Ten years have passed, and Charles de Gaulle Airport seems to have remained largely unchanged, though I was young then and my memories are a bit hazy.
This wasn't the girl's first time in France. When she was thirteen, her whole family had come here together, and that time, with her family all together, was one of the most cherished memories in her mind.
Just as I was feeling lost, the phone rang: "Hello, is this Ms. Lin?"
The girl's name was Lin Xiao. She glanced at the incoming call and sighed softly.
It was Wang Wei, the older brother who was supposed to pick her up at the airport today. He was the son of Wang Handong, her father's business partner in France.
I had long heard that the French were unreliable, especially unpunctual, but I never expected that the Chinese living here would also fully inherit this "fine tradition".
Being stood up like this, Lin Xiao was inevitably a little angry, but he still tried to compose himself.
"Hello, this is Lin Xiao. I've just gotten off the plane, but I don't see you. Where are you?"
"Oh dear, I'm so sorry, I'm in Lyon."
Lin Xiao was completely bewildered. Lyon is a city in central France, so the question wasn't whether the person picking him up was at the airport, but whether they were in Paris!
Wang Wei explained over the phone that he had gone to Lyon with a friend a few days ago on business and was planning to return yesterday, but unexpectedly, there was another major strike on French railways, and he waited all day without seeing a single train.
"Then why didn't you inform me in advance?" Even with his good temper, Lin Xiao was still annoyed by such a ridiculous reason.
"I'm so sorry, I waited all day yesterday, but when I realized it was hopeless, I shared a ride back with a friend this morning, and the car broke down halfway there!"
Lin Xiao thought to himself, "Then you can take your time fixing the car, I'll just do it myself."
Fortunately, she had some basic French skills, which eventually allowed her to find accommodation on her own.
Lin Xiao's school is in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. The 9th arrondissement is one of the five richest areas in Paris, where housing prices are high, but the area is relatively safe.
At that time, she happened to see on an overseas student forum that someone was going back to China and their lease had not yet expired.
After obtaining the landlord's consent, Lin Xiao transferred the money from China and booked accommodation.
The room has a good location but is quite small. The photos don't really show the actual size; it just looks cozy because the previous tenant decorated it nicely.
Unlike many people who like big houses, Lin Xiao doesn't care about that at all. Because she knows that warmth and comfort often have nothing to do with size.
Her home in China is a three-story villa, excluding the basement, with over twenty rooms. The yard is very large, and there's even a secluded swimming pool.
But Dad is busy with work and rarely comes home. Usually, only my stepmother, my sister, and a few maids live at home. How can there be a warm and cozy feeling of home under such circumstances?
So when she saw online that this small house, which was very close to the school, was available for sublet, she booked it immediately.
There are far fewer taxis in Paris than in China, but thankfully it wasn't too difficult to get one at the airport.
However, traffic congestion is probably a common problem in all first-tier cities around the world. After being delayed on the road for some time, Lin Xiao finally arrived at his residence.
The driver was nice; he helped her carry her luggage to the door, otherwise she would have had a hard time managing it by herself.
The building looks old, but it doesn't appear dilapidated; it just shows some signs of age.
Lin Xiao walked into a large door with reliefs and copper rings on the door, and the doorknob was very unique.
Passing through the tiled foyer, there is an old-fashioned spiral staircase on the left and a glass staircase on the right that looks like it's encased in an iron cage.
The entire scene was like the set in the movie "Amélie," giving her a feeling of traveling through time for a moment.
Her room was on the top floor. The so-called "view room with a balcony" was actually just an attic where French maids lived in the last century.
The room was at most fifteen square meters, smaller than even the maid's room in her house. Fortunately, it had a private bathroom and a great location, one stop from the Pompidou Library and not far from the Seine.
Lin Xiao pushed open the window and found that there was an extremely narrow balcony outside the house, which was too narrow for people to stand on and could only be used to put some flowers and plants.
She recalled that many French landscape paintings depicted various plants and flowers hanging from balconies, which was quite charming.
The 15-square-meter maid's room in front of her was a stark contrast to her 500-square-meter villa. But the novelty of everything unfamiliar temporarily dispelled her distress.
After resting for a while, she began packing her luggage.
I chose the largest size suitcase and filled it with all sorts of necessities I could think of.
Actually, you can buy many things in Paris, including all flavors of Lao Gan Ma chili sauce.
The Lin family is not short of money, so they don't care whether they pay in Euros or RMB when they buy things, unlike ordinary international students who automatically calculate the exchange rate for every item they see and mentally calculate how much it costs in RMB.
Lin Xiao was always busy packing her luggage by herself; her stepmother and sister wouldn't lend a hand, and her father was too busy with work to come home often.
Besides, he's a grown man and he doesn't really know what to bring his daughter; all he knows is to give her money.
Perhaps that's why Lin Xiao felt more at ease bringing more things, until he had filled both suitcases to the brim.
As she took things out one by one, she realized that she had brought too many useless things.
Especially when he saw a delicate little box at the bottom of the box, Lin Xiao sighed softly and slowly opened it.
Inside the box, on a piece of black velvet, lay a wristwatch with a dark green dial and a dark green leather strap.
The dial is set with a ring of small diamonds, with a gold star inside, and a sparkling diamond in the center of the star.
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