Later I Found Out: the Girl Who Lent Me an Eraser

She just smiled and he remembered it for twelve years. In her third year of junior high school, she sat in the row behind him, borrowed rubbers, poked his back, and her eyes were crooked when she laughed. Later she went to Xi'an and he chased her to Xi'an. When she went to Shanghai, he put his phone on the balcony and waited until dawn. Later the number became empty. Later he got a girlfriend. In her senior year, she called: "I'm back, do you want to get married?" He said: "I have a girlfriend." She was silent for a few seconds and said, "Oh." Then it hung up. He didn't know until many years later that during those years, she had been carrying her mother's medical expenses alone in Shanghai for three years. She said nothing. In the spring of 2014, she got married. He walked from the east of the river to the west of the river and stood at the back of the crowd. No one knew that he had remembered that smile for twelve years. Later I learned that some people turn around for the rest of their lives.