Bringing the Nation's Husband Home

The desks in the classroom were the same as they were ten years ago. She could remember well the one she used to lie on.

But that had happened ten years ago... Lu Jinnian pointed at a desk that was peeling off, then told her with absolute certainty that it was hers. She didn’t believe him at all, and thought that he was talking nonsense. She pursed her lips and said, ”You’re making it up.”

Lu Jinnian raised his brows, but didn’t argue. Instead, he released her hand and pulled the chair from under the desk. He sat there, half-crouched at the desk, then reached his arm out and rubbed the table for quite some time. All of a sudden, he said, ”En, it’s here.”

”What’s there?” asked Qiao Anhao curiously in return, as she had no idea what he meant by that.

Lu Jinnian didn’t say a word, but guided her hand under the table and against the left side of the drawer.

She felt the bumpy wooden table with the tip of her finger, and turned her head to look over at Lu Jinnian in bewilderment.

He still didn’t utter a word. He just pressed down and slid her fingertips across the table, slowly following the grooves. The feel of English letters against her fingertips registered in her brain, and she looked at Lu Jinnian in realization. Then, in a questioning tone, she said, ”S?”

Lu Jinnian gave a nod, then continued to lead her along another English letter. With each one, Qiao Anhao would spell it out.

”H?”

”M?”

”I?”

”L?”

”Y?”

That was the final letter, and Qiao Anhao tilted her head in deep thought for a moment, then formed a word from those letters. She couldn’t resist but let it slip. ”Shmily?”

”Shmily means ’See,how,much,I,love,you’...” As she said this to herself, she wondered how Lu Jinnian could of carved the letters there. She gazed into his eyes, and as if a light was set free, she asked, ”Did you carve them here?”

”En,’ Lu Jinnian whispered gently as he slowly got up.

Deep down inside, Qiao Anhao did actually know the answer, but she felt more assured after she asked. Now that she heard his answer, her mind made a daring assumption. ”After you were transferred from Class One to Class Three, you deliberately chose to sit at the desk I laid on?”

Lu Jinnian gently pushed the chair back to it’s original spot, then let his eyes fall on her face.

Just then she thought that he would say she was over-thinking things, but she heard him slowly say, ”Not just the desk, but also the same chair you sat on. However, I believe it’s been scrapped by now. I was looking around but couldn’t find it.”

As he said this, Lu Jinnian searched the classroom again, before finally allowing his eyes to fall on the fifth seat by the window. He raised his finger and pointed. ”Back then, you sat there, right?”

This, Qiao Anhao remembered well. She did in fact sit on the fifth row against the window. Well, actually she sat against the wall at first and Qiao Anxia sat against the window. She had then used two months worth of allowance and a lot of pleading before she agreed to swap seats.

Translator’s Thoughts

Paperplane Paperplane

Shout out to Jinjin and Aln!