Epilogue

TRANSLATOR – ANNIE

The northwest airflow blown out by the high pressure in Mongolia formed a cold monsoon, carrying along with it needle-like rain that grazed the sea. The bone-chilling cold air poured through the gaps of the parka’s collar. There was a rustling sound on the roof of the boat. The man at the helm of the boat said, “It’s snowing.”

It was indeed snowing. It was the first snow of the winter. The shimmering, crystal snowflakes scattered across the endless sky. Such a wonder could only be seen on the sea. The sky and sea were separated apart by a layer of misty white snow, as if encompassed by a thin veil. The small island in sight, from a distance, looked like a small mountain floating on the snowy, windy sea. In the end, the ship still moved for more than half an hour before nearing the shore. There was no one on the pier. The boss of the ship placed down a wooden board to connect the boat.

He took out the money, but the helmsman flatly refused and said to him, “Doctor Shao, if you are going back tomorrow, I will pick you up by boat. I don’t need your money.” He looked up in surprise. The helmsmen smiled shyly. “My second child is studying on this island. He showed me and Miss Du’s pictures a long time ago.” Then he asked, “Why didn’t Miss Du come?”

“She went abroad to study.”

The helmsman was startled. After a while, he smiled and said, “That’s great – studying is good. Dr. Shao, why didn’t you go with her?”

He did not answer. He picked up the heavy mountaineering bag, which was full of books and stationery for the children. He turned around and waved to the helmsman: “Might I trouble you to stay here for a while? I will go up and see the children. I plan to leave today.”

“Ai, alright!”

There was only one road on the island, so he couldn’t go the wrong path. Halfway up the mountain, he heard the sounds of students reciting their books, their innocent childish voices clear and crispy entering his ears. He looked up and noticed a red flag floating above the eaves of the classroom. It was particularly eye-catching among the flying snowflakes.

When Little Teacher Sun saw him, he acted like had seen an alien. But the children were overjoyed. They surrounded him, clamoring, and kept asking questions. Hearing that Sister Xiaosu wasn’t coming, they were all extremely disappointed. He took out the books and stationery, and the children became excited again. Then, they took him to look at a painting. It was very large, hung in the room where the students slept. The painting was of all the children and Little Teacher Sun surrounding him and Du Xiaosu.

“Little Uncle Shao, does this look like you?”

“It does!” he said in praise. “It really looks similar.”

“I drew it!”

“I drew too!”

“I painted Sister Xiaosu’s hair!”

“I drew Sister Xiaosu’s eyes!”

The children babbled. He looked at the painting surrounded by children’s sounds. The children painted him and Du Xiaosu holding hands and smiling side by side, as if there was nothing that could separate them.

“Can this picture be given to Little Uncle Shao?”

“Of course!”

“We originally wanted to show it to Sister Xiaosu too!”

Several children grabbed some water and slowly went to work tearing the painting off the wall. Teacher Sun also came to help and it came off undamaged. He rolled it up carefully. Teacher Sun found two more newspapers to help him wrap it up.

A fluffy tail swept across his feet, and when he looked down, he found that it was that pitifully thin kitten. After so long, it seemed like it hadn’t grown up much. It was still skinny and skeletal. It peered up at him with its pointed face and meowed.

He picked up the kitten and asked, “Can this cat be given to me too?”

“Sure.” Little Teacher Sun scratched his head, “There is nothing to eat on the island, and no one feeds it. You can take it away.”

The snow on the sea seemed to get bigger and bigger. When the boat finally left, the children still sent him to the dock and said goodbye to him: “Little Uncle Shao! Next time, come and see us with Sister Xiaosu!”

All their little hands were waving desperately. Their figures gradually drifted further and further away until they couldn’t be seen anymore, just like the beautiful memories in the beginning of life, gradually disappearing in the overwhelming snow, no longer to be picked up.

He almost didn’t sleep the whole night, finally hurried back to Shanghai, and then rushed to the airport. Seeing Du Xiaosu from a distance, he was relieved, stopped her in a hurry, and gave her the scroll: “The children gave you this.”

She was taken aback, only to realize that it was from the children on the island. Tears formed in her eyes, “How did the children know?”

“I went to the island to get it. I didn’t tell them anything. Don’t worry.” He looked up at his watch. “Are you about to board the plane? Go early and sit in the lounge for a while. When you get off the plane, someone will pick you up. Pay attention to your own safety.”

She finally said, “Thank you.”

He seemed to smile: “Quickly go in.”

Coming out of the airport, the weather was still gloomy. He fastened his seat belt, and the little fluffy thing silently jumped out from the back seat, gave a “meow”, and then curled up in the passenger seat.

He had never driven his car for such a long time. 1262 kilometers, a fully enclosed highway, all the way to the north. Long and monotonous lanes. There was only an infinite stretch of road in his field of vision. He passed in front of transport trucks one after another. The guardrails along the highway were like silver belts, quickly slipping by the windows. The car was so quiet that he could hear the cat’s snores, and gradually felt sad.

It was like a sharp knife. After being stabbed, he always took a long time to react. It turned out that blood was gurgling out of the wound.

When he entered Hebei, it was already completely dark. The weather was very bad, and the headlights could not shine far ahead of him. The kitten woke up from hunger. It crouched on the seat, meowing at him. He drove the car into the next service station and bought a tin of dace. The kitten gobbled it up, and when he looked back, it had already fallen back asleep on the seat.

He finally returned to the familiar city. He was assaulted by a sky full of lights. The long driving had made him exhausted. From darkness to light, from loneliness to prosperity, they all seemed to occur in just the time of a breath.

He parked the car under the courtyard wall. The kitten was still asleep, snoring. He locked the door of the car, looked up at the wall. Using the barren locust tree outside the wall, he quickly flipped over the wall.

He hadn’t brought any suitable tools, and just casually took the screwdriver from the back of the car. Fortunately, the early winter soil hadn’t frozen yet. He dug for a long time, but was very patient. Last time the box was dug out, the soil had been filled back in, so it was still soft and easy to dig.

Finally, the screwdriver dinged and hit the tin lid.

He pushed the soil away and took out the box.

There was rust on the lid of the box and the faint smell of earth. He opened the lid. There were strips of paper inside. Only he knew what was written on it.

From childhood to adolescence, from adolescence to the present, many good memories were tucked in there.

When he buried this with Shao Zhenrong, Zhenrong said, “We will take it out together when we are old.”

But he left first.

He took the box to the lake and threw the paper strips into the water one by one. Most of the street lights were hidden by trees. Those paper strips could only be seen vaguely, floating or sinking, all entering the water.

“Mom likes Little Rong, and Dad likes Big Brother.”

“Grandma, I miss you.”

“Little Rong, happy birthday!”

“I don’t want to go to Fourth Middle School.”

“When I grow up, I will do what I want to do.”

“Teacher Qin, thank you!”

He held a note in his hand. It had her handwriting on it: “Taro, Taro, quickly get out of bed!”

It was when he was just discharged from the hospital, and one morning he had to go to the hospital for a follow-up check. She came to wake him up, but he was terribly sleepy and did not move even after she called him several times. After he finally woke up, he found that she had written such a note and pasted it to his forehead.

Her handwriting was a bit scraggly. His handwriting was also crooked and skewed. At that time, his bone fracture had not healed, so he couldn’t hold onto the pen well: “Taro loves Xiaosu.”

Because of the lack of space, he wrote the characters very small, and now even he couldn’ see the text clearly. Now, he would rather have never done such a stupid thing, fortunately, she had never seen the note.

He also threw this note into the water.

All the paper strips were thrown into the lake, and gradually sunk to the bottom. All the words above would be erased, right? Maybe this was the best ending. No one would ask again what he had previously hidden.

Finally, he threw the ring he held in his palm into the heart of the lake.

In the wee hours of the morning, he held the kitten and knocked on the two dark-colored courtyard doors. Nanny Zhao was woken up. She put on her clothes and came to open the door. When she saw him, she was shocked. She looked at his face and was even more startled: “What happened? Why did you come in the middle of the night?”

He was sleepy and tired. Hput the kitten on the ground: “Nanny Zhao, I’m tired.”

Nanny Zhao didn’t ask another question, but said: “Child, go to sleep in the east wing, I will make the bed for you.” Holding his hand, just like when he was very young. One day he ran out with his eldest brother to go play. In the end, he got lost and couldn’t find his brother. And instead, alone, he traversed across the huge courtyard, like a maze, unable to find the way home. In the heart of the little child, that had been the most terrible thing in the world, never to see his parents again. He cried and cried. Finally, Nanny Zhao found him and took him home.

He fell on the bed exhausted physically and mentally, but he still knew that Nanny Zhao was taking off his leather shoes. He listened to her loquacious voice,: “What’s wrong? Look at your appearance, you look as though you had a serious illness.” She used the back of her hand to touch his forehead, “It isn’t a fever, right?”

In fact, when he was a child, Nanny Zhao was the one who always took care of him. In the deepest part of his heart, this was his real mother. He returned home when he was most troubled, returning to his mother, then feeling able to put down everything. He said dazedly: “Mom, I’m fine.”

“Ai, you’re such a worrisome child.” Nanny Zhao’s voice gradually faded away, seeming so far, he couldn’t hear her clearly, “A couple days ago, you came here to take the ring awak. I was thinking, perhaps you would really be bringing back a girl for me to see…” She smoothed the messy hair on his forehead. She lovingly watched him sleep and signed, “It’ll all be better once you wake up again.”

It would be better once he woke up, just like when he had a high fever as a child, as long as he woke up, he would be cured.

He slept groggily, dreaming of the snowing sea, of countless snowflakes falling towards the sea, and the snow-white flowers floating on the sea. In fact, they were not flowers. They were the pieces of paper he wrote in the past twenty years.

He originally thought that someone would come who could share these twenty years, share the happiness of those twenty years.

He waited and waited, but no one had come.

Like a strange dream, the snowflakes in his dream fell one after another, silent, disappearing into the sea. The so-called blooming, kaleidoscopic flowers were just a dream, like that ring, floating and falling, and finally sinking to the bottom of the water silently.

In this life and this world, never to meet again.