Short, Light, Free

Not wanting to say much, Lixia answered, “No more. Your body can’t take it.”

As if she hadn’t heard him, Xiaoyue repeated, “Will you?”

“Follow me to the hospital first. You’re ill. We’ll go to the beach when you recover, alright?” Lixia persuaded.

“No, I’m not going,” Xiaoyue responded, displeased.

Lixia carried her back to her bed and insisted, “What you need now is rest and not the sun.”

Xiaoyue protested and squirmed, but Lixia remained firm. He hugged her tightly until she ran out of energy and fell asleep.

Feeling the bed move, Lixia woke up. Xiaoyue was awake.

Tired, he asked, “How are you?”

Xiaoyue yelled at him in anger to get lost. Seeing that she had recovered a little bit of energy, Lixia left her place, but not before urging her to visit the hospital.

Xiaoyu smashed her guzheng after he left.

Xiamen Gulangyu Music Academy.

“Hey, do you know that Xiaoyue’s been absent from school for two days now,” Xiaoyue’s classmate, Naixi, casually mentioned.

“Right. Now that you’ve mentioned it, I haven’t seen her in two days. I wouldn’t have realized it if you didn’t tell me,” the class president replied.

“I think Lixia, the guy from next door, is her boyfriend. Should we ask him?” Naixi added.

“That’s not a good idea, is it?” the class president responded doubtfully.

“Don’t worry about it, go ask.” Naixi pulled him over to the class next door.

“A beauty is looking for you, Lixia. No, two beauties,” Lixia’s good friend, Xiqing called and laughed.

Lixia put his guitar down and walked out of the classroom.

“Is anything the matter?” he questioned. He knew they were Xiaoyue’s classmates.

Before the class president could say anything, Naixi started, “Do you know that Xiaoyue’s been absent from school for two days now?”

Lixia shook his head. “No.”

“You’re her boyfriend and you don’t know?” the class president asked him.

“That’s what I said. I don’t know.” Without saying anything more, he walked back to his classroom.

Not knowing what to do, Naixi and the class president discussed whether they should visit her place after school.

Lixia grabbed his guitar and started strumming it.

His classmates were shocked. While there were many mistakes, it was indeed a tune from ‘Fishermen’s Return at Dusk’.

Ring~

The class bell rang and Lixia dashed out.

The school’s perimeter walls weren’t considered high but they weren’t low either.

Lixia heard from a senior that the easiest wall to climb over was the one in the western part of the campus.

Reaching that particular stretch of the perimeter wall, Lixia climbed up a tall tree and jumped over.

The tree branches and wall left countless marks on his body and arms.

Lixia sprinted wildly to Xiaoyue’s house.

When he arrived, his uniform was soaked with sweat.

Her gate was locked.

Lixia climbed in through the window without much thought. He’d already broken the school rule so this meant nothing.

No one was at home.

He immediately ran to the pier on the beach, calling out for her along the way.

Just as he guessed, she was sitting in a corner of the beach.

“You’re here?” she asked softly.

Lixia looked at her frail body and worried, “Why haven’t you been coming to school?”

Xiaoyue only had her pajamas and Lixia’s slippers on.

She repeated her words from before, “Will you wait with me, darling?”

He carried her up once again but this time, she did not resist.

She had no energy left. She was extremely weak.

Lixia brought her home and took out some medicines meant to help with heat strokes.

“Drink these while I prepare some food. Then, we’ll head to the hospital and go to the beach when we return,” Lixia told her.

Xiaoyue smiled. “Okay.”

That gentle voice of hers could shatter hearts.

In twenty minutes, a bowl of fried rice and egg soup were laid out on the table.

He made sure Xiaoyue finished all of them.

As Xiaoyue ate her rice, she asked, “Wanna hear a story, darling?”

“Don’t talk when you eat. Tell me when you’re done.”

Her smile widened and six white teeth were revealed again.

After finishing her meal, Xiaoyue started on her story.

“Five years ago, when I was eleven years old, my parents left the island to work. I foolishly thought that they didn’t want me anymore. I waited by the beach in hopes that they would return.”

“Is that why you’ve been going to the beach every day for five years now?” Lixia interrupted.

“No, that’s not it. The wind was so strong one day that I started hallucinating. I saw my father on the beach and I ran to the water without thinking. The waves swept me up and I thought I was going to die.”

Lixia was stunned. She had never mentioned anything like this.

“As I was about to pass out I heard a man’s voice. He told me to hang in there. I saw him. He was trying hard to save me, telling me not to be afraid. He managed to get me on the boat but because the wind that day was so strong, the boat capsized shortly after. That uncle reassured me and supported me as he swam on and on. The last thing he said was that I must live on well and that he would return, but the next thing I knew, I was in the hospital.

“You’ve been waiting for that uncle all along?” Lixia asked.

“Yes. Recently I’ve been dreaming about him and what he said about returning. He asked me to wait,” Xiaoyue explained.

“When did it start?” Lixia followed his question with another.

“After I met you. Before that, I seldom go to the beach. Perhaps once a month, which must be the reason why he’s come to look for me. Wait with me for his return, will you darling?” Xiaoyue said.

“He won’t come back. He’s dead.”

“But he’s been appearing in my dreams. He said he’ll come back,” Xiaoyue insisted.

“Wait. In your dreams? Do you remember what he looks like?” Lixia questioned.

“Not when I woke up, but in my dreams, I could see him clearly,” Xiaoyue answered.

Lixia fell into deep thought.

“Uncle said he’ll return. Perhaps he’s still alive. Will you wait with me, darling?” Xiaoyue asked again.

Five years ago? Lixia smiled bitterly. “That uncle’s already back.”

Xiaoyue looked at him doubtfully.

Lixia explained slowly, “That uncle is my father and I’ve returned to you for him. You’ve been dreaming of him because you see me a lot in the day. My father and I look strikingly similar.”

Xiaoyue stared at him blankly.

He wasn’t sure if this was the time to say ‘I love you’ but he knew that he had to get her to the hospital as soon as possible.

She was severely malnourished and suffering from a heat stroke.

After receiving some medicines prescribed by the doctor, Lixia brought Xiaoyu to see his mom.

Xiaoyue told the story to Lixia’s mother and she started crying.

Caringly, Lixia’s mother spoke, “Li, you’re the only man Grandma and I can rely on now… and Xiaoyue.”

Lixia ran up to the attic to retrieve a photo album.

In it were the photos of his deceased father.

Upon seeing them, Xiaoyue nodded. “Yes, that’s him.”

Lixia took a photo out from the album and held it beside his face.

They had an 80 percent resemblance, save for the sparse stubble his father had.

Lixia smiled. “I’m back.”

Xiaoyue smiled widely, exposing her six white teeth.

These were the two men Xiaoyu remembered: the man who rescued her from the violent sea… and the man who rescued her from the summer that kept her prisoner for five whole years.