Twenty-two

  He seemed very familiar with the place and could navigate accurately even in the dark. She was pulled by his warm hands, running so fast that she felt like she was about to take off. He suddenly stopped, turned around, and hugged her: "Rusong." He called out her name in a near-whisper.

  She pressed her face tightly against his chest, listening to the sound of his heart beating rapidly and forcefully inside. Still that sentence repeated by people thousands and millions of times - if time could stand still, then let it stay at this moment. There aren't many probabilities that can make two people who have been separated for seven years and are deeply in love with each other reunite again.

  At least at this moment she didn't think about right or wrong. She just focused on feeling his body temperature, grasping his blue shirt tightly with her hands and using all her strength to feel him.

  He lowered his head and looked at her with a dissatisfied tone: "Who is that thin bamboo pole?" She didn't react for a moment: "What thin bamboo pole?" His hand added force on her back: "The one who was going to take you to the United States just now."

  She suddenly understood and felt the metaphor, bursting out laughing. He couldn't laugh at all: "You're still laughing, you don't know how hard it was for me to see you two together. You are my Shuang, seven years ago, just like that, seven years ago you already snuggled into my arms." She clenched her fist and pounded his chest, he lowered his head and kissed her lips again.

  It was easy to push him away and ask, "Are you following me?" He hastily explained, "Of course not! I was just taking a stroll and happened to see you coming out, so I thought I'd come up and pay my respects to your parents. Who would have thought a bamboo pole would pop up in between?"

  She lowered her head and sighed, saying it wasn't like she was following him, and stooped down to make her eyes level with his: "I heard Frost rejected the fake foreign bamboo pole, what a great comfort for Chinese people's hearts." She reached out and pinched his ears: "And I didn't say I liked you, where would your parents-in-law be able to see that?"

  His eyes dimmed: "Yes, it's clear that your parents like that bamboo pole." Now thinking of her parents, she became anxious again: "Oh no, I've run out with you so recklessly. When I go back, I won't be able to explain what happened at dinner time, and the things that haven't been clarified yet... If they really lock me up and don't let me return to Wucheng, it'll be terrible."

  "Then I'll climb through the window to your room, you're a princess and I'm a prince. Remember to braid your hair and let it down." She gently placed her hand on his forehead and stroked: "I really don't know if you're not growing up at all. Why do you look so much younger than Liu Qing?"

  He chuckled: "Originally, I was younger than her. When I was in elementary school, I skipped two grades, so I ended up being classmates with her. If only I hadn't skipped those grades, we would have been classmates with you instead, and we could have started dating early in college."

  She couldn't help but laugh and cry: "You're crazy for skipping grades, even if you didn't skip grades, you still can't be in the same class as me. You're still one grade higher than me." He continued to smile: "Maybe if I hadn't skipped grades, I wouldn't have met you at all, what a pity that would be."

  His words moved her to tears, but she still had to go home. She didn't know what was wrong with her, but being with him always made her feel a strange sense of guilt, as if she owed an apology to her parents.

  She said she wanted to go home, and he didn't try to persuade her to stay any longer. He walked with his arm around her waist, holding one of her hands in the other. He told her about how seven years ago he had appeared at her aunt's house downstairs. At that time, his uncle lived on the floor below her aunt's place, and their family was always in Wucheng. Every summer, he would come to spend the summer vacation with his uncle. That year was the last time he came to spend the summer vacation with his uncle because that winter, his uncle's whole family immigrated to Canada. He never came back to Wucheng again.

  "Oh, I know their family name is Ye." Like Frost recalled that at that time immigration was still a big event in the small town and was discussed by her aunt and mother for a whole year, it seemed like her aunt had even thought about it.

  He said with a smile: "See, I didn't cheat you. Look at us, aren't we a match made in heaven? When you came to rent the house and rang the doorbell, I saw your face turn red and lower your head, and I recognized you at once." Although she was suppressing his arrogance with her eyes, she was secretly marveling at the coincidence. This is why they met, this is why he seemed so familiar, this is why they hadn't seen each other for seven years after that, this is why his attitude changed so strangely after their first reunion, and naturally, it's also why he knew the origin of the phrase "brewing soup".

  There are still many questions to ask him, let's leave them for later, anyway there is plenty of time.