"You might not know this, but for whom? For Su Rongxing! His precious sister! Su Rongxing’s been causing a ruckus in the office today, just look how aggrieved she is!"
"Exactly, everyone says Su Ronggui is proud and independent, and if anyone could make him bend, it’d probably be Su Rongxing! How could he bear to let Su Rongxing suffer even a little?"
"Who doesn’t agree with that? Su Rongxing’s personality isn’t likable, nothing about her is good, except for one thing, having a good brother!"
"What do you know? Is being just a sister enough for Su Ronggui to be so good?"
"What else then?"
"Don’t you know? Su Rongxing isn’t even his biological sister!"
"No way? They have the sa surna, one family!"
"So what? There’s no blood relation at all! If they really get together, the Su family would cut ties with Su Ronggui, and let him get back to his original surna. I heard Su Ronggui’s surna was originally Xu!"
"Wow! That explains why Su Ronggui would be so accommodating to Su Rongxing! So that’s how it is..."
Tu Hengsha suddenly didn’t want to walk anymore, scenes flashed before his eyes, Su Rongxing’s gentleness towards him, Su Rongxing’s pouting in front of him, his heart echoed with the sa sentint as his female colleagues, "So that’s how it is..."
An inexplicable bitterness, like a tide, surged into her heart. Such a feeling, it’s so unfamiliar...
When she dawdled back to the main office to put things away, her colleagues hadn’t all left, the night shift colleagues were still there, Su Ronggui, Su Rongxing, and Hao Ren were also still there.
Her colleagues’ words echoed uncontrollably in her ears, "Su Rongxing isn’t even his biological sister!"... "If they really get together, the Su family would cut ties with Su Ronggui!"... "No wonder! Su Ronggui would be so accommodating to Su Rongxing to this extent! So that’s how it is..."
Her heart surged with bitterness again, she lowered her head, not looking at any of the Su family mbers, quickly walked to her desk, put down her things, habitually reached for her water cup to drink, her hand reached out but grasped nothing, then she rembered, her porcelain water cup had been swept to the ground by Su Rongxing and was broken, now lying in the trash can.
She inexplicably felt that at this mont, her heart was like that water cup, shattered completely.
"Hao Ren, I’m leaving." She slung her bag over her back, bidding goodbye to Hao Ren.
"Wait for , let’s go together," Hao Ren also picked up his computer.
As the two were just stepping out, Su Rongxing’s voice rang loudly, "Su Ronggui, you stop right there!"
Tu Hengsha hesitated, but it wasn’t directed at her, what did it have to do with her? Her heart felt cold, she kept walking, but then Su Rongxing ntioned her na.
"Su Ronggui! Today, it’s irreconcilable between Tu Hengsha and ! I can’t deal with the situation in Chenjiang with either her or ! But Su Ronggui, you must make a choice! Between her and , you can only pick one! Beside you, there’s or her! If you pick , stay here and don’t move! If you pick her, go with her!" At this mont, Su Rongxing was standing in front of Su Ronggui, pointing in Tu Hengsha’s direction.
When Tu Hengsha turned back, this was the scene she saw.
"Rongxing..." he called her na, his gaze passed over her and settled on Tu Hengsha.
Su Rongxing cried, throwing herself into his arms, holding him tightly, "You’re not allowed to go! No way... I t you when I was seven, we’ve been together for eighteen years! The rabbits we raised, the gas we played, the trees we climbed, they all won’t let you go! Do you rember the tallest banyan tree in the neighborhood? When I missed Mom, I’d climb up, but I was afraid of heights, I could climb up but couldn’t get down, and every ti you, it was you who climbed up, accompanied , watched the stars with , and then took down..."
Tu Hengsha’s eyes welled up, her heart ached with bittersweet pain, "Let’s go."
Even after saying "Let’s go," she waited a few seconds, perhaps unwilling, always longing for a choice, yet she never heard the sound of pursuing footsteps, so she quickened her pace, swiftly leaving the newspaper office.
She had also once longed for her dad when she was a child.
At five years old, when the house was covered in blood and Mom lay on the bed lifeless; at six, when she climbed a stool to wipe windows and fell off, hitting her forehead and bleeding; at seven, when she held Mom, kissed her face, and begged her not to cry; at eight, when she watched other kids riding on their dad’s shoulders, yelling "giddy-up"; at nine...
Never expecting, yet always wondering "what if."
Neighbors would say, poor child without a dad, if only she had a dad...
Mom said, in the past, Dad would buy sothing delicious every day, coming ho from the east end of Hongliu Road, "If your dad was at ho..."
There was a big tree at school, climbing to the top you could see a sky full of stars, and also see the east end of Hongliu Road.
She had also once climbed the tree at dusk, holding onto a branch, gazing at the furthest end of the Hongliu tree.
That was the route ho that Mom ntioned, but she would never see the day Dad ca ho. All she ever saw were other kids’ dads holding their hands, buying fried buns at Grandpa Pang’s shop; she saw the chubby son of the Hongliu Road mini-mart, so chubby, his dad would co pick him up, even carrying his backpack for him and handing him a bottle of calcium milk; she saw Yaya, still in kindergarten, under the roadside eaves, having tied braids all over her dad’s head, yet her dad hugged Yaya with a smile, letting his beard tickle her face; she saw Caicai, a grade lower than her, hopping along the road and suddenly falling, her dad imdiately picked her up, wiped her tears, and rubbed her knee; she saw the smoke from the dinner cooking in many hos, the lights turning on one by one, each ho calling their child back for dinner like a lit lody; she saw Da Qiang’s dad carrying a stick, coming out to find him, dragging Da Qiang out of the arcade to give him a few smacks, yet as soon as it rained, his dad took off his coat to cover Da Qiang’s head...
When it rained, she could only slide down the tree on her own, like a little monkey, expertly carrying her book bag and hugging the oil, salt, and at she had just bought, sprinting all the way ho; the ground was wet and the road slippery, she fell to the ground, her knees hurt, yet she could only get up by herself, pick up her stuff, and keep running...
She was also addicted to climbing trees, not to look at stars but rather to observe the everyday warmth of families. When Yaya laughed, she laughed too, touching her own face, as if it was hers Yaya’s dad was tickling with his beard; when Da Qiang got beaten and yelled in agony, she still laughed, touching her own bottom, imagining how painful those smacks could be; when others shouted their kids’ nas, calling them ho for dinner, she did the sa in her heart: Little Sha, Little Sha, co ho for dinner...
Is that how they called?
What she saw were the things she lacked, the most ordinary warmth in the world. No one would ever tickle her face with a beard, no one would call her ho for dinner, no one would spank her bottom with a stick, yet she still liked watching, just like seeing a blank sheet slowly filled with one light at a ti, one little figure at a ti. What Su Ronggui called "the fireworks of life," to her, perhaps this was it? At least when she watched, she carried a joy within her.
Su Ronggui...
That na woke her from her mories, her face felt cool, and when she touched it, it was wet with tears, unknowingly, tears stread down her face...
Su Ronggui, Xiao Xu, I didn’t cry when I slipped on the wet ground after the rain, didn’t cry when I fell and bled from my forehead, eting you, I’ve almost shed tears for twenty years now...
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