A Breeze Rises

In the 1980s, a young girl named Hong fell for her refined, impeccably mannered junior high school Chinese teacher, Jun. Her attempt to transfer into his class as a student came to nothing, and she buried her innocent admiration deep in the past. In the blink of an eye, thirty years went by.

At a cross-generational class reunion in middle age, fate brought them together again. Over tea in the evening breeze and walks through lakes and mountains, their days spent side by side quietly rekindled their feelings as kindred spirits. They broke through the constraints of age and social roles, beginning a secret, passionate love that lasted three years.

An unexpected pregnancy in their later years came out of nowhere. Hong, wise to the ways of the world, spent the night weighing her options: the day the truth came out would be the day Jun’s lifelong reputation as a teacher and his stable life collapsed.

To protect the life he deserved, she shouldered every secret and all the loneliness alone. She said goodbye in silence by the river, then left for a distant place and vanished, giving up her place in his life so he could keep his peaceful existence.

Six years passed as if in another lifetime. Every year, he returned to the old place to pay his respects, filled with unanswered sorrow. In a foreign land, she raised their child alone and guarded the secret pain of half a lifetime.

Years later, she returned to her hometown. Fate brought them together again, and the child’s features revealed the truth long buried. Jun finally understood. Guilt ate away at him, and he spent the rest of his life trying to make amends, but Hong gently turned him down.

Deep love need not mean clinging to one another; devotion asks for no response.

From then on, they kept to the boundaries of their lives, gazing at each other from afar and quietly carrying on, year after year.

They had loved with consuming passion and made a magnificent sacrifice. Their great love needed no words, and their paths would never cross again.