Old Alleys of Haicheng

Wen Ran often thought back to that late autumn.

She remembered the moss-covered wall in the back alley, and the way he held a cigarette between his lips.

The cigarette fell by the wall. She picked it up and kept it.

Later, she learned to smoke that brand. She couldn't quit.

Later still, he became Master Jiang. People brought him the finest cigarettes, yet he still carried that old brand in his pocket. When she heard, she froze for a moment and said nothing.

She moved into an urban village to hide from him. The day his men knocked on the wrong door, he stood at the top of the stairs and didn't ask what she was doing there.

“You moved here.”

For all those years when they never defined what they were to each other, she opened the door when he came and locked it when he left. Once, after he had gone, she wanted to touch his face.

She didn't.

Later, she got married. It rained on her wedding day, and she heard that his car had been parked across from the hotel for a long time.

Later still, his name disappeared from Haicheng.

She smoked a whole pack alone. The brand had long since been discontinued. As the smoke burned its way into her lungs, she suddenly remembered that late autumn...

Back then, she didn't know him yet.

She didn't know that some people only had to look at you once to leave you with a debt you could never repay in a lifetime.