On the morning of Chinese New Year’s Eve, Lin Yingtao used Jiang Qiaoxi’s computer to send photos to her mother.
In Hong Kong, Lin Yingtao always seemed to be smiling, her spirits high, reassuring anyone who saw her. The photos captured her intently eating ice cream, enjoying a pineapple bun in the University of Hong Kong’s cafeteria, staring absentmindedly at a wall of milk cartons in a night supermarket, or standing at the doorway of her rented apartment, lifting her skirt to examine her shoes. These snapshots appeared natural and candid, mostly capturing everyday moments rather than staged scenes.
Her mother, typing slowly, replied, “Your father says the photos look beautiful.”
Lin Yingtao quickly responded, “Jiang Qiaoxi took them! I found them in his phone’s gallery.”
She sent a few more photos of her and Jiang Qiaoxi posing together on Victoria Peak Road.
Her mother commented, “Qiaoxi seems to have grown taller since high school.”
Early that morning, Jiang Qiaoxi had gone swimming at the University of Hong Kong’s pool. During his three years in Hong Kong, he had been busy with various part-time jobs and hospital visits, leaving him little inclination for exercise.
He returned home with his bag, carrying milk tea for Lin Yingtao and his half-finished coffee.
As he opened the door, he saw Lin Yingtao still in her nightgown, sitting cross-legged on the bed, watching “How I Met Your Mother” on his computer.
Lin Yingtao turned to look at him, asking, “Did you drink the porridge I left in the pot before you left?”
Jiang Qiaoxi closed the door and put down his bag. “Yes, I did.”
Lin Yingtao watched as he approached. Jiang Qiaoxi set the milk tea aside and embraced her from behind. “Which season are you watching?” he asked, glancing at the Bilibili playback page.
Before coming to Hong Kong, Lin Yingtao had thought she would miss home terribly on New Year’s Eve.
But she didn’t.
She felt too happy and content by Jiang Qiaoxi’s side. For this, she even felt guilty towards her parents.
“Next time we come,” Jiang Qiaoxi said, holding her hand as they boarded the subway to have New Year’s Eve dinner at his cousin’s house, “I’ll rent a bigger place. We won’t stay here anymore.”
“How much bigger?” Lin Yingtao asked.
“At least with a bathroom and kitchen,” Jiang Qiaoxi said disapprovingly. “Otherwise, we keep having to go out in the middle of the night.”
Lin Yingtao laughed. She wore a red qipao top that accentuated her delicate shoulders, with a red hairpin on one side, looking particularly festive. Her large eyes and smile reminded one of the paper dolls cut from window decorations during childhood New Year celebrations.
Jiang Qiaoxi held her hand, occasionally tilting his head to look at her.
After his older cousin’s incident years ago, the family had moved from their luxurious Repulse Bay home to Sheung Shui, and later to Sham Shui Po. While his cousin was hospitalized, his wife, their newborn child, and his parents all squeezed into a flat less than 30 square meters in size.
Jiang Qiaoxi explained, “My cousin’s wife could have left then, could have returned to her family, but she stayed. It’s very small here.”
Lin Yingtao followed Jiang Qiaoxi up the narrow, steep stairs. She asked, “How big was our home in Qunshan?”
Jiang Qiaoxi gently squeezed her hand and smiled, “About the same size.”
His cousin’s wife had returned from the hospital, wearing makeup and looking vibrant. Besides his uncle and aunt, Jiang Qiaoxi, and “little Lin sister,” the Filipino maid Lisa was also present. His cousin’s cousin’s family had also come but stayed at the hospital with him, not joining the reunion dinner.
“Thankfully, Lisa kindly came to help today,” his cousin’s wife said, breathless. She carried pastries and side dishes bought from downstairs into the kitchen, where she saw Jiang Qiaoxi and Lin Yingtao helping Lisa catch a live fish that had jumped out. “Oh, you two,” she said, torn between laughter and exasperation, “The kitchen’s too crowded. Go play outside, quick!”
Lin Yingtao sat at the dining table, eating candied lotus seeds from a lacquered box. She checked the New Year’s greetings in the Qunshan classmates’ chat group, saying, “Du Shang, where’s your sincerity? You didn’t even change Yu Jin’s name!”
Du Shang replied in the group, “Nonsense, I copied Yu Qiao’s. Yu Qiao, where’s your sincerity? You didn’t even change your brother’s name!”
Yu Qiao leisurely chimed in, “You two are so fussy. Lin Yingtao, have you sent your New Year’s message yet?”
Lin Yingtao said, “I’m still working on it. I haven’t perfected it yet!”
Jiang Qiaoxi approached his uncle and aunt to offer New Year greetings. In previous years, he had always come alone, but this year was the first time he brought a girlfriend.
Lin Yingtao bowed and smiled, “Hello, Uncle and Aunt. I’m Lin Qile. Wishing you a happy New Year, good health, and all the best!”
The two elders, nearing sixty, beamed with joy as they handed Lin Yingtao a red envelope that was noticeably thicker than the one given to Jiang Qiaoxi. His uncle, still holding Lin Yingtao’s hand, said, “Take a pot of narcissus flowers back with you for happiness and reunion next year. Are the candied lotus seeds delicious? Let Lisa serve you some more.”
Jiang Qiaoxi’s little nephew, now three years old, was sound asleep in the bedroom, his soft limbs sprawled out.
Lin Yingtao quietly stood by the bedside, observing the baby.
Jiang Qiaoxi leaned against the doorframe, looking at the baby, then raised his eyes to Lin Yingtao.
“Do you know what candied lotus seeds symbolize?” Jiang Qiaoxi suddenly asked.
Afraid of waking the little nephew, Lin Yingtao walked over to Jiang Qiaoxi and pushed him out.
Jiang Qiaoxi closed the small door behind him and said, “Candied lotus seeds mean ‘continuous birth of precious sons.'”
“It means having two children in succession,” he explained, looking down at her.
Lin Yingtao pressed her lips together and pushed him, “What are you talking about? You want to break the law!”
His cousin’s wife brought hot dishes to the table, with Jiang Qiaoxi helping. Lin Yingtao went into the bedroom and picked up the little nephew who had woken up calling for his mother. Seeing Lin Yingtao for the first time, the boy opened his big eyes and suddenly started crying. Lin Yingtao struggled to hold him, gently patting his head and softly comforting him.
His cousin’s wife finished with her tasks and hurried over to take her son from Lin Yingtao. The boy, no longer crying, turned back to look at Lin Yingtao with tear-filled eyes, staring intently. His mother smiled and squeezed his little hand, “Look at Uncle Qiaoxi, look at Sister Yingtao!”
Jiang Qiaoxi sat at the table, chatting with his uncle. His cousin’s wife asked Lisa to look after her son for a moment, then used the excuse of fetching red wine to signal Lin Yingtao to follow her to the kitchen.
“Yingtao,” she said, now addressing her the same way Jiang Qiaoxi did, “Later, when you sit next to Qiaoxi and his father calls, hold onto him and don’t let him get up and leave, okay?”
Lin Yingtao listened, thought for a moment, and found herself in a dilemma.
His cousin’s wife took her silence as agreement and reached for the stored red wine.
“Sister-in-law,” Lin Yingtao said.
The woman looked up.
Lin Yingtao hesitated, “How about… how about we do this…”
“Before Uncle Jiang calls, I’ll pull Jiang Qiaoxi out first,” Lin Yingtao said seriously, looking at her. “Then you can call us, and I’ll talk to Uncle Jiang. I’ll try to persuade Jiang Qiaoxi to join me, but if… if he doesn’t want to…”
His cousin’s wife looked at her, at this face still bearing traces of youth.
This girl understood Qiaoxi better than they had imagined.
She smiled and said, “Alright!”
The whole family sat down for dinner. The TV was on, with TVB broadcasting news and ATV showing a local gala featuring many Hong Kong singers. Lin Yingtao glanced at the TV. She had some red wine, and being the youngest after the three-year-old, she seemed to be treated like a child too. Jiang Qiaoxi was only a month older than her, but he was regarded as an adult among the family.
“Yingtao doesn’t understand Cantonese,” Jiang Qiaoxi told everyone. “Lisa, you can speak English with her.”
His uncle, still working at a bank, had barely touched his food before he couldn’t resist discussing recent economic trends with Jiang Qiaoxi. He asked if Jiang Qiaoxi had developed the habit of checking the NASDAQ index every morning in college. Jiang Qiaoxi gave an ambiguous answer, and his uncle exclaimed, “Does your brother know you’re slacking off like this?”
He then started talking about 2008. His aunt interjected, “It’s New Year’s, can’t we talk about something happier?”
His uncle continued, “The Hong Kong Chief Executive said that year would be very difficult for Hong Kong!”
“But we got through it, didn’t we?” he spread his hands at the table, addressing Jiang Qiaoxi.
As Lin Yingtao ate the homemade turnip cake, his cousin’s wife suddenly asked if she knew about Jiang Qiaoxi’s internship at Morgan Stanley next year.
Looking at her cousin-in-law, she smiled at Lin Yingtao, “When men enter investment banking, they work overtime every day, and women want to break up with them. I have the most experience with this.”
His uncle said, “Qiaoxi just got a girlfriend, and you’re already trying to scare her away!”
His cousin’s wife looked at Jiang Qiaoxi and said, “But the salary is very high. Qiaoxi, how much can you make in the first year? With the bonus, is it close to a million?”
Jiang Qiaoxi’s ears turned red, perhaps from the wine. He looked down at Lin Yingtao’s face and said softly, “Just assume it is.”
Lin Yingtao’s previous impression of Jiang Qiaoxi’s family was limited to the large door that had shut her out and the arguments she had heard from behind it. She felt that Jiang Qiaoxi was genuinely happy now. Although the family was cramped in this small space, Jiang Qiaoxi had a good appetite and was talkative. He kept eating the dishes his cousin’s wife had prepared and occasionally served food to Lin Yingtao, asking if it suited her taste.
His uncle continued chatting with Jiang Qiaoxi, moving from Obama’s financial regulatory reform bill to the European debt crisis, then to international gold prices, the automotive industry, and clean energy. Jiang Qiaoxi listened carefully, nodding when he agreed, and eloquently discussing his knowledge of more recent news when he disagreed. Watching them from the side, Lin Yingtao suddenly doubted whether the quiet Jiang Qiaoxi she had known before was even real.
His cousin’s wife, while tending to her child and chatting with Lisa about recent work, perhaps noticing Lin Yingtao’s silence, initiated a conversation with her. They talked about life on the mainland, in the provincial capital and Qunshan, which inevitably led back to Jiang Qiaoxi.
“He was so unhappy in middle school,” his cousin’s wife recalled, holding her child. “Back then, he often used his father’s phone to call Ruocheng. Ruocheng would come home and tell me that Qiaoxi’s mental state was very poor and that he was reading a book called ‘Beneath the Wheel.'”
Lin Yingtao, studying education, nodded, “I know that book.”
His cousin’s wife continued, “A thirteen or fourteen-year-old boy, feeling every day like the wheels would crush him… Ruocheng was so worried then. He told me that if that little Lin girl wasn’t in the provincial capital, Qiaoxi might have felt a bit better.”
Lin Yingtao, of course, knew “Beneath the Wheel,” a story about a protagonist who experiences an educational tragedy, loses control of his life as if crushed by giant wheels, and dies young.
“Later, when Qiaoxi started high school,” his cousin’s wife said, playing with her child, “One-day Ruocheng came home and told me that Qiaoxi and the little Lin girl were in the same class and could go to school together again. Qiaoxi had specifically mentioned it on the phone.”
Lin Yingtao opened the lacquered box and took out some pretty candies to entertain Jiang Qiaoxi’s little nephew.
“Qiaoxi, this child… he’s been stubborn and persistent since he was little,” his cousin’s wife reminisced. “When he came to Hong Kong for the TOEFL test, we asked why he didn’t bring the little Lin girl to play. He said you didn’t want to come.”
At this point, his cousin’s wife glanced at Jiang Qiaoxi, who was still chatting with his uncle.
“We told him then, it must be because you didn’t confess properly. Such a handsome and excellent young man, just tell her sincerely. But he very seriously told us that he was going to America in the future, that he’d be gone for a long time, so he couldn’t casually confess to a girl.”
Lin Yingtao listened as his cousin’s wife said with a mix of amusement and exasperation, “What does going to America matter? Telling someone you like them won’t hurt.”
Lin Yingtao whispered, “He did tell me since we were in Qunshan that he was going to America in the future! He even said he wouldn’t come back.”
His cousin’s wife scoffed, laughing at the childish words.
“He’s been saying that since he was little, but what’s in America?” His cousin’s wife looked at Lin Yingtao and said, “Even if he goes to America, he’ll still only have Ruocheng as his close friend, and he’ll still think about the little Lin girl he’s liked for so many years.”
Lin Yingtao had never been good at hiding her blushes. Du Shang asked her on QQ if she had watched the Spring Festival Gala, and Lin Yingtao lowered her head, replying that she hadn’t.
“Jay Chou and Lin Zhiling just came out to sing!” Du Shang said.
Jiang Qiaoxi, still listening to his aunt talk about the changes in Hong Kong and Shenzhen’s housing prices over the past few years, suddenly turned his head to find Lin Yingtao eating white cut chicken with a red face.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, looking down at her.
Lin Yingtao shook her head, avoiding his gaze, and gestured for him to continue talking with the elders.
As Jiang Zheng made a video call from Sudan, someone was singing “Below the Lion Rock” on the staircase outside.
The sister-in-law gave Lin Yingtao a meaningful glance. Lin Yingtao immediately put down her chopsticks and, taking Jiang Qiaoxi’s arm, led him to the kitchen.
“What’s the matter?” Jiang Qiaoxi asked, puzzled.
He had been wondering why Lin Yingtao’s face was so flushed, as she hadn’t drunk much wine.
Once in the narrow kitchen, Lin Yingtao couldn’t hold back any longer. She turned and embraced Jiang Qiaoxi’s waist, burying her face in his chest and breathing deeply into his shirt.
Jiang Qiaoxi lowered his head, stunned for a moment. He wrapped his arms around her, rubbing her back. “What’s wrong?” he asked softly. “Are you homesick?”
Lin Yingtao shook her head vigorously. She looked up at him with moist eyes.
The kitchen was cramped, with barely enough space for one person to pass through.
Outside the window, some neighbors were carrying a peach blossom tree, stopping in front of a shop.
Just as Lin Yingtao was pulling Jiang Qiaoxi’s jacket and tilting her head to kiss him, the sister-in-law called from outside, “Qiaoxi, your father’s on the phone! Yingtao, Qiaoxi’s father heard you’re here and wants to talk to you!”
Lin Yingtao stepped back, looking towards the kitchen door. She said, “Uncle Jiang is calling. Let’s go answer—”
Jiang Qiaoxi, who had been kissing her, grumbled impatiently, “What’s there to answer?”
Lin Yingtao said, “It’s New Year’s. Uncle Jiang has always been good to me. I want to wish him a happy new year…”
She looked at Jiang Qiaoxi’s face, her eyes full of expectation. “Will you come with me?”
Jiang Qiaoxi gazed at Lin Yingtao’s expression.
He glanced at the door, somewhat resigned.
Even Jiang Qiaoxi had to admit that although Jiang Zheng had been indifferent and neglectful towards him for many years, he had indeed shown great care for Yingtao. But then again, at the Qunshan work site, Yingtao was always popular with both adults and children.
“Uncle Jiang! It’s been so long since I’ve seen you!” Lin Yingtao sat in front of the screen. She and the expressionless Jiang Qiaoxi sat together as she enthusiastically asked, “Where are you spending the New Year?”
Jiang Zheng was still in his office, with a Chinese calendar and work records posted on the prefab wall behind him. He looked more tanned than before, with deeper wrinkles. He smiled and said, “Yingtao! My, you’ve grown so beautiful I hardly recognize you!”
Jiang Qiaoxi sat silently to the side, reverting to his former taciturn self. Lin Yingtao chatted with Jiang Zheng for a while, updating him on the families of Uncle Cai, Uncle Yu, and Uncle Qin from the Qunshan work site. Jiang Zheng then asked, “So, how is Engineer Lin’s health?”
Lin Yingtao replied, “He’s doing well, just still smoking. He can’t seem to quit.”
Jiang Zheng said, “Jiang Qiaoxi, make sure you look after your Uncle Lin’s health, you hear?”
“Mm,” Jiang Qiaoxi responded awkwardly.
“How are you doing?” Jiang Zheng looked at him. “Yingtao’s been talking to me for so long, and you haven’t said a word. You’re just letting her do all the talking.”
“I’m fine,” Jiang Qiaoxi said, raising his eyes to look directly at his now-unfamiliar father in the camera.
“Good…” Jiang Zheng suddenly leaned back in his chair. He was wearing a blue work uniform, probably in Sudan, where this color best protected Chinese company workers and leaders. Jiang Zheng said, “It’s good that you’re doing well.”
Not everyone instinctively associates thoughts of their parents with happiness, joy, or a supreme sense of security.
However, Jiang Qiaoxi also discovered that he could gradually ignore those reflexive feelings of anxiety, depression, and discomfort, especially when Yingtao was by his side.
Jiang Zheng asked, “Are you still living in that Singaporean’s rental apartment?”
Jiang Qiaoxi replied, “Yes.”
Jiang Zheng said, “Now that Yingtao’s come to visit you, shouldn’t you move to a bigger place?”
Jiang Qiaoxi said, “I’ll move next year.”
Jiang Zheng asked, “How are your studies?”
Jiang Qiaoxi didn’t want to answer anymore, but Yingtao was looking at him worriedly.
“How else could my studies be?” he retorted.
Jiang Zheng suddenly laughed.
“Well said,” Jiang Zheng remarked, taking a sip of tea from his cup. “My son, I know you best.”
They chatted for a bit longer.
Suddenly, Jiang Zheng said, “Your mother recently went back to the provincial capital to—”
Before he could finish explaining why, Jiang Qiaoxi abruptly stood up.
Lin Yingtao looked up, then turned around. She watched as Jiang Qiaoxi left her side and returned to the dining table, resuming conversation with his uncle and the others as if nothing had happened, not even bothering to say goodbye to his father.
Lin Yingtao turned back to face Uncle Jiang Zheng on the screen.
In her second year of high school, Lin Yingtao remembered, that Jiang Qiaoxi had come back from Hong Kong for the New Year and eaten lunch at her house.
At that time, Jiang Qiaoxi had said his parents had gone to sweep his brother’s grave, so there was no one at home to cook for him.
Jiang Zheng said, “My girl.”
“Yes,” Lin Yingtao quickly responded.
“This Jiang Qiaoxi, he’s too stubborn, that’s his temperament,” Jiang Zheng lowered his eyes, thinking for a moment. “In the past, your Aunt Liang and I… we weren’t good enough to him. Be good to him, okay? If you need anything, just tell Uncle.”
Lin Yingtao returned to the dining table. The sister-in-law had just brought out a cherished old photo album, and the family was looking at childhood photos of Jiang Qiaoxi living in Hong Kong. The sky was golden then, and even the Filipino maid Lisa was only twenty years old. Jiang Qiaoxi had a red dot on his forehead, standing under the stage lights of a kindergarten New Year’s performance, singing with other children in costume. His older brother, then a university student, was smiling as he watched from backstage.
The sister-in-law laughed, “Look at what Qiaoxi was dressed up as then—”
“A little dragon!” Lin Yingtao blurted out.
Jiang Qiaoxi covered his eyes in exasperation: “Nezha!”
Lin Yingtao had never seen photos of Jiang Qiaoxi so small and cute in his childhood.
When she first met him, he was already nine years old. In Qunshan, he always had a gloomy face and rarely smiled.
Before leaving, the sister-in-law suddenly whispered to Lin Yingtao, who was holding a pot of narcissus flowers, “When you were ten, didn’t you make a phone call to Qiaoxi during summer vacation? He was in Hong Kong at the time.”
Lin Yingtao shook her head, not knowing what the sister-in-law was referring to. She had long forgotten about it.
The sister-in-law giggled, “Ask Qiaoxi if he remembers.”
Lin Yingtao had once read a sentence in a book that said Hong Kong was a paradise for the rich and a hell for the poor.
The streets of Victoria Harbour were lined with luxury cars, and even the roads were much wider. Now, walking below her brother-in-law’s apartment, Lin Yingtao looked around and saw only dark, dilapidated, coffin-like floors.
Having traversed from heaven to hell, Lin Yingtao recalled the content, happy smiles she had just seen on the faces of that family in her sister-in-law’s home.
Du Shang said, “Yingtao, David Tao, and Xiao Jingteng have come out to sing!”
Lin Yingtao held Jiang Qiaoxi’s hand as they walked back to the rented apartment on New Year’s Eve. She placed the narcissus she had brought back on the windowsill. The flowers had not yet bloomed. She turned back and said, “Remember to send me photos of it every day!”
The lights in the rented apartment were turned off. Jiang Qiaoxi grabbed his collar and suddenly pulled his T-shirt off over his head. He sat at the head of the bed, watching Yingtao in front of him by the light of the neon signs outside as she unbuttoned her qipao top, then removed her underwear, both of them naked before each other.
They were not just anyone, but a young couple who had loved each other for many years. When the hazy light enveloped their skin, they appeared almost perfect in each other’s eyes, almost unreal.
The ends of Lin Yingtao’s hair swayed gently. In Jiang Qiaoxi’s memory, she would turn her head after school, and upon seeing him, she would happily skip and jump.
Now, she was trying to accept him, again and again.
Jiang Qiaoxi closed his eyes. In the past, he had spent so many lonely New Year’s Eve. His home was either cold and empty, with not even the TV turned on, or filled with his parents’ arguments, sarcasm, quarrels, or shoving.
Bowls and plates of food shattered, ashtrays smashed on the coffee table—Jiang Qiaoxi gripped his pen at his desk, covering his ears tightly, only able to focus more intently on studying mathematics.
As the New Year’s bell tolled, Jiang Qiaoxi turned his face and held Yingtao tighter.
It had been almost ten days since returning from Hong Kong.
Lin Yingtao still often suddenly opened her eyes in the middle of the night, turning to look, thinking Jiang Qiaoxi was still sleeping beside her.
Then came an overwhelming sense of loss, mixed with loneliness, filling her heart.
Late at night, Lin Yingtao was still talking on the phone with Jiang Qiaoxi under the covers.
“Once I wake up, I can’t fall back asleep…” she said, just wanting to hear more of his voice.
Jiang Qiaoxi said helplessly, “Me too.”
They chatted quietly, and as they talked, Jiang Qiaoxi suddenly swallowed and said, “Yingtao, call my name again.”
“What?” Lin Yingtao asked.
Jiang Qiaoxi said, “Call my name again.”
Lin Yingtao was confused but said, “Jiang Qiaoxi?”
On the other end of the phone, Jiang Qiaoxi’s breathing gradually deepened. He was usually a person with great self-control.
Lin Yingtao paused, bewildered, and Jiang Qiaoxi commanded, “Call again.”
Lin Yingtao obediently said, “Jiang Qiaoxi…”
Wearing her nightgown, she called his name while unconsciously pressing her legs together.
Lin Yingtao’s mind was in chaos, and she began to panic. She heard Jiang Qiaoxi suddenly let out a muffled groan on the other end, followed by deep breaths.
Lin Yingtao didn’t want to listen anymore, but she missed him so much. What else could she listen to?
“Yingtao,” Jiang Qiaoxi said, breathing deeply, “do you miss me?”
“Mm…” Lin Yingtao had to admit.
Jiang Qiaoxi said softly, “Come on, do as I say—”
Lin Yingtao lay on her small bed, with her Bobby Sprite and pretty Barbie doll on the bedside table. The leaves of the evergreen blocked the moonlight as if shielding her embarrassment. Lin Yingtao’s face was red as she held her phone to her ear with her right hand, listening to Jiang Qiaoxi’s voice and softly murmuring “Mm” through her nose. Her left hand moved down along her nightgown—
Just then, the bedroom door was pushed open from the outside, and a figure appeared.
“Ah!!” Lin Yingtao screamed in fright, dropping her phone and quickly pulling the covers over herself, wrapping up tightly.
Lin’s mother had gotten up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and saw a light in her daughter’s room, thinking she had forgotten to turn off the lamp.
But her daughter suddenly let out a piercing scream. Lin’s mother bent down and picked up the phone that had been thrown to the floor.
Jiang Qiaoxi said, “A-Auntie…”
Lin’s mother immediately relaxed: “Oh, it’s Qiaoxi.”
Lin Yingtao still had her head covered by the blanket, holding her head with her bottom sticking up, refusing to show her face.
“Alright, your phone fell out,” Lin’s mother walked over and patted her through the blanket. “If you’re on the phone, just be on the phone. Why are you screaming? You scared me!”
Lin Yingtao said miserably from under the blanket, “Mom, why did you suddenly come in?!”
Seeing that she really wouldn’t come out, Lin’s mother placed the phone next to the pillow. “Okay, okay, I’m leaving. You can continue your call. I thought you had forgotten to turn off the light again. Next time you make secret phone calls, remember to lock the door.”
Mom closed the bedroom door from the outside, just in time to meet Lin Haifeng, who had been woken up by their daughter’s scream. She pushed him, saying, “Let’s go, it’s nothing.”
“Really nothing?” Lin Haifeng asked.
Mom muttered softly, “Why is my eyesight getting worse… Am I getting old? Do I need reading glasses?”
Lin Yingtao’s hand rested on her pillow as she slept soundly, with traces of tears at the corners of her eyes.
On the desk in front of the bed sat a hardcover diary. The cover was decorated with a group of pink rabbits living with pink and white elephants.
In 2004, Lin Qile wrote in the diary:
“I never want to think about Jiang Qiaoxi again!”
November 2006.
“Jiang Qiaoxi kissed me.”
In different colored ink, a new sentence was added below:
“Jiang Qiaoxi told me he has loved me for a long time. I want to be with him forever and ever. February 2011.”
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Our Generation – Chapter Notes:
Bilibili: A video-sharing website featuring a scrolling commentary subtitle system, created on June 26, 2009. Originally named Mikufans, it was renamed Bilibili in 2010. On March 28, 2018, it was listed on NASDAQ in the United States.
“How I Met Your Mother”: A sitcom starring Josh Radnor and others, which premiered on CBS on September 19, 2005.
In November 2011, China fully implemented the policy allowing couples to have a second child if both parents were only children; in December 2013, China implemented the policy allowing couples to have a second child if one parent was an only child; in October 2015, the two-child policy was fully implemented.
“Jay Chou and Lin Chi-ling came out to sing!”: At the 2011 CCTV Spring Festival Gala, Jay Chou and Lin Chi-ling performed the program “Lan Ting Xu.”
“Below the Lion Rock”: A song performed by Roman Tam, with lyrics by James Wong and music by Joseph Koo. It’s known as Hong Kong’s “city anthem.” The song tells an inspiring story of ordinary Hong Kong citizens persevering and striving for self-improvement in the face of adversity.