Chapter2

  Yun Heng had imagined a thousand scenarios for meeting his closest relatives, but none of them were like the actual encounter. He felt a mix of emotions: his nose was sour, he shed tears, and his feelings were overwhelming, just like the Huangmei opera scripts his mother used to love, which would move people deeply. Or perhaps it was awkward, unfamiliar, with both sides being cautious, due to the distance of time creating a temporary sense of estrangement that couldn't be eliminated.

  Every possibility has been thought of, but none is as real as the scene in front of us. This reality is called reality because it negates all assumptions.

  "What's wrong with you, Si Guang?" The old man's sharp eyes slowly swept over Wen Heng's body and fixed on the young man who was drenched from head to toe like a drowned chicken.

  "I was just playing with Ah Xi earlier and accidentally..." Si Gua didn't mind at all, smiling easily.

  The majestic old man nodded slightly and immediately shifted his gaze to Wen Heng's body.

  A Heng's heart was racing fast, feeling time had stopped at this moment. The old man's gaze made her have nowhere to hide.

  "What was your name before?"

  "Cloud scale." Ah Heng grew up in the south since childhood, although he had learned Mandarin, but speaking it was extremely awkward and tongue-tied, so one word at a time, his words sounded clumsy.

  "According to the generation name, when your mother was pregnant with you, I had given you a name, Si Er. However, this name has been taken by someone else, so you will still use your original name, and from now on, you will be called Wen Heng." The old man murmured, looking at his granddaughter in front of him, and spoke after a while.

  Occupied by someone? Ah Heng was somewhat 'lost' and 'confused', his gaze involuntarily carefully looked towards Si Gyun, finally fixing on his hand. The youth clenched his fist without a trace, the faint blue veins, water droplets at the cuff slid down his wrist, one drop after another falling continuously.

  "Zhang Shuo, take Wen Heng to rest." The old man instructed the middle-aged woman standing beside him, then looked at Si Guang "Go and clean up, such a big person, not like a word."

  The deeper the love, the stronger the criticism.

  As Ah Heng followed Zhang Shu up the curved wooden stairs on the side of the building, this sentence flashed through his mind.

  Right and wrong are contrasted, even a teacher in a small town has taught it before.

  When she was very young, her father told her that affection cannot be calculated by addition and subtraction. If there is, it is a selfless dedication without any return; if not, it is zero, and there is no middle ground for petty calculations.

  "We're here." Zhang Shu walked to the corner of the second floor, opened the bedroom door, and looked at Ah Heng, her face a bit unnatural.

  "Thank... thank... you." Ah Heng's voice was warm and gentle, with a hint of Wu dialect in his Mandarin accent that sounded somewhat comical.

  Zhang Shu looked at Ah Heng for a long time, finally sighed and turned away.

  Ah Heng pulled the suitcase into the bedroom, but suddenly became disoriented.

  Warm blue color, delicate and warm design, everywhere reveals the breath of life, delicate blue shell wind chime, soft enough to fill her four big beds, revealing a warm atmosphere quilt, has anyone else lived here before?

  A Heng felt a bit cramped, standing on the blue carpet, sizing up everything in front of him.

  In a room that didn't match her at all, as if she had intruded into someone else's private space, Ah Heng was at a loss, awkwardly putting down her suitcase and lightly sitting in the glass swivel chair beside the glass round table.

  He lowered his head, but saw on the round table several exquisite straw dolls scattered all over. There was a grandfather with white hair and a majestic beard, a grandmother with curved eyebrows and a cross pendant, a father in a naval uniform smoking a cigarette, a gentle mother with beautiful hair, and a boy with raised eyebrows and deep dimples. Was this... the Wen family?

  Ah Heng looked at those dolls with a silly expression, her tense mood relaxed strangely, she stretched out her hand and gently stroked their contours.

  "Don't touch Er'er's things!" Ah Heng was startled and his hands trembled, in an instant, the doll fell to the carpet.

  She turned around and stared blankly at the 'girl' who suddenly appeared in front of her, her nose strangely sour.

  When she was young, she knew that she didn't look like her mother or father at all. Often, people would point and whisper behind her back. Although it made her uncomfortable, every time she would just squat by the river until it was time for her to prepare medicine.

  My mother is a talented woman from a family of scholars, who has read many books and is a well-known female scholar in the town.

  "Mom, why don't I look like you?" she once asked her mother.

  "Ah Heng looks good like this." Her mother smiled faintly at her, "Far mountain eyebrows are more elegant than willow leaf eyebrows."

  A Heng has distant mountain eyebrows, clear and gentle eyes, with a hint of clarity like mountains and water. Yun Mu has typical willow eyebrows, the delicate beauty of a Jiangnan woman.

  The girl in front of me has a pair of distant mountain-shaped eyebrows that are extremely delicate.

  Ah Heng stood up, staring intently at her as she walked to his side, gently crouched down, and picked up the fallen doll with a look of pity, before standing back up.

  She stiffened her body and stared at the 'daughter' without blinking.

  But the woman seemed as if she hadn't seen her, with a gentle and elegant demeanor, turned around and quietly walked past her face, quietly leaving.

  Ah Heng looked at the back of the 'daughter', and suddenly, a sense of self-abasement that he didn't dare to confirm his own existence slowly released from the bottom of his heart.

  Who is she? This child would rather be crushed into dust in the air and become untouchable.

  Ignorance is more cruel than abandonment.

  Mom, such a warm and soft word. Ah Heng's mom.

  Mom, mom.

  Ah Heng hugged his suitcase and almost cried out in shame.

  That evening, unexpectedly, only the grandfather of the host family attended. He asked her many questions, Ah Heng was so nervous that she often spoke incoherently, until the sharp-minded old man furrowed his brow.

  "I've already made arrangements with the school, so you can go to school with Si Gyun tomorrow. If there's anything you don't understand, ask him."

  In the early morning, Ah Heng met the secretary who picked her up in B city again, only this time with a different car.

  Si Guang sat in the front passenger seat, and A Heng sat behind Si Guang on the same side.

  Ah Heng, from a young age to adulthood, came to the north for the first time, and everything was novel. The excessively crowded crowds, the charming Beijing dialect with a strong life breath, the towering and neat high-rise buildings, the square and exquisite siheyuan, in the same city, different charm, yet so wonderfully blended together.

  "Traffic congestion is severe ahead." Secretary Li, with a gentle smile and an inquiring tone, turned to Siyun.

  "It's close to school here, let's get off first, Uncle Li?" Si Gua thought for a moment, looking at the long dragon that had been stuck at the intersection for nearly twenty minutes, and politely smiled in response.

  Ah Heng carried his school bag and followed Si Gyun from behind, keeping a distance of just one arm's length.

  After a long time, if there was no Yan Xi by his side, Ah Heng stood beside Si Guang, always at arm's length, looking somewhat awkward. At first, Si Guang didn't notice, but later discovered that among a group of friends, only towards him did they behave this way, and even with the demeanor of young gentlemen, he couldn't help but feel annoyed.

  "Little sister, I'm your brother, brother!" Xiang Ru was gently placing her hand on Ah Heng's head, half-jokingly.

  "I knew it." Ah Heng replied calmly and honestly.

  It's precisely because he's her brother that she clearly remembers him not liking her getting close to him.

  Such cautious and careful treasuring, Si Guang would never understand, just as he didn't understand why he had given up Ah Heng time and again for the sake of Si Er.

  Si Guang chose a small path, passing through a winding and narrow alley, Ah Heng lowered his head, silently memorizing the route, until he walked to the intersection exit at the corner of the street, until he saw a crowd of busy people.

  Fate is so powerful because it can stand at the end and look at the coincidences you've set up for it along the way, and those coincidences, although they often make you praise its irreplaceability in your heart, but looking back, are actually so natural and inevitable that they seem like a tiny piece of a puzzle that was almost overlooked, yet ultimately exists to make it complete.

  When Ah Heng saw Yan Xi for the second time, her boy was sitting at a street corner, "mixed" among a group of old men, intently lowering his head to sip the creamy white bean juice in a coarse ceramic bowl. His slender white fingers were supporting the edge of the bowl, and his soft black hair fell naturally along his forehead, covering his profile, only revealing his high nose bridge. Every single fine hair was clearly visible, but his face was completely blank.

  At that time, it was 7:58.

  "Ashi, hurry up! You're slow!" Xī Guāng patted his shoulder and strode forward with long steps.

  Ah Heng stared silently at the young man, watching as he lazily raised his slender finger in the direction of Si Guang, but never lifted his head.

  Ah Xi.

  Sounds like a girl's name.

  Watching the young man's hair accidentally sweep away the soy sauce stain, Ah Heng smiled faintly and gently took out a white handkerchief from his pocket, silently placing it on the wooden table that had accumulated a layer of grime, before leaving.

  Ah Heng, in her previous home, spoiled Zai Zai, who was only two years older, but had a strong "older sister like mother" meaning, always feeding rice and "medicine" mouthful by mouthful to Zai Zai, patiently taking care of him before eating herself.

  Later, Eve saw Ah Heng spoil Xian Xi into an unscrupulous and arrogant person who dared to blow up a plane with hand grenades, and her heart swelled with anger.

  "Xī, you can make as much noise as you want, but sooner or later the master will take you back!"

  Xian Xi kicked Eve hard and then looked at Ah Heng with pitiful starry eyes.

  "He dares." Ah Heng gazed calmly at the sky and spoke in a gentle tone.

  "You say you're just a little girl, young and inexperienced, but how can your 'lust' be so strong?" Eve got up from the ground, beating her chest and stomping her feet, almost vomiting blood.

  "I'm used to it." Ah Heng smiled, brushing off the snowflakes on Xian Xi's shoulder, and spoke softly.

  "So, Xīn Xi isn't the first master you've spoiled like this?" Eve shot a glance at Xīn Xi, swept away her gloominess, and smiled with ill intentions, revealing her pearly white teeth.

  "No." Ah Heng's voice was warm and mellow, completely devoid of the sharp tone characteristic of B City people.

  Then, Yan Xi started to get entangled, clinging to Ah Heng like an octopus and coquettishly asking "How can Ah Heng be as good to others as he is to me? Why wasn't I the first one?"

  Ah Heng shut his mouth and refused to speak again.

  Why is it like this, why wasn't it the first one, but instead the last one...