‘SEE YOU MORNING’ 074 The Bond of Love Will Not Vanish

It was the last workday of the week. With that lingering thought of Sienna in his mind, Li Haojun’s enthusiasm for work seemed to have increased significantly. No, it wasn’t enthusiasm for the fisheries work itself, but rather an eagerness to return to the place where he longed to see her again.
As he drove up to the company gates, something seemed odd. There were many people gathered here today, all wearing long black trench coats or dresses. In the distance, a quadcopter flying car was parked.
Two men and two women. The two men were burly, looking like bodyguards. The two women—he didn’t recognize them.
“Ethan, good morning,” a familiar voice called out just as Li Haojun was about to walk past them.
Li Haojun stopped dead in his tracks, frozen there. He didn’t dare turn his head to look at the person greeting him. He knew all too well that the voice belonged to Sienna. A bad premonition washed over him; he didn’t want to face it.
“Ethan, good morning. I’m leaving. I came this morning to say goodbye.”
Li Haojun slowly turned his head. It was indeed Sienna, dressed in a black trench coat, the hood pulled up to cover her hair and cheeks. Only when facing her directly could he see her features. He never expected this to be their final meeting before parting.
“What? You’re leaving?” Li Haojun asked softly, unable to believe this day had arrived so soon. The last two words, “leaving,” were swallowed back into his throat before they could fully escape.
Sensing the heavy atmosphere, Sienna turned to the side and introduced someone.
“Ethan, this is my mother.”
“Pleased to meet you, Madam,” Li Haojun hurried to greet her, a fleeting thought crossing his mind to beg her mother to persuade Sienna to stay.
Turning back to look at Sienna’s face, he couldn’t help but ask,
“Where are you going?”
In this moment of farewell, Sienna no longer wore her usual smile.
“Mom, come pick me up.”
“Oh, alright,” Li Haojun nodded, feeling somewhat relieved. He wanted to ask, Will you come back? but he swallowed the question. He also wanted to ask, Did you bring the dress I gave you? but he said nothing. He simply stared into Sienna’s eyes, not knowing what to say.
Sienna forced a faint smile onto her fair face and said,
“Ethan, I’m leaving. Take care of yourself.”
“Okay. You too... take care on your journey,” Li Haojun replied, feeling as if his entire body had solidified, his lips barely moving to form the words. He didn’t know how to say goodbye. He didn’t even know what he should do next. Should he give her a hug? Or a kiss? But who was he to her?
They stood there for a long time. Sienna made no further move, only saying,
“Goodbye,” before turning to leave.
Li Haojun watched them depart, boarding the flying car, watching Sienna’s silhouette behind the window as the vehicle lifted into the sky, turned away, flew further and further until it vanished beyond the horizon.
He had rushed here with such high spirits, only to endure a morning like this—it felt like the end of the world.
Sitting down at his office desk and opening his work computer, he noticed the daily red exclamation mark—the KPI unfinished warning—was gone. Usually, he hated seeing it; today, he hated that it had disappeared without a trace. Why couldn’t it leave even a shred of memory behind? Frustrated, Li Haojun shoved the keyboard back with a loud clatter.
He got up and walked to the window. The blue water and clear sky seemed to have lost their luster. If he wasn’t going to look at the scenery, he would just let the wind blow. He opened the window, pulled over a nearby piano stool, and leaned his upper body against the windowsill, letting time flow past him.
After an indeterminate amount of time, the notification sound from his communication terminal rang out. It took Li Haojun quite a while to pull himself together enough to check the new message. It was Lily, informing him that his service assignment in Kalispell was over.
What perfectly timed relief. Li Haojun didn’t know whether to feel fortunate. Before he could decide, another message came in. After lunch, Lily was taking him to take over the factory John used to manage, located in Cut Bank, Montana.
After lunch, he briefly said goodbye to his colleagues and drove alone to Kalispell Airport. Under the same afternoon sun, Sienna’s figure still lingered in Li Haojun’s mind.
The airport was desolate, with almost no planes taking off or landing. After waiting for a while, Lily taxied in with that antique single-engine red biplane. Li Haojun felt a twinge of resistance inside, constantly worrying about its reliability.
Lily didn’t get out. She simply taxied to a stop nearby, turned the nose around, braked, waved, and waited for Li Haojun to board. She was still dressed in her flight jacket, but today she wasn’t wearing a flight cap, only a pair of sunglasses.
Li Haojun climbed up skillfully, settled into the passenger seat in the rear cockpit, and said,
“Good afternoon, Lily,” moving briskly, as if trying to escape this place.
“How do you like Kalispell?” Lily asked, maneuvering the plane toward the runway as she looked back.
“It’s okay,” What else could he say? He had just lost someone he cared for deeply.
“This place is special,” Lily murmured, as if talking to herself or seeking an opinion.
“Oh, yeah,” Li Haojun responded absentmindedly. He didn’t want to discuss the details he had discovered with Lily. He didn’t care; after all, the person he cared about didn’t live here anyway.
“We’re going to take over the factory in Cut Bank. John used to be there, but he left a long time ago. With no one managing it, it’s on the verge of shutting down.”
“Got it.”
“Exactly. You’ll find that place is very special too,” Lily shouted over the noise. Full throttle takeoff drowned out any further conversation.
Special? Would there be a Sienna there too? The first thing Li Haojun thought of was still her. Even in such unrelated matters, his thoughts drifted to her. That longing, which had vanished beyond the horizon, seemed to have become his eternal pain.
As the plane flew east and crossed the Apicuni Mountains, the air currents grew turbulent. Looking down, Li Haojun saw white mountain peaks, emerald green valleys, brown rocky shoals shaded with gradients of blue, and those glimmering small blue lakes. It looked as if someone had carelessly scattered sapphires, brown agates, and jadeite onto a pearl-white brocade—sparkling and dazzling.
After crossing the mountain range, the journey was nearly halfway done. Below, adjacent to the ridges, were river shoals, followed by plains.
After a little over an hour, they reached their destination. Instead of landing at the city airport, Lily willfully landed directly on an open space next to the factory.
Looking over the entire factory from afar, it truly matched Lily’s description: dilapidated buildings, rusty storage tanks, and large-scale equipment that looked like a bulk agricultural primary processing plant.
Li Haojun first followed Lily to obtain management authority for the factory, downloaded the data, and conducted a brief inspection. By then, it was about time, and the two set off on their return journey.
This weekend, Li Haojun arrived home earlier than usual. The good news was that he no longer had to go to Kalispell every day and would have more time to spend with Qin Wenjing. The bad news was that he would never see Sienna again.
At the dinner table, Li Haojun took the initiative to tell Qin Wenjing what had happened that day. Qin Wenjing didn’t offer much commentary; instead, she held a spoon in her mouth and looked into Li Haojun’s eyes.
Today, she had pinned her hair up at the back with an imitation jade hairpin. She wore a semi-sheer white deep V-neck top with ties at the back, featuring ruffled waves at the collar and shoulders. The fabric draped beautifully, highlighting the elegance of her neck and shoulders while accentuating the graceful curves of her waist and chest. She paired it with a black knee-length A-line skirt with lace trim and a pair of white strappy high-heeled sandals.
She looked at him for a while, then took the spoon out of her mouth and asked,
“Do you think it’s possible that Sienna is an alien?”
“Ah, yes, why didn’t I think of that?” Li Haojun nodded.
“You said she was particularly insensitive to female privacy,” Qin Wenjing said, fiddling with the spoon in her hand before looking up into Li Haojun’s eyes again.
“She didn’t grow up here, so that’s why she is the way she is.”
“Yes, how did I not think of that? It really is, ‘I cannot see the true face of Mount Lu, simply because I am within the mountain,’” Li Haojun added.
“You aren’t in the mountain; you are in a dream,” Qin Wenjing finished, her face expressionless as she stared into Li Haojun’s eyes. For a moment, neither could hold back and burst into laughter.
The post-dinner chat ended in laughter. After clearing the table and washing the dishes, Qin Wenjing asked with a grin,
“Want to go for a walk?”
“Not really. I’m a bit tired today.”
“Sienna is waiting for you on a star,” Qin Wenjing said, looking into Li Haojun’s eyes.
He wasn’t amused; only a bitter smile flashed across his face.
Outside in the evening, although it was late spring and early summer, the air was still biting cold. Li Haojun took a deep breath of the cool air and slowly exhaled, as if trying to dispel some of the gloom in his chest. He looked up at the deep night sky, where the stars were dim.
“How do you feel about your new factory appointment?” Qin Wenjing asked as they walked side by side.
“Old factory. No technical skills required.”
“Now that you don’t have to go to Kalispell every day, you’ll have more time to spend with me, right?”
“I suppose so. Let’s go back to the way things were before, okay?”
“Sure,” Qin Wenjing said, tightening her grip on his arm, then complaining coquettishly,
“Oh, wait, that’s not good either. If we go back, those two girls, Kesiya and Malaya, will come to fight me for you again.”
“Oh, then let’s go back further.”
“Hmm, that’s good, no one fighting you for me. It’s just a pity you wouldn’t be able to talk or move,” Qin Wenjing teased, her tone serious as she emphasized each word, poking fun at him.
“Oh, then let’s go back even further,” Li Haojun replied, his mood still low.
“Oh, send you back into Lily’s arms, huh?”
Hearing Qin Wenjing say this, Li Haojun perked up. He always wanted to know about the past, so he quickly pressed on,
“What about before that?”
“Before that?” Qin Wenjing smiled deliberately, refusing to answer immediately. She looked into his eyes, and after a while, she said,
“There’s nothing before that.”
“Oh, then I must be quite loyal,” he said. At that, both of them laughed.
The evening breeze grew cooler. Li Haojun wrapped his arms tightly around Qin Wenjing’s waist and turned to head back. He looked up at the star-filled sky.
“Which star is she watching you from?” Qin Wenjing’s voice was low, calm, and serious as she gazed at Li Haojun.
Li Haojun scanned the vast starry sky, some bright, some dim, the three stars of Orion’s Belt visible, but the Milky Way lacked its usual brilliance. In the deep night sky, the starlight seemed to sink deeper.
After staring for a moment, Li Haojun turned back, looking at Qin Wenjing, and said,
“On that blue star.”
“Blue? Is it very bright?”
“No. There are blue oceans and green forests there. She is watching me, watching my eyes.” With that, Li Haojun embraced Qin Wenjing.
The stars in the night sky blinked, gazing down upon the lovers.