Chapter 80 Naples Yellow (3) (End) Today...
The next morning, Lin Xia and He Chuan had breakfast and drove out in Lin Xuedong's Santana.
It was too late when I got off the bus yesterday, and only today during the day did I get a clear look at my surroundings. Over the past decade or so, the outside world has been turned upside down and unrecognizable, but Wangchun hasn't changed much. The streets have new lights, the honor roll for this year's college entrance examination is posted in front of Experimental High School, and the stone with Lin Haisheng's inscription in Wangchun Mountain Park has been moved. Other than that, everything seems to be the same as before.
Wangchun was once prosperous in the 1980s and 1990s. Due to the prosperity of mining and forestry, the economy was in full swing. However, with the changes in society and the adjustment of industrial structure, it eventually declined. Workers were laid off, students left home, and the population was lost. It became one of the ordinary county towns in the old industrial base of Northeast China. All people and things seemed to be frozen in the millennium.
After days of heavy snow, the sky finally cleared up today. Lin Xia and He Chuan walked from the city to the suburbs along the streets that had been cleared by snowplows overnight.
Their destination was the small forest farm.
"What did my father say to you this morning?"
Lin Xia, who was sitting in the passenger seat, couldn't help but ask He Chuan.
Last night, Lin Xia and Lin Xuedong talked until midnight about Lin Haisheng and He Ping's past. Lin Xuedong asked Lin Xia, "Are you sure you want to be with He Chuan? Have you thought it through?"
Lin Xia understood Lin Xuedong's concerns. From his perspective, He Chuan was definitely not a suitable boyfriend. Regardless of his career, personality, car, house, or income, the fact that he was He Ping's son was enough to veto him. She doubted his character and his motives.
Lin Xia replied, yes, we knew from the beginning that I was just me and he was just him, and our relationship had nothing to do with the grievances of the previous generation or the generation before that.
Lin Xia had considered these realistic, worldly worst-case scenarios. In fact, she had been thinking about them for years, and she and He Chuan had known each other for many years. Human nature was dark and fickle, and it certainly couldn't withstand the test. However, if one couldn't see through a person, couldn't see through their heart, after so many years, then who in the world could be trusted, who could one truly befriend?
In life, there will always be one or two times when we take a gamble and believe in something illusory.
Lin Xuedong remained noncommittal in the face of Lin Xia's determination. Having been separated by thousands of miles for so many years, their relationship had already been cold, so he couldn't intervene. But Lin Xia knew he was worried. This morning, Wang Li told her that Lin Xuedong and He Chuan had gone to Wangchun Mountain Park for morning exercises, which made Lin Xia a little worried.
He Chuan smiled and said, "Actually, I didn't say anything."
Neither He Chuan nor Lin Xuedong would reveal the content of this conversation to Lin Xia. This was a secret between two men, the two men who loved Lin Xia the most in the world. He Chuan understood that Lin Xuedong, as a father, was thinking about his daughter. In fact, it was not easy for him to wait until today to talk to He Chuan. However, He Chuan's feelings for Lin Xia were strong enough to withstand any test. In fact, so-called verbal promises and curses were meaningless. The only thing that could test the truth was time. He Chuan would use time to answer Lin Xuedong's doubts. He and Lin Xia would definitely go to the end.
"But your father did ask us when we plan to get married." He Chuan said slowly, "He reminded me that there will be no Lichun next year, which is considered a widow's year and unlucky for marriage according to folk sayings."
Lin Xia was surprised: "Really? No wonder so many people are getting married this year!"
The two of them did discuss the topic of marriage, and they had almost made all the necessary preparations, whether it was the house or the rings. There were no definite arrangements, but they both assumed it would be next year.
"But, after all, this is just a superstition and shouldn't be taken too seriously."
"No!" Lin Xia was very anxious. "If it were anything else, it would be fine, but this is a widowed man!"
Wouldn’t that affect him?
It's already December 22nd, so it's completely too late. Should we postpone it until the year after next? They've already put this off again and again because of the pandemic, and Lin Xia is reluctant to delay it any further.
"This is calculated according to the lunar calendar, so we still have time before the Year of the Dragon arrives."
He Chuan looked at Lin Xia with a smile and asked softly:
"Xia Xia, are you willing?"
Lin Xia was stunned for a moment before she realized that he was proposing to her.
When she was a girl, she had fantasized more than once that she wanted to wear the most beautiful dress, attend the most exclusive occasion, and accept the prince's grand proposal like a princess under the attention of everyone.
But later, as she grew older, these unrealistic and childish fantasies had all disappeared. She just wanted to be with the person she liked in a simple way. As long as that person was right, nothing else mattered.
She couldn't help but chuckle, revealing a small canine tooth, and nodded vigorously:
"Okay! We'll get married after we return to Shenzhen!"
Seeing her agree, He Chuan's heart finally settled down. At this moment, he really wanted to hug or kiss Lin Xia, but he was still driving and couldn't move, so he just restrained himself and held Lin Xia's hand with one hand. The two of them clasped their fingers, smiled at each other, and joy was in their eyebrows and eyes.
Being able to walk together until old age may be their greatest luck in life, and they have no desire for anything else.
.
The car finally pulled into the small forest farm's path. The surrounding low hills, lush green pine trees, and white snow all seemed so familiar. Due to policy changes and restructuring of the forest farm, the area was now protected and logging was no longer permitted. Many of the employees had relocated, and abandoned small houses lay dotted the road, including the one where Lin Xia and He Chuan had lived.
The line car, Aunt Hao, the whistle, the litter of calico cats and kittens, the cherry trees, the cosmos flowers, the big market at the road crossing and the sweet crisp peaches, everything was gone.
The years go by, time flies by, only they remain where they are.
The car finally stopped in a place where the snow had piled up and it could not move forward. The two people got out of the car and strolled in the deserted snowy wilderness.
Today is the winter solstice, the weather is sunny, slightly cold and windless.
The clear sunlight shines all over the fields, not warm but very peaceful, covering the snow-covered world with a layer of Naples yellow, like melted cheese, whipped cream, soaked lemons, and the eternal and endless summer when they met.
It rains on Mid-Autumn Festival and is sunny on Winter Solstice. Sixteen and a half years have passed since this promise was fulfilled, and now it is finally fulfilled.
At some point, Lin Xia let go of He Beichuan's hand and walked forward alone.
The sharp wind from the northeast blew across her cheeks, and the long-lost cold and dry air filled her nostrils and lungs. The wilderness was silent, with only the sound of her shoes' soles stepping on the fresh snow that no one had ever stepped on, making a crackling sound. For a moment, it seemed as if she was the only one left in the world.
The journey was difficult, but she still walked stubbornly, just like these years, she went from Wangchun to Beijing, from Beijing to Shenzhen, from north to south, and moved forward courageously.
Last year, Lin Xia left MT and landed a new job as an illustrator, again at a major internet company in Nanshan. The work was largely the same, but perhaps due to a shift in her mindset, she felt less dissatisfied with her current situation. Looking back on her years at MT, it wasn't all bad. It was just the transition from university to work, a time when ideals collided with reality. Everything was a source of annoyance.
Thirty years old is a turning point in life. Before it comes, we are afraid and anxious. After we really get through it, we find that except for adding one candle on the birthday cake, everything else seems to have changed.
At the age of thirty, true maturity in life is not to be cynical and deny everything, nor is it to be indifferent and alienated and keep people at a distance. Instead, it is to accept yourself calmly, accept that you are just like everyone else, and accept that you are different from others, and find extraordinary meaning in the ordinary life day after day.
Maybe we will not be able to accomplish anything earth-shattering, or become a great figure who will be recorded in history, but at least in the past hundred years, we have cried and laughed, loved and hurt, struggled, survived, and left our traces in a corner of the universe.
As she was walking further and further away, slowly losing her way, she suddenly heard a distant cry from behind her, carried by the north wind to her ears:
"Lin Xia——"
She looked back and saw the boy she met when she was sixteen standing in the vast mountains and snowy wilderness.
In an instant, endless courage and hope surged from the bottom of her heart, even to the point of tears filling her eyes. She couldn't help but take a step forward and desperately ran towards where he was, even if she fell or got hurt.
"He Chuan——"
Memories are short, but the rest of life is long. I want to walk it all the way with you, even if this sunny day on the winter solstice is sixteen years late.
At the end of life, perhaps everyone will be alone, but at least at this moment, she believes from the bottom of her heart:
The flowers of the world will bloom one after another,
Magnificent and immortal things will follow——】
——End of the full text——
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