The Healing Sunshine (一厘米的阳光)

Chapter 15.1 - The Memories are Still Awake (1)

As soon as he and Jǐ Yi sat into a taxi, she could not wait to tell him about her university. Jì Chengyang listened attentively. After a while, he suddenly instructed the driver to head directly to her university. Jǐ Yi was startled with this. "We're not going home?"

"I want to see the place where you'll be studying for the next four years," Jì Chengyang answered.

"Oh, okay." Jǐ Yi's lips came together in a smile, and she looked out the window.

Jì Chengyang was back and was really sitting beside her—this feeling truly was too nice.

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Pulling his luggage along, he followed her into this university and took in the scenery all around. While Jǐ Yi was introducing things to him, she thought of something. "Our school is known for having a lot of pretty girls. In Beijing, there are two schools that produce the most beautiful girls: Renda [Renmin University of China] and BFSU [Beijing Foreign Studies University]."

"Oh? Is that so?" Jì Chengyang cursorily responded. "Is it because there's a high ratio of female students?"

"I... suppose so." Turning, she carried on step by step leading the way for him but was unable to restrain her lips that were curving upwards because of happiness. Afraid that she would be embarrassed if he caught sight of her smile, she continually admired the scenery of this school campus that still could not be considered familiar to her. As it was the National Day holiday, there were not many people. There were still some students who had not gone home for the holiday, though, so the two of them took care of dinner by eating in the school dining hall. Jǐ Yi bought stir-fried sliced pork and onions as well as diced chicken in curry over rice for Jì Chengyang, while she had stir-fried tomato with scrambled eggs and stir-fried celtuce stem with shredded pork.

Telling him to sit and relax, she personally brought over his dinner and set it down in front of him, then went back to get the other portion of food.

While they were eating, she deliberately picked out her egg and shredded meat and gave it to him. She watched as he pulled off his baseball cap, set it on top of his luggage, and, lowering his head, ate his dinner with chopsticks in hand. With his height, the instant he sat down in the seat, he immediately caused the space around him to seem narrow and cramped.

Jǐ Yi gazed at him with her face propped on her hand. "Before I started uni, I didn't know that when meats and veggies and other foods are put on top of the rice, it's called 'covered rice,'" Jǐ Yi said lightly. "So fun." Everything was so fresh and new.

All these little things and details.

She told Jì Chengyang, there were girls in her dormitory who were from minority ethnic groups, and when school started, they had come still wearing the traditional clothing of their ethnic group. She told Jì Chengyang, she had also purposely run over to the Department of Arabic Studies to catch a glimpse of that host who used to always host children's programs, but she had returned without success.

Jì Chengyang listened to her talk, all the while also appraising these foods that she normally ate. In passing, he asked, "Have you gotten your Hong Kong-Macau EEP yet?"

"Yup, I have it."

"We'll head out tomorrow, then."

Making a sound as an affirmative answer, she bowed her head and ate her tomatoes and scrambled eggs—sour and sweet.

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Seeing her eating so carefully and focusedly, Jì Chengyang actually stopped and observed her for a little longer. Although he could only see her bangs that had fallen forward and her motions as she held her chopsticks and speedily took bite after bite, he still very much enjoyed this view. He recalled the idle conversation that had taken place on this return trip between two of his co-workers who were on the same flight as him. The two men had discussed the one and only female journalist who had been on this particular journey and who was even manlier than men. Their conversation topic had weaved this way and that until it really did circle over to land on the subject of women, and they had discussed why women have those characteristics of never feeling secure and always making things difficult for no reason. For example, when the man is out fighting hard to make a living, a woman will still squabble with him over questions like whether he loves her or not. When those two co-workers conversed about this, they had also asked Jì Chengyang. Since Jì Chengyang was a child, he had always maintained a bystander's stance when it came to women, keeping them at a respectful distance. He had been very forthright and stated that he did not really understand women. Actually, besides being able to detect who had desires to get closer to him, he truly did not have much knowledge of any of the other things.