Extra #1: You Are the Earthly Warmth and the Starry Sea

Dear Dà Lín,

Today is your Gregorian calendar birthday, and even you are a bit confused about this day.

The birthday on your ID card is in the lunar calendar, which is difficult to remember. So I traced back to find the corresponding Gregorian date of your birth. It’s easier to remember that way.

Since we met, you have always remembered my birthday and carefully prepared for it every year. But I often forget yours.

“You can forget my birthday, but I can’t forget yours,” you’ve said something like that before.

I asked why. You replied, “I won’t mind if you forget my birthday, but if I forget yours, you’ll get upset, and I don’t want you to be upset.”

I couldn’t help but feel moved after hearing that.

Looking back over the eighteen years and more than six thousand five hundred days we’ve been together, the joy you’ve given me far outweighs the sadness. Life inevitably brings moments of frustration, but the happiness you bring easily dissolves life’s bitterness.

After May Day, the company will resume full-time office work for everyone, and upon hearing this news, you were very happy.

I was puzzled and asked, “Is it the beauty of distance? Are you happy because I’m going to the office?”

You said, “Out of sight, out of mind. Watching you sometimes tormented by work pains me; seeing you engrossed in work and ignoring me makes me sad.”

I laughed. Not long ago, when I worked overtime at home until two in the morning, you told me, “The farthest distance in the world is having you next to me, but your heart is with your work.”

Due to the pandemic, we’ve been working flexibly for nearly three months. Sometimes when you tried to flirt with me and I responded indifferently, you would grind your teeth in frustration: “You emotionless work machine!” Perhaps what you dislike most is when I fully immerse myself in work.

You said, “It’s good to go to the office. At work, you focus on your job, and after work, you focus on me.”

Thinking about it, what you said makes sense. Separating the workplace from the home is a good thing. Otherwise, turning our home into a workspace might make me unconsciously turn into a “workaholic,” drawing your complaints.

I asked you if there was anything you wanted as a birthday gift. You said, “Ending our ‘long-distance relationship’ tonight is the best birthday present for me.”

Recently, Xinbao has been sleeping with me, listening to me read her stories before bed. And so, we started another period of prolonged separation.

I had a sore in my mouth and told you about it. You pointed to a small pimple above your lip and said, “I have one too. It’s internal heat; we need to work together to get rid of it, you know.”

I told Xinbao that Mommy and Daddy sleeping together strengthens their bond and asked her to sleep in her own bed. She said, “Let me sleep one more night, and tomorrow night I’ll go back to my bed.”

True to her word, after listening to a story last night, she allowed you to carry her back to her little bed. Finally, we could “meet on the magpie bridge.”

This morning when I woke up, you told me you dreamed of us traveling together.

What a coincidence—so did I!

We didn’t know exactly where we were going, just that we were on the road.

“We finally have the same dream,” I said.

“I have the same dream with you even when we’re apart,” you said.

Some things, I think, might truly be predestined.

If I hadn’t failed the college entrance exam, hadn’t insisted on taking the “specialized transfer” exam despite my parents’ objections, hadn’t chosen the university you attended, and hadn’t had the hobby of writing, we would have missed each other.

Just a tiny difference in any of these events, and we would have perfectly missed each other.

But fate led me on a big detour, and at the end of that bend, I met you—the most beautiful scenery of my life.

From campus love to long-distance love to sharing the same bed, we have supported each other all the way.

I hope to accompany you until we both have gray hair at the end of time.

In my eyes, no matter how time changes, you are still that spirited young man.

You are the earthly warmth and the starry sea.

Happy birthday to you, may you have joy every year, and may you always have Dà Níng by your side.

Yours, Dà Níng April 29, 2020