Goodbye, Yokosuga.

Live well, for his love ...

? one

Moving from Tokyo to Kanagawa, it's already the season of cherry blossoms falling out.

After settling down in her own residence, Lan Yu began her boring clerical life day after day: taking the Jingbang Northeast Line to and from Duxin and Yokohama at a fixed time every day; I ate a bowl of "Lamian Noodles" under the office building at noon, worked overtime until late at night every day, then got off the tram in the night and walked back to my deserted apartment.

Day after day, like a pool of stagnant water without ripples, it is spent in dullness and repetition.

Lan Yu sometimes goes home at night and falls asleep on a rickety tram, only to wake up and find that she overslept.

One night, she slept soundly on the tram and woke up at the terminal.

The word "Yokosuga" on the platform reminds her that this is a famous Japanese military port and US military base. So on the return tram, her mind suddenly had the idea of going to Yokosuga for the weekend.

After breakfast on Saturday, she got on the tram to Yokosuga.

Yokosuga is much busier than she thought.

She followed the tourists aboard a warship in Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force and visited several memorial halls. It's noon in a blink of an eye.

Lan Yu sat down in a lively cafe near the US military base, looked at a cup of coffee and a sandwich, and stared out the window at the sea.

The warm sea breeze blowing in from the open window caressed her face and blew her long black hair.

Lan Yu tied the messy long hair on her wrist with a rubber band and stuffed the half-length bangs behind her ears.

"Hello, may I sit here?"

Aquamarine looked up and saw a soldier in a blue navy uniform, smiling at her with a tray in his hand.

"Oh, the cafe is full, only you have a seat here …" The soldier explained politely with an embarrassed smile.

"Of course, the chair opposite me is empty ..."

Lan Yu pointed to the opposite seat with slender fingers and motioned for the soldier to sit down.

Lan Yu was a little unaccustomed to sitting opposite a stranger and bowed his head and took a few quick sips of coffee. She is thinking that maybe she should finish lunch and leave this busy cafe as soon as possible.

"Thank you!" The soldier said politely, "I hope I'm not disturbing you ..."

"No ..."

Aquamarine looked up at the soldier, only to see that he had neatly trimmed blond hair and a pair of eyes were staring at her enthusiastically, as blue as the sea outside the window.

"Are you alone?" The soldier asked her in blunt Japanese.

Aquamarine nodded, and some curiously looked at the ranks of soldiers at the neckline and shoulders.

This is the first time in her life that she has been in close contact with an American naval officer, so curiosity finally overcame shyness:

"Really ... the navy in the base?" Lan Yu asked in English, "You can speak English with me. I'm not Japanese, I'm from China ... "

"oh! China, nice to meet you. My name is Daniel ... "The soldier held out his hand, patiently waited for Aquamarine's hand and shook it.

When having lunch in that seaside cafe, Lan Yu opened his black eyes and listened curiously to Daniel's Kan Kan.

He told Lan Yu that he was from California, trained as a fighter at West Point Military Academy and worked as an aircraft carrier pilot at the US military base in San Diego.

Two years ago, he was sent to the US military base in Yokosuka Port.

"You tell me so much, aren't you afraid that I am a spy?" Lan Yu was attracted by the young soldier in the sunshine in front of him and said naughtily.

She likes his mellow American accent and the sincerity and warmth in his eyes when he speaks.

The afternoon sun shone warmly from the big open window of the cafe and sprinkled on Daniel's broad shoulders.

Daniel looked at the watch on his wrist and said to Lan Yu, "Oh, I have to go. I have work to do this afternoon. Nice to meet you. Do you use Facebook? "

Lan Yu took out her mobile phone from her handbag and exchanged Facebook accounts with Daniel.

"I live in Yamaguchi, but it's not far from here ..." Lan Yu said quietly.

"Very well, we can contact on Facebook. Maybe I will go to Shanhaiguan with you next weekend ... "

Daniel stood up, pushed the chair back to the coffee table, picked up the tray on the table, said goodbye to Lan Yu, and turned and walked towards the bar.

Lan Yu's heart is as clear and transparent as the blue sky outside the Guan Hui tram window. Daniel's smiling face kept appearing in her mind, and his deep and mellow voice echoed in her ears.

two

For a whole week, Lan Yu's mind was full of Daniel's face.

On the night after work, Lan Yu opened his Facebook account and saw Daniel's message.

In the message, he told the time when Aquamarine arrived at the pass at the weekend.

Lan Yu spent the weekend in tension and excitement, put on her favorite red dress and arrived at the power station in Guannei early in the morning.

Daniel arrived as scheduled, and the two walked out of the tram stop together with laughter, walked through Zhonghua Street and came to Yamashita Park.

They sat on the benches in the park and looked at the blue sky and the sea.

Lan Yu told Daniel about her home in Shanghai and her lonely life in Tokyo. Daniel listened quietly and looked at her understandingly with his blue eyes. He told Lan Yu his family in California, his life at West Point Military Academy, and the dangers he experienced during his flying career:

"... once the sea fog was particularly thick, I tried several times but I couldn't see the aircraft carrier I was going to land, and finally I landed at an ultra-low altitude ... Thank God, I'm still alive! "

Aquamarine saw that when he was telling this story, his hands were folded, as if he were praying silently.

At dusk, they went to a karaoke bar, ordered some light snacks and sang happily.

Daniel reached out to Lan Yu, pulled her up from her seat, danced slowly to the music, held her in his arms and kissed her warm and thirsty lips. ...

When the music stopped, Daniel looked down at Aquamarine and said, "I have to go back to the base. Thank you for bringing me this wonderful day ... "

They walked hand in hand to the downstairs of Lanyu apartment and stood under the street lamp and looked at each other for a while. Daniel stretched out his hand and adjusted aquamarine's hair, which was messed up by the night wind, and kissed her cheek to say goodbye.

"I'll contact you on Facebook ..." Daniel's voice floated into Lan Yu's ear with the evening breeze. Lan Yu looked at his slender figure and quickly disappeared into the night. ...

? three

The following weekend, at Daniel's invitation, Lan Yu went to Yokosuga to watch an American aircraft carrier show.

She set out from inside Shanhaiguan Pass early in the morning and came to Yokosuka Port, standing at the front of the crowd.

Far away, she saw officers and men in marine uniforms standing in a row on the plywood of warships with their hands behind their backs, waiting for government officials who came from Washington to inspect the base.

Lan Yu opened her eyes wide, trying to identify Daniel from the uniform.

Soon, the air show was staged over Yokosuka Port. In the roar of fighter planes, Lan Yu looked at the flying queue in the blue sky, trying to find Daniel's plane.

That night, when she returned to her home in Guannei, she received a Facebook message from Daniel: "Have you seen me? I see you, you are standing in the front row, wearing your red skirt, red is really dazzling, I can see that little red dot when I fly in the sky ... "

……

They agreed to meet next weekend.

For a whole week, Lan Yu's heart was tortured by happy waiting and expectation. She found that Daniel's appearance freed her from that loneliness. She likes the feeling of waiting for the weekend with her fingers pulled every day.

In a flash, several months passed. ...

One Saturday morning, Lan Yu's cell phone rang.

She connected the phone and heard Daniel say to her, "Get up, my angel, and look down at the window ..."

Lan Yu ran to the window and saw Daniel looking up at her. At his side, stood another young European and American guy.

? four

"I want you to meet my best comrade Ryan."

Ryan held out his hand to Aquamarine: "Your name is all in my ears. I really liked it when I saw it today. "

Daniel proudly held aquamarine in his arms. After a moment of silence, he said in her ear:

"I'm here today to tell you that I'm going back to the San Diego base with the aircraft carrier ... I don't know if I'll go back to Yokosuga."

Lan Yu looked up at Daniel in surprise.

"But don't worry, I'm going to retire after returning home this time. After I retire, I want to find a job in civil aviation and then take you to California ... "

Daniel wiped the tears from Lan Yu's eyes and pointed to Ryan and said to her, "After I left, Ryan was still in Yokosuka Port, so I asked him to take care of you for me. If you have any difficulties, you can ask him to help you solve them. "

"You, when are you leaving?" Aquamarine choked and asked him.

"The day after tomorrow."

Unconsciously, Daniel has left Yokosuga for more than two months. They keep in touch with each other online every day.

Autumn quietly came to Yokohama. That night, Lan Yu showed her visa application form to the United States in front of the camera and told Daniel excitedly that she had filled out the form and was going to send it to the Japanese consulate in the United States in the near future.

Daniel was silent for a moment in front of the camera, and his smile faded from his cheek:

"Lan Yu, I just got an order from the base today to send me to Afghanistan ..."

"What? You mean I won't see you this time? "

Daniel looked up and stared at aquamarine deeply through the lens:

"Come back when I get back."

"How long will it take?"

"It's two months in the sea ... I think I'll be back before Christmas. You came to California to spend Christmas with me and my family. "

Daniel's mouth hung with an encouraging smile:

"It won't be long. I have reported my retirement to the base and started looking for a job in the airline ... "

Aquamarine's heart was lifted. She wanted to touch Daniel's face, trying to suppress that bad feeling. ...

On the day Daniel left the base, he sent her a voice message.

In the message, he told Lan Yu that he might not be able to keep a daily video call with her after going out to sea, but he would try to write her a short message or leave a message.

"Don't worry, we will meet again soon; You must wait for me. "

five

After a night of strong wind and winter rain, the leaves of the phoenix tree beside the road outside the window were blown off by the autumn wind and stood there bare, like a child shivering in the cold wind.

Lan Yu sat up from the tatami and turned on his mobile phone to check Daniel's news.

She hasn't heard from Daniel for a week.

She put down her mobile phone, went to the bathroom, turned on the faucet of the shower and soaked herself in hot water fog.

"Aquamarine, aquamarine ..."

In last night's dream, she seemed to hear Daniel crying.

She had a strange dream that Daniel was flying in the blue sky with a fighter plane, while she was running on the ground with his plane:

"Daniel, Daniel ..." Lan Yu shouted at Daniel as he ran, but Daniel just looked straight ahead and flew to an unknown place.

Aquamarine was awakened by a dream, and her heart was pounding. She just kept her eyes open in the dark all night, until the sky outside the window gradually turned a fish-belly grey, the wheels of the early bus on the street ran over the road downstairs, and the footsteps of early pedestrians sounded on the sidewalk.

Daniel, where are you? Aquamarine silently calling.

The cell phone in the living room rang. Lan Yu wrapped himself in a towel and ran to the front of the tea table to pick up the phone.

"... Heller, is that Lan Yu? I'm Ryan. I want to tell you about Daniel. Can you come to the base today? "

In a hurry to ask for leave from the company in Tokyo, Lan Yu arrived in Yokosuga and saw Ryan standing at the exit of the tram stop waiting for her.

"Daniel ..... is everything all right?" Out of the electric station, aquamarine trotted a few steps, standing in front of Ryan, eager to ask:

"...................." Aquamarine in Ryan's dark brown eyes saw the pain and regret:

"Daniel's plane was shot down last week, and the body was found, but it was burned beyond recognition ..."

Aquamarine legs a soft, kneeling in the bustling electric station.

Ryan stepped forward to help her and told her with tears that although Daniel had left the Yokosuga base, the comrades in the base still wanted to hold a funeral to see him off.

"When Daniel left Yokosuga, he told everyone that his girlfriend was in Yokohama and came from China. He said he would come back and take you back to California to get married ... "

Aquamarine silently took the bunch of Bai Baihe from Ryan's hand, followed behind Ryan and walked towards the base.

She can't see the road ahead clearly, and she can't stop the tears like heavy rain.

? six

In a flash, Daniel has been killed for half a year.

Lan Yu moved out of Yokohama and moved to Osaka.

Before moving, she went to California and visited Daniel's parents and sister with Ryan.

Daniel's mother hugged her and cried softly.

Lan Yu sat quietly under Daniel's bedroom window. In the garden in early summer, he looked at the old photos of Daniel and his mother and listened to the smiling mother calmly telling the story of his son before his death.

Before leaving Daniel's house, the mother gave Lan Yu a photo of her son wearing a marine uniform before his death, thanking him with tears.

"Mom, I will come to see you often ..." Lan Yu said to Daniel's mother.

She took the photos back to Japan and put them on the bedside table in front of the bedroom bed. Every day after work, I will tell Daniel's thoughts to his photos.

One night, she suddenly heard Daniel say to her:

"Don't cry, you have to be happy for me. Your life is still very long, cheer up and find the person who is waiting for you and loves you ... "

Aquamarine woke up from a dream; I turned on the lamp and saw Daniel smiling at her on the bedside table.

That weekend, she took the Shinkansen back to Yokosuga, stood silently at the seaside outside the cafe where they first met, crushed a bunch of red roses in her hand and scattered them into the blue sky in the sea breeze. ...

Petals are blown to the blue sea, and the sea ripples with the breeze, just like Daniel's smiling eyes. ...

"Goodbye, Yokosuga ..." She said softly, knowing that she would never forget the young man in the navy uniform; But she wants to live happily, for him and the love he brings her. ...

? postscript

I remember the autumn of 20 16, when I passed a US military cemetery on the outskirts of San Francisco, I saw many tombstones and their families standing in the autumn sunshine, holding flowers to pay homage to the dead.

The tombstone is a young smiling face in military uniform. At that moment, my heart was shocked. ...

According to official statistics, from 200 1 to now, the number of American soldiers killed in Afghanistan alone has reached 1833. ...

People call for world peace and stop evil wars and waste young and innocent lives. ...