Chapter 9 — The Lamp No Longer Shines Because of You

But the cruelest thing in life was not that he finally understood. But when you understand, I no longer need you.
“You keep it.”
Chu Tu nodded and took the bottle back. Stepping out of the Civil Affairs Department, the sunlight was a bit blinding. My mother was waiting for me on the side of the road, sitting in the car driven by Co Nghien Thanh. She lowered the window and waved at me.
"Ninh Ninh, hurry up. There's still soup stewing in the pot."
Co Nghien Thanh stood next to the car and opened the back seat door for me.
“Auntie reminded me along the way, saying that today we have to celebrate the day I start over.”
I laughed.
“So I have to buy a bouquet of flowers.”
Mom immediately said:
“Buy sunflowers, they look bright.”
Before the car started, through the rearview mirror, I saw Chu Tu still standing on the steps. He didn't chase. Just held the glass bottle in my arms, bowed my head and stood there for a long time. Many years later, I heard a mutual friend mention him. That person said Chu Tu had not remarried and still lived in that house. Every year on my mother's birthday, he anonymously donates a sum of money to charity, noting:
“For the mother who broke her leg.”
Later, Hua Nhuoc Duong got married far away. Life is not too good but not too bad either. After her health recovered, her mother-in-law moved to live in a nursing home. When she meets other people, she no longer mentions how compatible her childhood and childhood are. When that news reached my ears, I was celebrating my mother's seventieth birthday. The balcony is filled with flowers. On the table there was hot soup, cake, and an anti-slip stick given by Co Nghien Thanh. When making a wish, my mother secretly put my hand and his hand together. I didn't withdraw my hand. Outside the window, afternoon spreads across half the sky. I suddenly remembered a sentence I hadn't finished writing yet. We will have. You will have a home of your own, you will have the courage to start again, there will be a beautiful sunny day late. It's just that within those things there will never be Chu Tu again. Chu Tu is still in the house where electricity and water have been restored. Every night, he turns on the light in the mysterious cave. The light fell on the empty shoe cabinet. There used to be a ring there. There was also a person's final farewell. Finally, he learned to keep his head down and look down. But there was nothing left on the shoe cabinet.