Youthful love story
A child nearby asked me why my eyes were sweating. I thought about it seriously for a moment and then told him, “It’s because I’m missing someone.”
Ma Muzi: A Pisces woman from Shenyang who reads a lot, writes warm stories, and especially loves writing about love at the age of 17.
1. The Boy I Injured
That woman was really fat, the loudest among the vegetable vendors at the market, and the best at grabbing customers. She wasn’t an ordinary kind of fierce.
When she saw me, her eyes were filled with caution. After I mentioned I was there to see Liu Zhi, she sized me up a few times before finally leading me into the house.
The room was small, dark, and stuffy. Liu Zhi sat at a dining table working on some exercises. He didn’t even look at me. There were two crutches beside him, and the cast on his leg hadn’t been removed yet.
I was carrying a lot of nutritional supplements. Feeling unsure of myself, I tried to act calm and said, “Hi, Liu Zhi.” He turned his head, recognized me, and smiled. But the woman beside him wasn’t as calm. When she found out I was the one who caused her beloved son’s leg to be broken, she looked at me as if I were her enemy. Luckily, someone came to buy vegetables, so she left.
Liu Zhi joked with me, “Did you know that you broke the leg of the most handsome boy in school? The other girls are going to give you trouble.” I knew he was being humorous, but I couldn’t say a word because I felt so guilty for hitting him with my car.
Liu Zhi’s mom stood at the doorway, hands on her hips, and said loudly, “Do you realize that since his leg broke, there’s no one to help me sell vegetables?” So, I quickly and sensibly replied, “Auntie, starting tomorrow, I’ll help you sell vegetables.”
2. There’s No Real Difference Between People
Although it was summer break, Liu Zhi didn’t want me to come. He said it was too tiring and that a girl shouldn’t be doing this kind of work. But he himself limped around on crutches, helping his mom move things here and there.
He said, “You and I are different.” Liu Zhi didn’t have a father, only his mom, who saved up money for his tuition by selling vegetables. I shook my head. In reality, there’s no real difference between people. Tilting my head, I asked him, “Do you know why I took my dad’s car that day? My parents had another fight. They smashed a lot of things, even tearing up our last family photo. I don’t know how to drive, but I just wanted to try. I grabbed my dad’s car keys and drove out. As soon as I started the car, it rushed forward, and I hit you on the roadside.”
He didn’t say anything after that. I just helped out at the vegetable stall. Liu Zhi’s mom looked at me suspiciously, and finally, she couldn’t hold back and asked, “Hey, do you like our Liu Zhi?”
This woman’s voice was still as loud as ever. All the buyers and sellers turned to look at me. I quickly shook my head. His mom, in her loud voice again, said, “I thought so. Ordinary girls wouldn’t be a good match for our Liu Zhi.” In every mother’s eyes, her child is a prince. She sincerely told me, “Don’t come tomorrow.”
She was afraid I would distract Liu Zhi from his studies. She truly wanted to see him go to college. That would make her life complete. The reason she said this was because her life was already very short. She had a serious illness. She wasn’t fat, she was swollen. Even so, she still got up early every day to sell vegetables, saving all the money and depositing it in the bank.
As I was about to leave, she added, “You broke his leg, and if you make his grades slip too, that would be too much.”
3. Only You Can Make Me Smile
I couldn’t forgive myself either. So, I stayed away from Liu Zhi. He didn’t seem to know about the conversation between his mother and me. He came looking for me when school started again. His leg still wasn’t healed, and he stood at the classroom door with his crutches. The sunlight fell behind him, making him look so warm.
He said, “Why don’t you come to my house anymore?” I asked him back, “Why should I go to your house? My parents already paid for the medical expenses.” He looked at me sadly. “That’s not what I meant.”
“Then what do you mean?” I said and returned to the classroom. He still stood there for a while before turning around and leaving. After he left, the sunlight seemed to disappear suddenly. I buried myself in my math problems, feeling stuffy and confused. I didn’t know what was happening, but my tears began to drip onto the paper, making the words blur.
I wiped my eyes and kept working on the exercises. That exam, I ranked in the top twenty of the class, and Liu Zhi was first in the entire grade. I was the last one to check the results board because I only wanted to see that top name. When I saw it, I smiled.
“You’re smiling because of me, right?” Liu Zhi’s voice sounded from behind. I quickly put away my smile and turned away with a calm face. I walked past him, but he suddenly grabbed my arm and asked, “What’s wrong with you?” He also asked, “Did your parents fight again?” I calmly replied, “They can’t fight anymore. They’re divorced.”
After saying that, I left. Maybe Liu Zhi never knew how inferior I felt in front of him. My parents got divorced, and no one wanted me. I lived with my grandma. My grades were so bad that I couldn’t get into college. I loved fighting and bullying others. I was a bad student, though Liu Zhi didn’t seem to mind.
He even chased after me, standing in front of me and saying, “I like you.” He really knew how to pick a time to confess. But at that moment, I wasn’t in the mood. I coldly said, “Sorry, I like someone else.”
4. The First Kiss I Lost
I really did like someone. That person was Liu Zhi. But I couldn’t tell him. His mom had come to see me again. Her voice was still loud, but her tone had softened. She handed me a piece of paper. It was filled with my name in Liu Zhi’s handwriting.
She didn’t say anything else, but I knew what I had to do.
There was a boy chasing after me, saying he liked me to death. I had never paid him any attention, but one day after school, he waited for me at the school gate, sitting on a bicycle with one foot on the ground. He looked at me and said, “Hey, hop on.”
So, I jumped on. As I got on, I saw Liu Zhi behind us. By then, his leg had healed, and he was riding an old bike, following us. The boy asked me a lot of boring questions, and I absentmindedly answered them. Later, the boy stopped the bike by a small river. I jumped off and stood beside him, glanced at him, and thought, he’s actually kind of handsome.
So, I put my hand on his head, turned his face toward mine, and shamelessly pressed my lips against his. The boy looked surprised but quickly smiled. Our lips touched, and I panicked. I didn’t know what to do. I even bit his lip, and it started bleeding.
That’s how I lost my first kiss. I caught a glimpse of Liu Zhi’s back, getting smaller and smaller. I cried. The boy let go of me and laughed, “So clumsy!”
He had a lot of experience and wanted to teach me, but I never gave him another chance. I hurried away, crying as I went. I regretted it so much. A first kiss should be something special. How could I lose it so casually? I didn’t even like him. I forgot his face as soon as I turned around.
In my mind, there was someone else’s face. Liu Zhi, Liu Zhi.
No one knew that day I went to his house. The market had already closed, but his room’s light was still on. I could see his shadow through the curtain. I just stood there, watching, never feeling tired.
5. Why My Eyes Were Sweating
Liu Zhi never spoke to me again, and there was no chance to. He got into a university in another city, and I got into a local one. I thought I should thank Liu Zhi. If I hadn’t met him, if he hadn’t been so excellent that I tried to catch up, I might not have gotten into anything at all. I might have ended up like most girls in this city, doing a simple job.
I wrote letters to him, even text messages, but I never sent them. I didn’t realize I was so cowardly until then. Then one day, I got a call from the hospital. I rushed over. Liu Zhi’s mom had become so thin she looked like someone from Africa, and her voice was soft and weak. The last thing she said to me was, “You should date Liu Zhi, as long as you can forgive him.”
I had always thought that I was the one who needed to be forgiven
. But what I heard was that I had never hit Liu Zhi. His broken leg wasn’t my fault. He had fallen while playing basketball. He couldn’t afford surgery and endured a lot of pain before going into that wealthy neighborhood, hoping to find a slow-moving car to get hit by. Instead, he met me.
After his mom told me all this, she left. A few hours later, I saw Liu Zhi. Together, we prepared for the funeral, even cried together. I thought that after everything was over, I would tell him I still liked him. But before I could say anything, he placed an acceptance letter from a foreign university in front of me. He even asked, “How are things with him?”
I didn’t know which “him” he meant. I had been in relationships, but none of them lasted long. But I still nodded and said, “We’re fine.”
I didn’t cry, and neither did he. There wasn’t even a goodbye. He just left. That day, I went to the train station early but still didn’t catch him. I stood there, lost in thought. The place was bustling with people playing cards, chatting, or just staring blankly. A child nearby asked me why my eyes were sweating. I thought about it seriously for a moment and then told him, “It’s because I’m missing someone.”
Thank you for reading! ” Sitestorys “
