Chapter 2: Meteor Shower (Part 2)

  "It's all your fault, it's all your fault, you came so late and all the good spots are taken, now we can only stand!" A girl next to them stomped her foot and pouted at her boyfriend. The boy apologized in a low voice, then turned his head and saw Ning Qing sitting alone on a rock, he winked at Ning Qing and said: "Can we sit with you?"

  "This rock can only sit two people!" Ning Qing's voice was hoarse, seeing the girl and boy hugging together, thinking of Guo Shangliang and Li Mingna, feeling emotional, she turned her head away.

  "Auntie! Can you let us sit on the reef?!" The girl said in a soft voice, "I heard that if two people make a wish together while watching the meteor shower, they can be together forever. You're alone, so it's easy to squeeze in anywhere!"

  "What's with 'auntie'?" Ning Qing's heart ached dully, without looking at the girl, coldly saying: "I'm only twenty-six!"

  The girl saw that Ning Qing was unwilling to give up the reef, and in the dim light of night, she vaguely made out that she was wearing a gray skirt. She couldn't help but shout: "Calling you aunt is a respectful term for you, look at your dusty appearance, let me call you sister, I really can't bear to say it."

  "With your impolite attitude, you won't last long with your boyfriend either, no need to make wishes." Ning Qing's tone turned sharp, yes, she had always been unable to win against others and was teased by her good friend Zhou Ling as being weak-willed, but it wasn't to the point where she would take abuse from a girl she didn't even know.

  "It's better than you being 26 years old and still single, isn't it?" The girl put her hands on her hips, "With your looks that are neither good nor bad, and your talent that is neither here nor there, no man would want to marry you."

  Ning Qingmin suddenly stood up straight, his eyes behind his nearsighted glasses like two clusters of burning flames, scanning the girl.

  In the distance, a flashlight shone over and illuminated Ning Qing's pale face. The girl was a bit scared and pulled on the boy, saying: "Let's go, it's like nobody wants to talk to him, be careful not to catch his bad luck."

  The girl pulled the boy through the crowd and walked away, Ning Qing's fist clenched tightly, her fingernails digging deep into her palm, trying to suppress the anger in her heart.

  She looked around at the couples, and Ning Qing's anger turned into sorrow. Her youth was slowly fading away, with nothing accomplished, alone and unaccompanied, she raised her head to the sky, tears secretly surging.

  If life could be replayed once, Ning Qingmin shook off her own thoughts, and her heart ached even more, as if pierced by a needle.

  At one o'clock in the morning, a dense and heavy pure black sky suddenly poured down a shower of silver rain, which was from a certain space that shattered thoughts billions of light-years away! The starry rain sparkled brightly, and the stargazers were excited, shouting: "Make a wish quickly, make a wish!"

  People around me spoke to the meteor at the same time, making wishes, taking photos, and marveling in unison. Some couples even kissed each other in the gaps between the shooting stars, as if they were drunk with love.

  Ning Qing stared blankly at the shooting star, a beautiful and rare sight that only appears once in a hundred years. The tears on her face had long since dried up.

  Suddenly, Ning Qingmin clasped her hands together, closed her eyes, and faced the meteor shower that was about to disappear. With all her heart and might, she gritted her teeth and made a wish: "Let me go back to being 19 years old, let everything start anew, I want to have both success in my career and love!"

  A warm gust of wind blew across, before I could open my eyes, the darkness receded like a tide, and the sky seemed to brighten up, my eyelids trembled slightly, and the shrill cries around me suddenly fell silent.

  The refreshing sea breeze with a hint of saltiness still lingered at the tip of her nose, and Ning Qing slowly opened her eyes.

  The sky was extremely bright, the fine sand underfoot reflected the light, the sea water overflowed the reef as it did years ago, the crowd around had disappeared unknowingly, people were playing and frolicking in the distance, a sun was about to set into the sea.

  "Qingmian, let's go! We still have to learn how to waltz tonight!" A voice came from behind, Ning Qingmian turned around and it was Zhou Ling.

  Wearing a pair of Levi's jeans and a loose-fitting white sweater with a round collar, she looked like a teenage girl in her early teens.

  Ning Qingmin recalled that when she was 19 years old, not long after entering university, she heard that there was a seaside in another city not far from Guangzhou, and she wanted to see the sea. At that time, her good friend Zhou Ling, who had been admitted to the same school and was assigned to the same dormitory, also wanted to go to the beach to watch the sunset, so they set out together. She remembered that at the time, Zhou Ling wore such a outfit, and that night she pulled Ning Qingmin to learn how to dance the jitterbug, and her partner was Jiang Mingzhi.

  As Zhou Lingyue walked closer, her skin was delicate and fair, indeed the 19-year-old Zhou Ling. Zhou Ling looked elegant and refined, in college, she was one of the four beauties in her class.

  Ning Qing struggled to speak, got up, lowered his head and looked at his clothes, a loose black pants, a short-sleeved light gray shirt, completely different from last night's outfit. He touched his hair again, it was short, held up his glasses, very heavy, exactly the same black-framed nearsighted glasses he had worn in college.

  It turns out that making wishes upon shooting stars can sometimes really come true!