The Healing Sunshine (一厘米的阳光)

Chapter 13.2 - Hidden in the Depths of the Heart (2)

She discovered a very subtle coincidence. These two characters both started with a pie stroke and then a heng stroke. It was merely that for one of them, the strokes were separate, while for the other, they were joined. And these two characters were written on the blackboard of her primary school classroom. On this blackboard, there had once been written the many English vocabulary words and mathematical formulas that she had learned. But now, there were only his and her surnames.

"Mm-hmm." Jǐ Yi blew out a light breath, feeling even that her heart was aching slightly from its pounding. "Those... are the two characters that I wanted to write."

With a chuckle, Jì Chengyang set the yellow chalk back into the chalkholder ledge and then lifted his wrist.

He was checking the time.

She was very familiar with this action, and so, also complying with his intention, she began searching for a chalkboard eraser. She was unable to find one, though. How could there only be chalk and no eraser? Turning around, she moved to go rummage through the drawers that were off of the podium, but Jì Chengyang pulled her back. "There's no need to wipe it. In just a bit, I'll lock the door, and then no one will be able to see it."

Not wipe it?

But...

Jì Chengyang gave her a gentle pat on her back, indicating that she could leave. Feeling somewhat guiltily apprehensive, Jǐ Yi threw one final glance at the characters on the blackboard but then still obediently left this classroom. Jì Chengyang closed the door shut behind him and, with a click, slid the lock into place. Everything that had happened tonight seemed like a secret that was now locked behind this door.

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By the time Jì Chengyang drove her back to Fuzhong, it was already nine o'clock.

"I'll bring you to the school's front gates?"

Jǐ Yi thought briefly, then shook her head. "I'll just walk back myself. The overpass and roads are all really busy, so it'll be really safe."

Hopping off the car, Jǐ Yi circled over to the driver's side window and said goodbye to him. Then with her backpack on her back, she strode up alone onto the pedestrian overpass. His arm resting on the ledge of the completely open car window, he watched her through the windshield as she step by step walked up the red staircase of the overpass and then slowly, without a sideways glance, passed the stalls that were laid out on the ground and selling CDs, dolls, and other random goods.

Well, not quite completely without a sideways glance. She would always look over to this place, at this spot where the car was.

Jì Chengyang pulled off his cap, tossed it onto the front passenger seat, and leaned back into his seat, his fingers idly tapping against the metal car body on the outside of the door. For those who have experienced war and gunfire, a year's journey seems to speed swiftly by and can overtake ten years, even twenty, of a normal person's life. His hope was that he would see peace. He hoped that all death in the world would no longer have anything to do with guns and cannons. He hoped that one day, in the lens of his camera, all that would be seen were simple scenes of happiness.

Just like right now, this moment in which this little lady, who was not fully mature yet—this little lady whom he loved—was walking on this ordinary overpass in Beijing and continually sneaking peeks at him.

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Jì Chengyang watched Jǐ Yi disappear around the corner of an intersection, and then he finally left. Half an hour later, he arrived at the television station and attended a regular meeting. After this usual, routine meeting came to an end, everyone laughed and bantered around for a while before each began preparing for his or her subsequent work. When Jì Chengyang had strode out the front doors and taken two steps down the stairs, a voice called out to him from behind.