153 The Little Girl Within the Memory (1/2)

Her mother looked at her in the eye and passed the books to her. ”Take a look. You've always loved reading every since you were young.”

Xia Qingyi took the books, felt the heaviness of their weight, hugged them to her chest and thanked her mother.

Han Liang had just returned downstairs. He changed his shoes at the entryway, placed his keys on the table, walked to the living room and raised his head and saw the two of them standing at the second story corridor.

”What are you two doing?” Han Liang asked.

”Mom just gave me two books to read,” Xia Qingyi went downstairs hugging two books to her chest and waving another in her hand.

”What kind of books?”

”Mom said they were books I read in the past, ummm... Andersen Fairy Tales. I want to read them again.”

Han Liang scanned through the book title and turned his head around. ”They're children books, and yet you like reading them again.”

Xia Qingyi said, ”It feels good.”

Han Liang asked again, ”What do you want to eat tonight?”

”I'll eat whatever Mom cooks,” Xia Qingyi was already sitting on the sofa and casually flipping through the books, looking indeed like a child reading books. Most of the books had colorful illustrations, and the words were printed in huge sizes with phonetic transcriptions labeled at the bottom, making them look like comic strips.

”You don't have to go for class the day after tomorrow. I requested leave for you, and we'll go to Uncle's house for a meal together.”

”Uncle?” Xia Qingyi remembered the words she had heard them say that night at the door.

”Yup... your uncle heard that you'd returned, he missed you and wanted to see you.”

”Oh.” Xia Qingyi said, ”Is his house far from here?”

”It's pretty far, around a six to seven hours drive from here, we're thinking of staying there for a day.”

Xia Qingyi nodded her head and said okay.

When the day to go to her uncle's house came, Han Liang woke her up early, and the three of them started driving to her uncle's house after they had finished eating at nine in the morning.

Xia Qingyi did not have much impression of this uncle. She could still vaguely remember a few things when her mother told her about her uncle from the back seat, but only a little, and only memories from when she was very young.

Xia Qingyi asked her mother why most of the things she could remember were from when she was young.

Her mother said that their family had interacted more with her uncle when she was young. When she was still young, they would put her at her uncle's house if anything had happened at home, and pick her up after two days. They moved here after she had grown up, and did not contact him much, so it was normal that she did not have much impression of him when she was older.

But Xia Qingyi kept feeling that there was something wrong.

Unknowingly, they soon arrived at her uncle's house. Han Liang got out of the car and opened the car door to carry some things they had brought for her uncle. Xia Qingyi got out and went to the back to help her mother out.

Her uncle's house was located within a rather luxurious looking area. The three of them arrived below the apartment. With his hands full of things, Han Liang said to take the lift straight to the twelfth floor, where her uncle's house was.

Not long after, they stood in front of her uncle's house. Xia Qingyi rang the doorbell, and after a while, someone opened the door. This made her feel surprised.

”You've arrived,” Uncle Luo Su stood at the doorway, smiling. ”Come in quickly, don't remain standing outside.”

He looked plump and sported a buzz cut, making him look amiable. Xia Qingyi did not know whether she had imagined it, but she felt like her uncle had been staring at her ever since she had entered.

”Come, come, come... sit on the sofa... are you thirsty? I'll bring some water for you to drink,” Luo Su hurried to the kitchen.

They sat on the sofa. Only Xia Qingyi was a little cautious and sat in a rather uptight manner, her hands placed on top of her knees. She was a little surprised that her uncle passed a cup of water to her first, and hurriedly thanked him as she accepted the cup from him.

Luo Su sat at the sofa on her side after he had finished handing out the water and looked at her. Xia Qingyi felt a little scared seeing him stare at her, and carefully asked, ”Uncle... is there something you want to say?”

Luo Su smiled and shook his head. ”No, it's just that I haven't seen you for a long time.”

”Didn't Mom say that I would occasionally come and visit you here in the past?”

Luo Su glanced at her mother, and quickly said, ”Ah? Yes... but you would come for only once a year, and plus you had an accident earlier on, so I haven't seen you for a year and a half.”

Luo Su looked at Xia Qingyi and muttered to himself, ”I almost can't believe that you're actually back.”