At the Shinan District Court, she attends a domestic abuse hearing.
The lawyer walks in. Their eyes meet, and the pen slips from her hand.
Eight years. The last time, she said, "I have to repeat a year. Don't wait for me," then changed her number and disappeared.
After the hearing, he calls to her in the hallway: "Su Shiyu." After a pause, "Are you doing okay?"
Just like when he used to reply instantly to her message, "The weather's nice today," eight years ago.
--
That was their code. It meant, "I'm still here."
--
Since she was five, she had been passed from one home to another, called "possessed," and treated like a ball kicked around from person to person.
In middle school, he sat beside her. When the whole class ran away, he was the only one who stayed. He took off his school jacket and draped it over her.
Later, she pushed him away. It wasn't that she didn't love him. She was afraid she might lose control during an episode, like a blade without a sheath, and cut the person closest to her.
They lost touch for eight years. They were both in Qingdao, just a twenty-minute bike ride apart, and neither knew they lived in the same city.
--
Her grandmother swallowed her love, waiting for someone her whole life. She hummed a song until she was old before anyone finally understood it.
Her mother hid her love at the bottom of a box. She kept sending money for ten years without fail, and kept ten padded jackets, each size matching the girl's growth.
When it came to her, she pushed love away.
One generation swallowed their words, the next pulled their hands back into their sleeves. It took her generation to dare reach out.
He said, "You can't hurt me. Just stay alive."
--
Her name is Shiyu. Her mother said that the rain that falls when all things are at their driest is called timely rain.
When the fog clears, spring will arrive.
Theme: Three generations of women holding one another up. Each generation breaks one link in the chain, and only the third dares to reach out. At its heart is the idea that "you don't have to be good enough to deserve closeness. You just have to be alive."
