Marriage at Thirty - Chapter 46

After breakfast, Lin Ran said she wanted to visit Lian Fang’s house, and Fu Linling went along with her.

Lian Fang’s house was in a different direction. Fu Linling parked the car downstairs.

As soon as they got out of the car, they heard someone shouting from upstairs: “Lin Ran! Fu Linling! Over here!”

Lian Fang was leaning out the window, waving at them.

Lin Ran quickly ran into the building entrance, familiar with the route. When she reached the fourth floor, Lian Fang was standing at the door to greet them.

“It’s a miracle! You’re actually up this early.”

“I’ve been making sure to go to bed and wake up early these past few days,” Lin Ran said proudly, stepping into the doorway with Lian Fang. She then suddenly turned and reached out to Fu Linling.

Only after Fu Linling took her hand did Lin Ran smile at Lian Fang. “It’s so weird. I came to your house so many times before, and I was always alone. This time, I actually brought my partner.”

“And it’s our old classmate, too,” Lian Fang laughed, leading them inside.

As soon as Lian Fang’s mother saw Lin Ran, she smiled and said, “Well, if it isn’t Lin Ran. You haven’t changed a bit! Still so young.”

“You too, Auntie.”

“Mom, this is Lin Ran’s wife, Fu Linling. She’s the daughter of the Chinese medicine shop owner—the top student who always ranked first in our class,” Lian Fang said, pointing to Fu Linling.

Lian Fang’s mother clapped her thigh. “Oh, it’s that Fu family girl! I know her! The teacher always praised her for ages at parent-teacher conferences! I can’t believe you two ended up together. What a coincidence! Were you dating back in school?”

“No,” Lin Ran said with a laugh, sitting down next to Fu Linling. “We only ran into each other a while ago. We were out of touch for a long time.”

Lian Fang’s husband had taken the child out to play. After they sat for a bit, Lian Fang’s mother also left to buy groceries, leaving the three of them to hang out at home.

“I was tidying up my room a few days ago, and I even found a book you left at my house,” Lian Fang said.

“What book? Let me see!”

The three crowded into Lian Fang’s room and watched her bring out a pile of old books. Among a stack of romance novels were a few comic books and magazines, but one book went unclaimed.

“Is this yours?” Lian Fang asked, holding up One Hundred Years of Solitude.

“Do you think I look like the type of person who reads this kind of book?” Lin Ran countered.

“Then whose is it? Why is it here?” Lian Fang wondered.

Fu Linling took the book and flipped through it. There were some annotations inside, and the handwriting was very beautiful. After a moment of thought, she suddenly said, “This might belong to the homeroom teacher.”

The two looked at her in confusion. Lian Fang asked, “Are you sure?”

Lin Ran: “How would the teacher’s book end up at her house?”

“I went to the teacher to borrow some extracurricular reading, and he gave me this one. He said if I finished reading it, he would grant me one request, but I lost the book,” Fu Linling said.

Lian Fang quickly waved her hands, distancing herself. “I didn’t steal your book!”

“I know. I must have accidentally lost it, and you picked it up.” Fu Linling couldn’t recall the specific details of losing the book.

“Then you should take this book back. We wouldn’t be caught dead reading something this profound,” Lian Fang handed the book back to her.

Fu Linling touched the cover and said, “I want to return the book to the teacher.”

“Then let’s go! I’ll go with you. It’s been so many years since I’ve seen the teacher, I’m looking forward to it. I wonder how he’s doing now,” Lin Ran chimed in.

Lian Fang: “I’m going too!”

Fu Linling had visited the homeroom teacher before, so she knew his address. They drove to the entrance of his residential area. Lin Ran and Lian Fang went to the supermarket to buy gifts. Fu Linling wandered for a bit and bought a fountain pen.

A little girl about ten years old opened the door, staring blankly at them. “Who are you looking for?”

“We’re looking for Teacher Chen. Is your father home?” Fu Linling asked.

The little girl turned and shouted, “Dad! Someone’s looking for you!”

“Who is it?” Teacher Chen walked out. His skin was a bit darker, and his hair was a bit whiter, but his spirit was good.

The teacher first recognized only Fu Linling. “Fu Linling! Why didn’t you let me know you were coming? Come in and sit down quickly.”

“Teacher, do you still remember me?” Lin Ran immediately leaned in to make her presence known.

The homeroom teacher stared at her for a moment before remembering. “You must be Lin Ran?”

“Yes!”

Lian Fang also leaned in. “Teacher, what about me? What about me?”

“You’re Lian Fang. I taught you for three years, after all. I still remember you.”

The three laughed and sat down on the sofa. Teacher Chen sat on a single armchair, looking at them, sighing at the passage of time, and then asked about their current situations.

Learning that they were all developing their careers in Jincheng, the teacher nodded continuously, pointing at Lin Ran and saying, “I knew a girl like you would draw people to Jincheng. Quite a few people from our class went there.”

“Really? Teacher, you still remember I’m from Jincheng?” Lin Ran was delighted.

“How could I forget? You came from a big city and were always telling your classmates how great Jincheng was. When it came time to apply for universities, half the class applied to Jincheng. See, these two went to Jincheng, too.”

Lin Ran laughed, turning to ask Lian Fang, “Who else is developing their career in Jincheng? We should all get together sometime.”

“Not many left. Some didn’t get in, and some moved elsewhere after working in Jincheng for a few years,” Lian Fang said.

“Fu Linling is the most stable one from Class Six. She settled down in Jincheng. You can go visit her,” the homeroom teacher said. Just as he finished, he saw Lian Fang and Lin Ran burst into laughter and couldn’t help but wonder, “What’s wrong? What are you laughing at?”

“Teacher, do you know Fu Linling got married?” Lian Fang asked.

“Oh? Why didn’t you tell your teacher you got married? When did you get married?” the teacher looked at Fu Linling.

“We got married on May 1st. It was a rush, and I hadn’t had a chance to inform you,” Fu Linling said apologetically.

“That was almost half a year ago! Why didn’t you bring your partner back to meet me? Where is the person from?”

“Reporting, Teacher! She’s from Jincheng! And she has already brought her partner for you to see!” Lin Ran immediately sat up straight, looking at him with bright eyes.

The teacher looked at them, utterly confused, and remained stunned for a full minute. “What do you mean?”

“Teacher, she and she—” Lian Fang pointed to Lin Ran, then to Fu Linling, pressing her two fingers together. “They got married!”

Teacher Chen was petrified for another minute.

“You’re not joking with me, are you?”

“Why would we lie to you, Teacher? Look at this.” Lin Ran showed him the ring on her hand, then grabbed Fu Linling’s hand to show him hers.

Since she wasn’t working these past few days, Fu Linling was also wearing her ring.

The homeroom teacher finally managed to process the news with difficulty. “This, this is really… really…”

The teacher was incoherent. Seeing his astonished reaction, the three of them burst into laughter spontaneously.

After a while, the teacher heard that they had reconnected at a matchmaking event and quickly got married, which left him speechless. “I never thought you two would end up together. That’s truly unexpected.”

“I know, right? When I first heard about it, I also thought it was a marvelous coincidence,” Lian Fang agreed, recounting her surprise from back then.

“Oh, I still have some old photos of you all here,” Teacher Chen went to his study to look for old photos.

The teacher used to own a camera and loved taking photos in his spare time, compiling them into a thick stack of albums.

Each album was labeled with the class year and number. Lin Ran’s sharp eyes spotted Class Six’s album among the stack.

There were photos of them doing morning exercises, goofing off after class, and some candid shots.

Lian Fang discovered a photo of herself secretly reading a romance novel during class and exclaimed, “Oh my god, no wonder you knew where I hid my novels, Teacher!”

The teacher laughed heartily.

The beginning contained photos from their first and second years of high school. In the latter half, Lin Ran’s photos became more frequent: standing in the hallway as punishment, running on the track field, looking in the mirror during class, chasing and playing with classmates, and focusing on drawing…

The memories held within the old photos felt like a lifetime ago.

Lin Ran looked at her eighteen-year-old self—vibrant and lively—and felt a wave of nostalgia.

“Teacher, can I take these photos to have new copies printed?”

“Of course, you can.”

“I want some too! Print a set for me!” Lian Fang quickly added.

Lin Ran flipped through some more photos and wondered, “Why are there so few photos of Fu Linling?”

The teacher said, “She didn’t like having her picture taken. Unlike you—as soon as you noticed my camera, you would immediately smile and strike a pose.”

Fu Linling loved looking at Lin Ran’s photos. Those distant memories rushed back into her mind, gradually becoming clearer. It was at this moment that she realized Lin Ran accounted for a significant portion of her adolescent memories.

Time fades, but memories seem to grow younger.

“Ah, here’s a photo of the two of you together!” Lian Fang suddenly exclaimed, pointing to a picture.

In the photo, Lin Ran was sleeping on her desk. Several people were chatting and laughing behind her, and in the background, a plump figure was looking in that direction, though it was unclear if she was looking at Lin Ran or somewhere else.

“Fu Linling, you weren’t secretly crushing on Lin Ran back then, were you?” Lian Fang teased.

Lin Ran smiled and glanced at her.

The teacher said, “Fortunately, the two of them didn’t date back then, or it would have been difficult for me.”

The group laughed.

Before they knew it, it was almost noon. The teacher wanted them to stay for lunch.

They immediately declined, saying Lian Fang’s mother had already prepared lunch at home. They took the teacher’s photo album and left, promising to return it once the copies were printed.

After getting into the car, Fu Linling suddenly realized the book was still in the car. She asked them to wait and took the book to return it.

“Did you forget something?” the teacher asked, seeing her return.

“Teacher, this book is yours. I always thought I had lost it, but I found it now. I’m returning it to its owner,” Fu Linling handed the book to him.

The teacher took the book, flipped through it, and recognized it as his own upon seeing his annotations. He laughed. “It’s just a book. There was no need to drive all the way back to bring it.”

“I borrowed it, after all. I felt guilty that you wouldn’t even let me compensate you for it before,” Fu Linling said.

The teacher stared at the book, contemplating for a moment. Suddenly, as if remembering something, he said, “Oh, that’s because I thought you took it to give to Lin Ran to read, so I didn’t ask you to compensate me.”

Fu Linling was confused. “Give it to Lin Ran to read?”

“Yes. I asked you to help me grade some papers, and you placed the book on my desk. I went to the restroom and came back to see Lin Ran coming out of my office holding a few comic books, and this One Hundred Years of Solitude was at the bottom. I figured you lent it to her to read, and there was no harm in that,” the teacher said.

Hearing this, a vague memory surfaced in Fu Linling’s mind.

She was grading papers at the time. Lin Ran came in to ask the teacher for her confiscated comics. She stacked the comics on the desk while watching Fu Linling grade. Then, Lin Ran pulled out her own paper and asked Fu Linling to grade it first to see her score. In the process, she accidentally stacked One Hundred Years of Solitude along with her own things and walked away with it.

Fu Linling, who appeared to be focused on grading, was actually incredibly nervous and didn’t notice this at all, thus forgetting where she lost the book.

“So that’s what happened,” Fu Linling smiled.

As she was leaving again, the homeroom teacher suddenly called out to her. “Wait a minute, Fu Linling. Were you and Lin Ran really not dating back then?”

“No, we weren’t.”

“Huh? Did I remember incorrectly?” The homeroom teacher scratched his head, recalling. “I remember promising to grant you one request after you finished reading that book. Do you remember?”

“I do.”

“Your request was to be Lin Ran’s deskmate, right?”

“That’s right.”

That time, Lin Ran and Lian Fang had quarreled over a minor issue and were asking to switch deskmates. Fu Linling, who felt bored sitting alone for too long, asked the teacher for that condition.

Who knew the two of them would make up the next day, and she would also lose the book.

“And you two weren’t dating then?!”

“No, Teacher, we weren’t.”

Fu Linling smiled and sighed. She wished they had been.