Yang Yun: “Yaoyao, I’m really happy for Jiang Zhonglin that you can come back.”
Yu Yao raised her eyebrows: “...I don’t think he’s very happy.”
Yang Yun was stunned. “What are you talking about? He should be the happiest to see you.”
Just like Yang Yun couldn’t understand Yu Yao’s reaction, Yu Yao also couldn’t understand Yang Yun’s statement. As for how happy Jiang Zhonglin was about her appearance, she couldn’t tell. He hadn’t shown any excitement or happiness in the past two days.
So she rubbed her forehead and said, a little upset, “I dated him for a year and got married for a year, so that means I got along with him only for two years at most, but we have been separated for forty years. I think he should have forgotten me a long time ago. I guess he should be more shocked than surprised when I suddenly show up now. If it were someone else, he would definitely think I was a trouble, but Jiang Zhonglin was a responsible person from when he was young, and he hasn’t changed now. That’s why he picked me up and took me home after receiving the news. In the final analysis, it’s his personality.”
Yang Yun: “What are you talking about? Don’t you know how much he likes you?”
Yu Yao leaned back in her chair, not sure. “He should have liked me before, but now so many years have passed. Despite the fact that he has a good memory, can he still like me even though he remembers me?”
Yang Yun looked at her and suddenly asked her, “Did Jiang Zhonglin tell you anything? Say it…”
Yu Yao’s heart skipped a beat for no reason. “What?”
Yang Yun sighed, opened her terminal, clicked a few times on it, and then handed it to Yu Yao. “Look at this. This is the largest missing person website. It was built by the police when the big data network was established in the early years. The missing person information posted on it is updated every year. Since the establishment of this website, your information has been posted on it. It has been posted for many years and has never been removed. Because it costs a fee every year to post information on it, many people who can’t find their loved ones for one or two years will remove the information because their families have no hope. But Jiang Zhonglin has always insisted on posting your information here and is still paying fees every year. Do you know what this means?“
It means that even after forty years, Jiang Zhonglin is still waiting for her to come back.
Even after forty years, when everyone else believes that she is dead, he still has a glimmer of hope.
Yu Yao looked at her own photo on the website and was completely stunned.
“He... Jiang Zhonglin, is he still looking for me after so many years?” Yu Yao asked blankly.
Seeing her like this, Yang Yun felt very sad for the couple who had been separated for a long time.
“Of course, you said you just waited for a while at the service center, and the staff already contacted Jiang Zhonglin. It was because your information was posted on this website that they found your identity information so quickly.”
Yang Yun said, “When you suddenly disappeared, there was no clue. Jiang Zhonglin contacted everyone you knew to ask about you, went to the police station to file a report, and asked his family and all his friends to pay attention to your whereabouts. He did almost everything. You don’t know that he walked the streets and alleys near your home alone countless times and how long he had been looking for you. During that time, he seemed to be preparing for the exam with his tutor, but you disappeared, and he never went to school again.”
Yang Yun thought of the skinny Jiang Zhonglin back then. The word "emaciated" could not describe his state. She and her boyfriend at the time were worried and often went to see him to ask if there was any news about Yu Yao. As a result, one time they saw Jiang Zhonglin collapsed at the door of his house, with the key still in the door; he couldn’t open the door, and he just fainted at the door.
They sent Jiang Zhonglin to the hospital, and he cried when he woke up. At that time, Yu Yao had been missing for more than three months. Jiang Zhonglin asked them in a state of collapse, "What if Yu Yao was already dead? What if she met a murderer, was killed, and the body was hidden somewhere and could not be found?"
She felt at that time that if Jiang Zhonglin continued like this, he would definitely not be able to bear it.
But later, he still survived and became much calmer. Although he was still running around finding connections to find Yu Yao, he was not as decadent as before. A year later, he returned to school to continue his studies. Yang Yun thought he was fine but later found out that Jiang Zhonglin’s anxiety disorder was not cured at all. In order to suppress anxiety, he took a lot of medicine and almost broke his body.
“Didn’t there have been several recent reports about women being killed during that period? Jiang Zhonglin said he was afraid that you would be like those people. He had severe anxiety symptoms in those years.”
Yu Yao thought that if she suddenly disappeared, Jiang Zhonglin might be very sad, but she didn’t think that the harm to Jiang Zhonglin would be so great.
“Then...what happened next?” Yu Yao murmured.
Yang Yun thought for a while and said, “There was a period of time when I had very little contact with him. After he finished his doctorate, he went to mountain villages to teach for almost ten years. He has been to many remote villages. We all thought he was doing it to relax. Later, when he came back and invited us to dinner, he told us the reason.”
“He said that one day he saw on the news that human traffickers would abduct young women and sell them to remote villages. He had several nightmares. He dreamed that you were also abducted by human traffickers and locked in a dark room with no one to rescue you. So when he saw that there was a teaching activity in remote villages from the school, he signed up for it for some reason, and his tutor also didn’t stop him.”
Jiang Zhonglin came back after teaching for several years. When he invited them to dinner, Yang Yun almost couldn’t recognize that it was Jiang Zhonglin. He was dark, thin, and weather-beaten. The only comforting thing was that he was in much better spirits and could talk and smile as before.
“In the past few years, I have traveled to many places. I always wonder what I should do if I really find her in those places and also what if I don’t find her?” Jiang Zhonglin’s expression when he said this made Yang Yun very impressed.
Yu Yao had been missing for more than ten years at that time. At that moment, Yang Yun felt a little ashamed, because although she still missed her good friend, she already had a family, a husband, and children, which diluted her thoughts and concerns for her friend. They seemed to have their own new lives; only Jiang Zhonglin was still brooding and thinking about Yu Yao.
Yang Yun told everything she knew about Jiang Zhonglin in these years, bit by bit. In her detailed description, Yu Yao saw the lonely shadow in the huge time gap of forty years. He was like a lonely goose who had lost its mate, traveling from north to south, alternating between cold and hot, and always alone.
The sadness and pain that spread from nowhere climbed into Yu Yao’s heart, making her feel a tightening of her heart like a needle.
“Didn’t he look for someone else?” Yu Yao asked silently.
Yang Yun shook her head.
Yu Yao recalled the thought in her mind when she walked into the house the day before yesterday. She was thinking that Jiang Zhonglin must have remarried after so many years and maybe even had a child, but it was not until now that she realized that Jiang Zhonglin was more stubborn than she thought.
Yu Yao felt tears overflowing from her eyes, as if a dam had burst. She was not a person who loved to cry. In her middle school years, she believed in shedding blood, but not tears. When she grew up, she was lazy and lived her life casually. The most important thing was to have fun. She really rarely cried, but now, she couldn’t stop crying, as if she was not crying for herself, but for the man who walked alone from youth to old age.
Yang Yun sat next to her and took out a tissue to wipe her tears and herself. She, an old lady, had already stopped crying, but Yu Yao was still crying.
“Oh, Yaoyao, please don’t cry; your eyes are swollen. Please stop for a while.” Grandma Yang Yun saw that she couldn’t stop crying even after waving her hands. She felt distressed.
“Don’t cry, everything is fine now, you’re back now, it’s okay, you’ll all be fine from now on.”
Yu Yao covered her mouth and closed her eyes, but even so, tears continued to flow from the corners of her eyes.
When she thought about Jiang Zhonglin’s mood back then, she felt like something was torn apart, and bitter water overflowed from the gap. When they went home, Jiang Zhonglin was shocked by Yu Yao’s red and swollen eyes. He asked her in surprise, “What’s wrong? Why are you crying like this?”
“Hey, sit down first; I’ll get you a towel to wipe it.” He went to wet a towel and put the cold towel on Yu Yao’s eyes.
Yu Yao’s mood had calmed down, but when she saw Jiang Zhonglin again, she felt very sad again.
Jiang Zhonglin asked them to sit down, brought honey water over, and said earnestly, “Sudden extreme joy and sorrow can easily hurt your body. It’s good to vent, but you can’t be sad all the time. Adjust your mentality, and you will be better in the future. You are not used to the current society. We can all help you. Don’t worry too much.”
He said in a gentle tone, with concern and worry in his eyes.
Yu Yao stared at him with a cold towel in her hand, thinking, is this kind of calmness real?
Of the two of them, in this sudden time travel that was like a joke, Jiang Zhonglin’s most painful period was when she disappeared and he had to carry it alone. And her most painful period is now, because of the gap of forty years, because her relatives and lovers suddenly aged, but she is not alone now. Since Jiang Zhonglin took her back, he has been using the most gentle attitude to let her get familiar with this world, including himself, and trying not to put any pressure on her.
Yu Yao saw his cautious treatment in Jiang Zhonglin’s clasped hands.
Is that so? Is that so?
Yu Yao was very silent this afternoon. At night, Yang Yun and her husband, Xu Xian, went to stay in a nearby hotel. It was Yang Yun who suggested it. Yu Yao did not object. Only she and Jiang Zhonglin were left at home.
Jiang Zhonglin looked at the instruction manual and stumbled to install the game she bought on the TV screen. He also specially put the joystick experience device he bought next to Yu Yao, but Yu Yao did not move.
Jiang Zhonglin got up to cook. Yu Yao stood up and followed him to the kitchen to wash rice.
“Jiang Zhonglin.” Yu Yao stood at the door of the kitchen and asked him, “Wouldn’t it be sad to wait for someone for many years?”
Jiang Zhonglin paused while washing rice and looked back at Yu Yao in surprise. Then he smiled slightly and shook his head. His warm eyes had a gentle light. “No matter what happens, you can get used to it.”
Yu Yao stared at him. “I thought you wouldn’t be happy because of my sudden appearance, but Yang Yun said you were happy. Is that true?”
*****
What should I do if my lover became an old man after traveling to fourty years later? Chapter List:
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