The Healing Sunshine (一厘米的阳光)

Chapter 21.2 - The One Beyond those Past Dreams (2)

"Then I just won't leave the country."

Jǐ Yi brought her head down and took a bite of the bun in her hand.

He Feifei was astonished. It was very uncommon to see someone who disliked going on a trip for business purposes, and especially since university students nowadays were all fond of going abroad for travel, people like Jǐ Yi were even more rare to see. She merely supposed that Jǐ Yi was being lazy and did not want to go to the trouble, and hence she continued trying to persuade her, saying "Don't be scared of the hassle. You're soon going to be officially working. A passport and the Hong Kong-Macau EEP are a must, or else what are you going to do if you're sent out last minute?"

Jǐ Yi gave a vague response and skirted around this.

This was her most awkward problem. Her passport had been applied for very early on and had already expired. It was the same situation for her Hong Kong-Macau EEP. However, to renew these would require her to return to Grandfather's home to get the hukou booklet. She was even beginning to worry over what she would do after her resident identity card expired. These things that to ordinary people were very simple matters were to her a huge problem.

Inside the train car, there was still a thick celebratory atmosphere of the Lunar New Year.

Everyone was talking about how the fifth day of the new lunar year is for welcoming the God of Wealth. Were it not for the fact that they were on a train, right now, there should be the exploding sounds of firecrackers shaking the sky, and all around, people would be inviting in the God of Wealth. He Feifei's hometown did not have such a custom, and entertained by what she was hearing, she asked Jǐ Yi whether it truly was like this. Jǐ Yi shook her head, bewildered as well. When she was a child, every year in the military compound on the night of Lunar New Year's Eve, there would be a fireworks display that stretched over the entire square, but as for the fifth day of the new lunar year, she had absolutely no recollection of anything. Even Zhao Xiaoying's mother, who liked very much to talk about such things, had never mentioned anything.

Zhao Xiaoying... Jì Nuannuan...

It was as if, with Jì Chengyang's return, the dust-covered seal that had shut away all the memories of the past had now been forcibly stripped off.

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Along the way, the train was forced to stop several times, so by the time the two arrived at Beijing Railway Station, it was already deep into the night hours of the sixth day of the new lunar year, past three o'clock in the morning.

The seventh day of the new lunar year was the day normal work operations would resume at the newspaper agency. After evaluating the distance in her mind, Jǐ Yi felt that even if she rushed back to her school, she would not be able to sleep for very long before she would have to drag herself back up and hurry to the newspaper office, so instead, she simply towed her suitcase with her and went directly to the office building of the newspaper agency. There was one time previously when, because she had had to work overtime, she had also slept in the office, and therefore this time she was very familiar with it. While she was at it, she pulled out the unopened, one-time-use toothbrush and toothpaste that she had brought back from the hotel and used it.

When she had finished washing up, lain down on the couch, and covered herself with her down jacket, she suddenly remembered one thing.

This afternoon, Jì Chengyang had sent her a text message, asking her whether she was safely back in Beijing yet. She had not replied.

Now, in this exceptionally quiet staff lounge, she all of a sudden felt guilty.

Maybe he had been waiting for a message from her the whole time, until it was really late. But would it be too late if she replied now? She struggled over this for a while, but in the end still wrote a very brief message to him, telling him she had arrived.