The Healing Sunshine (一厘米的阳光)

Chapter 23.1 - Time's Length (1)

Very little stuff. A little corner would be enough to store everything.

Two and more years ago, she had wanted to say something similar, but the words never did leave her mouth.

Prior to receiving actual confirmation that she was accepted into the Foreign Affairs University, she, like all fourth-year undergraduate students, had also put in much effort in hunting for a job. She had gone to interview after interview. From the various major campus-recruitment presentations, to online job postings, to even those large-scale, university-student career fair, she let not a single one slip by. That day at noontime, when she and a classmate stepped out from a career fair for university students at the International Exhibition Center, she unexpectedly received a call from her dad.

The relationship between her and her dad had always been the most distant. They would not exchange more than a few words in a year. Suddenly seeing his number on the incoming call display brought about such nervousness in her that her heart pounded heavily, and she wondered what sort of urgent matter might have occurred. She very much hoped that when she picked up the phone, she would hear a sentence along the lines of "How has the job search been lately?" but was also very scared of answering the call...

She remembered, at the time, she had stared at her mobile phone for a dozen or so seconds before mustering up the courage to answer it.

"You've been looking for a job lately?" Dad's tone was very much official and business-sounding.

"Mm-hmm." She wanted to be like the classmate who was with her, that when she got a phone call from her parents, she could simply complain, complain that the number of people looking for a job this year was just too many, complain that these sorts of large-scale career fairs were especially unreliable, complain that those big corporations' recruitment processes would put you through seven or eight rounds of torment, basically tormenting you to death... But after struggling within herself for a while, she merely stated simply, "I think I'll find one soon..."

"Oh, that's good, then. My house here is going to be sold straightaway. In these next few days, move your things out from here. Do you have a key?"

She froze for a moment. And then, her eyes instantly reddened.

Those were some of the things that she had moved out from Jì Chengyang's home. As the space in her dormitory was limited, she had temporarily stored them at her parents' place. Being suddenly informed that she was to move those out had triggered in her a sort of feeling where henceforward, she no longer had a home, and feeling at a loss, she did not know how she should walk out her future path.

"Xixi?"

Dazedly, she made a sound in answer and said, "No. I haven't had a key since I moved out... I'll go over this afternoon. Leave the key with the neighbour, or you can also leave my luggage with the neighbour. I'll go grab it..."

After the call was hung up, Jǐ Yi still stared fixedly at her mobile phone, her thumb incessantly digging at the pink sticker on it. Very shortly, in a voice choked in her throat, she told her classmate that she wanted to buy a bottle of water to drink. Without even waiting for her classmate's reply, she jogged over to the newsstand across the road. Only after she had managed to force back her tears did she pick up an arbitrary bottle of water and hand some money over to the old woman who was busily tidying newspapers.

......

It was in that year's late spring, early summer that she found out the result on the university website that she had been accepted for admission.

The only feeling she had had at the time was that she could breathe out in relief. She finally had the next place where she could temporarily settle down in and stay.