She is a pen that paints all the mist and rain in the south of the Yangtze River; he is a mountain, but his silence shields her from the wind and frost.
Suzhou Li Zhai, a scholarly family, when Li Lingyi was twenty-two years old, a marriage contract sent her to the Shen family in the capital.
Once on a blind date, it is determined for life. On the wedding night, the two slept on each side, with an arm's length between them. He said, "If you need anything in the future, you can tell me." She replied, "Okay." She was as polite as two strangers.
Li Lingyi thought this was just a decent marriage, and she just did her duty as Mrs. Shen.
Until Shen Junxiu prepared a south-facing studio for her - Duan inkstone and handmade rice paper, all of which she was used to. Until he hid an old photo of her when she was ten years old in the study room and said, "I was there at the art exhibition that day." Until he quietly replied next to the red plum she painted: "It's not fallen yet, waiting for you to see."
It turns out that some people have been waiting for each other for many years in the depths of time.
He never expressed his love, but he would carry her back to her room when she was drunk. He would remember her casual remark that "it rarely snows in Suzhou" and he would stand in the corner of her painting exhibition and watch the whole show in silence.
From politeness and alienation to tacit understanding, from a wedding letter to the hidden meaning in a painting. This is the slowest confession and the longest love letter in a lifetime.
"I have seen Miss Li's paintings."
"When was that?"
"When you were ten years old. What about you?"
"Yeah, it's a little late. But it doesn't matter, I can afford to wait."
Reader comments
This is an extremely slow story. It's so slow that the male and female protagonists sleep on one side of each other on their wedding night, with an arm's length between them; it's so slow that they use a painting or a poem to convey their feelings - "The winter plum blossoms have not yet bloomed" and "They haven't fallen yet, waiting for you to see"; it's so slow that the male protagonist has been waiting for the heroine for seventeen years, starting from when he pressed the shutter at an art exhibition when he was ten years old, but never said it out loud.
But it is this "slowness" that makes every heartbeat extra precious. When Shen Junxiu prepared the studio, inkstones, and handmade rice paper for Li Lingyi, when she discovered that there were old photos of her when she was ten years old hidden in his study, and when he said "Then don't leave" when she was drunk - these moments were not industrial saccharine, but the sweetness after years of accumulation.
The greatest charm of this book lies in the "hiding" of the two protagonists. Shen Junxiu hid her secret love for seventeen years, her painting skills for eight years, and countless words of "I love you" in "I can see it every year in the future". Li Lingyi hid her vulnerability, insecurity, and inferiority complex for fear of not being worthy of him. Both of them are approaching each other cautiously, conveying their feelings through paintings, and using actions instead of words.
This kind of implicit, oriental love, rendered layer by layer like a gongbi painting, is too rare in today's fast-paced online articles.
If you like the long flow of water in "Know or Not", the dual-power setting in "A Little Smile Is Charming", and the narrative style of "not talking about love but loving everywhere" - you will not be able to put it down this book.
This is an extremely slow story. It's so slow that the male and female protagonists sleep on one side of each other on their wedding night, with an arm's length between them; it's so slow that they use a painting or a poem to convey their feelings - "The winter plum blossoms have not yet bloomed" and "They haven't fallen yet, waiting for you to see"; it's so slow that the male protagonist has been waiting for the heroine for seventeen years, starting from when he pressed the shutter at an art exhibition when he was ten years old, but never said it out loud. But it is this "slowness" that makes every heartbeat extra precious. When Shen Junxiu prepared the studio, inkstones, and handmade rice paper for Li Lingyi, when she discovered that there were old photos of her when she was ten years old hidden in his study, and when he said "Then don't leave" when she was drunk - these moments were not industrial saccharine, but the sweetness after years of accumulation. The greatest charm of this book lies in the "hiding" of the two protagonists. Shen Junxiu hid her secret love for seventeen years, her painting skills for eight years, and countless words of "I love you" in "I can see it every year in the future". Li Lingyi hid her vulnerability, insecurity, and inferiority complex for fear of not being worthy of him. Both of them are approaching each other cautiously, conveying their feelings through paintings, and using actions instead of words. This kind of implicit, oriental love, rendered layer by layer like a gongbi painting, is too rare in today's fast-paced online articles. If you like the long flow of water in "Know or Not", the dual-power setting in "A Little Smile Is Charming", and the narrative style of "not talking about love but loving everywhere" - you will not be able to put it down this book.