocket. In the night's darkness, the car made a sound in response when he unlocked it. Then, he sat into the vehicle and drove away.

Nuannuan knew that Jǐ Yi no longer went back often to stay in her grandfather's home. Seeing that the time was already past eight o'clock, she urged her to hurry back to the school. "It's dark already. I'll go find you tomorrow and listen to you tell me about the whole situation with applying to foreign small language studies. Hurry and go now."

Jǐ Yi nodded, and with her schoolbag on her bag on her back, she slipped into the blackness that curtained the night. She could be considered to have escaped.

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Her body felt a little limp. After walking for a short while, she turned around to look for Nuannuan. Confirming that Nuannuan had already gone back over to the building doors, she finally strode into the little park beside the building. If she cut through here, with the darkness, absolutely no one would see her. Once she passed the several covered walkways, she would be at the old location of the nursery school, and then beside the nursery school was the primary school she had once attended.

Jì Chengyang had parked his car at the old shuttle bus stop and then walked over here. By chance, she had also just finished cutting through the park.

On that paved road where there were no people, only streetlamps, the two walked towards each other, both coming to a stop at the same time in front of the primary school's little iron gate. She was not certain why, but with each step that she had taken towards this spot, it had been as if she was walking towards a dream that was within sight but beyond reach.