Donna said it in plain tune, and I was thrilled to hear it, reminding me of the ending of Lao Wei's love. I then suggested, "Then let's play a Q&A game. How about one asking a question and the other answering it?"
She agreed, provided the answer had to be truthful and sincere. I added another one: the question shouldn't be restricted.
Donna asked me first, "Who was that girl, the one holding you on the bridge?"
"She's a high school classmate. It was not a hug, just a fear of falling into the water."
"Was that simple?"
"Yes. She has gone to the army." My mind flashed with the question, why was there no letter from her?
It was my turn to ask her, "How about you? Tell me about Siyan."
She didn't expect me to ask this and hesitantly said, "It's hard to say."
"I'm waiting for an honest answer," I reminded her.
"After my father passed away, it was tough for my family. I really didn't have any pants to wear. Siyan provided a lot of help. I treated him as an uncle, that's all."
I wanted to ask further: "Then where did the sketch go? How did I hear that you kissed Siyan?" But I didn't say anything. It was too bitter to mention.
"I believe you. For the time being, toast to Uncle Siyan!" I touched Donna's bowl and said, "Just ask me another one."
"Do you have a secret?" she asked.
Taking advantage of the liquor's influence, I said, "Of course I do, but you are not allowed to be mad."
"Come on, please!" She blinked her big and curious eyes, like those students in my class.
I said, "I used to peep into your kitchen when I was a kid and joke about your family not wearing pants at night. I know it hurt you. I'm very sorry." Speaking of the scene, I asked, "by the way, Donna, can I ask one thing about you? I know you burned your dad when you were a kid. Why?"
"That's because I didn't want my parents to be like that. I knew your little eyes were outside the bamboo wall. I deliberately touched my father with a hot water kettle. Actually, my mother grew up in a tribe, and it's natural to be naked. It's just that your little eyes were too horrific."
She didn't care too much about my evil deeds when I was a child but said with a smile, "Xiaofeng, you don't have to be too proud. You were not the only one who peeped into walls. Remember that time you came home for the first summer vacation of junior high school from the county town? Five or six of our girls went to your house with excitement and wanted to see if you had changed. We couldn't find you, so we peeped into your kitchen wall and saw you were taking a shower!"
I deliberately said, "I was then also underage. I don't mind." I paused, ready to give Donna a nuke, the story about the waterfall. I continued, "I'll tell you another secret and see if you can still laugh."
However, my tongue stopped there; instead, I mentioned the rescue of the female worker's dormitory. I described: "When I found you, I didn't know you were still alive. I put my ear to your chest and listened, and suddenly a thunder startled me. I fell on top of you. I'm so sorry."
"It was a little suspicious, but you saved me. What can I do to you?" She was still not mad and said, "Then let me tell you something else."
"You wouldn't be through the wall again when I was in high school?"
"No, it's more interesting than that. Let me tell you, when you were in my uncle's house, it was my uncle, Ploy, and me who changed all your clothes, inside and out!"
"Really?" I didn't expect that. In front of this girl, then I no longer had any secrets, and I was a bit like the clown in the emperor's new clothes.
Seeing my cramped look, Donna smiled very happily, drank a full mouth from the bowl herself, and said, "We had given you enough respect. My hands covered my eyes, leaving only a little bit of finger slits."
I asked her to promise not to let the people on the farm, especially my mother, know about it, and she agreed. She hooked a finger with me as an assurance.
Then, she asked me to accompany her out to watch the stars. The bonfire on the field had been extinguished, and there was occasional soft laughter behind the scattered haystacks nearby and in the woods.
We sat against the straw piles and quietly looked at the starry sky. The twinkling stars were so low as if just above the treetops. Shooting stars streaked across the night sky from time to time, leaving a fleeting brilliant light. I said that every shooting star heralded a story, and Donna asked me to tell her one.
"Okay, I'll tell you a love story," I promised.
"It was on a remote island, where a seventeen-year-old girl lived with her stepmother. The girl was as beautiful as a flower and sang like a nightingale. The stepmother asked a matchmaker to find a match for the girl, to marry her off as soon as possible so that she could monopolize the family business. Countless young men came to a blind date, but the girl ignored it. Why? Because the girl found a bottle while walking alone on the beach, there was a small note inside,. On it was written: I am destined to be your true love. If you want to meet me, you must make a wish to the sky at midnight on July 7th, when you see a shooting star, only your sincerity can be sent to me by wind news, guide me to meet you. At that time every year, the girl sat on the beach and expressed her wishes to the meteors streaking across the night sky, and then waited for her true love to appear together with the rising sun. One year had passed, and two years had passed. Seeing that she could not seize the family property anytime soon, her stepmother planned to murder the girl. At midnight on July 7th in the third year, when the girl was sitting alone by the sea, she was pushed into the rough sea by gangsters. But the girl did not die. People saw her being rescued by a large sailboat when the sun rose. She finally reunited with her lover. He was a young and handsome captain with a fiery heart that loved her. People often heard the girl's happy and beautiful singing echoing on the sea over the years. "
Donna sighed softly and said, "It's very touching. What would the result be if the girl had to wait five years or eight years?"