While Zhou Zhuangmei was meeting up with a friend, she received a text in the middle of their casual chat: "The spring chill is still sharp. Take good care of yourself."
Her friend was surprised at first. Who still sent greetings like that these days? He sounded like an old fossil.
Then she saw who had sent it and sighed. It was Liang Xunzhou, after all. He had always been like that.
Zhou Zhuangmei agreed.
As she recalled it, Liang Xunzhou had accompanied his elders to her house for medical visits several times.
The boy always had a stern expression, wore a shirt washed pale with age, and followed the rules to the letter. He had strongly disapproved of her carefree, easygoing ways.
"How could that be? He must have liked you for years. He still hasn't thrown away the hair tie you gave him in high school," her friend said.
They had nothing to do with each other.
Zhou Zhuangmei laughed. "What are you imagining?" she said, dismissing the idea.
-
The next time she met Liang Xunzhou, she was picking up medicine for her grandfather at a traditional Chinese medicine clinic.
Ten years had passed. The man was still slender and elegant, though his features had matured a little.
When he saw her, his eyelashes trembled.
He greeted her politely as an old classmate, then courteously asked what she needed.
His manners were impeccable. There was nothing to suggest, as her friend had said, that he had liked her for years.
Zhou Zhuangmei laughed to herself. She'd actually believed it for a moment.
Just before turning to leave with the medicine, she remembered the hair tie.
"Do you still have that hair tie?"
For a long while, no one answered.
Zhou Zhuangmei stopped and turned back to meet a pair of amber eyes.
Eyes can convey feelings, and his nervousness was plain to see.
In her moment of surprise, she heard him say, "...Didn't you say you were giving it to me? Once something is given to me, you can't take it back."
Theme: May we all get what we wish for
