Finding Shelter in You

The new neighbor is quiet, well-mannered, and strikingly beautiful. She cooks well, often knocks on the door with food and drinks. She’s even willing to join in on bedtime relaxation exercises. After one such session, the neighbor asks, “Do you need a girlfriend?” Sheng Qi shakes her head. The neighbor calmly puts on her clothes, leaves her home, and returns in the evening to cook her favorite dishes as usual. Sheng Qi thinks, *This neighbor would actually be perfect for a relationship.* *If only she hadn’t kicked me away once before.* Back in their teenage years, this woman was already her neighbor—the school’s undisputed top student. Brilliant, beautiful, aloof, and indifferent. The only thing she couldn’t stand was Sheng Qi’s aimless, idle life and her pack of troublemaking friends, stubbornly trying to set her on the right path. Later, the girl who once kissed her as a reward for studying coldly said, “Your life is yours to waste. Fly away like a bird or rot like a flower in the mud—I don’t care. Just don’t let me see it, don’t let me know how stupid I was to ever believe you could change.” Sheng Qi became that bird, traversing mountains and rivers, gone for years. Her neighbor never mentions the past and never minds her hot-and-cold attitude. Calm at last, Sheng Qi decides to end the absurdity. “Why are you being foolish again?” “*I* was the true fool back then.”