Bringing the Nation's Husband Home

Lu Jinnian held Qiao Anhao’s hand as they walked out of the Qinghua Building and went round to the back. Right in the center of the school, there was a pretty garden and a man-made lake. When they passed it, Qiao Anhao suddenly pointed at a stone bench on the side and said, ”I saw a girl give you a love letter over there once.”

”Did you?” asked Lu Jinnian in response. As he held her hand, they walked on for quite some distance before he pointed at the tree beside the rock garden opposite the lake, then said, ”What a coincidence, I saw a guy give you a box of chocolates over there.”

”You did?” With a strange look on her face, Qiao Anhao stared at the spot he had pointed to for a while. She vaguely remembered that something like that had happened, then she said, ”But I never ate the chocolates, I gave them to Anxia.”

”Same, I threw the love letter straight in the bin without even taking a look.”

Qiao Anhao couldn’t help but shoot him a smile as they continued to walk slowly down the road. Some time later, she said, ”I used to often walk down this path because I’d bump into you every time.”

This path took them through the block of classrooms to the library. Back then, Lu Jinnian was a complete bookworm.

Qiao Anhao flashed a smile. ”Back then, every time I said ’Hi’ to you, you were either coming out of the library or about to go into it.”

Actually, he never really wanted to go to the library, it was just that he often saw her take this path, so he liked to take it too. The library was but an excuse for him to be there.

Thinking back to things that had happened in their youth... even though they were young and inexperienced, the memories were beautiful. Lu Jinnian couldn’t resist but let out a chuckle. ”What a coincidence, the only reason I liked to walk this way was because I could bump into you.”

The two of them walked hand-in-hand around the entire school. When they reached some spots, they remembered brief moments of how they had secretly longed for one another.

She cried so many tears over him in the little forest behind the school.

He fought a boy in an isolated area behind the block of classrooms because that boy had said horrible things about her.

Just to be able to act as though they had coincidentally bumped into one another, he bought lollipops that he would never eat from the supermarket by the canteen, and she bought Mai Dongs that she didn’t like to drink.

There were some things that had happened long ago that they had thought long forgotten.

But as they reminisced about the good times, they realized that since their youthful days till today, they remembered every little detail about each other as clear as day.

-

Having walked around each and every corner of the school, Qiao Anhao and Lu Jinnian finally went to the library.

It was Qiao Anhao’s suggestion. During her school days, she always fantasized that the two of them would be like other female classmates in love, reading books in the library, shoulder to shoulder.

Because it was the weekend, there were very few people inside. Besides the staff on duty, there were only two or three students in uniform, sitting by the window as they concentrated on reading.

As the two walked through the rows of bookshelves, Lu Jinnian casually picked up a chemistry textbook, and Qiao Anhao picked up a teen novel. They then found an empty spot and sat down.

The two of them sat side by side, obediently following the library rules. Neither of them spoke as they quietly flipped through the books in their hands.