Three Thousand Steps to Understanding

Jiang Zhiyi and I were childhood sweethearts, yet we resented each other for our entire lives.

She resented me for taking matters into my own hands and restoring her memories, causing her beloved to jump off a building.

I resented her for breaking her promise. She had sworn to love me forever, but after losing her memory, she fell for someone else.

For ten years of marriage, we were as cold as ice, the closest of strangers.

But when I was diagnosed with ALS and everyone in the city urged her to divorce me,

Jiang Zhiyi secretly climbed all three thousand steps and spent a day and a night praying before the Buddha, hoping only that I would survive.

At the end of my life, she sat by my bed all night. Pressing her forehead to my cheek, she whispered,

“Wenya, I’ve fulfilled every responsibility I had toward you in this life. If there’s another life, I hope you won’t restore my memories again. Let me be with him.”

Tears slid from the corners of my eyes.

At last, I understood that I should never have used the love we shared as children to bind her and burden her for the rest of her life.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day I found Jiang Zhiyi.

This time, I chose not to restore her memories.