Solar sits quietly, listening to Lunar's delighted Rome holidays with much delight, a little bit of romance and a little bit of sadness.
Solar: It's almost been five hundred years. Five hundred years is long enough to change the ages of dynasties; it is long enough to change the directions of rivers; it is long enough to change the shapes of mountains.
Lunar: It is not long enough to obliviate a beautiful memory.
Solar: Why?
Lunar: Someone strange, it takes one day to forget; someone familiar, it takes a decade to forget; someone special, it takes a lifetime to forget.
Solar: Did you see him again?
Lunar: Of course.
Solar: When and where did your see him again?
Lunar: When the carriage headed eastward in the spring again, ten years later, I took the same carriage to Rome. At the familiar street, I found a new bakery store, where that guy peddled baked breads to customers.
Solar: What's his ending?
Lunar: It's a happy ending. He had a successful career as a chef, and opened his own bakery store in the most popular street of Rome. He met a beautiful lady, grouped his family with two beautiful daughters, and named his eldest daughter after my name.
Solar: Did you come to meet him again?
Lunar: No.
Solar: Why not?
Lunar: I'd like to meet him again, but I was afraid that I might disturb his happy life; I'd like to taste his baked breads again, but I was afraid that I might vomit out human food; I'd like to watch him one more look, but I was afraid that I might be tied for decades.
Solar: May I ask how old were you, when you first met him?
Lunar: I was sixteen, when I first met him.
Solar: Sixteen is too young to understand what love really is.
Lunar: In my age, 16-year-old girl was allowed to get married. May I ask what do you remember in your sixteen?
Solar: It's just been eight years. Eight years is long enough to obliviate the things that I can't remember; it is long enough to obliviate the people that I can't recognize; it is long enough to obliviate the existences of the things, the people and even myself.
Lunar: What can you remember in your sixteen?
Solar: It's 2018. In winter vacation, my grandpa moved in hospital, when he got swollen feet. I was available in my winter vacation, and my grandpa was in need of a company. So I also moved in hospital, and took care of him.
I googled my grandpa's condition in the internet, it's called swollen feet, which can be a minor or major condition. I thought he's gonna be alright.
One day he asked me to buy him a bowl of wonton. I bought two bowls, one bowl for myself, another bowl for grandpa. I tasted wonton, which was a little bit salty. Given the fact that eating too much salty food might cause swollen feet. I replaced the salty soup with boiled water. That might be good for my grandpa's health, but that spoiled my grandpa's pleasure.
Lunar: How was your grandpa?
Solar: My grandpa went out hospital in February before Spring Festival, when the whole family had a reunion. I thought he felt better, and went back school, when my spring semester was beginning. In my school, I heard that my grandpa passed away. It's the first time that I felt the death so close to my family.
Lunar: I'm sorry for your loss. He might close his eyes forever, but he rests in heaven; his body might decay, but his spirits ascend up heaven, turning a star; he might pass away, but the star of his spirits remains watching over you from the heaven.
Solar: My grandpa was always at peace with everything and everyone. He once was a cowherd, who herded his cows at riverside, and found the peace of mind from nature. Maybe he, who died in 91, lived a long life, because of his peace of mind.
Lunar: How was your 16th summer?
Solar: It's a long summer vacation. Some spend through their summer vacations on a foreign land; some spend through their summer vacations on summer vacation jobs; some spend through their summer vacations on interesting activities. As for me, I spend through my summer vacation with a 12-year-old schoolboy, who was four years younger than me.
Lunar: May I know about your mate?
Solar: Sure. He was an orphan, by any means. He had a father, who passed away due to illness; he had a mother, who was a lunatic before she came this town; he had a younger brother, who got adopted by his relative.
Lunar: What a poor boy he was. He was a 12-year-old schoolboy who lived with his lunatic mother. How could he survive on his own?
Solar: Neighbor's support and government aid. He once dreamed to be a brave soldier, as brave as his grandpa, who sacrificed in the war for his country.
Lunar: Eight years later, a 12-year-old schoolboy has become a grown-up gentleman. Did you have ever heard of his news? Is he in the army?
Solar: Last time I heard of his news was four years ago, when I returned hometown in winter semester. I asked about his situation. I was told that he followed construction workers, going to build this hometown, working for them for a living. He could join the army, when he was grown up. But I'm afraid that he might not join the army.
Lunar: What reasons he might not join the army?
Solar: Malnutrition. I'm afraid that he is not tall enough and not strong enough for army height and weight standards. He had been suffering from malnutrition for a long time, while his family couldn't afford good dinners.
Lunar: I'm sorry for his situation.
Solar: You don't have to be sorry. Maybe not to join the army is a better choice, while the outside world is not as peaceful as it seems to be.
Lunar: What are you wanna do with your 16th summer, if you were offered a chance to return your 16th summer?
Solar: I wanna have a summer romance at the sunlit beach. But it's a romantic thought. Maybe I would probably hang around with a 12-year-old kid, as I did.