"Alright, alright, it won't be that fast."
Lu Yibei said disdainfully, "As long as you don't come back only once every three or four years, it's fine."
He paused for a moment, then said:
“It’s fine if you don’t come back, but if you don’t come in person and don’t send a gift, that’s not enough. With our relationship, I should at least give you two or three thousand. And to go along with local customs, I’ll happily transfer two or three thousand dollars to my account later. As the saying goes, ‘great kindness is best left unsaid,’ so I’m giving you this gift.”
Xu Che thought about it carefully:
Is it too late for us to sever ties now?
Lu Yibei did not answer.
The two young men in their early twenties still looked the same as when they were leaning against the car.
"Oh, right."
Lu Yibei asked, "Are you coming back after you finish your studies?"
Some people choose to stay and develop their careers locally after graduating from studying abroad.
Xu Che was taken aback: "Who knows?"
"Let's make a decision sooner rather than later," Lu Yibei said.
"—That sounds just like what my mom says."
Xu Che said he wanted to add that it would be many years before I graduated, but after thinking about it, he just nodded and said, "When you have time, think about your future plans—by the way, don't lead me astray. I'm the kind of young and impetuous person who always just takes things one step at a time."
"That's not youthful impetuosity, it's just not knowing the way," Lu Yibei said, pursing his lips.
"But to be honest, sometimes I really feel like time is going by faster and faster."
Xu Che said, glancing at his high school classmate beside him: "Another year has passed, and graduation has really come in the blink of an eye."
Lu Yibei thought for a moment and said, "Then why don't you sing me a song?"
"Um?"
“Just that song, ‘Time, Time, Slow Down’—” Lu Yibei said.
Just by listening to the lyrics, Xu Che felt that they sounded somewhat familiar.
But he couldn't remember which song it was for a moment, so he tried humming it:
"Time, time, slow down, don't let him grow old anymore. I would give anything to make you live a long life. My strong-willed dad... damn it, get lost!"
Lu Yibei smiled.
The moon is still shining.
It was like this last year, it's like this this year, and it will be like this next year.
But people are different.
Many of my friends are like this.
Before parting, they vowed to meet again next time, but no one knows when that next time will actually be.
Perhaps after one farewell, we won't see each other again for five or six years.
Those who meet frequently will gradually change over time.
The gathering has been changed from once a month to once every three months.
It eventually became...
—I have something to do today, so I won't be coming.
Lu Yibei and Xu Che gazed at the moon.
Suddenly, Lu Yibei shrank his neck, and Xu Che also rubbed his hands together.
"Damn, it's really cold," Xu Che said.
"Get lost," Lu Yibei said.
Xu Che did indeed intend to leave.
He sat back in the driver's seat, closed the door, rolled down the window, and said to Lu Yibei:
"I'm going back in the next couple of days."
"Go and taste your imperialism."
"See you next time," Xu Che said with a smile.
"Okay, call me when the time comes," Lu Yibei said with a smile.
The car starts.
The engine roared with exhaust pipes.
"—Your mother is really disturbing the peace."
Lu Yibei watched Xu Che drive away, and he stood there for a while until the taillights disappeared from sight.
He rubbed his hands together.
Finally, we got upstairs.
…
Inside the apartment, Ms. Ji opened the door for Lu Yibei.
She then returned to her desk and began reading as soon as she got home.
The exams are coming to an end.
When she went to school today, Abei's teacher didn't ask her about her studies, but she had already persevered to the end and didn't want to give up.
"He's gone?" asked Lady Ji.
“Okay, I’m leaving,” Lu Yibei said.
The air conditioning was on in the room, so he took off his coat and hung it aside. Then he sighed, "I don't know when we'll meet again."
It's more than 10,000 kilometers from California to Hangzhou.
This distance is for my younger brother to walk; it will take him several years.
Upon hearing this, Ms. Ji, who was lying on the desk, turned her head and glanced at her boyfriend.
Lu Yibei noticed her gaze, met her eyes, and then chuckled:
"What's wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?"
Ji Qingqian pursed her lips gently and said with a soft smile:
"I will always be here."
Lu Yibei was taken aback.
He gazed into his girlfriend's dark eyes.
Then I looked at the textbooks on her desk.
Previously, when Ji Qingqian had just started preparing for her final exams.
Lu Yibei could vaguely discern from her posture how she looked during her college entrance examination years ago.
now.
He could also see it in her dark eyes.
She had gazed at the night for a long time.
Lu Yibei smiled, went over and gently hugged his girlfriend's slender and soft body, and whispered:
“If you’re not here, there will be a big problem.”
Feeling her boyfriend's dependence on her, Ji Qingqian was quite pleased. She rested her chin on the boy's shoulder, and even swayed her cheek slightly as if showing off.
"It's good that you know."
“…Qingqian Qingqian Qingqian.” Lu Yibei repeated it several times.
"What's wrong? Have you turned into a human-machine?" Ji Qingqian asked.
"without."
Lu Yibei released her and patted her head: "Keep it up."
Okay~
Lu Yibei watched with a smile as his girlfriend studied diligently.
What does it feel like to pick someone's carefully cultivated baby bok choy?
— Panic, Ah Che.
When Lu Yibei felt lost and vulnerable.
The name Ji Qingqian, which he kept repeating, became the key to his comfort.
"Oh, right, Qingqian."
"Um?"
"In your family, is the father or the mother in charge?"
Lu Yibei decided to trust social science expert Xu Che.
Ji Qingqian recalled: "We usually discuss it together. Sometimes we listen to my mom, and sometimes we listen to my dad."
Lu Yibei: "...Oh, I see."
His heart sank.
"That's right, there are two possibilities."
"If my parents agree, then I'll listen to my dad."
"Another situation is when they disagree, in which case I listen to my mom."
Hearing his girlfriend say this, Lu Yibei paused for a moment, then asked:
"So, what can Dad come up with?"
Ji Qingqian shook her head: "We can't come up with anything, but he firmly believes that his opinion is very important. He can hold up half the sky at home—maybe that makes him feel better."
Lu Yibei nodded.
Although we had never met, I inexplicably felt a sense of familiarity with that middle-aged man from Northeast China.
One world, one brotherhood.
Ah Che's studies really paid off.
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