49. The Bells Chiming Through the Leaves
Happy Birthday!
On the evening of December 29th, Liang Chuling stood by the hotel window, looking at the eternal blue-gray hues outside. Her phone screen displayed a message from Li Xun. She really wanted to call him, but she felt that if she did, it wouldn't make the phone call on the 31st seem less special.
That won't do!
Liang Chuling wanted to add a touch of ceremony, but was afraid of ruining it, so she reopened the chat box and typed: "You must be free on the night of the 31st, and you are not allowed to make any plans! I'm going to call you!"
Li Xun: "Great! Little genius."
Liang Chuling looked at those three words and a smile crept onto her lips. "Little genius." He hadn't called her that in a long time.
After laughing, she quickly changed her expression and added, "This is very serious. We can't let anything disrupt our plans, understand?"
Li Xun: "Okay, okay, I'll definitely wait for your call."
After the conversation ended, Liang Chuling pressed her phone against her chest; they hadn't celebrated their birthdays together for several years.
The next day, Marta excitedly knocked on her door: "Come quick, let's go see the snowman! There's a really big snowman on the edge of town, it's been there for years, it's a local landmark!"
Eileen was also dressed neatly, and her complexion was rosier than a few days ago: "Let's go together, the weather is nice today."
The weather is good in the Arctic Circle winter, which means the wind is not too strong, the visibility is acceptable, and the temperature is around minus twenty degrees Celsius.
Fully equipped, they walked along the compacted snow path out of town, surrounded by snow-covered mountains in complete silence.
The snowman stood on a wide, flat area, with a low hill behind him.
It was indeed very large, over two meters tall, and its body was very solidly rolled. However, after years of wind and snow, its outline was no longer rounded, and its shape was somewhat comical, like an irregular gourd, with something standing upright on its head.
Strangely, the snowman was covered in things.
Lighters, keys, ski pole tips, plastic toy parts, woolen gloves, and even picture frames, but mostly various beer bottle caps and pull tabs, embedded in the snow like strange scales.
Marta said that most of these items were marine debris that people picked up on the nearby beach or fjord and simply put on the snowman.
Year after year, the Yeti became a collection of these remnants of human civilization, a bizarre monument.
Liang Chuling walked slowly around the snowman, took out her phone, and took a picture of the snowman from behind, with a desolate mountain and deep blue sea ice in the background.
She texted Li Xun: "The snowman in Longyearbyen ate a lot of junk."
The signal was poor outside. After sending the picture and waiting for it to reload, she held her phone in her hand and continued circling the snowman. Her gaze swept over the messy trash, and the phone camera shone a dot of light on the snowman, like a toy to tease a cat. Liang Chuling followed the dot of light, and as she looked, her steps froze, and her breath stopped for a moment—
There is a gourd pendant in the heart of the snowman.
The pendant was very small, with a small loop at the top where the chain used to go, but it was now empty. The bare pendant was half-buried in the snow, the exposed part covered in frost.
Liang Chuling tiptoed, her fingers trembling as she brushed away the layer of snow, carefully prying it out from the snowdrift and holding it in her palm. The pendant's edge was worn, and there was a dent the size of a grain of rice on the gourd's belly.
She lost it five years ago on the banks of the Vistula River.
It was the one Li Xun gave her.
Liang Chuling stood there, feeling a sudden chill run through her body. It had been lost in Warsaw and had reappeared here.
The Vistula River flows into the Baltic Sea, which in turn connects to the North Sea, the Norwegian Sea, and the North Atlantic. Ocean currents carry this small river, slowly and relentlessly, across thousands of miles.
She recalled a quote she had once read: "All the seas in the world are connected."
It turns out it was true.
The pendant really did drift with the current across a long stretch of sea, eventually being pushed ashore by the waves, where it was picked up by someone unaware of its existence and casually placed on the snowman.
Silently and slowly, it drifted from the heart of the European continent to the edge of the Arctic Ocean, taking five years to reach this place.
They arrived at the place where Li Xun had once come alone and written her name.
The probability is extremely low, almost a miracle.
The twists and turns of fate are always awe-inspiring.
Liang Chuling gripped the pendant tightly; it was cold, yet seemed to carry a warmth from a distant time and space, returning to her in a way she never dreamed of.
If the pendant could travel across mountains and rivers to get here, and if Li Xun's feelings could remain unchanged for five years, then the seemingly broken five years between her and Li Xun, and the unfulfilled promise, could also be like the pendant's journey—seemingly lost, but actually always moving towards the end of their reunion.
Liang Chuling held the pendant, gazing in the direction she had come from.
The vast snowfield was silent, the boundless sky was tranquil, and a fire burned in Liang Chuling's heart, eager to cross this vast expanse of ice.
Marta and Erin were calling her, pointing to the aurora borealis that was faintly appearing in the distant sky.
Liang Chuling acted as if she hadn't heard.
She had only one thought, growing clearer and stronger each time—
She wanted to go back.
Return to Li Xun's side.
Liang Chuling practically ran back to the hotel. Eileen and Marta called after her anxiously, but she only managed to shout, "I have an emergency!"
She rushed back to her room, checked flights on her phone: Longyearbyen to Tromsø, then Tromsø to Oslo, then a layover in Doha, and finally back to Beijing. The journey would take 40 hours, with long layovers and, given the bad weather, significant delays were possible. A single mishap could mean Liang Chuling completely missing Li Xun's birthday because she was on the plane. But she was willing to take the gamble.
Liang Chuling packed her luggage quickly and haphazardly, her heart pounding in her chest, clutching the pendant tightly in her hand, refusing to let go for a moment.
Eileen and Marta followed them in.
"Are you leaving? Now?" Eileen asked.
“Yes.” Liang Chuling zipped up her suitcase, looked up, her eyes glistening with tears and fire. “I have to go back. There’s someone very important waiting for me. Tomorrow is his birthday.”
Marta looked at her sister, then at Liang Chuling: "But what about the flight..."
"I've checked, there's still time." Liang Chuling slung her bag over her shoulder, pulled her suitcase, walked up to Eileen, and hugged her tightly. "Eileen, thank you. Take care of yourself, you'll definitely get better."
Eileen hugged her back and patted her back: "Go quickly. Life is short, go see the people you want to see."
Liang Chuling hugged Marta again, then rushed out the door without looking back.
A journey through wind and snow.
At the Longyearbyen airport, the pendant was warm in her palm. Afraid that she wouldn't be able to reply to messages or answer calls for more than ten hours and that Li Xun would overthink things, she sent him a message first: "I might be a little late, but you must wait for me!"
--
Li Xun finished reshooting his scenes in Shanghai in the early hours of the 31st. The second pianist's part went smoothly. The other pianist is a refined senior, and the collaboration was very pleasant.
In order to rest on the 31st, Li Xun was exhausted from the intensity of the past two days.
Li Chi took a flight to Guangzhou at noon on the 29th, leaving Li Zi as a left-behind child again. Li Xun wanted to come back as soon as possible, so he finished work in the early hours of the morning and insisted on taking a red-eye flight back to Beijing.
When he woke up, it was already one o'clock in the afternoon. Chestnut jumped onto the bed and rubbed her head against his hand. He lay there for a few seconds before he was fully awake.
Li Xun played a game of tossing wool balls with Li Zi in the living room for a while, and Li Zi's enthusiasm for the now-shattered ball remained undiminished. Tired from playing, Li Zi lay down on the carpet for a nap. Li Xun went into the study; he rarely looked at photo albums, but today he inexplicably felt like looking at them.
I mainly wanted to see those photos taken in Longyearbyen.
The grey-blue sky, the snow-capped mountains, the colorful cottages, the desolate coastline, and the note written by the fireplace in the hotel. In the photo, the words "Liang Chuling, I hope you are doing well" are enlarged.
Li Xun didn't tell Liang Chuling that he had also been there, afraid that she would be unhappy and feel that he had gone to the place they had agreed to go to together, even though that agreement had long since expired.
After looking at the photos, he put them back and closed the album.
The afternoon passed very slowly.
He dealt with a few work emails, read for a while, and then went to the kitchen to check the refrigerator. Li Chi had bought dumplings and frozen them before leaving, telling him to cook them himself. He thought he could cook them for a late-night snack.
He went through every possible thought, but he still couldn't escape thinking about Liang Chuling.
Liang Chuling said she would call in the evening, but would it be in her evening or Beijing time? He guessed it would be Beijing time. She would take his schedule into account.
The feeling of waiting is wonderful. You know something is bound to happen, someone is bound to contact you, and for the sake of this thing, this person, the waiting becomes a positive experience; you even cherish this waiting.
He checked his phone again, but still no news from Liang Chuling. He searched for her on the platform and rewatched her performance from a few days ago, where he saw Zhou Xu in the audience. Li Xun had overheard Zhou Xu's plans at the coffee shop last time, so seeing him now wasn't surprising. He just wondered, "Did you two go to the Arctic together?"
Many people expressed their love for Liang Chuling in the audience during the performance.
He knew that what Liang Chuling lacked least now was love.
Love from every corner of the world, in all its forms.
Sincere, pragmatic, superficial, fervent… she is no longer the helpless person she once was in the storm. She has built her own kingdom, capable of rejecting what she doesn't want and calmly dealing with what she can't shake off.
How can someone who is neither lacking in love nor vulnerable be moved by another kind of love?
Li Xun had no confidence in himself.
In a sea of examples of love, his love seemed all too ordinary.
It's like using a cup of warm water to warm someone who is in a temperature-controlled room.
At 11 p.m., he took a shower, turned his phone volume up to the maximum, and then opened the TV cabinet, intending to find a movie to pass the time while waiting.
There were only two discs in the drawer, so Li Xun had to go to the study to find the disc box. After rummaging through it, he finally pulled out the "LaLa Land" disc.
The screen lit up and music started playing, but he didn't really pay attention.
At 11:45, he was still lost in thought.
Fifteen minutes left, today will be over, and his birthday will soon be over as well.
He opened his chat with Liang Chuling; there had been no new messages for almost a day. Was the signal bad in the Arctic? Or had she changed her mind?
He exited the interface, then opened it again and refreshed. Nothing.
The male and female protagonists in the movie meet at sunset and smile at each other.
Li Xun leaned back on the sofa, his eyes somewhat vacant.
He wondered what Liang Chuling was doing now. Was she in a hotel in Longyearbyen? It was seven hours behind Beijing there; it must be a little past four in the afternoon. Was she also thinking of calling him?
It must be. She said it very seriously.
Then she must miss him just as much as he misses her now—after all, she has the thought of calling him on her mind.
Li Chi himself doesn't celebrate his birthday, so Li Xun didn't celebrate his birthday before he met Liang Chuling either. His birth date doesn't have much commemorative significance. To be honest, if Liang Chuling's birth date were set as Li Xun's birthday, Li Xun would find it more meaningful.
But now, it's his birthday, which is practically a buff that Li Xun stole, forcing Liang Chuling to think of him on this day.
At 11:57, someone knocked on the door. Li Xun found it strange, as no outsiders would come to visit—neither he nor Li Chi liked it.
Both Li Chi and Liang Chuling had keys, so there was no need to knock.
It could be that the tenant went to the wrong floor, or that the person was drunk; similar incidents have happened before.
So Li Xun didn't move and continued watching the movie screen.
But then there was another knock on the door.
It was very fast and hurried, with no rhythm at all.
Li Xun frowned, but still got up, walked to the door, and looked out through the peephole.
The motion-sensor light in the hallway was on, allowing him to clearly see a heart beating—
Liang Chuling stood outside the door, holding a bouquet of flowers.
She was wearing a thick down jacket, a scarf wrapped around her chin, her eyes fixed on the cat's eye, looking anxious and weary from a long journey.
Li Xun stood behind the door, his hand on the doorknob paused, and time seemed to stretch out and freeze at that moment.
Outside the door, Liang Chuling waited a few seconds, and when there was no response, she knocked frantically again.
Li Xun immediately opened the door.
The cold air rushed in, carrying the scent of a winter night, and also the smell of her journey through wind and snow.
Liang Chuling stood at the door, not coming in immediately. She exhaled white mist, took out her phone, and glanced at the time: 11:59.
"Li Xun, happy birthday. I'm the last person to wish you a happy birthday again."
She held up the bouquet of dark green and bright red plants in her arms: "They say this is called Christmas roses, but it's not actually a rose. However, it's not poisonous to kittens. I'm giving it to you."
Melodies can easily travel from Paris to Italy, then to England, and anywhere else, but if people want to meet, they have to endure dozens of hours of flying, transfers, waiting, and the anxiety of not knowing if they can make it in time.
If I want to see you, I have no choice but to do it in person.
Looking into her eyes, where the smile remained bright despite the hardships of a thousand miles, all the emptiness in his heart was filled. He felt that his heart hadn't actually been beating; it was Liang Chuling who had suddenly struck his heart when he was 16, and then he came back to life. He had only come back to life because of Liang Chuling.
Liang Chuling tucked the bouquet into his arms, the leaves brushing against the back of his hand. She closed the door behind her, shutting out the cold northern night. Then, she stood on tiptoe, cupped his face, and kissed him.
Outside the window, the clock struck midnight in Beijing.
A new day, a new year, has begun.
I'm back.
I made it.
Happy birthday.
[Author's Note]
Actually, this was the ending I originally planned.
Chu Ling honestly faced her own feelings, traveled thousands of miles to express her love.
But considering Li Xun's current deep unease and his aversion to uncertainty, I decided to let the two of them confirm their relationship.
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