Chapter 32

As darkness fell, she ran to the old locust tree at the entrance of the old courtyard. This tree was decades old, older than their parents' generation, planted by the first generation of workers at Huaxing Machinery Factory. It had witnessed everything she and he had experienced throughout their childhood and adolescence—misunderstandings, companionship, opening their hearts, silently protecting each other… Now the locust blossoms had withered, falling on her hair and shoulders, fragrant, yet signifying the death of the petals.

"Xu Chen!"

She suddenly shouted, her voice echoing in the empty alley before quickly disappearing into the wind.

"Xu Chen, come out here!" She took two steps forward, tripped over a stone, staggered, and grabbed the wall for support, sobbing uncontrollably, "You said you'd wait for me! You said you'd let me help you repeat a year of high school after you got out of prison! How could you go back on your word!"

She pounded on the wall, her fingernails drawing blood from the red bricks: "Why...why didn't you wait for me...just seven days...only seven days!"

That wasn't crying; it was utter collapse. It felt like my heart had been ripped out and thrown onto the cold ground, where it was trampled mercilessly.

"Please let me explain, okay? I didn't mean to come back late... Gao Yun had an accident, I can't just abandon her..."

Her voice began to hoarse, her throat and vocal cords sounding like rusted door hinges: "Xu Chen, I know you mean well, but I don't want to be a translator, I don't want a new life, I just want to go back to the days when you were here!"

She shouted into the depths of the alley, her voice rough and hoarse, like torn cloth: "Xu Chen! Please come back! I'll go south with you, I won't go to university, I'll do your laundry and cook for you, we can work together, okay? Don't hide from me!"

No one answered.

She slid to the ground, leaning against the cold brick wall. The evening breeze carried locust petals onto her knees. She buried her face in her arms, and sobs squeezed out of her throat, intermittent, until they turned into heart-wrenching cries that made her ears ring.

"Xu Chen...I miss you...please come back..."

She called out again and again, until her throat was hoarse, until her tears soaked her skirt, until all the streetlights in the alley were on, but still no one came.

Because this alley is almost deserted, all the red brick dormitory buildings are being demolished, including Li Muxue's original home. Four months ago, her mother, Qiao Kexin, made a long-distance call to tell Li Muxue that her original home had been demolished and that she and her husband, Li Junsheng, had moved to a temporary rental house about one kilometer away from the original red brick building.

Li Muxue raised her tearful eyes and looked towards the old courtyard. The red brick building that had once been full of life now lay there quietly, the empty rooms no longer lit, only endless darkness remained...

However, she still stubbornly and persistently returned to the old courtyard, and poured out her longing for Xu Chen to the old locust tree that had witnessed the vicissitudes of life. Perhaps she hoped that the old locust tree had acquired some kind of spirit and could help her find Xu Chen, whom she both loved and hated.

She didn't know how long she sat under the old locust tree, but exhausted from crying, she drifted off to sleep. In her dazed state, she had a dream, a sweet dream, a dream she didn't want to wake from. In the dream, Xu Chen rode his old bicycle, carrying her on his back, along a sun-drenched path, carefree. In her ears, she heard Xu Chen's slightly off-key singing: "...I heard the sailor say, he said what's a little pain in the wind and rain..."

She laughed from the back seat and said, "Could you change the song? Let's sing it together... I'll go with you to see the meteor shower falling on this earth / Let your tears fall on my shoulder..."

"Muxue! Muxue! Why are you sleeping here? Come, I'll take you home!"

This is Xu Chen's voice, filled with determination and heartache...

(To be continued)