(Next story starts in October)
People said Lin Zaishui had raised an ungrateful wretch.
She'd only been twenty-two at the time, taking on a mountain of work and wearing herself down, all to get seventeen-year-old Ting Yu out of the village and into the big city.
But in five years, Ting Yu hadn't come back once.
She'd gone off to live the good life, seen the bright lights and forgotten her roots. It was only natural, people said. They just felt sorry for Lin Zaishui. She thought the hard times were behind her, but had tied herself to Ting Yu and got not even a scrap in return.
Lin Zaishui said nothing about it.
She seemed unwilling to bring it up.
Toward the end of the fifth year, an old woman at the village entrance brought news: “I hear a tough new person has arrived in Luozikou and is cracking down hard. Your business probably won't be easy anymore.”
Lin Zaishui wasn't concerned.
But one day, after she came face-to-face with this “tough new person,” she was left reeling.
The girl had grown much taller. Her face had lost its childish softness, and her warmth was gone too. The cold glance she cast Lin Zaishui seemed to say she didn't know her, as though she had become someone else.
Everyone cursed Ting Yu, saying she was stabbing her own sister in the back and helping outsiders bring her down.
Ting Yu didn't deny it.
Perhaps the accusations had hit the mark.
-
What was the truth?
Ting Yu had become a “big shot” at the bureau. Yet as soon as she returned, she curled up in her sister's arms at night and forced her to kiss her on the boat.
Between gasps, the little boat rocked on the water.
Lin Zaishui demanded furiously, “Why did you come back?”
Why had she come back?
Ting Yu narrowed her eyes and watched her in silence beneath the moonlight. Ripples stirred in her gaze.
“You told me to leave and not come back.”
“But, Sister, have you ever thought about it? I only want to be by your side.”
-
That winter, the windows of the old house rattled in the wind.
Fifteen-year-old Ting Yu and twenty-year-old Lin Zaishui huddled together under one quilt, skin pressed to skin for warmth. Ting Yu raised her head and asked softly, “Why can't I come back?”
Exhausted from a long day's work, Lin Zaishui's eyelids were heavy. She rubbed Ting Yu's cold hands, then answered in a quiet voice, half asleep.
She accidentally spoke her true feelings.
“Because... if you come back, I won't be able to bear letting you leave again.”
The Zhi River was a stream far too frail.
A weak stream could never sustain a grand life.
And Ting Yu deserved better.
-
*Five-year age gap.
*Some elements are realistic, others fictional. Everything serves the romance.
Theme: Escape hardship and head for the spring mountains.
