Prajna Temple

The next second, Ye Mian gently set her phone down.

She typed another line into Jiang Chen’s chat interface:
[Are you with my cousin because you aren't replying to me?]

She stared at it for a long time, but eventually chose to delete it.

Curled up on the sofa, she tilted her head to look at the flowers Jiang Chen had given her, now pressed into frames and hanging in every corner of the room. A sudden ache pricked at her nose, and her eyes began to glaze over with moisture.

So...
Was Jiang Chen failing to reply because he had run into Ye Qingqing?
Ye Qingqing had met Jiang Chen before, outside a bar in Jiangcheng.

So...
Was this social media post something Ye Qingqing had done on purpose?

She didn't want to think that way. She had to force herself to act as if she hadn't seen it, telling herself to just wait a little longer.

The rain fell through the night without pause, and Ye Mian waited for him through the night as well.

The next day, Jiang Chen still had not replied.

Ye Qingqing updated her feed again.

The first photo was a partial view of Jiang Chen’s face as he lay in bed—his refined profile, the high, elegant bridge of his nose; even with his eyes closed, he looked handsome. There was a faint scar on his brow bone, almost invisible, but Ye Qingqing’s phone camera had caught it with startling clarity.

The second photo was a screenshot from an album. Ye Qingqing was wearing a pink, form-fitting dress, standing under a redwood tree with a smile on her face. Jiang Chen was standing right next to her; both were shown in profile, but they were standing incredibly close. The timestamp on the screenshot showed it was from shortly after Jiang Chen had first arrived in America.

The caption was earnest:
[Ye Qingqing: It turns out you really can love someone for a very, very long time. My youth has no regrets; the way you look at me always holds every secret meaning.]

Looking at the girlish sentiment behind the words, every sentence carried a naive sweetness. It also revealed that the two of them had shared a history.

Ye Mian’s eyes turned red, over and over again.

In this era of advanced communication, who could go a whole day and night without looking at their phone?

Ye Mian thought about how she had overcome layer after layer of obstacles to reach his side, hoping with all her heart that his life would be smooth and prosperous forever.

But it seemed as though he was playing with her.

No explanation, no reply.
Just leaving her hanging.

The wind and rain were shut out by the glass windows. On this overcast day, she suddenly felt a slight dampness on her arm. The rain had drifted in through a gap in the glass.

...

The next day, Jiang Yuan saw the post as well. She immediately called Ye Mian to ask if she had seen it.

Ye Mian huddled in the sofa, her voice hoarse: "Yes, I saw it."

"Your voice..." Jiang Yuan immediately sensed something was wrong, frowning as she asked, "Mianmian, what’s wrong? Were you crying? What happened?"

Silence followed for a few seconds.
Ye Mian couldn't hold it in anymore.

Tears fell in heavy drops, and she struggled to keep the tremor out of her voice: "I think... for no apparent reason... I’ve been dumped."

Only now did she realize that liking someone could be such a painful thing.

Ye Mian suddenly remembered the words the man had said on that rainy night: "Ye Mian, I will save you."

She had once believed those words with a fiery intensity, and she had truly seen the effort the man had put in. So, even though people said long-distance relationships were a form of torture and most ended in heartbreak, she had still believed that even if they were separated by mountains and seas, they could be overcome.

Only then did she realize that what everyone said was actually true.
Some wonderful people...
Are also capable of breaking one's heart.

The phone line was very quiet.
It was so quiet that no sound could cover up Ye Mian’s weeping. Even though she was at home, she felt even more wretched than she had out in the rain that day.

She wanted to stop the crying, wanted to pretend nothing had happened. She pressed tissues to her eyes, washed her face repeatedly, but nothing worked. The tears continued to flow.

She realized then that she liked Jiang Chen even more than she had imagined.

Hearing her choked sobs, Jiang Yuan didn't ask how or when they had started dating; she had no desire to pry. She said softly, "Mianmian, I’m coming to Wencheng to see you right now. Don't cry, okay?"

Ye Mian grabbed a tissue, eyes downcast, and said, "Don't come. You still have classes."

Jiang Yuan didn't listen, muttering about how she was going to buy a ticket immediately.

Ye Mian had to force herself to adjust her mood, laughing as she said, "I’m really fine. Who doesn't cry when they get their heart broken? I'm not that upset, really."

Jiang Yuan was suspicious: "Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"I don't believe you."
"..."
"Really." Ye Mian’s smile was uglier than her tears, but her voice became lighter, "See? I’m not crying anymore, am I?"

In the end, Jiang Yuan was persuaded by Ye Mian.

After hanging up, Ye Mian didn't cry again. Having stayed up all night, her eyes and head throbbed with pain. She pulled a wool blanket from her room, covered herself from feet to head, and finally drifted into a deep sleep.

Her emotions had been in turmoil, but she didn't dream. It was as if the memories of her past life had stopped repeating themselves, and she had finally found some peace.

—

Winter that year arrived quickly. After the heavy rains of October, the sky remained clear for days on end.

On the last day of November, it suddenly snowed. The world was covered in silver, and it was a truly cold winter.

Ye Mian went to school as usual, as if she had completely cast the previous events to the back of her mind. She attended classes, went to the studio, earned money, and took driving lessons. Then she returned home and went to bed early. Everything was no different from before.

However, in her sanctuary, the flowers Jiang Chen had sent, the perfume he had given her, and the white scarf he had gifted her were locked away in the drawer she opened the least.

On the morning of her birthday, she opened the drawer by her desk and found the watch Jiang Chen had given her still lying there peacefully. She had forgotten to put it away.

She stood up, opened the drawer, and tucked the watch inside. She stared at the things inside for a long time.

As if a mechanism had been triggered, the tears began to fall again, drop by drop, into the drawer. In her mind, those photos flashed repeatedly. Worst of all, they were accompanied by memories of the times Jiang Chen had been good to her.

She knelt on the floor, stubbornly wiping away her tears, her entire body trembling. She looked at the snow piling up on the tree branches outside the window, as if the world had turned white in an instant.

She found it absurd.
How could someone whose heart had been shattered into pieces still feel that the person who hurt them was wonderful?
She couldn't even bring herself to hate him.

Although she had kept refusing to let Jiang Yuan come, on December 1st, her birthday, Jiang Yuan took seven days off and arrived anyway. Qin Feifei had also long since agreed to celebrate Ye Mian's birthday with her.

That evening, Qin Feifei invited their roommates and a few friends they were close with. They gathered for a meal and had some drinks. Everyone was open-hearted and easy to get along with. Knowing it was Jiang Yuan’s first time in Wencheng, they all offered to show her around.

Someone suggested that in a few days, they could go to a temple in Wencheng—the Prajna Temple.

It was said that the Prajna Temple was very famous, that the deities enshrined there were incredibly responsive to prayers, and that the incense had been burning there for hundreds of years without interruption. The surrounding scenery was also beautiful. Many people traveled from thousands of miles away just to pay their respects at the Prajna Temple.