Under His Rule ✔

Chapter 26 POV Vincent

A week later, Elsie replied to my message, saying she had returned to the country. I called her and gave her an address.

"A museum?" she asked.

"Yeah."

It's now evening, and the moon is rising in the sky. When Elsie arrives, I'm sitting in a side gallery, boiling water for tea. I hand her a cup of tea, then inquire about her teacher's passing, expressing condolences.

Elsie takes a sip and says, "Thank you."

The venue is quiet now, with only the sound of our breathing.

"I thought you wouldn't agree to meet with me," I say.

Without looking at me, Elsie responds, "I accepted the photos you sent—I didn't expect you to go to Jingdezhen."

"I've been to many places."

Elsie remains silent.

"Let's take a walk," I suggest.

She nods.

Our footsteps echo in the venue, and unconsciously, we reach the third floor. In a spacious platform, there's a lonely bench with an irregular quadrilateral window opposite it, framing a clear moon.

"Why is there nothing in the venue?" Elsie stares for a while.

"Yeah, it hasn't officially opened yet."

I sit down on the bench and, with a smile, ask Elsie, "Would you like to sit down too?"

She walks over.

We sit side by side, with my file bag in the middle, leaving an empty space between us. No one speaks. After a quiet moment, I suddenly speak up.

"I happened to meet Charlotte in China."

"I told you..."

"Please," I interrupt her, looking at her earnestly, "let me finish. It won't take long, trust me."

Elsie doesn't say anything.

"Charlotte is pregnant. The doctor said it's a girl. She went to a Chinese university representing the U.S. for a math exchange, accompanied by her husband. So, I had dinner with them. The whole experience was very pleasant. I wondered if I would feel a bit of loss, but no, not at all."

Elsie just listens quietly.

"I got to know her in my junior year. It was a coincidence that she lived downstairs in our apartment. We both had London accents, and after a few encounters in the elevator, we became familiar. Once our apartment lost internet connection, which happened to be during finals and deadlines, so Josh and I went down to her door to ask for the Wi-Fi password. After that, we became even more acquainted. She's two years older than me, the teaching assistant for our math major, and she took good care of me. It was during this time that I realized I liked her..."

Elsie shifts her posture, slightly bows, and stares at a small patch of cement in front of her.

"She's different from the girls I've met before, very reserved and taciturn, with her own dedicated pursuits and ideals, never going with the flow. It seems like around her, I become more serene. I intentionally cultivated shared habits with her, like morning runs and sticking to a fixed menu. I even tried to study topology and number theory, taking the opportunity to ask her for guidance, spending time alone with her.

She never doubted my sincerity, thinking of me as a diligent student, generously teaching me mathematics. It was only when I was ready to confess to her that I found out she has been single because she's waiting for her first love to come back. And her first love is that naturally disciplined man who wakes up for a morning run every day, quiet, reserved, and diligently disciplined. Their souls are a perfect match."