Chapter Twelve: Grandma Lin's Ring
Grandma Lin came by bus.
She was seventy-eight, a little bent in the back, carrying an old cloth bag printed with "Nangang Supply and Marketing Cooperative." After coming in, she first looked at the old racks on the wall, then at Lily, and her eyes suddenly turned red.
"Just like her," she said. "When you smile, you look like my sister."
Lily poured her a cup of tea. Grandma Lin fished a photograph out of the cloth bag. It had yellowed, its corners curled. In it, a young woman in a blue qipao stood at the entrance of an old factory building, holding a silver jewelry box.
"My sister's name was Lin Xiu," Grandma Lin said. "Thirty years ago, the day before her wedding, she disappeared. Some said she ran off with someone, some said she fell into the river. We searched for a long time and never found her."
Andy took out his father's photograph and set it on the table. In the two photos, the same woman, the same blue qipao, only standing in different places.
Grandma Lin's hands began to tremble.
"Your father..." She looked at Andy. "Your father knew her?"
Andy nodded. "She used to work in our workshop. Later... something happened."
Grandma Lin did not press further. She looked down at the silver jewelry box and reached out to touch the dent in the middle.
"This is hers," she said. "Before her wedding, she put the ring in the box and said she wanted it silver-plated, for a bit of shine. Later the box went missing too. I searched for her half my life and only found this."
Lily had not spoken all along. She looked at the person in the photograph, and tears suddenly fell.
It was the first time she had truly cried. The tears were hot, falling on the back of her hand, startling even herself.
"Grandma," she said softly, "that day she wore a blue qipao, with a silver hairpin in her hair. Before she went out, she turned back and looked once."
Grandma Lin jerked her head up. "How do you know?"
Lily did not answer. She only held the old woman's hand.
That afternoon, Grandma Lin left an old silver hairpin behind, saying, "If you ever see her one day, tell her for me that no one in the family blames her."