He Xiyan returned home to Ming City in the afternoon.
She opened the door and changed into a warm pair of furry slippers.
The house was extremely quiet and it was so silent that it seemed a little empty.
Yes, empty was the right adjective to use.
He Xiyan walked into the kitchen and took out a packet of noodles from the kitchen closet. She wasn’t hungry but she knew that she had to eat because if she didn’t get any food in her stomach after the congee she had for breakfast, she knew that she might faint from low blood sugar level.
She boiled the water, poured the noodles into the boiling pot of water, and soon, her bowl of noodle soup was ready. It was a plan bowl of noodles and this was a dish that she ate very often.
She placed the bowl of noodles on the table and noticed that her phone kept flashing with notifications. When she unlocked her phone, she saw that it was a text from Jiahang.
“Yan Yan, are you home? Remember to get something to eat. Don’t go hungry.”
He Xiyan looked at the text message on her phone and pursed her lips tightly. The chopsticks she held in her hand shook slightly.
“I’m home and I’m eating,” she sent a simple reply before putting her phone aside.
The bowl of noodles was still steaming hot but after she ate several mouthfuls, she found that she couldn’t finish it. It seemed bland, unappetizing, and tasted terrible.
She picked up her phone, clicked on his text message, and on his display picture.
Soon, his WeChat moments appeared on her screen and the most recent post was made when she sent Yuan Yuan back to Ye City. The post read, ‘The goods have been loaded and will be transported back to Ming City. I hope that I’m looking forward to my wife’s home cooked food when I get home(#^.^#)’ and was followed by a series of smiley emoticons.
He Xiyan looked at this post filled with childish innocence that he made more than 10 days ago. She naturally knew that this was the last post made by the once foolish and mute Chen Jiahang. Jiahang had not posted anything since this post.
He Xiyan stared at this post for a long while and her upturned lips curved into a wry smile.
She scrolled downward and browsed through his older posts. Jiahang used to post every day out of habit and his posts were always very simple, direct, and childlike. He would post several photos with a caption, such as ‘I’ve loaded the goods. It is packed full of goods and I’m ready to sell all these when I head back to Ming City tomorrow’, or such as ‘My wife said that I’ve lost weight. Have I really? I’m clearly as strong as an ox(#^.^#).’
He Xiyan smiled as she scrolled through these posts but as she read through these posts, tears suddenly filled her eyes and soon, tears streamed down her pale face and landed on her clothes.
She knew that these posts would never appear again and the Jiahang who only had eyes for her was gone forever.
Her phone beeped and when she picked it up, she saw that it was a message from Jiahang. “Yan Yan, I’ll return on 21st March. Call me if you need anything.”
He Xiyan looked at this long text message and she finally replied, “Ok.”
Then, she looked down and her heart clenched painfully as though something was tugging at it.
Would he really return on 21st March? She asked herself but there was no answer.
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