The Healing Sunshine (一厘米的阳光)

Chapter 21.1 - The One Beyond those Past Dreams (1)

When Jì Chengyang walked past the front door of Jǐ Yi's family home, there was a noticeable pause in his footsteps.

How many times when he was in his twenties had he halted his steps as he walked past this door?

Now, as he thought back on those memories, he found that they had already become so distant.

Jì Chengyang quietly stood in that dark corridor. From his pocket, he fished out a cigarette case, pulled one cigarette from it, and gently brought the cigarette against the end of his nose. By the illumination of the moon, he was able to actually see that at the corner by the windowsill, on the white wall, there was a black imprint.

He was the one who had left that behind.

That year in Jǐ Yi's second year of high school, while she had been inside the room, bearing the accusations and denunciation from everyone, he had stood right here, with only a wall between them. At the time, he had lost his eyesight because of the brain tumour, and here in this place, he had listened to that entire absurd event.

Though he had walked down tens of thousands of kilometres of roads, his heart had actually been confined in its original place for many years already, in this place where the love between him and her began.

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When he arrived back at home, Second Sister-In-Law, who had just returned from the United Kingdom, was in the midst of unpacking luggage and pulling out the many gifts she had brought back for people in the family. After she caught sight of Jì Chengyang, she slowly straightened back up and carefully examined this younger brother whom she had not seen for many years. "Looks like you are quite a bit thinner. Why's that? Your Caucasian wife's cooking doesn't suit your liking?" Second Sister-In-Law teased him.

Jì Chengyang glossed over that comment, skirting around the topic by asking, "Where's Nuannuan? She's not coming back this year?"

"She is, but a few days later. She's gone off somewhere with her boyfriend to have fun." Second Sister-In-Law was very willing to talk about the Jì Nuannuan of the present. "You'll be spending the Lunar New Year in China this year, right? You should definitely go see her. I imagine you almost won't recognize her. I'm not sure whether her boyfriend will be coming back with her or not. If he does, you can meet him, too."

From Second Sister-In-Law's words, Jì Chengyang could sense that Jì Nuannuan likely had matured quite a bit. Her turbulent and alarming adolescence was merely a stamp on a point in her life. He still remembered how that day he had carried Nuannuan out from that boy's house and brought her home, where she had been forced to face the condemnation of her whole family.

And now, those things of before that had been so unbearable, that had been in her wild and impetuous days of youth, were long past.

Second Sister-In-Law said a few more words, but all of a sudden remembering something, she immediately went into her own room and then came back out with an envelope in hand. Beckoning him into the kitchen, where they could avoid everyone else, she handed the envelope over to him. "This is the thing that you entrusted me with. Last year when I returned, I heard that Xixi no longer comes back here. I went to the university that she studied in, but she's graduated. I haven't been able to find her, either, so I still haven't given this to her."

Second Sister-In-Law was very much a person of principle. From the time this envelope was given to her, she had never opened it.

Hence, when she returned it to Jì Chengyang, completely sealed and untouched, she still did not know what it contained. However, everyone in the Jì family treated Jǐ Yi well. In Second Sister-in-Law's eyes, Jì Chengyang could be considered to have watched Jǐ Yi grow up, and she could guess that inside, there likely was something that he wanted to gift to Jǐ Yi, such as a large sum of money, given as an elder, to help her cover living expenses, or lucky money, etc. It was probably some sort of compensation given to her because he could not bear to see her being neglected by her family to such an extent.