Chapter 19: The Passport

The departures hall at Pudong was loud at eight in the morning, and Wenxin ran through all of it.

She had slept two hours on Anqi's sofa, with Mingxuan breathing across the room.

She had no ticket.

She went through security on a press pass from the film.

The guard let her pass because he recognized the girl who screamed in the lift.

Gate forty-one was at the far end.

Haoran sat alone on a plastic chair with a coat over his knee and a passport in his left hand.

He was looking at the floor.

"You booked one way," Wenxin said.

He looked up, and his face did something she had not seen in seven years.

"Wenxin."

"A one-way ticket to the city where you were when my mother died."

"I thought you should have a place to stand where I wasn't."

"That's the stupidest thing you've ever said to me."

"I've said some stupid things."

"Give me the passport."

He held it out, puzzled.

She opened it to the page with his photograph.

She tore the page out along the seam, neatly, while a family at the next gate stopped talking.

Then she put the page in her mouth and chewed.

Haoran stood up.

"What are you doing?"

"Eating it." She swallowed, with an effort. "It's laminated. It's disgusting."

"Wenxin, spit it out."

"No."

"You'll be sick."

"Good."

She took the booklet from his hand and tore the cover in half.

"You don't get to choose when I'm free," she said. "I decide that."

A child nearby clapped. A man was filming it.

Haoran's mouth had begun to shake. She couldn't tell whether it was a laugh.

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