Translator: Alfredo Poutine Soup Editor: DesTheSloth
It was approximately midnight now.
It was pretty dark in the corridor of the hospital. This place was quiet as it was raining slightly. A young man was walking upstairs after smoking in the tea room.
But he stopped later as he saw—a nurse with long beautiful legs was going upstairs, too. She was wearing white and thin stockings.
She might not know that she was being peeped on by someone right now. She heading to patrol the floor at a worried pace.
“Oh, not bad.” The young man smiled secretly and then went into the ward upstairs as fast as he could.
His teacher was living in this ward. His name was Master Huang—The young man was scared to death when he received the call from the hospital. Luckily, the patient survived the perils of life.
But he was still wondering as his teacher had paid attention to health all the time. Why would he spit out blood and sink into a coma suddenly?
“Teacher, you finally woke up at last!”
Old Huang woke up during the time he went out for a cigarette. His teacher stayed silent while sitting on the bed.
“You scared me!” The young man walked close to the bed and said to Old Huang, “How did you fall unconsciousness all at once?”
“Chen Er.” Old Huang said to him, “You go to cancel all my appointments this year. I won’t attend any courses any more.”
The young man…Chen Er was shocked and he said subconsciously, “Master, these customers are all well-known big shots. It’s not appropriate for us to cancel the appointments…”
The Old Huang sighed and looked at his students. He seemed absent-minded, “I can not remember the reason why I sank into unconsciousness. I was going to give a fortune-telling today… I should have done it, or did I not finish the fortune-telling? I can not remember anyhow.”
“Teacher, have you… hurt your head by accident? I heard that brain concussions will lead to a temporary amnesia.”
The Old Huang shook his head while sighing, “some excellent peers in fortune-telling disclosed the secret… we are going to pay for it someday. We can predict the fortunes of others, but we can’t do it to ourselves. My head is fine. I probably have leaked something that I shouldn’t have revealed… the ancestors blessed me this time so that I could survive.”
“Teacher, you will live to a ripe old age, don’t scare yourself and me.”
“Chen Er.” Old Huang told the young man, “I need to return to Mountain Wudang these days. You stay here and manage the ‘Heaven’s Soul’ for me. If any regular customers come, you need to be polite and remember to tell them I am not available.”
“Mountain Wudang?” Chen Er was stunned… he knew that his teacher had been in Mountain Wudang for a short period, but he had not been there before.
But he could figure out from Old Huang’s words that Old Huang learned all the skills from this Taoist holy land.
“Teacher, Shall I go there with you?” Chen Er asked, “I want to enrich my experiences there.”
Old Huang shook his head while saying, “It is not a suitable time. You just stay here.”
Chen Er nodded without saying anything.
‘You old dog. You have not been willing to teach me anything for such a long time! Now, you leave me alone to cope with so many big shots!’
…
…
During lunchtime.
“Go for a business trip?” Wan Zishan was looking at Xue Shao surprisedly, “So urgent?”
Wan Zishan and Xue Shao would always eat lunch together when they were not busy in this small restaurant—their companies were very near and this restaurant was located in the area where there were many office buildings nearby.
“Yes.”
Xue Shao said hopelessly. “I was informed this morning when I come to the office. It should be the vice general manager who was supposed to go to the product launch meeting. But he is in the hospital because of appendicitis. And strangely, he nominated me to go for that meeting instead of him… we were not in the same team before. It was so weird.”
“Well…” Wan Zishan thought for a while, “In other words, you are the deputy manager of the product research department. It is not strange to recommend you. You can think it in a different way, your company thinks highly of you so they sent you for that business trip. And what’s more, you might get a promotion in the future If you can finish the job excellently… But, when will you leave?”
“I will leave by 4:00 PM airplane today and will come back on Friday… it will last about four days.”
“The schedule was so tight?”
“Yeah.” Xue Shao sighed and said, “the original schedule was supposed to be that the vice general manager would leave by this morning’s airplane.”
Wan Zishan kept her eyes wide open, “What? How can you sit here and have lunch with me? You have to go back and pack up now!”
“I will do it after lunch.” Xue Shao smiled and continued, “Let’s eat lunch first. I have enough time to pack up.”
Wan Zishan was worried about him, “It will be rainy for the next few days according to the weather forecast. I am not sure if the weather will affect the flights.”
Xue Shao looked at the window subconsciously and he found that there was moderate rain outside now. It rained more heavily compared to the morning, “It should… not…”
…
And the fact was that the rain did affect… the flights. All the flights were delayed for one hour.
But an hour was okay. Xue Shao boarded the plane carrying a simple suitcase. He then powered off all the electronic devices.
He was looking at the dark sky outside the window as he held the moon pendant in hands. It reminded him of what happened last night.
It was said that he could see that girl again… was that a joke?
Xue Shao was thinking about it all night… That mysterious club owner showed a magic show last night. But now when he recalled, it would be just some little tricks which were hard to be discovered by others.
Now, he was feeling that he was cheated by the club owner since he was going to another city for a business trip.
Xue Shao smiled gently and laughed since he was cheated by a stranger easily when he was as an experienced adult. It was ridiculous.
He closed his eyes and slowly drifted to sleep.
He dreamed of his youth, when he was seventeen years old.
…
“Sir, it is time, Sir?”
Xue Shao felt that someone patting his shoulder. He said nothing when he woke up and left under the polite service of the airline stewardess.
The company had booked the car and hotel for him—the driver was already waiting for him outside the airport.
Xue Shao took a deep breath while watching a totally new city—he was too tired from that several hours trip. What he wanted to do now was to have a shower in the hotel and prepare for the product launch the next morning.
“I have gotten off the plane. Yes, I am in the airport now. Will head to the hotel later.”
Xue Shao took a photo of himself with a tired look and then sent it to Wan Zishan… but maybe she was in dreamland now?
“Oh, yes, I am Xue Shao. I will come out soon. Sorry for making you wait for me.” Xue Shao was looking for the exit when he got a phone call from the driver.
However, he stopped suddenly with his hands frozen. He saw a girl wearing gray clothes and jeans with earphones.
He couldn’t move his eyes from this girl. She was standing in the distance with a suitcase in her hands.
She stepped on the escalator downstairs at the distance of fifteen meters away from him.
The girl… the girl had grown up into a mature woman.
She still had long hair, she…
Xu Jiayi!
Xue Shao rushed in the direction of that escalator subconsciously. He called the girl’s name. But he was so frantic that he knocked into a passenger’s luggage and then fell down on the ground.
“Sir, are you OK?” One passenger helped Xue Shao up.
But he couldn’t see the girl anymore just as he tried to look for her at the escalator.
“It might be an illusion. I was too tired…”
Xue Shao sighed and wandered around the hall disappointedly. He left the airport by car, going to the hotel.
He was silent on the way.
Despite this, the driver was pretty enthusiastic. He helped to lift the luggage when arrived, “Mr. Xue, you can sit down for a rest. I can help you to check in. I am familiar with this hotel. It would be more convenient for me to do this.”
“Thank you so much!” Xue Shao felt sorry that he said nothing to this driver on the road to the hotel.
Seeing that the old driver was busy… making a living. Xue Shao sat down on the sofa in the hotel lobby with rubbing his eyes.
Wan Zishan didn’t respond to his message… it was 1:00 AM now. She must be sleeping.
Xue Shao was playing his cell phone in boredom. And sometimes, he would look around the surroundings…there were only a few customers coming in as it was so late. There were also only a few staff at the reception who were on duty tonight.
Only the security wearing coats were patrolling at the gate spiritedly.
Suddenly, a security guard opened the door and a cold wind blew over Xue Shao’s face. He looked at the gate subconsciously… someone was entering the lobby carrying a suitcase.
The night wind ruffled her hair. She smiled gently and then tidied her hair slightly.
It was her.
Xue Shao stood up at once.
It was her.
The smile on her face and the action of tidying hair overlapped with the memory years before… eleven years had passed.
He found her again finally.
Just like the first encounter.
