Modern Real-Life Love Story
In the urban-rural fringe of this big city, there lives a large group of “ant tribes.” Every morning at six-thirty, they frantically rush to catch the early bus, enduring a bumpy forty-minute ride before groggily arriving downtown for work.
Jiang Hui repeated this monotonous life every day until she began to notice a dark-skinned man holding a teddy bear. This was a young man with a dark complexion who boarded the early bus every morning. Whether or not he had a seat, his right hand always held a teddy bear, never letting go.
At first, Jiang Hui thought she had encountered a pervert, but she noticed the tender look in his eyes and his calm demeanor when he gazed at the teddy bear, as if he was deeply immersed in a dream. This mysterious man intrigued Jiang Hui. One morning, as Jiang Hui hurriedly boarded the bus, the dark-skinned man was already standing by the door, still holding the teddy bear in his right hand.
Jiang Hui glanced at the crowded bus and slowly moved to stand next to him. As the bus drove on, it came to a sudden stop at the next station, causing Jiang Hui to stumble and bump into the man’s right hand. The man couldn’t help but cry out, and the teddy bear fell to the floor of the bus. Jiang Hui quickly picked it up, curious about what was so special about the teddy bear.
But as soon as she held it, she was stunned: the teddy bear was filled not with cotton but with something like sand, making it feel heavy. Jiang Hui was baffled: this man was truly strange! The man smiled as he took the teddy bear from Jiang Hui’s hand, nodded in thanks, and his face returned to its usual sternness.
That evening, due to working overtime, Jiang Hui hurried to catch the last bus and coincidentally found the man with the teddy bear on the same bus. His right hand still held the teddy bear. After getting off the bus, Jiang Hui was surprised to see the man walking straight toward the “ant tribe” area where she lived. Jiang Hui thought to herself that although she left early and returned late, and rarely went out, she had never noticed that he lived there too.
Feeling a bit uneasy, she remembered a recent large-scale theft in the area. Although Jiang Hui didn’t lose much, she no longer felt safe. Could this strange man be the thief? Jiang Hui didn’t dare think further and just hoped to get home quickly. As she was pondering, the man stopped at the entrance of the community, turned around, and smiled at her. Jiang Hui felt a chill down her spine and was about to walk quickly past when the man smiled and spoke, “I know you, you stare at me on the bus every day, making me feel embarrassed.” Jiang Hui blushed.
The man continued to smile and said, “You’re curious about my teddy bear, right? You already know it’s filled with sand; let me tell you why!” The man said he used to be a construction worker and met his love in this city. They got married, but unfortunately, he fell from scaffolding at the construction site, breaking his right arm. Now, any exertion caused him pain. He couldn’t do heavy manual labor anymore, so he had his pregnant wife return to their hometown to rest, while he stayed in the city with a sales job. To save on rent, he moved to the “ant tribe” area.
Sales required a lot of running around, leaving him no time to exercise his injured arm. So he hollowed out a teddy bear and filled it with sand, using his right arm to hold it, letting his arm gradually adapt. Taking the bus every day was equivalent to over an hour of exercise, and the weight of the sand was gradually increasing, now about twenty pounds.
Jiang Hui was puzzled, “After breaking your arm, you can’t do heavy labor anymore. Why force yourself to exercise it?” The man smiled and said, “Do you think I’m exercising my arm to return to my old job? Not at all. I’m doing this so I can hold my lovely daughter steadily when I go home for the New Year. My wife told me that our daughter is now over ten pounds, and I must get my arm well enough to hold her warmly and kiss her little face!”
At this, the man’s expression darkened for a moment, and Jiang Hui wondered, but then his voice became firm, “Even though she is a cleft-lip baby, she will always be my most beautiful little princess! I must let her feel her father’s warm embrace and know that my love for her is no less than anyone else’s!” As the man spoke, his face was full of happiness. Jiang Hui was moved and quickly said, “Remember to bring this teddy bear when you go home. It’s not filled with sand; it’s filled with love!”
The man nodded firmly at Jiang Hui, smiled, waved goodbye, and left. Jiang Hui stood there in a daze for a moment, then quickly took out her phone and dialed a familiar number. After a cough on the other end, a hoarse, elderly voice said, “Hello…” Jiang Hui, with tears streaming down her face, but with an unusually calm tone, said, “Dad, I want to come home!”
Two years ago, fresh out of college, Jiang Hui had followed a man who painted a beautiful dream with lies to this big city, against her father’s objections. Soon, the man left her for someone else. Feeling ashamed to return home, no matter how hard or how wronged she felt, she endured it all alone in this unfamiliar city.
Now, she suddenly wanted to go home, longing for her father’s scolding. The man holding the teddy bear made her realize that no matter what mistakes she had made, her father’s love for her would never diminish.
She knew that she too had been warmly held in the arms of her disabled single-handed father and had her face kissed passionately. She would always be her father’s most beautiful little princess!
Thank you for reading! ” Sitestorys “
