chapter 2
As soon as I returned to the apartment I shared with He Chenyi, the phone rang like a death knell.
He Chenyi’s furious roar stabbed at my eardrums through the receiver.
“Shen Xingyao, I don’t care where you are, get to the hospital right now. Jiang Yuhe’s face is swollen on one side because you hit her. Come here and apologize to her…”
Ridiculous.
I hung up, blocked his number, and deleted it all in one swift motion.
My nose wouldn’t stop bleeding. Leaning against the washbasin, I tried in vain to wash it clean.
The person in the mirror was so thin that her cheekbones jutted out, dark circles under her eyes, looking like a ghost.
Jiang Yuhe’s face was just swollen, but my lips were bleeding.
He Chenyi’s slap had shown no mercy.
I pulled out a suitcase and started packing my things.
But looking around the entire apartment, there was nothing I truly wanted to take with me.
In the end, I chose three items to put in the suitcase.
A photo album, a notebook, and a Talisman.
I flipped open the notebook at random. Inside, it was densely filled with reminders and notes.
More detailed than anything I’d ever written in college.
Diet section:
“Eat less salty food, it increases the burden on the heart!”
“Avoid spicy and stimulating foods, they cause accelerated heartbeat, blood vessel constriction and dilation disorders, which are bad for heart disease control!”
“Don’t drink too much alcohol or soup!”
“Indigestible foods can trigger heart problems!!”
Clothing section:
……
A thick notebook, covering every little detail.
He Chenyi has heart disease, but not many people know.
He doesn’t care much about it.
But I was neurotic, anxious and worried.
No greasy or fried food for him, add layers when it’s cold, don’t let him lounge on the sofa too long, make sure he gets some exercise, six thousand steps a day…
I took good care of him these six years.
Now he can even drink toasts with others.
–
I placed the notebook on the coffee table in the living room, right where it would be most visible.
Then I took a cab to the old district.
Six years ago, I bought a house here.
Remote, but quiet.
There’s a Silk Tree in the yard, tall and wide, shading half the sky.
The walls inside are covered with photos.
I sat there in a daze, staring for a long time.
Then, I took the photos I’d brought and pasted them one by one in the empty spaces.
The seagulls over Dianchi Lake in Yunnan covered the sky like clouds; the sky in Inner Mongolia hung so low it seemed about to fall; the lake in Qinghai was so deep and green it made me dizzy just looking at it.
We did have good times.
The year we went to Lijiang Old Town, we wandered hand in hand through its winding alleys.
There were many old ladies selling things in the alleys, braiding colorful strands into hair. I sat on a small stool while an old lady’s hands wove through my hair, complimenting my looks.
He found it amusing and insisted on trying it too.
So I ended up with a few crooked, colorful braids in my hair.
When we got back to the guesthouse that night, I learned these braids weren’t just for fun-they were called widow’s braids.
He didn’t care, even teased me: “What, are you afraid I’ll die?”
Ugh, how unlucky.
I cried and fussed, insisting on taking them out.
He couldn’t win against me, so we spent half the night undoing them together.
Later, I got impatient and snipped them all off with scissors. It looked worse than if a dog had chewed it.
The next day, I don’t know where he found a wig for me to wear.
Honestly, it looked pretty good.
The day we went to Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, it rained.
The mountain was shrouded in mist, nothing could be seen.
He saw I was upset and comforted me: “It’s no big deal, we’ll come again next year.”
But there was no next year.
He got busier and busier.
Sometimes he had to work overtime until one or two in the morning.
I couldn’t sleep, always worried his heart couldn’t handle the late nights, so I’d sit under the streetlamp at the door and wait for him.
In summer, the mosquitoes were everywhere, my legs covered in bites, so I’d hop and jump in place.
But as soon as I heard the sound of a car horn, I’d jump up, run toward him, and call his name loudly.
“Ah Chen, Ah Chen.”
……