The Healing Sunshine (一厘米的阳光)

Chapter 20.2 - The Goodbye that I Owe You (2)

Jì Chengyang's abrupt rise to his feet caused the attention of the people in the conference room to converge. Everyone followed Jì Chengyang's gaze to also look at that young girl standing at the door. They could see in a single glance that she was a student intern who had just stepped out into the working world.

"What's up with this, Chengyang?" A suit-clad man sitting at the centre of the conference table was eyeing Jǐ Yi with a look of amusement. As if he had thought of something, his expression became increasingly peculiar.

Even that foreigner female journalist also had a look on her face that showed she had made a connection of some sort in her mind.

......

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From the moment she laid eyes on him, Jǐ Yi's mind had gone into a blank daze.

Her hand that gripped the edge of the door unconsciously tightened. Her heart went from being filled with wild elation, to feeling released and relieved, to, in an instant, falling into dejection and, with that last thread of hope completely snapped, plunging into an abyss. She at last thoroughly realized that none of it had been a lie, that she had simply been deceiving herself...

Her emotions were fluctuating too quickly, and turmoil swelled in her eyes as well.

He was alive, and he looked as if he was doing very, very well...

She shifted her gaze away.

Jì Chengyang stood with his back towards the floor-length glass window and the warm winter sunshine beyond it, but he was gazing deeply at her.

"Little Uncle Jì." In a low voice, she spoke those words that she had rehearsed for a long time. "It's been... a long time since we've seen each other."

How long?

From May of 2003 to the present, 2007. Today, it was exactly four years, seven months, and seven days.

After remaining silent for two or three seconds, Jì Chengyang, his voice carrying repressed emotions, answered, "Four years, seven months, and seven days."

The expression on every person's face shifted, astounded by this exact count of days that Jì Chengyang had stated. However, each person simply carried on retaining his or her own fantastical speculations. Only the expression of the newspaper's editor-in-chief, Shen Yu, was the most simple and innocent. Genuinely believing that she was Jì Chengyang's niece, he immediately smiled and began introducing Jǐ Yi to the new, suit-clad, dignified and proper-looking managing editor, Liu Kaifeng... and also the newspaper's female, foreign-nationality contracted correspondent, Amanda.

When his gaze turned back to Jì Chengyang, he did not provide any titles or description of his reputation. "You don't need any introductions about your Little Uncle Jì from me. He, like those other two, experienced the Iraq War and just returned to the country."

"Mm-hmm. I know... They are all journalist heroes," Jǐ Yi responded.

She discovered that her throat was beginning to ache. A searing sensation burned all the way up from her chest into her throat. Each word that she spoke was done with great difficulty. After about two or three seconds of quiet, she said in a low voice, "You guys continue. I'll head back to my work first."

After saying this, she disappeared behind that slowly-closing glass door.

From beginning to end, from when she appeared to when she left, she had stood by the doorway and had not taken even half a step into the conference room.