Zhou Shiyu, I’ve been waiting for you all along.

On the day her father was discharged from the hospital, the snapdragons at home happened to bloom.

In mid-to-late May, right at the transition from late spring to early summer, people shed their clumsy, heavy coats and long pants, changing into light shirts and knee-length skirts that were easier to move in.

Having survived the spring when illnesses were most prevalent, the hospital in early summer was not as busy and crowded as it had been a month ago. On the way to the inpatient ward with Zhou Shiyu, Sheng Sui encountered only a few people in the corridors.

Sheng Tian had stayed in this hospital room for over a month. When he was admitted, he only carried a black handbag, and now when leaving, it was the same. Even the clothes he wore were the same military jacket he had arrived in, making him stand out awkwardly among the others.

Seeing Sheng Sui enter first, the lonely Sheng Tian’s eyes lit up, but then seeing Zhou Shiyu behind his daughter, his sickly thin body instinctively curled up again.

The man forced a smile on his face, not daring to look back: “Suisui, sorry to trouble you to make a trip to the hospital.”

“I had business at the hospital anyway, just dropping by.”

Facing her father’s excessive flattery born from fear of having no one to care for him in old age, Sheng Sui found the man’s smile on his face glaring, yet felt helpless.

Her feelings toward Sheng Tian were complicated.

On one hand, she hated the childhood trauma caused by the man’s violence; on the other hand, when she heard the doctor say the post-surgery recovery was good, she couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Her father was no longer hunched over as when he arrived, but still cowered with his shoulders drawn in, carefully pulling Sheng Sui to the bedside.

With his back to Zhou Shiyu at the door, the man lowered his voice: “About the demolition compensation… did your mother tell you?”

Sheng Sui fell silent upon hearing this.

She didn’t know what method Sheng Tian had used, but a few days ago, her mother had specifically called to promise she would give Sheng Sui half of the demolition compensation.

The woman’s voice on the phone was cold: “I will give you half of the demolition compensation as promised. Go tell that beast that if he keeps pestering me, we’ll see each other in court.”

“Also, I saw Zhou Shiyu’s interview on the trending topics. Anyway, whatever I say now, you won’t listen, and maybe I was wrong—let’s both calm down and find time to have a proper talk.”

“……”

Thinking of the nearly seven-figure sum that had appeared in her account out of nowhere, Sheng Sui lowered her eyes and said quietly after a long moment: “Don’t harass my mother anymore. Threats are illegal.”

“I didn’t threaten her. Your mother even signed a voluntary gift document with lawyers present.”

When talking about how to exploit the law, the domestic abuser couldn’t help but feel proud, his ingratiating expression making Sheng Sui nauseous: “As for dad’s share, it will be yours sooner or later—just that I’ll give you some each year.”

When Sheng Tian talked about the distribution of this demolition compensation, Sheng Sui couldn’t help but glance at Zhou Shiyu, who was silently standing not far away.

The man standing by the door was tall and lean. Noticing her gaze, Zhou Shiyu smiled with just the right amount of warmth, not minding being excluded in the least.

“……So, was the demolition compensation matter arranged by you?”

Sheng Tian was discharged in the morning and took a flight home at noon. Sheng Sui and Zhou Shiyu drove home directly from the airport.

As the door opened, they saw the fluffy Ping’An jump down from the sofa, purring as it rubbed against Sheng Sui’s ankles.

Sheng Sui bent down to pick up the cat, following Zhou Shiyu into the bedroom’s walk-in closet: “Given my father’s limited knowledge, he probably couldn’t have thought of such an advanced and comprehensive idea as voluntary gifting.”

“Credit to the lawyer.”

Zhou Shiyu neither confirmed nor denied, pulling off his tie in the closet and setting it aside, his voice still gentle: “That money is far from enough to compensate for past harm. Yu Xuemei knows this well.”

“This is what you deserve. You don’t need to feel guilty.”

Sheng Sui leaned against the doorframe quietly for a moment, then pursed her lips: “If I said I don’t really want her money, would you be angry?”

“No,” the man’s distinctly jointed hands successively removed his watch and the silver collar button, his occasionally raising or lowering head giving off quite a refined scoundrel’s air.

“You have one hundred percent say in how to use that money.”

Zhou Shiyu paused slightly then smiled faintly, his tone casual: “Besides, money is the one thing this house doesn’t lack. You can decide as you wish.”

Sheng Sui laughed, marveling at someone’s increasingly unconcealed true nature recently. She saw Zhou Shiyu, now changed into home clothes, come out and walk straight to the vanity table, opening the briefcase on the chair.

The man took out another document. Sheng Sui put down the cat and walked over, seeing the prominent project proposal on the cover page.

“……S&Z Public Welfare Love Assistance Program Project Application (Initial Version)……”

Sheng Sui murmured the words on the paper. In a moment of confusion, she heard Zhou Shiyu say lightly above her head:

“After board discussions, Cheng He has decided to sponsor four provinces, a total of 13 welfare institutions, covering all costs for all children until they reach adulthood. In addition, we will establish a love fund to sponsor various public welfare projects for special children every year.”

Even though she had long known Zhou Shiyu always surprised people, looking at the document before her, Sheng Sui was still too shocked to speak for a long time.

S&Z stood for Sheng Sui and Zhou Shiyu.

And 4.13 was her birthday.

Her throat moved slightly. After a long moment, she heard her own slightly hoarse voice: “……Why did you suddenly think of doing this?”

“When you talked about childhood regrets being made up for that day, the smile on your face made me feel both happy and sad.”

As he spoke, a warm large hand gently stroked her hair. Sheng Sui looked up to meet the faint smile in Zhou Shiyu’s eyes: “I was both relieved that regrets were finally compensated for, and heartbroken that this belated completeness made you wait for thirteen long years.”

The man’s voice was deep and warm, his dark eyes showing some tenderness.

Sheng Sui’s pupils reflected Zhou Shiyu’s figure bending down toward her. The next second, she was enveloped in warm, reassuring woody fragrance as the man whispered tenderly in her ear:

“So I thought, could two once-unfortunate children together do something to let other children going through similar hardships have a better childhood?”

“……”

Sheng Sui stood on her tiptoes, raising her hands to hug Zhou Shiyu’s neck: “Zhou Shiyu, you’re amazing.”

It was hard to imagine that someone who once had no hope for the world was now willing to do what he could to care for complete strangers.

“I’m not as kind as you think,” Zhou Shiyu, being praised, buried his head in her neck, his breath warm:

“So children are all the same. If you have a hundred candies in your hand, you wouldn’t be stingy about giving a few to others.”

The man’s hand on her waist tightened: “And what Zhou Shiyu has received from Sheng Sui is already far more than a hundred candies.”

As Sheng Sui was moved, she noticed the pot of snapdragons by the window. Somehow, among the dozens of flower buds, one had quietly bloomed.

A tiny cluster of pale yellow, hidden among the green branches and milky white buds yet standing out independently, striving toward the sun in the spring’s final light.

Snapdragons, whose flower language symbolized “please notice my love.”*1

Planted in early spring, it had finally bloomed at the end of warm spring.

Sheng Sui ended the embrace and was about to tell her lover this good news when she heard Zhou Shiyu ask her something else, as if repeating content she had overlooked earlier:

“……One of the newly established welfare institutions wants to thank us by letting us name the academy. Two to three characters. Do you have any ideas?”

After pondering for a moment, Sheng Sui stared intently at the snapdragon in the spring light and suddenly smiled with curved eyebrows:

“—Let’s call it ‘Yu Chun’ (Giving Spring).”

In mid-July, taking advantage of Sheng Sui’s vacation time, she proposed returning to their hometown with Zhou Shiyu, especially to visit their high school.

She found excuses to go back, saying she wanted to see teachers and old friends who had helped her.

In reality, it was for Zhou Shiyu’s birthday on July 17th.

Zhou Shiyu had never mentioned his own birthday, and Sheng Sui vaguely guessed the reason why.

Unlike most children’s arrivals, Zhou Shiyu’s birth had never been blessed with celebration and anticipation, so how could there be talk of “celebrating” later?

Moreover, every July 17th was not only the man’s birthday but also the day when students living in remote areas would uniformly return to Third High School to collect their admission notices.

And ten years ago on that old street, Sheng Sui had seen Zhou Shiyu having an episode, thus missing her chance with her lover.

Years had passed, and what that long street looked like had become blurred in Sheng Sui’s mind.

But she knew Zhou Shiyu had never forgotten.

Or rather, that terrifying and twisted summer day still lingered in the man’s heart, just like in that painting with dark clouds covering the sky, the gray-black ground like a bottomless black hole, and the hideous faces of passing pedestrians.

And when she looked back, Zhou Shiyu reflected in her eyes, filled with terror.

When returning to the long street, she indeed had ulterior motives.

Fortunately, Zhou Shiyu didn’t suspect anything.

Compared to back then, there were now very few students coming to school to collect notices. Sheng Sui, remembering when she had left school that year, simply wandered around campus with Zhou Shiyu, predictably “missing” the teachers, then left school at the calculated time.

In the scorching heat, the dry air was burning hot. The blazing sun created wave after wave of heat on the ground, swallowing passing pedestrians.

Sheng Sui’s forehead beaded with fine sweat. She was glad she had gone out bare-faced today, or her makeup would surely have melted.

“……It’ll be even hotter at noon. If you want to walk around, let’s go back to the hotel to rest first and go out after sunset.”

As her thoughts wandered, Zhou Shiyu’s low, gentle voice sounded in her ear.

Sheng Sui came back to her senses, feeling the large hand holding her ten fingers gently squeeze the back of her hand, his fingertips brushing across her palm.

“It’s fine,” she shook her head, smiling softly with curved eyebrows, “We’ll be home soon.”

They had just left the school’s front gate and were now holding hands, walking down the sloped stone path between the fence and the tall green shade by the roadside.

Turn left at the third intersection, and they would reach the route Sheng Sui used to take home.

This included that street of several dozen meters that seemed to have no end.

Summer cicadas hummed around their ears. As familiar yet strange scenery drew near, finally at the corner intersection, Sheng Sui noticed the grip on her right hand suddenly tighten.

Wordless tense atmosphere spread between them.

Sheng Sui gripped Zhou Shiyu’s hesitant hand in return, pausing slightly in her steps, looking up: “Walk past this long street and go straight ahead, and we can go home.”

Her tone paused slightly, her soft voice instantly dispersing in the rolling heat waves:

“Zhou Shiyu, will you come home with me?”

“……”

Zhou Shiyu looked down upon hearing this. When their eyes met, Sheng Sui saw the understanding in the man’s eyes, as well as her own poorly concealed nervousness and anticipation.

Smart as Zhou Shiyu was, how could he not understand the meaning in her words?

After three restless and long seconds passed, Sheng Sui saw the man suddenly smile and part his thin lips:

“Alright, let’s go home.”

Around the corner was the long street. Over ten years had passed, with time’s wear and seasons’ changes, yet it remained the same as it had been.

Still the old street with various shops, still the old street paved with broken stone bricks and wild grass growing through the cracks, still busy and bustling with people coming and going just as before.

Feeling Zhou Shiyu’s steps getting slower and slower, even after so many years, directly facing the scene from back then perhaps made every step doubly difficult for him.

Following the man’s rigid gaze, Sheng Sui immediately saw the former grocery store about ten meters away, its business as steady as ever after ten years, even though the signboard above had developed rust.

Various seasonal fruits and vegetables were displayed at the entrance, and though overripe bananas were mixed among them, they were particularly eye-catching.

Zhou Shiyu’s steps halted, his face expressionless. Sheng Sui saw his jaw muscles tense.

She held his hand and insisted on moving forward.

Sheng Sui didn’t know what the scene that appeared to her eyes as full of everyday life looked like in Zhou Shiyu’s view.

She just held her lover’s hand and said softly again: “Just step over it.”

Step over this unchanging long street, and they could go home.

No, there were still many differences after all.

Sheng Sui thought to herself as she watched Zhou Shiyu silently walk past the grocery store.

Her lover wasn’t walking in panic. He stepped steadily and calmly over every piece of broken stone brick in front of the grocery store.

He just held her hand very tightly, very tightly.

Passersby hurried past around them. Footsteps, complaints about the heat, bargaining and chattering voices continued endlessly. Yet Sheng Sui only heard the simultaneous long sigh of relief, like survivors of a disaster, when they left the grocery store behind them hand in hand.

“Zhou Shiyu.”

Having passed through the most difficult checkpoint, Sheng Sui called the man’s name once more, finally smiling with curved eyebrows without any burden:

“Close your eyes and count to ten silently. I’ll give you a birthday present.”

“……”

So this trip was to give him a gift.

Zhou Shiyu’s palm still held residual damp sweat. When Sheng Sui let go to cover his eyes, the hot wind immediately stuck to him.

He obediently closed his eyes. In the short time of counting down ten numbers, countless past fragments flashed through his mind.

That year the summer heat brought dark clouds.

Only she had golden fragments dancing on her.

…9.

That year the ground was broken and fractured. One careless step and you’d fall in, beyond redemption.

Only she stood firmly on the shore.

…8.

That year he kept stuffing bananas in his mouth, mud filling his mouth, unable to breathe through nose or mouth, nearly drowning to death.

Only she pushed through seven or eight people in the crowd, hurriedly stuffing the money from her pocket—which should have been meal money—to the shopkeeper.

…7.

That year he was lost and helpless in the crowd, his ears filled with people’s chatter about his madness, his body unable to move, only his still-beating heart screaming “don’t look back” until it was deafening.

But she still looked back, her face wearing the gentle smiling expression he had never seen even in dreams, yet only once in this lifetime.

……

His thoughts and reason were completely devoured by memories. Zhou Shiyu, who had been soaking in the sugar jar too long, felt a long-missed sense of suffocation.

He thought that after being married so long, he would have forgotten that street from that year, forgotten his embarrassed self from back then.

Had already forgotten—

Unable to bear the memories, Zhou Shiyu, usually the most composed, lost patience at this moment. Completely ignoring what number he had counted to, he opened his eyes almost impatiently.

No dark clouds or black fog, his feet standing firmly on the hard old stone brick ground, pedestrians around him walking straight past with few stopping.

Everything seemed different from that year.

No, there were still many similarities after all.

The sunlight was dazzling. Zhou Shiyu stood in place, gazing long at the intersection at the end of the long street.

Among the coming and going pedestrians, he immediately spotted his life’s only love.

She was now bathed in the light, smiling and talking to him across the crowd, her thin lips opening and closing, but he couldn’t hear the sound.

Sheng Sui had specifically worn a thin white shirt and long skirt today, revealing a section of her slender, pale calves without excess flesh. Her ponytail was tied high, swaying gently in the wind with her movements.

Coincidentally, Zhou Shiyu had also worn a white shirt and black pants today. Standing together from afar, they looked no different from ten years ago.

No matter how time pressed on or seasons changed, there would always be someone who, when you were trapped and dying on an endless street, would give you a path home from death to life.

Zhou Shiyu squinted slightly and finally made out what Sheng Sui was saying to him.

“Zhou Shiyu.”

She was calling his name, asking him to come home.

In an instant, Zhou Shiyu suddenly understood that his blue skies and white clouds, his clear skies, his pedestrians and brick pavement and long street, all those grotesque and hateful things that had haunted his heart for years—because of Sheng Sui’s existence, they had all transformed into the stable present world.

That endless long street, because of Sheng Sui’s existence, finally had a destination ten years later.

For Zhou Shiyu, wherever Sheng Sui was, that was home.

Since that was the case, why not let them meet again at this familiar place and get to know each other anew?

Thinking this, Zhou Shiyu smiled slightly. From this moment on, the dark clouds in his world dispersed, finally achieving bright sunshine.

At the same moment, Sheng Sui in the distance precisely caught his expression, her radiant smile becoming even brighter.

In the vast crowd, she gathered courage to call his name.

“Zhou Shiyu!”

Distance was no longer a problem. Zhou Shiyu no longer needed to strain to listen or distinguish her voice or facial expression. He just saw Sheng Sui open her arms, standing gracefully a dozen steps away, within his reach, in a posture waiting for him to stride forward and embrace her tightly.

Bathed in the endless sunshine she gave him, Sheng Sui smiled radiantly:

“Zhou Shiyu, I’ve been waiting for you all along.”

“So, do you want to come and hug me?”

—End of Main Story

Author’s Note:

The main story ends here completely. The next book will be “Endless Summer,” a short BE story (I’ve written too much sweet content, time to change the flavor 0v0). I hope everyone will bookmark it.

To be honest, this book was very difficult to write. First, my physical condition was not ideal, and second, I wanted so much to write Sheng Sui and Zhou Shiyu’s story well that I was afraid of many things. I didn’t dare read the comment section or go on Weibo (I’ll handle these concentrated in the next few days, and apologize to those whose private messages weren’t replied to promptly during serialization).

But fortunately, it’s finished. Like every previous book, though not perfect, at least it was written seriously and completely.

As for extras, honestly, I haven’t decided whether to write extras for this book (because I feel like I’ve written almost everything that could be written). If Jiang allows, maybe I’ll write an if-line about Sheng Sui and Zhou Shiyu meeting before the long street encounter?

Or if you have anything you’d like to see, you can tell me on Weibo or in the comments!

Finally, still asking for comments and nutrient solution, kiss kiss kiss thank you for accompanying me all the way to now!

*1: Snapdragon flower language reference