Thirty-six

  When Ye woke up in the morning, there was no one beside him. The towel had been carefully placed on his body. He looked at the clock on the bedside table and it was already 9 o'clock. Now she must be in the office. He thought to himself that when she worked, she was very focused, and he couldn't help but smile.

  He lay in bed until 10 am, thinking about his and Ruxue's future, and decided he should find a job too. He wanted to go downstairs to buy a newspaper, and also planned to ask Ruxue out for lunch to tell her about his plans, and also to tease her about how she slept like Sleeping Beauty last night.

  He waited until noon to call her, and the phone said: "The user you dialed has powered off, please try again later." He thought maybe she was in a meeting, so he waited until afternoon, but every time he called it was still powered off. He got anxious and looked at her room, nothing had changed, her favorite blue clothes were all hanging in the closet, the suitcase was also there, only the work clothes and a small personal bag were taken away, and he felt relieved.

  He waited for her at the bottom of her company building, guessing she was about to get off work. He waited and waited but didn't see her come out. Instead, a girl greeted him: "Hi handsome."

  He looked at her in confusion, and she hastened to explain: "I'm a colleague of Ruxue's. Last time you came to pick her up, we met." He went "oh" repeatedly. She asked: "Don't you know that Ruxue has quit?"

  "It's impossible." He said, but his heart sank deeper and deeper.

  "It's true that Xiaofeng handed in her resignation letter to the director this morning and told me about it, then packed up her things and left. Aren't you her boyfriend? Why didn't she tell you?"

  "It's impossible." He suddenly only said these three words. The various expressions of yesterday flashed before his eyes. He turned around and ran away. The girl behind him called out several times, but he just stomped his foot.

  She left, she's gone. Why? Why? A flash of inspiration in her mind, she must have heard what Xiao Tang said to herself. No wonder she said not to look for Liu Qing anymore. She said that if someone doesn't want others to find them, no matter how hard you look, you won't be able to find them. What she said wasn't about Liu Qing, but about herself. At that time, she had already made up her mind to leave.

  He thought of all the places she might go, but he couldn't find her anywhere, not even at her home. Her father seemed to still be angry with him. Her mother was polite and saw him off, whispering to him: "Her father is still mad at her. She called me and said that she had quit her job on her own accord and didn't dare go back home to face her father, so she's going to stay with a friend for half a month before contacting the family again. Otherwise, you can come again later."

  He had no choice but to do so, and he was helpless. She was also helpless in his hands. In the middle of this, Xiao Tang called him about the contract, but he didn't have time to deal with it and hastily hung up. After searching around in vain, he returned home and walked into her room. This room, she had lived in for a very short time, yet it was filled with so many memories. Every blue outfit she had worn was still hanging in the closet, like pieces of blue sky. Looking at these blue skies, he felt as though his own sky had collapsed.

  She opened the travel bag she brought back from home, and inside there was a white plastic bag with a label that read: "Common Cold Medicine". There were also several light green covered books, "Andersen's Fairy Tales", which were very old and had yellowed pages. He carelessly flipped through them, and a piece of paper slipped out from between the pages. He turned to that page and saw it was her handwriting, a letter she had written to him:

  Leaf rustling

  Writing your name on paper is as joyful and happy as calling out your name. Before I met you, my life was calm and smooth, I thought it would be good to spend the rest of my life like this, it's good to live a lifetime like this. Before seeing you, I felt that living a lifetime like this was also good, but unexpectedly I met you and everything changed. You taught me how to cry, how to laugh, how to express my inner heart, most importantly, you made me understand what love is.

  Love should be like this, with tears and laughter. I also hope to hold your hand and grow old together, but I don't want to become a burden to you. I don't want us to have any shouldn'ts or shadows between us.

  I once wanted to read these few books of Andersen with you because I thought it was beautiful, unfortunately, I never had the time. Fortunately, that special concert can make up for it. Seven years ago, I had just finished reading Andersen's sentence when I met you, and you said this is really God's arrangement. I think what you said is right, so please take my departure as a matter of course, if it is indeed God's arrangement, then God will arrange for us to meet again.

  It comes like sunshine with soul and thought; it comes like fragrance like a song. We know and remember others, but do not know where it comes from.

  Forever love you like frost. Don't forget to answer my condition and remember to contact Xiao Tang.

  "As frost, bright moon as frost." He recalled the sentence from Yong Yu Le: "Swallow Tower empty, where is the beauty?" Tears fell. She took away the house key, though heartbroken, he felt comforted.