Fall in Love with You Before I Forget

At twenty-eight, I saw my late lover’s name on the list of new students.

The young man at the lectern had exactly the same features as him, and even blurted out the secret code we used to share.

Then I found my photograph in his textbook. On the back, in my lover’s handwriting, were the words: “If you forget me, use these fragments to piece me back together.”

When the school administrators ordered me to stay away from this “problem student,” the young man grabbed my wrist in the pouring rain:

“Teacher, you taught me that even when ginkgo leaves fall, their shape remains.”

“Then Jiang Che is dead. Can love remain?”