Yin|Yang

31. Bingo!

The door of the library was opened loudly, scaring the poor librarian. One hand over her heart, she scoldingly asked "what is the rush, guys? It is not the library going anywhere."

"Sorry, Mei Lian, but we are in a bit of a hurry," Yang Guang said as he leaned on the main counter, "do you know anyone with the name Lei Hu?"

"Lei Hu?" she repeated while two pairs of hopeful eyes were staring at her chubby face intently, "of course, he works here."

BINGO!

With the good news, the couple sighed in relief, then Yin An asked "can you call him here for a second?"

Mei Lian gave them a confused look, but she nodded anyway. Excusing herself, she walked towards the door behind the main counter and entered into the large room where a middle-aged man was arranging the returned books.

It took only a minute for Mei Lian to bring the man to the counter, but for our couple, it was like ten years.

"Mr. Lei Hu, hi," Yin An didn't forget to greet the man, "we are looking for Eberheard's book; 'Under the Maple: Secret', do you have it?"

"How do you know about it?!" the old man asked, shocked, his gaze shifting between the lovers.

"So you have it?!" Yin An chirped as he leaned on the counter.

The man nodded slowly with a frown, "I don't know how that book appeared here, but I found it behind a shelf yesterday. Let me bring it for you to see."

As the man walked back to where he came, the lovers kept fidgeting excitedly, hoping this time they hit the bull in the eye.

"Here," the old man handed the heavy book to Yang Guang, "you can check it here, but we can't lend it for now. It is still not registered to-"

"That's okay, thanks," Yang Guang cut his words impatiently and rushed to an empty table with Yin An on his tail.

The lovers sat side by side, then Yang Guang's shaky fingers moved the large foxed pages to find the content page.

"Here," Yin An pointed at Chapter 12, so Yang Guang immediately opened the page 645. With hopeful eyes, the lovers scrutinised the faded colour picture of the majestic blue maple. Although the quality of the picture was bad, let alone the colours were faded, they somehow knew it was the tree they were looking for. They exchanged a smile and perused the content of the old page with their crazily beating hearts.

According to the content, the discoverer of the tree had a dream on the forty-ninth day of his husband's death. In her dream, her husband was assuring her that he was in a good place, so she should move on. The poor woman didn't believe him and asked him to come back to her. Then her husband gave him a warm smile and told her about the blue maple in the middle of Roku forest which was near their secluded house. "It is a magic tree, whenever you miss me, come to that magic tree to see me," he said before he disappeared, leaving a faint beam behind, and she woke up with tears in her eyes. Immediately, she kicked off the blanket, wore her hiking clothes and rushed out of the house with the first rays of the sun. Following her husband's direction, she rushed to the middle of the forest and saw the blue maple which was spreading blue sparkles. The story finished by Eberheard's words, saying that this lady shared her story only with him because she was his distant cousin. He was the one who took the photo and took her permission to publish her story as a memento of their love.

"Roku Forest," Yin An let out a chuckle when he finished reading.

"Hmm?"

"Roku Forest is only three hours away from my grandma's house. It was under my nose all this time."

Yang Guang rubbed his back, "still, you had to find me first, right?"

After giving it a quick thought, Yin An nodded, "indeed, but if I had found it earlier, we wouldn't have-"

"No buts," the tall man shushed his lover, "we found it, that is what matters."

"You are right, let's go pack our bags then."

"First we need to celebrate."

"O-kay, what is in your mind? Pizza party? Beer party?"

"Well, something more sweet."

"Sweet? Like what? Having a cake?"

"Hmm, more sweet."

"More sweet than a cake?"

"Hmm-hmm."

"What? Just tell me because I have no idea."

"You!"

"WHAT?!"

"Hehe, I want to eat you, you are the sweetest!"

"KEEP IT DOWN, YOU PERVERT! WE ARE IN THE LIBRARY!

"Hssh! It is you who is shouting, hehe."

Well, as our lovers finally got their answer, they failed to see that there was a very tiny yet important footnote which was directing the audience to the end notes...