The people Alexander Sumrs sent out ultimately failed to find Atra Blanc and Clyde Sumrs.
Their travels were spontaneous and lacked any planning. They could linger at an interesting place for over a month or leave a dull place the very next day, flying to another attraction.
Language posed no barrier at all, as Pete was like a human translation machine, fluently switching between English, German, and French and even managing to utter a few phrases in Spanish.
They went to Tahiti, the Aegean Sea, Provence... Atra’s favorite was a beautiful town surrounded by the Southern Alps called Queenstown.
It felt like a fairy tale world here; the lake displayed shades of blue, the maple forest interwove fiery red and golden hues, and snowy mountains could be seen in the distance—serene and marvelous, nearly every corner was a scene.
The fad Lord of the Rings village was also established here, another unique sight.
The two strolled hand in hand along the exotic streets. There was a bustling handmade chocolate shop by the roadside, the slightly bitter sweet scent of chocolate was quite alluring.
Pete didn’t want Atra to squeeze in, so he let her rest on a wooden bench by the road while he queued up to buy chocolate.
While waiting for Pete to return, a plump wild duck waddled over, followed by a string of fluffy little ducklings, exceptionally cute.
Atra’s eyes followed them.
The mother duck waddled a while and turned into a green belt where street trees were planted. The belt was bordered by a ring of bricks, slightly rising about ten centiters off the ground, which the ducklings couldn’t cross, jumping and flapping their wings desperately.
A few managed to flap across, but so didn’t.
Seeing this, Atra couldn’t help smiling and went over to gently lift their little behinds, helping the ducks up.
Just then, she heard Pete calling her na: "Atra! ... Atra, Atra!"
She turned to look and saw him standing by the bench, holding a paper bag, nervously looking around.
Atra wanted to respond to him, but sohow, hearing him call out to her again and again stirred an unusual emotion in her heart. She opened her mouth but couldn’t make a sound.
They weren’t far apart, and after a while of searching, Pete quickly spotted Atra by the tree.
He ran over, wrapped Atra in his arms, and with a resigned tone said, "My darling, I’ve been calling you for ages, why didn’t you respond? I almost called the police..."
A rush went through Atra’s head, and words slipped out: "Don’t call that."
He chuckled lightly, "What, feeling shy? Don’t worry, no one knows us here."
Atra didn’t speak. She slowly reached out and embraced his waist, burying herself more closely in his arms, feeling an inexplicable sourness in her heart, a deep sadness...
...
At night, she dreamt again of that green grassy riverbank.
Her cat was running ahead, and she chased behind, suddenly hearing soone call her na.
Turning to look, she saw him standing among the sparse trees, fresh green leaves sifting golden sunlight onto his body, reflecting in his eyes... His eyes were truly beautiful, so dark, yet so bright.
But who was he?
She stared at him, dazed.
The him in the dream smiled wantonly, his tone casually lazy, saying, "You do it on purpose, forcing to call you darling just to get your attention."
Then, Atra woke up.
Looking at the person beside her on the pillow, a veil in her mind lifted, mories pouring in and tears flowing uncontrollably with their salty and bitter taste.
With trembling hands, she gently traced his face, looking for the traces in her mory.
He was thinner and older...
Lines had ford at the corners of his eyes and many white hairs grew at his temples...
At his age, he shouldn’t have had gray hair.
He was the youth she cherished in her heart, ant to laugh freely and fiercely in the wind, not to be like this now.
It’s not right, really not right...
Clyde Sumrs woke up, opening his eyes to see Atra shedding silent tears.
"Why are you so silly?" she whispered, "I can’t ruin you, you should find another girl."
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