(Thirty-two)

  Ye Yan had knocked on the door several times but it wouldn't open, just as she was about to knock again, the door opened silently. Liu Qing appeared at the doorway, her eyes were a bit swollen, her hair was messy, one side of her face was red, and her makeup was gone. Behind her, there were shards of broken porcelain all over the floor. Ru Shuang rushed forward and hugged Liu Qing, saying "Liu Qing, what happened? Are you okay? Don't scare me."

  He nodded to the secretary to go out first. After settling the two girls on the sand, Liu Qing looked up calmly and said to him: "Xiao Ye, you go out and find a place to stay for a while." He looked at her and she nodded in agreement with her eyes.

  He nodded and turned around to leave, closing the door behind him. He didn't dare go far and just sat in the reception hall flipping through documents and magazines. The secretary poured him a glass of water but he still didn't lift his head.

  Li Jianyu pulled out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter from the tea table, lit one up. She didn't understand smoking, but felt that this smell was also very familiar, where had she smelled it before? Suddenly, a flash of lightning in her mind, trembling with her lips, said: "Gao Tian, Gao Tian."

  Liu Qing turned his head and looked at her: "You also know that Gao Tian is now known all over the world. I'm so unlucky to always meet such famous people."

  She didn't know what to say now, it's probably not suitable to mention her acquaintance with Gao Tian. She seemed to understand everything - Winter Love Song, First Love, Cigarette, Gao Tian said that his first love was in Wu City, and his first love was with a married woman. Her head started to ache slightly.

  "Gao Tian is your first love." She sighed that the world was so small and everywhere they went, there were connections.

  "When I was in second year of junior high, he was in first year of senior high. I had never left Wucheng before, but he had been to many places in Mianyang. He was good at math and often participated in competitions all over the place. At a time when we were still unaware of the difference between America and the Americas, he had already been to the United States. I remember that once he came to our school to give a speech, telling everyone that as long as they worked hard, there was nothing they couldn't do." Her eyes became distant, drifting back to the distant and green memories of her youth.

  "There were so many people sitting below the stage, he must not have seen me at all, nor did he know how much I admired him from below. At that time, he was like a god in my eyes." She spat out a mouthful of smoke.

  "If it wasn't for the fact that I had eaten something bad and left school late that day, I think I would never have seen him again. I squeezed onto a bus to go home and ran into him on the bus, but he didn't recognize me at all. I excitedly told him that I was the middle school student who had just listened to his speech. At that time, I was really too cute." Liu Qing said dreamily, not noticing that her cigarette ash had grown very long and was about to fall off onto her cheongsam, nor did she care.

  "He naturally didn't remember, but he said he was very happy to meet you. He said 'I sneaked out and came to Wucheng many times, but I never really explored it, so I wanted to come and take a look around.' I said you've been to so many places, you must look down on this small city of Wucheng. He seriously said 'No way, I really like this city, I just don't know much about it.' I took the initiative to bring him around, bring him to eat things I like to eat, bring him to places I usually like to go, and we strolled until night before returning. That was the happiest afternoon of my life. Night fell and snow started falling, the first snow of that year. Now you know why I cry every time I see 'Winter Sonata'? The scene is almost identical to what happened between us back then." So many years have passed, but every word he said at the time still remains clear in Liu Qing's heart. This must be what they mean by "etched in one's memory".

  "The next day he returned to Yun Cheng, but he often wrote letters and I replied seriously to each one, not letting a single character be wrong." She pressed the nearly extinguished cigarette into the ashtray.

  "I often light cigarettes but don't smoke, just smell the fragrance. He started smoking in high school, and most students who smoked did so secretly. He would put his letters and cigarettes together, and after a while, the paper would absorb the scent of the cigarettes. I liked reading his letters even more than the scent of the cigarettes on the paper - it wasn't an expensive brand, but the smell was wonderful. Later, I found out from him what brand it was, and every time I saw it, I'd buy some, light one up, and just smell the fragrance... You say this isn't the scent of youth?" Tears slid down her cheeks.

  "It's like frost when spoken, you may not believe that our letters are not about romance. His letters were mostly encouraging me to study hard and get into a good university, while mine were all guarantee letters, guaranteeing that I would definitely study hard and get into a good university."

  "After getting to know him, I go to your Mianyang every year. He is often not there because of summer camp, competitions, and family members. We rarely see each other, but it's okay. As long as I can see the places where he has lived, I'm happy. Just imagining his footsteps passing by here and there makes me very happy." Liu Qing became more calm, but she was tearful.