Robin sighed. “You’ve spent so many days just to make the journey, so you must be feeling bone-weary.”
Actually, it doesn’t really matter whether I’m weary. Sophia then inquired about the shop, upon which Robin chortled. “With me here, you can rest assured. I’m an expert now, so I can manage everything myself. Just stay there however long you want. You don’t need to worry about things over here.”
Sophia licked her lips. “Thank you.”
Robin laughed. “Why are you thanking me? I’m happy to be working with you in the shop. I don’t have many skills to boast of, so I certainly won’t be able to find a decent job out there. Plus, I love doing this, so I’m very happy here.”
As Sophia sighed, she then heard Robin continuing, “By the way, my family arranged a blind date for me. I’ll be going on the date today, so I’ll secretly snap a photo and send it to you. Help me to evaluate him as well, okay?”
Surprise inundated Sophia. “A blind date? Is that necessary? You’re still young.”
To that, Robin exclaimed, “Of course. Why is it not necessary? I can only rely on my family to find me someone now since I definitely can’t find someone on my own.”
However, Sophia recalled her bouts of distractedness and inexplicable giggling before this. She clearly has feelings for someone, so why is she going on a blind date in the blink of an eye? After a long pause, she replied, “If you go on a blind date, the emotional foundation might not be very strong in the beginning. It can only be nurtured slowly, so you must brace yourself for this.”
“I’ve done so,” Robin answered right away. “I really hope to have someone by my side now, so it doesn’t really matter who the person is. Perhaps it’s as you said back then, and I’m feeling lonely. But I don’t think I’m a shallow person, so if the person is nice to me, I’ll likely develop feelings for him.”
Sophia couldn’t say for sure that blind dates were bound to end in failure, so she nodded. “Then, set a standard for yourself. Don’t accept just anybody.”
After murmuring her assent, Robin informed her about the business recently. Later on, the time came for her to set out for the shop, so she hung up the phone.
Sophia then cooked some noodles. When she was done eating, she cleaned the courtyard before leaving with the things she’d prepared. As the village was surrounded by plenty of mountains, people who passed away were usually buried in the mountains.
It was a rather long journey. Midway up the mountain, nausea besieged her. Crouching by the roadside, she dry heaved, retching until her head was spinning and her vision was blurry. It was probably then that grief struck, and she covered her face, wiping her tears. After resting for a while, she then resumed her trek toward the mountains.
Since her speed was sedate, the trek took quite a long time. It was seemingly noon before she started climbing the mountain. Subsequently, her cell phone rang, so she took cover under a tree. Panting, she answered the call, upon which John’s voice drifted out. “Are you awake?”
Sophia grunted in affirmation. “I woke up ages ago. I’ve even eaten.”
John murmured an acknowledgment. It was slightly noisy on his end with quite a din in the background, but Sophia wasn’t at all bothered. Lifting her head, she glanced up the mountain. “We’ll talk another time. I’m in the middle of something over here.”
John grunted in assent. “I’ve got to go as well.”
Taken aback, Sophia couldn’t understand his meaning. However, he then promptly reminded her to take care of herself and so on before hanging up. Slowly putting her cell phone away, she then continued making her way up the mountain.
Old Mr. Gwendolyn’s grave was very simple. Unlike the ones in the big cities, the tomb here was only a small dirt patch without any tombstone. A wooden plank with the deceased’s name was skewered on top of the small dirt patch with no mention of the date of birth and the like. Sophia still remembered her grandfather’s grave, so she went in search of it. However, the small dirt patch was all but indiscernible, having been leveled by the rain. Fortunately, there was still a simple grave marker.
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