Love in Beijing: To Mr. Chen

After every name, you quietly wrote down her name. Even though no one knew.

You knew that from that moment on, Shen Anyuan and Chen Ziyan would stay side by side through their yellowing youth, never to part again.

You stared blankly out the window, though all you really wanted was to see her profile, her reflection in the glass. But she no longer looked at you with her bright eyes.

You once heard her say, "I'll work hard and come to your hometown, to your North."

You said, "I'm willing to stay in your South and watch the picturesque Jiangnan with you, as orioles fly and grass grows."

You once heard her say that making breakfast with you, even just frying an egg, was the happiest dream of all.

You smiled. Perhaps so much had gradually slipped from her memory. At least that proved you loved her more deeply and for longer.

You spent your whole life teaching her to love you, only to have her spend the rest of hers forgetting you.

Beyond life and death, beyond yin and yang.