Spring came extraordinarily late that year, but the willow trees by the lake couldn't wait any longer. After holding back their energy all winter, they finally showed their first hint of yellow on their branches. When you look closely, you can see that the new shoots are as thin as cicada wings and as soft as an unspoken murmur.
That's when I saw her.
Across the entire lake, she stood on the other side. The fog had not yet dissipated, and her figure was crumpled into a ball of light blue, like a distant mountain brush casually splashed on rice paper. I don't know where I got the courage——
Maybe spring makes people stupid in the first place——
He actually slowly raised his hand in that direction, and then waved gently and tentatively.
There is no wind. The lake is as quiet as an ancient mirror covered with dust.
She seemed to pause. Then, I couldn't see her eyebrows clearly, couldn't distinguish her expression, but I seemed to catch something——
Is it the corner of the mouth? Is it the corner of the eye? Or is it just light and shadow taking a nap on the water? That smile was too light, so light that it seemed like my illusion, so light that I couldn't even bear the word "existence".
But I remember.
It was many years later that I realized that some encounters are not for getting acquainted, but for planting a spring in the depths of memory. That morning when I was separated from the entire lake and couldn't even hear my voice, that moment when I waved like a fool, but she might not have seen it at all——
That uncertain smile became the background for all my subsequent heartbeats.
Later we finally got closer, talked a lot, and walked a lot. I never mentioned that day again. I'm afraid that once I ask the question, my smile will break——
Just like a willow catkin falling in the middle of a lake, you think it has stopped, but in fact it keeps sinking, sinking to a place where no one can reach it.
Maybe it never existed. But that spring was real.
Concept: The most touching encounter in the world is often not a grand acquaintance, but a vague smile and a timid wave, which are repeatedly wiped by memory and eventually become the starting point of spring in a person's heart.
Some people occupy you for the entire spring with just the suspense of a smile.