Chapter 93 (1/2)

When Lin Wenxi’s car drove past the former compound of the countryside government office, he loudly insisted on getting down.

“I want to take a look! Just a look!” Lin Wenxi yelled.

“What’s there to see?” Lin Ziwei’s voice rose alongside his anger.

Lin Wenxi swiftly lowered the window and poked his neck out. In a moment of desperation, Hong Xuan pulled up by the road and steadily stopped the car. After the car was unlocked, Lin Wenxi threw the door open and flew out of the car so quickly that his father couldn’t grab him in time.

“What’s going on, Hong Xuan?” Lin Ziwei asked, easing his tone.

“Brother Wei, I watched this kid grow up. His happiest childhood days were all spent here. Besides, the building will be demolished soon. Let him take a look so he can have something to remember it by,” Hong Xuan answered.

“You’ve become sentimental.” Lin Ziwei was unhappy.

“Heh. Wenxi sometimes calls me his second dad, so I must have some right to educate him.” Hong Xuan smiled with some embarrassment.

“I agree,” Huang Xiya said, smiling. She pushed open the door and exited the car to go after Lin Wenxi.

Lin Wenxi entered the compound, and then the innermost room on the right side of the corridor on the ground floor, absentmindedly. He had spent nine years of his childhood here and it took another nine years before he returned again. Entering this place, he felt like he had once again become that inexperienced child. Was he four or five years old then?

He found the familiar white walls and red-painted corners, familiar wooden door with mottled yellow paint and pale blue screen windows inside. The furniture inside the building was all different now. Perhaps, it would be more accurate to say that even if the furniture hadn’t changed, Lin Wenxi wouldn’t be able to remember how they looked like anyway. He walked down the smooth limestone floor and found his childhood bedroom. Looking at it now, the room was much smaller than he remembered. However, the corner of the room was as spacious as ever. The wall was covered with messy handwritings made from charcoal pencils and mud-soaked wooden sticks. He had never allowed his parents to clean it up.

“A frog has four thighs…”

“I’m 7 cm tall now.” It ought to be 70 cm. Lin Wenxi didn’t know if he wanted to cry or laugh after seeing his childhood handwriting.

“I’m Yuan Yuan.”

Lin Wenxi stared fixedly at the last line of large handwriting—”Fangfang is my brother! He’ll protect me!”

Shock jolted him. Even his scalp felt numb. It was as if the time was rapidly reversing, turning him into that child not even a meter tall. The charcoal pencil handwritings were scribbled messily on the corner of the walls with shaky hands. Deep inside, however, these words contained his truest and purest desire. And the two neatly-written words at the end of the sentence—”I will.” Those were the promise that Fangfang wrote down while looking steadily at him back then.

Lin Wenxi reached out to caress the two words. He feared that he would smudge the writing, yet he also wished to touch them with force. For a moment, he didn’t know what to do.

His childhood memories grew manically like feelers. From the first time that Fangfang pulled him from behind the door to play, to the time Fangfang wiped his tears after he got a harsh scolding from his parents, to Fangfang’s companionship through the four seasons. For a little more than a year, it was as if the two of them had never left each other. Who knew that they would instantly lose contact upon their separation, never communicating for the next 14 years? He suddenly remembered the white poplar tree he saw on his way. It was tall, lean, and strong with lush green leaves. Could it be the same tree that he and Fangfang planted?

The white poplar tree was now more than 30 cm tall. Judging by the spot it was planted in, Lin Wenxi knew it was the same tree that they planted 14 years ago. Back then, he didn’t know how to plant a seedling and tried to bury the whole thing in the ground. It had put Fangfang in quite a bit of panic.

“That’s not a seed! How can you bury it?” That was what Fangfang told him back then.

Suddenly, Lin Wenxi burst out laughing—”When this tree grows tall, I’ll come back and count the stars with you.”