The night deepened.
Yue Xiaofei had just showered in the guest room and changed into a clean T-shirt. He was about to sort through the information he had gathered that day.
Knock, knock, knock!
Someone knocked softly on the door.
"Xiaofei, are you still awake?"
It was Jiang Lan's voice, cautious and tentative.
"I am, Aunt Jiang." Yue Xiaofei opened the door.
Jiang Lan stood outside with another heavy leather-bound photo album in her hands. Apology and nostalgia mingled on her face. "I was sorting through the albums in the study and found another one. I thought you'd want to see more pictures of your mother when she was young."
Her eyes were still red and swollen. The daytime argument and the evening's memories had clearly left her unsettled.
"Thank you, Aunt Jiang."
Warmth rose in Yue Xiaofei's chest as he invited her in.
They sat on the sofa, turning the yellowed pages beneath the warm glow of a table lamp.
In every photograph, Ye Qingmei seemed to carry sunlight in her every smile and expression. She looked too full of life to be someone who was gone.
Then Jiang Lan's finger stopped on a photograph of three people.
It had been taken in a grove of ginkgo trees on their university campus. Autumn was at its height, and golden leaves carpeted the ground.
Ye Qingmei stood on the left, smiling brightly. On the right was Jiang Lan, still youthful and shy.
Between them stood a woman with an entirely different air.
She wore a well-tailored beige trench coat and stood straight and tall. She was breathtakingly beautiful, but her cool expression seemed to hold the world at a distance.
"Who's this...?"
Yue Xiaofei's gaze settled on the woman's face.
"Her name was Cao Ruolin. She shared a dorm room