Gao Yang winced and almost cried out in pain. He hurriedly grabbed a napkin to muffle his mouth under the guise of wiping it.
“Haha, it’s only natural,” Gao Shou said. “Relationships take work to maintain, and arguments are part of it.”
“Do you really plan to propose to Mom on your anniversary, Dad?” Gao Yang changed the subject.
“Of course!” Gao Shou meant what he said.
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“Why now, so suddenly?” Gao Yang asked.
“It’s not sudden at all. I’ve been thinking about it for years.”
Gao Shou spoke like it was obvious. Then he sighed with guilt. “Back in our time, proposals simply weren’t a thing, and we got married in a hustle. Then we had you and Xinxin. With all my time put into earning money to support the family, we got here without realizing how long it’s been.”
“You know your mother. Even if she wants something, she’ll never say it.”
“She’s always been one for doing things the proper way, and I owe her the proposal. It’s something I’ve been regretting.”
Gao Shou took a sip of his drink and turned to Gao Yang. “I don’t think I’ve ever told you how I got together with your mom, Son.”
“You did,” Gao Yang teased. “You went after her quickly and decisively, and you snatched Mom before others could.”
Gao Shou almost sputtered out the cola in his mouth. “Ack, ack. You brat! I was boasting, and you took it seriously?”
Little Qing Ling’s eyes glinted. “Tell me, Uncle. I want to know.”
“Haha, sure.” Gao Shou put down the cola and rubbed his nose proudly. “The story of Lin Yue and I is something straight out of a romance movie—no, not even the movie would have such a story...”
Gao Shou lived in the rural area. He was introduced by a friend of his father—Gao Yang’s grandfather—and started working at a local textile mill after graduating from middle school.
Although Gao Shou’s mother wanted him to go to high school, Gao Shou didn’t like studying despite having a bright mind. Moreover, it was a dream job to work at a textile mill at the time due to the stable income. Gao Shou’s older brother had started working at the same textile mill as soon as he graduated too.
At the textile mill, workers worked three shifts, but Gao Shou had entered the mill through nepotism, and his older brother was there too. Thus, Gao Shou was excluded from the night shift, allowing him to work from eight to five, going between the factory, canteen, and dorm. His life was so regular that it was boring.
Every evening, after having dinner at the canteen, Gao Shou would go to a little shop run by an old lady outside the factory with a few other workers. The group of young men would buy a bottle of soda each and share snacks such as peanuts and seeds, sitting on the curb outside the shop and looking at the pretty girls walking around.
Across from the shop was the only high school in the town. Gao Shou and his colleagues would wait for the high school students to get off school, watching the girls.
They paid particular attention to the pretty ones and gave them nicknames and scores among themselves.
“Weren’t you nothing but louts then?” Gao Yang had a disgusted look on his face.
“You’re a lout. Your whole family are...” Gao Shou stopped himself when he realized what he was saying. “I had a proper job. What was so wrong about looking at pretty high school girls after a day of hard work?”
“And I was only seventeen. Isn’t it human nature for a teenage boy to be curious about the opposite sex?”
“We didn’t harass the girls. We didn’t even dare make cat calls. We only looked at them from afar. How was that louts’ behavior?”
“Alright, alright. My mistake. Calm down, Dad.” Gao Yang snorted.
Little Qing Ling laughed.
“Little Ling.” Gao Shou glanced at her. “Gao Yang’s mother was pretty like you. She was tall and slim, her skin fair and her hair long and dark. However, she wasn’t outgoing like you. She was quiet and always had a cold look on her face. We nicknamed her Snowy...”
Every time Lin Yue showed up, Gao Shou’s colleagues would push him and say, “Look, Old Gao. Your Snowy’s here.”
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Sitting on the curb, Gao Shou would forget to even drink his soda; gnawing on the straw, he would stare at Lin Yue as she emerged among the crowds of students.
In summer, the high school girls were dressed in white shirts and blue skirts. Lin Yue stood out among them. Her long hair was tied into a braid. She usually left school with her two classmates, always walking on the inside.
She would nod slightly, speaking little, only cracking a small smile every once in a while when her two friends played around laughing.
And every time she smiled, Gao Shou’s heart would feel like a lake rippled by spring breeze.
He had imagined hitting on Lin Yue and telling her jokes to make her laugh like a blooming flower countless times, but in reality, he remained on the curb, watching as Lin Yue disappeared into the corner with her classmates, a backpack on her shoulder.
Sometimes, she would stay at a food stand by the road or a bookstore with her friends, which was always a pleasant surprise to Gao Shou.
Gao Shou followed the routine for a year.
His colleagues had stopped going after the initial excitement passed. They preferred going to the dance club to dance disco and meet the passionate girls already out of school. Like the celebrities in the magazines, they put on patterned shirts and bell bottoms, styling their hair with wax and doing what adults did—smoking, drinking, hooking up with girls.
Gao Shou was quite good looking. He sometimes went to the club to dance too, and he had attracted his fair share of girls, but Gao Shou wasn’t interested. His heart was already occupied by someone, Snowy, who he had never talked to.
Even when his colleague no longer accompanied him, he went to the small shop every day at the same time, having a can of soda and waiting for Lin Yue to get off school before watching her leave.
“That’s what a pervert would do, Dad! You didn’t stalk Mom, did you?” Gao Yang was increasingly disappointed. Please don’t let this be a story of Dad stalking Mom and he just so happened to save Mom when she got into trouble, thus she paid him back by giving herself to him.
Gao Yang didn’t want to listen to the rest of the story.
“Is that the kind of person your dad is in your mind?” Gao Shou got worked up. “Besides, my attention didn’t seem one-sided, but reciprocated!”
Little Qing Ling was already invested. “Uncle, ignore Gao Yang. Keep going.”
Gao Shou continued with his reminiscence.
Back then, he had continued to go to the shop for a year because his attention seemed reciprocated. He noticed that every time Lin Yue walked out of the school gates, she always threw a glance his way.
At first, Gao Shou thought it was all in his head, but then he came to conclude that Lin Yue had noticed him.
Every day after school, she would tuck her hair behind her hair nonchalantly and look up at Gao Shou. A single glance, no more, no less.
Then she would pretend nothing had happened and disappeared at the street corner with her friends.
Once, Gao Shou arrived ten minutes late because he had things to take care of, and when he made it to the small shop, Lin Yue had long left school.
Gao Shou thought he might get lucky. Perhaps Lin Yue had left school late, too.
Of course, he didn’t end up seeing Lin Yue.
Feeling down, Gao Shou was just about to leave when a sudden downpour trapped him in the shop. He bought a can of soda and waited for the rain to let off.
The old lady running the shop was small and frail, a little sickly. Face covered in wrinkles, she sat on a small wicker stool and drove away the flies hovering on the shelves with a ragged wicker fan.
She and Gao Shou knew each other because he came to the shop every day, but the old lady was usually busy with work, and Gao Shou would only stay for ten minutes before leaving; thus, they rarely talked.
Today, a downpour kept Gao Shou in the shop, and there were no other customers around.
The old lady chuckled and initiated a conversation, “You came every day at the same time, young man, and you always left after having a can of soda. Is the soda that good?”
“The soda you sell is different from those sold by the other shops, Granny. It’s magical. I can’t not drink it for a day without feeling strange and too dispirited to work.”
“Heh, I’m old, not blind.” She laughed. “What’s magical isn’t the soda, but a girl from the school across the street, right?”
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