Postscript to "Strangers Met in Namtso" (III)

One day, about a month after their reunion, he asked her.

"I will go to Changzhou this weekend, will you be free to go with me?"

She thought about it and answered.

"I can do it this weekend. I just didn't have work for those two days. When do you want to go?"

he asked hesitantly.

"Would you mind if I wanted to invite you to Cheung Chau for one night?"

He said that his colleagues in Hong Kong would go to Changzhou for vacation together on those two days, but most of them brought their relatives. It seemed strange for him to go alone, so if she didn't go, he wouldn't participate.

"I'm not your girlfriend, wouldn't it be weirder for me to go?"

"No. You can call me my girlfriend if necessary."

"Use this trick again!"

she laughs.

"Well, I haven't been to Changzhou for a long time. Let's go together."

"Thank you! I'll treat you to dinner later!"

"You have to remember! Don't put things down and go back to Guangzhou."

"How could I forget." He looked at her meaningfully.

In this way, she agreed to join his company's camp.

Later, she learned that his company had its own villa in Changzhou, so they went to Changzhou to camp. The environment there seems to be pretty good.

She didn't know how he explained her relationship with him to others. Did he really tell others that he was his girlfriend? She had questioned him, but he said don't worry and didn't answer her directly.

He first asked her to meet at the pier before gathering with his colleagues to set off.

After the two met, he took her hand and walked to the meeting point. She stayed there and could only follow him. She kept thinking, they haven't held hands for a year, are they late? Did he take her away because he thought she was walking slowly?

He led her to a group of people who greeted him. And his hand still held hers tightly. She was a little surprised and didn't know what medicine he sold in the gourd. Wouldn't everyone think she was his girlfriend?

In addition to greeting him, everyone was also curious about her.

"You are the girlfriend he met in Tibet, right?"

"He often mentions you to us. Now I finally see the real person!"

She quietly pulled him aside.

"They know about us? What did you tell them?"

"They only know that we met in Tibet and nothing else."

"They said you mentioned me a lot?"

"Not very often, just said it once or twice. They say it too much."

"Why did you tell them I'm your girlfriend? Didn't we end? No, we never started with Ben."

Just as he was about to answer, the boat was about to leave, and his colleagues found them and told them to get on the boat together.

The conversation stopped temporarily.

On the boat, he ignored her questioning eyes and held her hand all the way, as if afraid that she would go away. His colleagues were friendly, and they chatted in groups, and she surprisingly didn't feel uncomfortable talking to strangers.

Maybe it was because he was by her side, she thought?

After arriving at the villa, everyone went back to their rooms to put down their luggage and rest for a while.

The two of them entered the room, put down their luggage, and after she closed the door, she looked at him.

She was waiting for his explanation.

He looked at her without speaking, and dragged her to the small terrace of the room.

It was a beautiful terrace with a small two-seater rattan chair facing the sea of Cheung Chau.

When she saw the scenery there, she was moved. She was brought to the rattan chair by him, and the two sat side by side.

Seeing her fascinated look, he asked her softly.

"You must have been to Changzhou many times, haven't you?"

"I have no experience of staying overnight in Changzhou. I have never tried watching the sea in Changzhou from the terrace. I never thought it was so beautiful."

"Is this the most beautiful sea you have ever seen?"

"This, this moment, is the most beautiful here." She said the words she had told him when she was in Namtso.

"If this moment is the most beautiful, what about the next moment? What about tomorrow? Or a year from now?"

"I don't have the ability to think so far. I only know that life is too short and bitter, and no one knows when or if the beauty of the next moment will come. All I can do is, when the beauty is in front of my eyes at the moment, I must take good care of it. Take the opportunity to see the beauty and let yourself not regret it.”

Sitting beside her, he gently grabbed her hand.

She finally calmed down, as if it took all her strength to pull her hand out of his. He looked at her with a trace of sadness and disappointment in his eyes. She turned her head away and looked out at the sea.

"Why do you say I'm your girlfriend?" she asked him softly.

"Because in my mind you are."

She looked at a fishing boat passing by in the sea and said softly, "How could I be your girlfriend? We haven't been in touch all year."

"I don't want to give you any false hope until I'm not sure that I might go down with you."

Hearing this, she couldn't help looking at him, "Then why are you looking for me now? Aren't you going to go on a blind date? How do you know that I'm not dating other people?"

He stared at her, "I didn't go on a blind date. It was my mother who told me to go. You, when we met again, wasn't the first thing I asked if you were dating? You said no."

"But... you're still in Guangzhou, I'm still in Hong Kong, we..." She lowered her head.