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Final Chapter — The Love of a Lifetime (2)

This story was translated with the express permission of the author for hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com. All forms of reproduction, redistribution, or reposting are not authorized. If you are not reading this from hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com, the copy is unauthorized and has been taken without consent of the translator.

Jì Nuannuan’s wedding took place as scheduled, on the day of the opening ceremony of the Olympics.

The reception was very lively. Jì Chengyang was basically fully recovered, and under Nuannuan’s insistence, he served as the presiding witness of her wedding. As Jǐ Yi sat amongst the guests, who were bustling with noise and excitement, she rememembered the final phone call Nuannuan had made to Xiao Jun before leaving her home this morning, telling him that she was getting married today. The content of her words had been very simple. And it appeared Xiao Jun’s answer had been even simpler, merely telling her, she needed to live a good and happy life.

The entire phone call had seemed like a simple farewell ceremony, that hereafter, the tall mountains and long, flowing streams would be between them and they would see each other no more.

Only she knew about this little interlude.

<>Copyright of Fanatical, hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com. Translated with the express permission of the author for hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com only

At some time past three in the afternoon, the wedding came to an end. Jì Chengyang took her and left from there, not saying where they were going. However, it was apparent the car was driving in the direction of the military compound.

All along the way, an Olympic atmosphere pervaded everywhere. Everybody was eagerly anticipating what the opening ceremony that had been publicized for so long would be like.

Their vehicle drove in through the main gates. The soldiers on either side gave a salute and let them pass.

“Where are we going?” She had originally wanted to wait for the surprise and had not asked, but nevertheless she was unable to contain her curiosity.

“The cinema.”

“Cinema?”

Jì Chengyang refrained from answering.

Making a right turn off the main road, he stopped the car on the open space in front of the cinema, then led her up the white stone steps. In that vast, spacious cinema hall, apart from the two people responsible for the movie projection, there were no extraneous people.

Since the moment she stepped inside here, Jǐ Yi felt as if everything had become especially unreal.

It was as if she had been dragged into a time vortex.

She could remember how those military cadets had filed in one by one, and then after the showing came to a close, they had maintained that same order as they left. This place was unlike the cinemas outside of the compound, where promotional posters would be tacked up on either side and there would be a thick, commercial type of atmosphere. Here, the main tone was simple and clean. Once you stepped past the glass doors of the front entrance, there was the main entrance hall with its marble floors, and after you passed through that and pushed open those two deep-red, wooden doors, there was the theatre hall that seated a thousand people.

The projectionists appeared to be waiting for them. Once they saw Jì Chengyang coming in, they greeted him and then quickly slipped into the projection booth.

And she and Jì Chengyang pushed open the doors and stepped into that pitch-dark theatre hall.

<>This is a copy, taken from hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com. Please support the translation of this story by reading it on that site instead. It would be sincerely appreciated by the translator.

The movie had already been playing for a while. It was A Chinese Odyssey Part Two: Cinderella.

Many years ago, the movie he had watched with her was Part One: Pandora’s Box.

On that large screen, Stephen Chow shoved away Zixia Fairy, who had been about to place a kiss on him, and the latter was staring at him with an incredulous look on her face… Amidst the dialogue of the movie’s main leads, Jǐ Yi turned around and assessed their surroundings. After discovering that there truly was no other person here, she reached her arms over and slipped them around Jì Chengyang’s waist. Nuzzling her cheek against his clothes, she quietly said, “You specially brought me here to watch A Chinese Odyssey?”

In the darkness, Jì Chengyang’s lips gave a slight upward turn. He very much liked the response this arrangement had brought.

“There’s not much to do before the opening ceremony anyway, so I brought you here to finish watching it.”

Jǐ Yi’s heart was fluttery, and she felt an indescribable happiness.

This was his first time being so romantic, tracing back with her this memory from when she was little. It was being romantic, Jì Chengyang style.

As she thought of this while listening to the sounds coming from the movie, a smile stretched across her face.

“Back then, I was this tall, right,” she asked softly, using her hand to measure off her height when she was eleven years old, “Little Uncle Jì?”

That truly was a form of address that had not been heard for a long time.

Jì Chengyang smiled. “I’ve forgotten what year it was the last time you called me that.”

What year?

A long time ago, wasn’t it?

Her feelings for him had developed simply too long ago.

Tucking herself against the front of him, she saw that the red, wooden door behind him was open by a crack. Sunshine fell through it and landed on the floor of the cinema. It was a very thin shaft of light, approximately only a centimeter wide, neither dazzling nor bright on the eyes. It merely silently tinged either side of that crack with a light, golden colour and divided the blackness of the floor.

“Little Uncle Jì?” She once more called him in a light voice.

“Hmm?” He was happy to oblige her.

“Do you know what this movie’s theme song is called?”

“No.” Jì Chengyang’s answer came quickly and honestly. “What is it?”

“ ‘The Love of a Lifetime,’ ” she told him.

<>Copyright of Fanatical, hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com. Translated with the express permission of the author for hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com only

The first time she watched A Chinese Odyssey was the time he had given her a theater completely “reserved” only for them. At the time, she had been too young an age and had not understood the love and regrets shown in the story, nor had she been able to understand that Cantonese theme song. Later, the second part of that series was released. What she remembered were Zixia Fairy’s words: “The one I love is a peerless hero. One day, he will come riding a colourful cloud to marry me. I was able to guess the beginning, but did not guess this ending.”

And to her, Jì Chengyang’s existence in her life was this same type of ideal.

From the day she developed feelings for him, she had not dared to speculate about the future between the two of them.

But, he had given her an ending.

And it was the ending she most wanted.

This story was translated with the express permission of the author for hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com. All forms of reproduction, redistribution, or reposting are not authorized. If you are not reading this from hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com, the copy is unauthorized and has been taken without consent of the translator.

Additional Comments:

“Sunshine fell through it and landed on the floor of the cinema. It was a very thin shaft of light, approximately only a centimeter wide, neither dazzling nor bright on the eyes. It merely silently tinged either side of that crack with a light, golden colour and divided the blackness of the floor.”

There is a saying that I have always held tight to: “Darkness cannot exist in the presence of light.” The literal translation of the Chinese name of this novel is “One Centimetre of Sunshine.” To me, the main theme of this novel is not who is whose healing sunshine, be it Xixi or Jì Chengyang. To me, it is this, that even the slightest bit of sunshine in your life can cut through all the darkness, that if you turn your eyes onto the good in your life, regardless of how small the good may seem, then even if the odds are stacked against you, even if the world is against you, you will not lose hope and be enveloped by all the bad. And by doing so, you are allowing the sunshine to heal you of the hurts in your life.

This quote is in one of the insert pages of the published novel, and I will place it here:

“Keep your face to the sunshine and you will never see the shadows.”  —Helen Keller

Cheers.

—H

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