Seven years ago, there was a heavy rain in Huqiu, Suzhou.
He lent an umbrella and she tied a red rope on it.
He is Jiang Xunzhou, a down-and-out scholar from Peiping. He is withdrawn and taciturn. He only writes what he wants to write.
She is Jiang Nianwan, an embroiderer whose parents died young. She lives alone in an old house and relies on needlework to survive.
Starting from an umbrella, they entered each other's lives.
Make tea under the moon, walk in the rain, and make a lifelong promise under the peach blossom tree.
He thought that this would be it for his life - having her, articles, and the mist of Jiangnan was enough.
But she left.
On the day when her favorite peach blossom fell, she held his hand and said, "You must remember to come see me."
Every Qingming Festival since then, he would take the white jade hairpin and sit in front of her grave for a whole day.
Someone asked him: "Mr. Jiang, who do you come to see every year?"
He didn't answer, just hummed the song she taught him softly——
"Looking through the autumn water, I can't see the beauty..."
He lived to a very old age and wrote many articles, but the one he was most satisfied with would always be read only to her.
