He Really Waited Ten Years After I Died

Deeply devoted, golden-boy childhood friend x clear-eyed, levelheaded childhood sweetheart

"I've been dead for so long. Why can't you forget me?"

"Because you said that liars have to swallow a thousand needles."

In the three months I had left to live, He Nianhuai planned every minute and every second into the rest of his life.

After I died, my soul stayed by his side for ten years. Every year during Qingming, he placed roses before my gravestone. Unlike the white flowers left for everyone else, that vivid red meant only for me stood out.

So I followed him, leaning against his shoulder and hiding in the shadows beneath the streetlights, watching with my own eyes as he fulfilled my last wishes.

I didn't understand. I'd been dead for ten years. Why couldn't he let me go?

-

I whispered in his ear, cautiously drawing close to his heart. Suddenly, he smiled shyly and said:

"Xu Le, do you have something you can't let go of, too?"

I thought he couldn't see me.

He thought I couldn't hear him.

-Reader's Guide-

1. First-person narration. An unconventional happy ending.

2. Not realistic; a healing story.

3. A long mutual pining story, in line with core socialist values.

4. Short story, set in the 1990s.

Theme: Death is not the end of life. The longing and care of someone else can keep it going forever.