She Is the Only Solution

After my genius ex-boyfriend died, I learned that he had been suffering from severe depression all along. I received a letter covered in mathematical formulas I couldn’t understand, along with four words: “Dedicated to Meng Yao.” Back four years in the past, it was my turn to find the solution to the problem and dedicate it to him. The news exploded: the youngest Fields Medal winner had died of depression. In the photo, old and new scars crisscrossed his wrist, staining the entire bathtub red. The report said, “He had been suffering from major depression for the past four years.” I couldn’t believe it. How could someone so favored by heaven have fallen to such a state? I was so devastated that I fainted. Half asleep and half awake, I dreamed of our high school days. Another impossibly difficult math problem unraveled effortlessly under Lu Ye’s pen. I sighed and muttered, “Lu Ye, for you, what kind of problem in this world actually counts as hard?” Lu Ye stared straight ahead and fell silent for two seconds. “Life.” I laughed and teased him. “Lu the Genius, your Chinese just crashed and burned. Life is a noun. It doesn’t count as a problem.” Back then, I didn’t understand what that word meant to him. Four years ago-that was the year we broke up.