When Will We Meet Again, Drunk on Rouge-Stained Tears?

“When the peach blossoms bloom next year, will you come and marry me?” Young Gu Yuanzhi stood beside young Su Yi, smiling as she asked him. “What if the peach blossoms never come?” Young Su Yi looked at the smiling girl beside him and teased her. “If they don’t bloom for a year, I’ll wait a year. If they don’t bloom for ten years, I’ll wait ten years. By the time we’re old, surely they’ll bloom!” Young Gu Yuanzhi widened her eyes at Su Yi, who was still smiling. Su Yi smiled at her without saying a word. After a long while, he finally said, “Fool.” Though his voice was quiet, the girl beside him heard him. Annoyed, she chased after him, trying to hit him. From far away, you could see a girl with a branch of peach blossoms playfully tussling with a boy. Every so often, the boy would deliberately say something she didn’t want to hear, and she would swat at him with the branch. He laughed as he dodged. Many years later “Ah Zhi, what is it you’ve been holding on to all your life?” Yue Bai asked the woman reclining on the chaise longue. Gu Yuanzhi was no longer the little girl she had been. The years had left their mark on her face, and silver strands had appeared at her temples. Perhaps because she had been gravely ill these past two years, she had grown much thinner. Hearing Yue Bai’s question, she too looked out at the peach tree, as if she could see the scene from long ago, when they played beneath it as children. She asked herself, “That’s right. What is it I’ve been holding on to?” She gazed for a long while, then closed her eyes and let the thought go...