Lin Wanqing gazed thoughtfully at the canvas, while Ayu quietly snapped a photo of her profile as she rested her chin on her hand, lost in thought. Later, the photo was developed and tucked into her charity diary, with a note beside it: "Beauty is never eternal, but rather about cherishing fleeting moments." Just like last year in South Sudan, when they were teaching art to children at a temporary school, a little boy with a missing front tooth shoved his rainbow drawing into her hand and then ran into the refugee crisis—such moments may never be encountered again, but they will forever remain in her memory.
After the rain stopped, they strolled along the wet streets. Sunlight pierced through the clouds, gilding the church steeple, and the bougainvillea in the corner shone brightly from the rain. Lin Wanqing suddenly stopped in front of her family's handicraft shop. In the window displayed a wind chime made of colorful glass beads, the beads reflecting the sunlight and casting flowing spots of light on the ground. "Doesn't it look like the box of beads the Congolese child gave you?" she asked softly.
Ah Yu remembered the tin box, which was now lying in their suitcase. Last year, when they were evacuating from the refugee camp, a little girl named Amina stuffed the box into his backpack and said in broken French, "This is a star that will bring good luck."
On the morning before they left, they went to the lighthouse at the edge of town. The lighthouse keeper was an elderly woman who lived alone, her silver hair gleaming like pearls in the morning light. She made them hot cocoa with cinnamon, the rim of the cup covered with a layer of fine foam. "This lighthouse has been with me for forty years," she said, gazing at the rotating lamp base. "I used to always look forward to the return of ships from their voyages, but now I understand that being able to see the light pierce through the darkness is a kind of happiness in itself."
Standing atop the tower overlooking the entire bay, Lin Wanqing suddenly pulled the tin box from her backpack. Morning light filtered through the glass beads, casting dappled patterns of light on her face, like stars scattered across it. "They say if you put your wishes in the box and shout them three times towards the sea, the waves will carry them to the gods." She opened the lid, and the beads inside clinked gently in the wind, making a tinkling sound.
Looking at her earnest expression, Ah Yu suddenly felt her eyes welling up with tears. Over the years, they had walked together through refugee camps where the smoke of war had not yet cleared, witnessed people rebuilding their homes from the ruins, and tossed and turned countless nights worrying about the suffering in the distance. But no matter how much devastation she had witnessed, the light in her eyes had never dimmed—just like now, her gaze as she looked at the sea was still as clear as the Seine when they first met.
“My wish is,” Lin Wanqing whispered to the sea, her voice slightly broken by the wind, “that we will always have the courage to choose our own lives.”
Ah Yu pulled her into his arms, the sea breeze ruffling their clothes, the distant sound of the waves like an eternal vow. "We'll keep this wish together." He remembered when he first met Lin Wanqing, she was sorting donated supplies at a charity in Paris, sunlight streaming through the blinds onto her hair, she looked up and said, "I want more people to have the right to choose." At that time, he didn't understand that true courage isn't about never being afraid, but about knowing the road ahead is difficult and still being willing to take the first step.
They tossed the glass beads one by one into the sea. The moment the beads hit the waves, they looked like stars falling into the Milky Way. Lin Wanqing's laughter drifted away on the sea breeze, startling a flock of egrets. They skimmed across the sea, their wings cutting through the morning mist, leaving faint traces.
On the day of the return trip, as the plane pierced through the clouds, Lin Wanqing fell asleep leaning on Ah Yu's shoulder. He opened his camera, which contained fragmented moments from the past three days: her smiling face holding colorful popsicles at the night market, her hair dampened by the waves, her trembling eyelashes as she closed her eyes to make a wish under the lighthouse, and that silhouette of her running on the bioluminescent beach—in the photo, her skirt was tinged with blue flames, like a luminous galaxy trailing behind it.
My phone vibrated; it was an email from the old painter. Attached was a sketch: two figures nestled together on a rock, with the sea glowing fluorescently behind them. A line of small print read: "All worthwhile waits will eventually lead to the land of dreams."
Ah Yu lowered his head and kissed the top of Lin Wanqing's head. Her furrowed brows relaxed in her sleep, and the corners of her mouth turned up slightly. Outside the porthole, the sea of clouds surged and rushed into the distance, much like the life they were heading towards, full of infinite possibilities. He remembered when they first set off, Lin Wanqing had drawn a sea on the back of her boarding pass and written next to it: "The so-called dreamland may not be a specific place, but every moment with you by my side."
The sun was shining brightly, her breathing was even and warm, and the warmth of her palms wafted through their clasped hands. Ah Yu knew that this journey was not the end, just like every step on the road of public service was only a new beginning. But as long as she had her by her side, wherever they went, it would be a place of dreams.
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