Chapter 12
Edward Quan ·
“Where’s Xu Nian?” I asked.
“Downstairs, setting off fireworks with Auntie Fang.”
“Tell them to be careful. Don’t burn their hands.”
“Fang’s watching her. Stop worrying.”
I said no more and looked up at the fireworks.
Half this life had already passed.
At this moment in my first life, I’d been watching television from my wheelchair.
Song Yao washed dishes in the kitchen.
Two people under one roof. Strangers.
The television had shown millennium fireworks too.
“Yaoyao, they’re beautiful,” I’d said.
“Mm.”
Nothing more.
Now my head rested on Lin Shu’s shoulder. He held my hand, his warm palm easing something throughout my body.
“Xu Heng.”
“Yes?”
“A life with you. Worth every bit.”
I squeezed his hand.
“Mine too.”
After 2010, Xu Nian graduated from university and joined the group.
As stubborn as me, but much quicker-minded.
She proposed a new business: components for new-energy vehicles.
At first, I didn’t think much of it.
She argued with me over her presentation for three days.
Finally, Lin Shu settled it.
“Let her try. Young people have their own road.”
She tried.
It worked.
Within three years, the new-energy division accounted for forty percent of the group’s revenue.
Listening to her report at a board meeting, I felt many things.
She was better than I’d been.
At sixty, I handed the entire group to her.
Retired.
Lin Shu retired too.
We bought a house with a courtyard in the city and planted a pomegranate tree.
Watering it in the morning. Walking in the park in the afternoon. Television at night.
Days as plain as a glass of water.
I drank them with complete satisfaction.
Last time, I hadn’t even had plain water.
I’d swallowed bitter medicine and cold porridge brought by Song Yao.
One afternoon, as I sat in the sun, my phone rang.
Liu Jin.
“Good news! My granddaughter got into university!”
“Wonderful! Which one?”
“The provincial Institute of Technology! Lin Shu’s mother’s university!”
I laughed.
“Clever girl. She’ll do well.”
“Thanks to you helping me back then. Without the money to treat my legs, I’d have stayed disabled. How could I have helped put her through school?”
“Enough sentiment.”
She giggled.
“Oh, Yaoyao wants to know when you and Lin Shu can visit. He’d like to cook you a meal himself.”
“Another day. My back’s been troublesome lately.”
“Take care of yourself. None of our bones are young.”
After hanging up, I leaned back.
Song Yao and Liu Jin had spent a lifetime together.
When she became paralyzed, he hadn’t left.
Not for his reputation. Not because of a debt.
He’d said:
“She nearly died saving me. What right would I have to leave her?”
Different from his words to me.
Last time: “I can’t leave.”
This time: “I shouldn’t leave.”
Can’t. Shouldn’t.
A small difference that changed a lifetime.
One was a shackle.
The other, a choice.
He’d chosen Liu Jin.
Chosen to stay.
Willingly.
That was enough.
Lin Shu came out with a cup of tea.
“Who called?”
“Liu Jin. Her granddaughter got into university.”
“Wonderful. Remind Xu Nian to send her a gift.”
“All right.”
He sat beside me.
Wind rustled the pomegranate leaves.
“Xu Heng.”
“Yes?”
“Don’t you think our life’s been unusually smooth?”
I considered it over my tea.
“Not exactly smooth. We’ve had our share of hardship.”
“Compared with others?”
“Compared with others… yes, quite good.”
He smiled.
“I think it’s because you were lucky enough to meet me.”
“True.”
“You admit it?”
“Did that need admitting?”
Laughing, he nudged me.
It didn’t hurt. His hand was warm.
Just like thirty years earlier.
I looked up.
The sky was clear and blue, like that summer of 1974.
The summer I hadn’t jumped into the river.
The summer I’d chosen to save myself.
That choice changed everything.
Song Yao still had someone to rescue him.
But his life changed. He found someone he willingly wanted to protect.
Liu Jin’s road was harder, but she made it through.
Mine turned in an entirely different direction.
From a wheelchair to feet planted firmly on the ground.
From lifelong confinement to a world I could travel.
From cold porridge to hot tea.