Shen Nian pursued Ji Huai for three years and was rejected three times.
The first time he said that studies are the most important thing, the second time he said his personality is not compatible, and the third time he said you will meet a better person. On the day of graduation, she cried and wet the sleeves of her bachelor's degree uniform. She locked twenty-seven unsent emails into a folder called "No Reply", thinking that she would never see him again in this life.
We met again six years later, at the fish market at four in the morning. He squatted on the ground with a camera and took a close-up shot of the fish, with fish scales splattered on his coat. He turned the camera towards her and said, "Shen Nian, the red blood in your eyes is more telling than the shot I took."
He said he would take photos of her for free. He said that the pothos in the club photo had been transformed into a cat by him. He said "your hair has grown". He said "I remember. Every word."
Shen Nian told himself that this was work. But when she dug out the late-night call from her old phone that he had hung up on, saw the folder of photos he had secretly taken for six years, and found the three love letters he had sealed in plastic at the bottom of the bookshelf—she discovered that what she thought was a one-man show was the silence of two people from beginning to end.
What should I use to repay the disappointment of three summers? Ji Huai said, three winters. A cup of ginger tea was delivered to her door every day without getting out of the car or signing her name. If he doesn't forgive you after drinking, he will leave.
This is a story about missing out, showing off, and finally learning to put another person into the future. If the reunion has a delayed statute of limitations, then its validity period is - a lifetime.
She turned around and left three years ago. He came back three years later.
But this time, it was his turn to wait.
