https://ifunny.co/picture/today-the-librarian-informed-me-i-had-a-20-year-4ceXtFFm8
“… holds a grudge like your local public library.”
Back in college, I was once denied registration for a new semester. The reason? One school library book that I didn’t return.
It was near the end of the summer vacation. The school was out and I
moved back home for the vacation. Back then, we had to register in
person, and the school campus was more than 35 kilometers away, so I
took a train, then a bus, and then hiked my way up a hill to the
school—all in all the trip took me about four hours.
When the girl manning the desk told me I couldn’t register because of
a library book due, I was puzzled, because I didn’t remember I borrowed
a book and not returning it. She handed me a printout with the title of
the book on it. I didn’t recognize the title.
In any case, I had to locate the said book. I had a rented room near
the school with most of my school books and stuff in it, so I went there
first. I searched frantically and couldn’t find the book. To continue
the search I headed back home. After the reverse four-hour trip
returning home, I still couldn’t find the book. I was distraught, and
still I had to find the damn book, so I took a proverbial big breath and
started the trip yet again back to my rental place, hoping I’d
overlooked something.
To make the story short, four hours later I found the book. It was in
a pile of books that I bounded with a rope when I moved to this rental
place at the beginning of the summer vacation. With the book in my
hands, now I remembered I did borrow this English novel from the
library—Moment in Peking by Lin Yutang(*1).
When I first got the novel, I tried to read it, but after a few pages
in it proved to be difficult, so I put it down and soon forgot all
about it. I knew the book’s famous Chinese title but I failed to
memorize its English title, and that’s why it didn’t ring a bell when I
first saw the title on the printout. The next day I returned the novel,
paid a small fine, and completed my registration.
(*1) Lin wrote the book in English, which was later translated to Chinese and titled 京華煙雲.
The novel is available on Internet Archive(archive.org). You can search
the site, or find the link on this book’s Wikipedia page.
