Chapter 17: Two Weeks

That night the courtyard was lit by one paper lantern and a very small moon.

Jiang Lü had cooked again, but only rice and a clear soup, and they ate sitting on the floor.

Neither of them said the word Friday.

"It has been two weeks," Tang Yu said, tilting her bowl.

"Two weeks and a day."

"You counted."

"I count everything about you. You know that now."

"It's a lot to know."

"I am sorry about that too."

Tang Yu put her bowl down and moved around the low table until she sat facing her.

"I want to ask you something," she said. "It's not about the demo."

"Ask."

"Granny Bai told me about Su Qinghe."

Jiang Lü's hands went still in her lap.

"She said it so you would not have to."

"Yes. She was kind to me that way."

"What are you afraid of? Say it the way you'd write a bug report."

Jiang Lü thought about it with her whole face, as she did everything.

"Steps to reproduce," she said at last. "I love someone. She is twenty-nine."

"Expected result. She stays, grows old, and I am with her every day of it."

"Actual result. She goes, and I am still here. The ginkgo is still here. The rest is a quiet courtyard."

"That's a very clear report."

"It is the only one I have ever filed."

Tang Yu laughed, and her eyes stung, and she did it anyway.

"I'm not going to promise you I'll never die," she said.

"I did not ask you to."

"But I'm not going to let that be the reason we don't have this."

"Every person has the same known issue."

"Close the ticket as known issue."

"Known issue," said Jiang Lü slowly. "Do not fix."

"Not yet."

"That is a terrible joke."

"It's the best I have."

Jiang Lü took her face in both hands.

"Two weeks," she said. "Two years of reading you. Nine hundred and four years of waiting to be read."

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