Chapter 10: The Day of Calling Stars (9)

I wanted to ask Luna what this was, then suddenly remembered I had forgotten again to ask for her contact information.

But I really wanted the answer too much.

I stared at it for a long time, and slowly my gaze returned to the center of the whiteboard, to the drawing of Lingyin.

Speaking of which, if this thing were placed on Lingyin’s head it would look rather nice, but weren’t angels’ halos generally round and gold?

This one, not to mention the strange shape, even the color was red.

It felt a bit odd.

But it was very beautiful.

A halo… huh.

For the next few days the appearance of this wondrous thing would not leave my mind.

At night, when the lights were off, it still gave off a faint radiance.

This wondrous light could shine for a whole night.

I searched for a long time and there did not seem to be any luminous material that could shine this long.

What on earth was this…

It wouldn’t have radiation, right?

But it shouldn’t, right?

Luna wouldn’t give me something this dangerous, right?

She should, right?

She looked like she should be a very, very good person.

Yet over those few days my gaze would, from time to time, unconsciously flick toward that halo I had set on the whiteboard’s stand.

Without realizing it, while looking at it, I finished this new Lingyin.

Lingyin wearing a halo.

Lingyin with a pair of white wings behind her.

In my eyes Lingyin had always been an angel.

When I finished this drawing a little satisfaction rose in my heart.

[I am waiting for you in the sky.]

[No matter how much time passes, no matter how the years change, even if it is forever, forever…]

Lingyin’s voice seemed to ring beside my ear again.

I could not help looking back toward the bedroom door.

But it was only as usual, empty.

Silently shaking my head I gripped the black mouse on the desk, clicked [Submit], then drew a long, deep breath.

Well.

It was drawn pretty well.

Mm.

Time flashed and it was Friday.

I looked up at the calendar on the whiteboard.

That white magnetic marker sat on the date of October 14th.

According to plan, finished on schedule.

I had even only used half the planned time today.

I always felt I had forgotten something, until I remembered the weekend was almost here, and after the weekend it would be Monday—

Ah!

The gift!

Crap crap crap.

Even online shopping wouldn’t make it in time now, but even if I went to buy something now I… did not even know where to go to buy a gift.

I had not a single clue.

Amid the printer’s whirr-whirr, I hurriedly pulled on a coat and ran out of the house.

For the time being I still came to the city’s largest mall.

But rather than not knowing where I could buy a gift, it was more that I had not even thought of what kind of gift to give.

That halo Luna had given me was far too unique, far too distinctive.

Finding a gift that could match it was simply harder than climbing to heaven.

Was there… any good idea?

Ding~ While aimlessly searching the question of [an exquisite and special gift], a notification popped up in the bar at the top of my phone: [ZZXXXX followed you].

Mm… another fan.

Every time I posted a new work I always gained a batch of new fans.

Pretty nice.

Ah, that’s not it…

Right!

Why not ask everyone?

Maybe someone really had a good idea.

Ding~

[Your work [Angel Lingyin] received a new comment: Angel Lingyin is so cute. By the way, is the inspiration for the halo on her head from the Southern Cross?]

The South…ern Cross?…

[Crux, one of the southern constellations, the smallest of the eighty-eight constellations in the whole sky, lying in the Milky Way between Centaurus and Musca. The main bright stars in the constellation form a “cross.” If you draw downward from the long arm of this “cross” to a point about four times the length of that arm, that point is the south celestial pole.

—From the encyclopedia]

The Southern Cross constellation…

Looking at the introductory pictures on the encyclopedia, I lifted my head and carefully recalled the appearance of the halo Luna had given me.

Looked at this way, it really did seem a little like it.

The Southern Cross constellation…

This was a constellation that existed in reality.

In that instant something in my chest seemed to strike my heart, making me feel my heart go thump, thump.

Why would Luna give me a gift like this?

Clearly I could be said to know nothing about constellations, about astronomy.

Except for when I was little, lying in Sister’s arms watching a meteor shower, when Sister pointed at the stars in the sky and told me a few common constellations, I could hardly recognize a single one by myself.

But that day, when Luna gave me the halo, she had smiled and said, “Come on, take it. You’ll like it.”

I would like it.

Indeed.

I liked it.

I had come to like this gift.

It was so distinctive, so beautiful, and at night it still gave off a gentle light.

For an instant I felt I looked up and saw starlight, saw above the sky, beneath the Milky Way, that shining, shining cross.

It became a halo, became a halo the same as the one Luna had given me, warm, held in my palms.

I could not help stopping in my tracks.

The place I lived could not see this constellation, so in our country it was not that widely known.

If not for the fan’s comment I would not even have thought of this.

Luna, who gave me this gift—why would she think I would like it?

Truly a wondrous person.

No… perhaps…

She was the same as Lingyin… an angel who had descended before me from the river of stars.

[I will absolutely, absolutely never give up. Even at the ends of the earth I will definitely return to your side.

[Because this body has already fallen in love with you.

[I miss you, no matter where you are.]

I did not know how long I wandered through the mall, from time to time looking down at this drawing, looking at the halo on Lingyin’s head.

I returned home again.

In a daze I only knew that when I got home I had bought this in a general bookstore.

A black starry-sky projector lamp.

When I pushed open my bedroom door, Aihua had come to my house at some unknown time.

She was standing in front of my desk, holding the drawing I had not yet taken out of the printer, turning her head to look at that halo on the whiteboard by the window giving off light, spacing out.

“Aihua?”

Right.

Today was Friday.

Aihua should have come back from school.

The lights in the room were not on, so I had not noticed her at first.

Under the orange light from outside the window she slowly turned, looking at me over her shoulder, and said faintly, “Sure enough, you still like her…”

“Eh?” Looking up at her I answered as calmly as usual.

“So you really, really like her that seriously, Jie.”

***

“A-jie, I saw it.

“An angel.”