英语故事：When we met again ,both had changed.

The music in the café made everyone who were enjoying the free time intoxicated, including Ying Jun, who had a short leave from his busy office life for the afternoon. He was seated at the table near the window where he could see the street from a perfect angle. There was a pretty lady walking towards him, greeting with a smile, which was still the same as that of twenty years ago. He turned back towards her,” Come here, beautiful lady!”

 She  took the seat as he helped pull the chair for her. “You just invited me single?”

“Why not? We hadn’t seen each other for twenty years, had we?”

“Tell me about it! Twenty years is really a long time.”

“Long enough to change a person totally. How has it been?”

“Not bad.  And you?”

“Busy but still lonely?”

“For what?” 

He didn’t give the answer, and then both of them fell into silence.

There had been a story which took place twenty years ago. When it comes to the detail of the story, the start point was a little affair in front of the library in the university.

That day, it snowed heavily, leaving everywhere white and cold. Ying Jun walked out of the library with three books in his hand. Reading for a whole morning, he felt a little tired, so he decided to go the second dining hall of his camps. The weather was a little cold, and the steps out of the gate were covered with thin snow. Cold but fresh air made him relaxed, so he walked quickly.

Suddenly, he fell down from the steps, and lay on the snow. It was so embarrassing, but luckily, there was nobody else. He tried to stood up immediately, but the slide ground drew towards the mud again.

He felt annoyed and wanted to shout at the bad weather when a quiet girl with sweet smile lowered down and helped him pick up the books on the snow. He said thank you, and tried to get up for the third time, but fell down for the third time. The funny situation made her laugh, though she tried to be a graceful girl.

“Would you please help me?” He reached out his hand for help.

She lowered down and put his books carefully on the dry steps, while he got dumbstruck. When she lowered down, her long black hair hung from her right shoulder naughtily, like a black waterfall. He stared at her with his soul became silly.

She was made angry by his bad behavior, but didn’t refuse to help the poor man in the snow,” Your hand!”

“ Sorry. And thank you.”

Two warm hands touched each other, and two beating hearts hit each other. They looked at each other for a while, and escaped quickly.

“Thank you.”

“It’s a pleasure.” Her face seemed flushed.

Then they walked towards the second dining hall together, talking with each other. He got to know that her name was Xiao Ya. Her major was market business.

After that, they became good friends, as they had a lot in common. For more, as she had helped him get up, they joked, he owed her many meals. He accepted the requirement happily.

About one and half months later, Ying Jun went to the library to return the books. When he walked out of the library, he saw something that he shouldn’t see. Xiao Ya was walking along the path around the playground, which was next to the library. Her hand was held tightly by another boy.

A great pain attacked his heart just like a sharp sword. He felt the wound clearly, and became a little dizzy. Anger rushed into his brain, and he couldn’t help running towards the happy couple.

They didn’t notice the young man in fire and continued walking and enjoying themselves.

Ying Jun was walking closer, his fists becoming so tightly that he couldn’t control it.

But  then common sense reasserted itself gradually. He stood behind them for while, trying to control his tears. After a while, he pretended as  nothing had happened.

Then he told himself that, maybe it was just a misunderstanding.

He made a decision that he should walk away, for his own destination, but couldn’t help looking at her again. The girl caught around with that strange person now!

He walked away quickly, his face pale like a piece of paper. When he got to his dormitory, one of his friends asked what had happened to him.  He had nothing to say, but  tell him that he felt tired and lay down.

To his surprise, he had no tears, though he had all kinds of feelings in his mind. He tried to persuade himself, explaining to himself that Xiao Ya didn’t love him at all. What had happened since the affair occurred had nothing meaningful to him at all. He told himself that he had no feelings for her, for all took place just because of a little accident. If he hadn’t fallen down that day, what would happen between them?

So all he could do next was that he should just live as usual,  just as if there was a stone dropping in a quiet lake, causing some little waves. The surface of the lake had recovered as before.

However, it wasn’t just so simple. The stone had been in the bottom of the lake, bringing some pain time and time, especially at night when his roommate fell asleep. He couldn’t help thinking of her during the deep quiet night, though he didn’t go to see her.

During days, he had no courage to see her. Even sometimes, when the classes were over and they happened to meet each other on the way, he chose to pretend not to see her, and left quietly. When he was walking away sadly, he could even imagine  Xiao Ya 's hand was took and held by another student, her boyfriend, who might be much better than him. He didn’t know, and he was afraid to know.

That year, there was a popular song sang by youths, one sentence of which said,

“He must love you deeply, don’t put me down by comparing with him.”

Leaving might be one of the best ways to escape.

One evening, when lying on bed, he heard one of his roommates talking about Xiao Ya. She had broke up with her boyfriend. He jumped up from his bed, grasping his roommate’s hand.  He was eager to get more details about the affair.

It made his roommate greatly surprised, because after that day when he was first hurt, he just lived a simple life with tranquility, as if nothing had happened. It turned out to be that he was caring about her all the time, though he didn’t tell it .

The roommate told him all he had known, and encouraged him to catch contact with her. Thinking for a while, he said that it was more difficult now, for they hadn’t kept in touch for too long, and she might have forgotten that there was a boy whose heart had belonged to her all the time. He hesitated, not knowing how to restart the story. Meanwhile, in his deepest heart, he thought that she must be in great pain, for her former boyfriend found another girl, giving up her.

Therefore, unluckily, the weak boy didn’t have further action all the time. But sometimes, when he met with her on the way, he would greet her with a light smile. The girl would reply with a light smile politely. Then they would both walked away separately, just like common relationship.

Time flies!

Two or three years later, he was going to graduate from his mother university. Though it was difficult, he tried to find a job in another city which was 1500 km away.

It was time for leaving. The whole campus was full of the sense of leaving. After supper, he went to a KTV with some of his friends.

They sang some songs about love, sadness, and girls.

They danced together.

They drank some wine and beer. 

They laughed and cried.

They made themselves crazy for the first time.

The released all in their heart.

Returning to his dormitory alone, he decided to pack his luggage, for he had booked the ticket for his job. In his mind, it was time for him to leave the period of the campus life in his memory, and create his own dreams. So he felt a little excited.

She appeared at the door of his dormitory and called him,” Jun!”

He turned back, with great surprise which suddenly turned into sadness, “Are you calling me?”

“It is your last night in our university, isn’t it?”

“ Yeah, I had found a job, and have to go to the company.”

“Then would you take a walk with me?”

“For what?”

She didn’t answer but turned back and walked slowly downstairs. He stopped, and walked behind.

It was a warm fluttering evening. The crescent was high over the library, pouring down the silver light like diaphanous cloth. All was quiet, some students was walking on the playground nearby as usual.

They walked silently, their hearts full of melancholy.

Suddenly, she stopped, and said with a smile, “It was the library where our story started, wasn’t it?”

He didn’t answer, so she continued, “Are you still loving me?”

He still kept silent.

So she had to continue,” You must hate me now. I know that you’re leaving tomorrow. At that time, there must be some friends who will send you to the train station. So I choose to see you this evening, to get the last answer, are you loving me?”

He wanted to give the answer “yes”, but he said nothing, his eyes full of tears.

She looked at his eyes, “I have got the answer now. Thanks.”

She turned back, and said,” To tell you my heart. Maybe, you wouldn’t believe it. But I must tell you all. In fact, since we met here on that snowy day, I  have got you in my mind all the time. Yes, I had a boyfriend before. But do you know that I was forced to some extent.”

Forced? He couldn’t believe his ears.

“A girl is always weak in the face of some boy who is showing his love. At that time, I wanted to refuse him, but he came to my dormitory every day and every night. He asked several of my roommates to help him. So I surrendered, but my heart broke !”

All her words reminded of the memories in his mind. He could recall her painful expressions that called for help.

“I didn’t want to beg your love. I can understand your difficulty. OK, I feel better now ,after telling you what’ s in my heart. Thanks !”

She walked away slowly, sobbing in low voice. She was still beautiful, and her hair was still long but the color had changed.

He still stood in front of the library. With great pain, he burst into a shout, ”Ah—“

When the waiter brought the bill, he found she had gone, leaving him alone in the café. He paid for the bill, and walked out of the café. Yeah, they both had their own families now. It was enough that they would meet in the busy business world. He knew that he should never ask more, because when they met with each other again after so many years, all had changed.  When they got the real answers, they had actually had got lost on the way.