The weather improved the next day, and Shen Zhiyi’s fever had completely subsided. She was also a bit more spirited than the day before. She spent so ti sunbathing on the balcony and took the opportunity to reply to a few ssages. When she looked up and gazed into the distance at the cluster of houses below the mountain, she suddenly felt a deep familiarity.
Among those houses seed to be the very place where she lived as a child.
Could it be such a coincidence?
Shen Zhiyi returned to her room and went to look for Pei Yu in the study.
This visit had been a spur-of-the-mont decision. Since Shen Zhiyi’s fever had gone down, Pei Yu had been sporadically dealing with so work-related matters.
He was in a eting, absentmindedly switching tabs and looking at docunts, and did not hear the sound of the door opening until Shen Zhiyi approached him.
Not sure if he had the cara on, Shen Zhiyi kept her distance, gently put down the coffee, and planned to co back and find him later.
Pei Yu, however, lifted his gaze and stretched out his hand toward her.
"Hmm?"
Shen Zhiyi handed him her hand and was pulled to sit down by his side. She glanced at his computer screen, "You’re in a eting."
"Yeah," Pei Yu said, massaging her fingers, "It won’t be a bother."
Shen Zhiyi looked skeptical, not quite believing what he said, and nudged his shoulder, "You should continue with your eting."
"Got sothing to say to ?" Pei Yu wouldn’t let her leave, "Just say it."
"It’s nothing important," Shen Zhiyi said as he wrapped his arm around her waist. She resigned herself to sit quietly, knowing she wasn’t Pei Yu’s boss to mind whether he was attentive to his eting or not. "I was on the balcony just now, and I saw the houses at the foot of the mountain in the distance. Do you know what place that is?"
The villa was situated high above, offering an unobstructed view of the scenery below. Shen Zhiyi hadn’t been in the mood to enjoy it the day before, but after having a look just now, she realized how fortuitous the location was.
Pei Yu lowered his eyes, his long lashes half-obscuring his pupils, making it hard to read his expression. He asked with a casual, half-distracted tone, "Which place?"
"It’s my ho," Shen Zhiyi whispered, blinking her eyes, even she felt it was excessively coincidental, "I lived there when I was a child. I grew up there."
"Such a coincidence?" Pei Yu observed her expression closely, without any hint of emotion. Aside from so surprise and curiosity, there was no other sign, not the skepticism he had anticipated.
He couldn’t quite identify what he was feeling at that mont; whether he felt relieved that she had completely forgotten him from those years, or... regret.
"Do you want to go back and take a look?" he suddenly asked.
"Right now?" Shen Zhiyi saw him nod and hesitated in response.
That ho held no pleasant mories for her; she had dreamt of escape, so once she had managed to get out, she never considered returning.
Yet when Pei Yu asked her, she felt less resistant.
The mories from there weren’t pleasant, but that was still where she grew up.
"I don’t even rember the way," Shen Zhiyi leaned on Pei Yu’s shoulder, her tone hesitant, "It’s been so long, I don’t know how much it has changed."
Were the people who watched her grow up still there?
"We’ll know if we go and see," Pei Yu gently soothed her back, "Let’s go. Show the place where you grew up."
Shen Zhiyi made a decision, "This afternoon."
In the afternoon, after lunch, with the azure sky above them, they took a detour to visit the village at the foot of the mountain.
It had been several years since she left, but not much had changed here. Shen Zhiyi thought she detested this place, yet standing on this land, she still rembered who lived in each household.
"When I left," Shen Zhiyi pointed at a firmly locked gate, "the grandmother of this house had just celebrated her eightieth birthday."
Now the place was desolate; it seed no one had lived here for a long ti.
Not just this house, but most of the houses in the village were empty. Once the younger generation left, they did not want to return, and the elderly faded away with their hos, disappearing in ti.
"This is my ho," Shen Zhiyi stood by a stone wall that had collapsed due to years of neglect. She stepped on two stones and smiled at Pei Yu, "Mr. Pei, have you ever climbed over a wall?"
Pei Yu tilted his head slightly to look at her slender figure against the sunlight and smiled faintly, "No, Miss Shen, could you teach ?"
"It’s simple," Shen Zhiyi was glad she wore pants for the outing. She agilely leaped onto the wall and hopped down into the yard from the stacked stones. "Co on over."
Pei Yu, however, did not appear on top of the wall like she did. As she wondered where he was, the gate beside her creaked and then opened.
Pei Yu strode in leisurely, "Miss Shen’s instructions were not very clear. I think I’ll stick to the front door."
"Huh?" Shen Zhiyi glanced at the lock. "Wasn’t it locked?"
She had locked the door when she left and had thrown away the key at the edge of the village, ready to never return.
"Was it?" Pei Yu secretly pocketed the key. "It opened with just a touch."
A few years ago, when the holiday resort was being constructed, he had visited once, ordered a new set of locks and keys made. He hadn’t been able to find an exact match for the lock. Fortunately, Shen Zhiyi didn’t seem to rember that.
"Maybe the lock is broken from disuse," Shen Zhiyi easily believed his words without dwelling too much on it, and, taking his hand, she led him inside. "I’ll show you my room."
Her room was the smallest in the house with very little furniture. There wasn’t even a wardrobe. The most noticeable piece was a solid wood desk right beside the bed.
"When I left, I didn’t take a lot of things with ," Shen Zhiyi pulled out a wooden box from under the bed. It contained a variety of odds and ends.
Pei Yu leaned against the desk, his gaze dropping to the tabletop where many shallow scratches were scattered. Most of them were simple drawings, the kind with childlike handwriting, likely from her very young years. But there were also a series of ssy words, these carvings much deeper.
He brushed the dust away with his fingertip, slowly making out the words inscribed there.
They were Shen Zhiyi’s words. Sotis she wrote "So tired," other tis "He hit again," and occasionally, she would repeatedly write "I will die here," like a young girl’s prophecy about her own dismal circumstances.
"Found it," Shen Zhiyi’s voice drew Pei Yu’s attention to her as she held a red wristband with a small silver lock charm attached. "It’s the longevity lock my mother made for . I couldn’t wear it as I got bigger, thought I lost it."
The little silver lock was delicate but not valuable; otherwise, her father would have sold it long ago to buy liquor.
Pei Yu was silent for a while before he spoke, his voice slightly hoarse. He looked at the small silver lock engraved with "safety" on the back.
"May I have it?"
Shen Zhiyi was surprised, "You want it?"
"Yes," Pei Yu nodded, "I do."
"Then I’ll give it to you," Shen Zhiyi handed over the small silver lock and smiled at him, "Hope it brings you a long and healthy life."
His fingertips moved slightly, slowly closing his hand into a fist, clutching the small silver lock tightly. Pei Yu silently smiled.
Reviews
All reviews (0)