“Director Pei, I’m applying to join the Northwest Afforestation Program.”
On a Monday afternoon in late spring of 1984, after finishing her work with the cultural troupe, Liu Mingchun hurried to the public security bureau to sign up.
Pei Zhenhua looked utterly incredulous.
“That’s a major national project to combat desertification. You’re a girl who sings. Can you really handle it?”
Liu Mingchun fell silent for a moment, then replied firmly:
“Director Pei, that’s not right. We’ve had reform and opening up for years now. Who dares say women are inferior to men?”
Pei Zhenhua realized he’d misspoken and let out an awkward laugh.
“All right. Since you’ve made up your mind, go with everyone else this Friday.”
On New Year’s Day, I found out I was pregnant. Then Lu Yunqing lost his memory in a car accident and forgot me completely, his memories reverting to the day ten years ago when he proposed to the woman he loved.
His first love never mentioned how she had callously dumped him ten years ago and left to study abroad with a wealthy young man.
I explained again and again, and pleaded with him to stay again and again.
Lu Yunqing held Bai Yuguang tightly in his arms and looked at me with cold indifference. “Go. I really don’t know you.”
It wasn’t until later that I realized the person Lu Yunqing loved most after losing his memory was his first love, and the person he loved most before losing it was also his first love.
I was tired. I chose to let go of this relationship for good.
