Borrowing Light(6)
The early morning wind carried a damp, earthy scent, and as Shen Rihui walked down the wooden stairs of Margaret's house, wrapped in her scarf, she saw a basket of freshly delivered eggs and a note sitting on the doorstep.
The note was on pink letter paper, folded into a heart shape.
"Ms. Sunflower, good morning!Mom says you're a painter from far away, and I secretly asked Jesse in town to send you some eggs.When I come back from the grocery store this afternoon, let's meet!I'll show you a tree with blue flowers! By the way, you're really pretty!--Zoe]
She looked at the note and smiled, like she had been gently rubbed on that soft spot in her heart.
Zoe was Margaret's daughter, a girl in her early eighteen's, as innocent as a wild daisy.Shen Ri Kwai came to the past few days, although he had not yet seen her in person, but had already heard her name a few times in Margaret's small talk.
In the morning, Shen Rihui went to the café and finished yesterday's drawing, adding some elements of old books and letterheads.Lin Yu looked at the envelope illustrations she had drawn and half-joked, "Are you actually making a menu cover for my cafe?"
"Maybe you could have a painting exhibition."She laughed while saying, "Name it 'The Forest' and exhibit paintings from all the corners of this cafe."
"Then you paint and I'll make the coffee."
This short conversation was like dust in the sunlight by the window, and it didn't fall heavy on the heart, only made the world feel suddenly soft.
When she returned to Margaret's house in the late afternoon, she had barely pushed open the door and taken off her shoes when footsteps came from upstairs.Then a girl with curly hair and a goose-yellow jumper jumped down the stairs.
"Are you Sister Sunflower?!"
The girl's eyes were bright, and a pair of red and white plaid canvas shoes landed on the floor with a thud.
Before Shen Ri Aoi could answer, the girl jumped over and gave her a hug.
"My name is Zoe! Zoe Lancaster!" she smiled like an autumn orange, "You really look like the young lady in the painting, mom said you came to travel alone, so brave!"
"I'm glad to see you too."Shen Rihui smiled and nodded, carrying the eggs from Zoe up to the kitchen in her hand.
"Do you want to know where the most romantic place in town is?"Zoe mysteriously took her hand, her eyes harboring the shiniest secret of her entire adolescence, "In the southwest corner of town, there's a tree that blooms blue flowers, only blue, at this time of year!I've always called it the 'Confession Tree'!"
"Confession tree?"
"Uh-huh!Because when I was little, the first time I liked a boy, I told him under that tree.He was a friend of brother Lin Yu... Do you know brother Lin Yu?He's a cafe owner, super gentle, and when I was little I thought I'd marry him later!"
After she said this, she giggled to herself.
Shen Riqui was stunned, then laughed too, "What happened later?"
"Afterward he dropped me from my bike and cried me the whole afternoon."Zoe blinked, "But I don't like him anymore."
"Like who now?"
"Can't tell you!"Zoe spun around, "But the guy I like, ah, has to be the kind of guy who ... walks into a room and it's like the sun is shining in."
She smiled and finished this sentence, her eyes crystal clear, her cheeks a little red.
Shen Rikui looked at her, and suddenly remembered that when she was eighteen, she thought the same thing.
When she walked out of the door, she was still holding a candy that Zoe had quietly slipped to her - strawberry flavored, the candy paper was folded into a heart shape.
She opened the candy and ate it, and when the sweetness overflowed from her mouth a little bit, it happened that Lin Yu rode by on an old-fashioned bicycle in front of the cafe, wearing a navy blue trench coat, which lined his back in a long and calm manner.
The sun shines down, really like Zoe said, like the sun shines in.
Shen Rihui suddenly smiled, perhaps there is a moment of heartbeat, not to start a relationship, but to remember, the gentle world, someone worthy of you, borrowing light to see.