Still, Wait For Me

SWFM3: Youth & 'First' Meetings

SWFM3: Youth & 'First' Meetings

Xu Tingsheng had brought forward his first meeting with Xiang Ning by 8 years, but nothing had developed from this. Still, this was the most normal, logical situation, and also the best situation.

"You glanced at me, but didn't say anything. I am a stranger."

"You certainly don't know why this person was crying out of the blue; he has surpassed life and death for you. Once, you glanced at him for the final time; he is already dead. Now, you glance over again, and he is alive once more. Coming back to life and glancing at you once more; one glance, one life."

She had glanced at him. His previous life. His current life.

Only with this glance was Xu Tingsheng truly 'reborn' into this life.

This night, Xu Tingsheng did not sleep.

"Perhaps not interfering with her life too early on is the right choice; she will follow her original footsteps, growing into that Xiang Ning whom I love."

"However, she will be in a relationship in senior high...it seems like it started when she was in eleventh grade. What should I do about that?"

All men were petty in this area. It was fine when Xu Tingsheng had been unable to do anything about in his previous life, but what about this time? Watch on as she engaged in a two-year relationship with 'Wang Lihong?' That would be intolerable!

Xu Tingsheng's fate was virtually destined to change in this life.

"What about the relationship between me and Xiang Ning? Will she still fall in love with me as she did before? After all, even though she is still the same her, I might no longer be the me I once was?"

"Her growth — to what extent should I be involved in it?"

In his previous life, because of the age difference between them, Xiang Ning had once joked:

When I was still in twin braids and flicking rubber bands about, you had already fallen in love with me, right?

When I was bullied and huddling in a corner crying, you didn't come to protect me.

When I left home after a spat with my parents, and instead discovering that there was nowhere I could go, why didn't you tell me where you were?

When I was sick and had a stomachache, you were definitely shopping or watching a movie with another girl.

When I was hesitating over whether or not to get into a relationship, why didn't you jump out to stop me, telling me that my boyfriend was just you?

When I was worried over the entrance exams for high school and university, why didn't you appear and help me to revise?... Xu Tingsheng, Mr Xu?... Just knowing how to care about other girls, hmph.

Most pairs of lovers would not have participated in each other's pasts. In the moments she had been saddest, perhaps when you just happened to be in the prime of your life, when she had been the most helpless, you were not by her side. Yet today, her sorrow is your worry, her joy is your happiness, sorrow and joy shared as one.

"What about this time then? I have the chance to participate in all of this, just that I don't know if I actually should."
......

The second day after seeing Xiang Ning, Xu Tingsheng visited all of the places she had once brought him to in Yanzhou City. Some of the restaurants in which they would eat had not yet been established; some of the parks they had walked through hand-in-hand had not yet been built; the Chinese parasol tree whose leaves scattered the street had just been planted not long ago; the person whom he had once held hands with still wore a single skyward plait, asked to stay back by her teacher.