Were those not enough? Were those not what substance was all about?
The man shook his head.
“Superficial,” he laughed sardonically. That’s why people always say those that come out of school, be they teacher or student, are all guileless.
It’s okay to be guileless, but guilelessness wasn’t the same as stupidity.
“She has no substance, so you say…” the man smiled wanly.
“During the Serene City earthquake, she was at the disaster site saving lives while you sent ‘thoughts and prayers’.”
“When she was digging out victims with her bare hands, you were watching television and posting comments like ‘my heart goes out to you and your family’.”
“When she was carrying a large man on her back, you were crying your tears of compassion. Wonder how much that helped?”
“She donated 50 million RMB to Serene City, and what about you? To me, this is what a person with substance would do. Her actions spoke louder than words, while you people are all talk and no action.”
“Substance? What a joke.”
The man rolled his eyes. What man wouldn’t fall for a woman like Yan Huan?
Fang Zhu’s face shuffled between ghastly pale and liver-red, but she had nothing to rebuke.
Outside the cinema, Lu Yi and Yan Huan were far away, walking hand in hand. They stopped and looked at the night view of Sea City, as beautiful as always. The ocean at Sea City was always calm and peaceful. Apart from the beautiful scenery, Sea City also had its shipping and tourism industries to boast about. Even at ten pm, people thronged along the waters, some awake and waiting for the next sunrise.
Brilliant lights lit up on a skyscraper nearly 30 floors high, neon colors shifting in unpredictable beauty.
This building had almost become a tourist attraction with its astounding beauty at night.
A large screen resided in the center of the building, on which an advertisement was being played.
The woman in the advertisement had silky long hair and was lying in a chair. On her porcelain fingers was a diamond ring. Her features were exquisite and beautiful, and her smile was enough to die for.
She stood up and turned around, her skin radiating with the pellucid beauty of pearls.
She walked forward and suddenly turned around, giving an unforgettable glance evocative of the prose of a famous poem:
I scoured the crowds on a dark night,
For how many times I could not say,
Yet she was nowhere within sight.
But when I turned around in dismay,
I saw her below the dim lantern light,
All alone in an empty alleyway.
The image of the ring and her exquisite hands were etched into the memories of the audience.
Diamond, eternal love.
If you love her true, gift her eternal love.
This was a jewelry advertisement Yan Huan had shot just a few days back. Still, it was unexpectedly extravagant for the company to rent the skyscraper which stood in the middle of the Sea City. It was hard to avoid this advertisement with it being played on repeat.
Of course, it would serve to make Yan Huan even more popular.
“Do I look good in it?” asked Yan Huan.
Lu Yi hugged her from the back, resting his chin on her shoulders.
“Mhm, of course. My wife is the prettiest.”
Yan Huan leaned back and cuddled against him. The night scenery in Sea City was extremely beautiful. Those who lived in Sea City, beneath all of its brilliant glamors, could only be considered lucky.
“Hubby…” called Yan Huan, rubbing her eyes.
“Mhm? What is it?” asked Lu Yi, adjusting her cap so it wouldn’t fall off.
“I’m sleepy. I wanna go to bed.” And why wouldn’t she be? It was late, and she hadn’t slept well the night before. She was so sleepy she didn’t feel like moving.
“I’ll give you a piggyback ride,” said Lu Yi, bending over.
Yan Huan climbed onto him and soon fell asleep.
Lu Yi made sure she was stable before making his way back home on foot. He didn’t drive since the distance wasn’t great. The street lights elongated their shadows. To Lu Yi, the person on his back was his most precious possession and all he had.
A shadow loomed before him. Lu Yi stopped for a moment before starting to walk forward again.
When he got closer, he saw a woman dressed in black below the street light.
Was it a chance encounter or a planned one?
It mattered little to Lu Yi.
He walked past the woman in large strides. The corner of the black clothes fluttered in the air before falling near his trousers, but never made contact.
“Lu Yi…” said the woman, turning around suddenly. Lu Yi was a distance away by then.
“Yes?” asked Lu Yi, stopping in his tracks.
“Do you love her?” asked Fang Zhu. She dreaded asking the question, but she had to. She was well aware that Lu Yi never loved her, and it seemed as though she never loved Lu Yi either, but she didn’t want to admit defeat, so much so that it was becoming a mental illness.
And mental illnesses are hard to cure.
Lu Yi slanted his face to look at Yan Huan’s closed eyes. Her lashes were long and beautiful and made her look brittle.
He rarely talked about love, but he loved her too much.
“Yes. I do.”
With that, Lu Yi walked off. Behind him, Fang Zhu’s face was covered in tears.
She didn’t want to admit defeat, but it was more than that.
She missed him.
She liked him.
Perhaps you could even call it love.
No matter what it was, she would never have another chance to be with him in her lifetime.
But that man belonged to her, so what went wrong? They even got married in her dreams. Even though they didn’t have children, they were husband and wife.
Yan Huan hugged Lu Yi’s neck tightly in her sleep, feeling safe and secure, breathing in his familiar smell. It was a dreamless sleep.
It seemed to have lasted forever, as though the road didn’t have an end.
She woke up to a new day. A note was there beside her bed. The words on the note were pretty and well-written. It was Lu Yi’s handwriting. Everyone in the Lu Family had to practice calligraphy when they were small, which explains his pretty handwriting.
In this modern age, the usefulness of high-technology is overestimated. Phones, telephones, and all sorts of messaging applications seemingly closed the gap between people, but in truth did the opposite.
Lu Yi was a unique guy. He liked expressing himself through notes, and not through messages or texts and comments.
Phones and telephones can never replace the joy and anticipation of waiting for a letter, nor the excitement and tenseness when opening one, nor the sadness and reluctance when you finish reading it, nor the hesitation and rumination when drafting a reply.
I’ll be off to work. There’s food in the kitchen made by the Auntie, heat them up before eating.
