The weekend they promised was not long in coming.
Early spring. Everything is rejuvenated. The sun is as clean as water.
They turned off their phones and went to the previously agreed place. After seven years of marriage, they are both busy with their careers. This weekend, it’s going to be your own.
Perhaps, seven years is not too long, but for marriage, it is not short after all. After this weekend, they will be together.
The destination is a lake with a lot of water, better known as the Reservoir. People have given it a nice name: Dream Butterfly Lake. The water of the lake is crystal clear and lapping against the rocks on the shore. The rocks are gray and black, but the part near the water is white and bright.
There are no tourists, and dozens of boats sway from side to side in the white waves, like a meeting of drunks.
He turned to her and asked, do you want to take a boat?
There seemed to be a smile on her face, but she finally didn’t squeeze it out. She smoothed her windswept hair, and replied, whatever.
He was disappointed with her answer. She is not a casual person and takes her work and life seriously. From her tone and expression at the moment, he felt the so-called indifference. Have they really reached the point of no return? A trace of sorrow escaped from his chest and rose all the way to the cerebral cortex.
He ordered a boat. The crew told him to leave early and come back early; There was a storm in the afternoon.
He looked up at the sky, turquoise blue, and not a single cloud could be seen. Eyes returned to the shore, where his sister-in-law was recording a video, perhaps just herself.
She pulled the camera closer and closer, and a small blurry black dot appeared on the screen. Island, there’s an island there, she said to herself!
She is rarely able to say anything out loud, indicating that she is more or less excited or agitated.
He rowed a boat that could only hold two people, and headed for the little black spot. He urged her to put on a life jacket, but he didn’t. In her twinkling gaze, he caught a glimmer of tenderness that had not been seen in more than a year.
The little black dot went from blurry to clear, from small to large, a small island, not big, full of trees, what kind of trees, he couldn’t tell. Walk up a stone path and climb up the still-sturdy trunk of a tree dotted with stars that herald the arrival of a season.
The stone path was littered with half-rotting leaves, which lost their elasticity when stepped on and stuck greasy to her feet. When she turned the corner, she almost fell. He gave a quick glance and strode forward to help her. Going further, he tried to step over her arm, but she shook her hand, jerked it away, and took two quick steps, leaving him behind.
He said embarrassedly, Chunhua, do you remember when you climbed the mountain? Her name is Liu Chunhua, but she missed a word, and for a long time, she missed two words, calling her Hua. He tried several times to omit two words, and when they reached his mouth, he swallowed them again.
She looked back at him, trying to remember, as if asking, when?
Ten years ago at the university, the school organized a mountaineering event, in which he and she participated. At that time, he was two years older than her, and they didn’t know each other. When they reached the top of the mountain, she broke her foot and there was no one around. She shed tears, one in pain and one in despair, the two intertwined. He suddenly appeared from a fork in the road, as if falling from the sky. He carried her down the mountain and waited in the car for a long time, and his classmates were laughing at them, hehehe, what kind of behavior?
They went all the way up the mountain from that climb.
She peeked out from behind a big tree and said, “Can you take a picture of me?”
Of course, you have to ask. He said in his heart.
She was already in a pose, one hair fluttering in the wind, a fair face, two fingers representing victory, in a V-shape, and
another image suddenly appeared in his mind, she was dressed in maternity clothes, her belly protruding slightly, the same smile. Three years ago, she was happy, even beautiful, he remembered very well. It’s just that the little life didn’t stay, they were both very busy, so busy that even now, her stomach didn’t bulge anymore.
Is it done, she asked? With a slam of shock, he returned to reality, scrambling to press the shutter.
The branches began to sway to a dancing rhythm. The trunk also shook in an increasingly chaotic rhythm.
It was as if lead-gray clouds had run out of the lake, flying into the sky, forming a huge curtain. A bolt of lightning, drummed by thunder, tore angrily, wound after wound.
Let’s hurry back, he said anxiously, Chunhua, the storm is coming.
A few drops of cold rain fell and hit her head, and she involuntarily covered her head.
The wind wraps around the rain, the rain wraps around the wind, the wind blows the rain, the rain blows the wind, and the whole lake shakes the mountains.
Their ship, like a leaf about to rot, tossed in the wind and waves.
He took off his life jacket and ordered her to put it on! Hurry up and put it on! After that, he split his feet and tried to stabilize and re-stabilize the rocking boat as much as he could.
The wind and rain whipped him, and he fell, and got up, and fell again, and got up again.
She curled up in a tiny hut. In his crotch, water poured in roughly, and then rolled out with impunity.
The lifeboat arrived just as his last breath was about to run out.
In the hotel, they took a hot shower and the air conditioner was turned on to the highest temperature.
She was still shaking. Cold. Afraid. Afraid.
He hugged her. Don’t be afraid, I’m here.
She snuggled into his arms. I want a baby.
He hugged her tighter, even suffocating her.
