On the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival, the sky was clear. Tu Hengsha woke up very early, but soone woke up even earlier. She reached for her phone and saw a green ssage on the screen from Mr. Su, "So the wake-up service just stopped like that? Lack of continuity in your work! Unqualified employee!"
She laughed, holding the phone to her face, and giggled foolishly for a while before replying to him, "Fell asleep and don’t want to wake up."
Mr. Su replied instantly, "Why? Are you very tired?"
She thought for a mont and typed in word by word, "Afraid that when I wake up, everything will be a dream."
With youthful thoughts, people seem to beco especially sentintal, and even good days could give rise to lancholy and worry.
The phone vibrated again, and another ssage ca, "Co out."
She was startled, jumping up from the bed, wondering if he had actually co?
She felt typing was too slow, so she directly made a call, and he answered instantly.
"Where are you?" she blurted out.
"Co out and see," his voice transmitted clearly, like the morning light piercing through the curtains.
Without even putting on shoes, she ran out barefoot.
Standing in the corridor, the sky on the opposite side was reddened by the dawn light, and he was standing by the car downstairs, draped in the glow of the red sky.
Unexplainably, she was teary again, holding the phone to her ear with words hard to express.
He held a stack of six-inch square boxes in his hand, gesturing for her to co down.
Holding the phone, she descended in a daze, realizing halfway down the stairs that she stepped on sothing painful—
Looking down, she found that she had stepped on a small piece of glass, and now her foot was bleeding.
Hurrying back to the room, the house was quiet, and she dared not disturb Mom. She found a bandage herself, applied it, put on shoes, and went downstairs again.
As soon as she entered his sight, his eyes were filled with helplessness. Facing him, he couldn’t help but tousle her hair, "Dawdled for so long. I thought you’d doll yourself up as a fairy to et , but you’re still so untidy."
She looked down at herself and felt sowhat embarrassed; she was still in her pajamas! As for her hair? It never had a normal style—indeed sowhat untidy. However, he didn’t know that worse than her appearance was the bleeding wound on her sole being pinched by the shoe, causing pain she didn’t plan to ntion, only chuckling as she ran her fingers through her hair, "This is called natural beauty, you know?"
Sowhat used to her shalessness, he pinched her face, amused yet exasperated, and handed her the stack of boxes.
"What’s this?" She moved close to sniff, "Slls so good!"
"Of course! Grandma just made it, still warm and soft! She urged early in the morning to bring it to you! Said you should eat it while it’s hot!"
She slightly opened the lid of the top box for a sneak peek, and was shocked, "Wow, big mooncakes!"
"Quickly take them back inside and eat. I’ll wait here, then we can go to the prison together." His smile, under the morning light, was as pure and translucent as crystal.
"Okay." Slightly dazed by the morning light and his smile, she went upstairs holding the mooncakes.
When she opened the freshly baked Five-Kernel Mooncakes, the authentic aroma of five kernels mixed with a faint scent of dried tangerine peel and flour floated out. She squinted her eyes and pinched a small piece into her mouth. Soft, fragrant, sweet, and crisp, arguably the best mooncake she had ever tasted.
Hastily repacking the mooncakes, she divided the remaining into two portions, planning to take one portion to the prison. However, while packing, her movents slowed down, and malicious faces filled her mind—mocking, scolding, ridiculing. The knife-like words echoed in her ears, "The murderer’s daughter! She’s the murderer’s daughter!"
"Her father is going to kill! Don’t play with her!"
"Will she also kill? Beat her up! Let’s beat her to death!"
"Run! Her mom is crazy! The lunatic is going to catch kids! Run quickly!"
"I’ve got eggs! I’ll throw eggs at her!"
"I’ve got buns!"
"I’ve got porridge!"
"..."
The little girl squatting in a corner with her head in her hands, covered in vegetable porridge, was the obstacle every ti she wanted to get closer to soone all her life.
She suddenly turned and sprinted back, running to him, lowering her head.
"What’s wrong? Back so soon? Forgot to change your clothes again?" He gazed at the fuzzy little head in front of him.
She shook her head, shaking it forcefully.
"What’s wrong?" He stretched his hand to move her hair away.
She stepped back to avoid his hand, biting her lip, hesitant to utter the words lodged in her throat.
He chuckled softly, "Are the mooncakes not tasty?"
She shook her head and then nodded.
"Truly not tasty?"
"No! They are delicious!" she quickly raised her head.
"Then..." he pondered, "Are you afraid of sothing?"
She was stunned.
"Really? Afraid of what?"
His voice was as gentle as the sunshine, bathing her in warm light, making her lower her head again to gather courage, "Xiao Xu...would you not...not want to play with ?"
"How could I? Of course not."
"But...but..." She took a deep breath, thinking that being laughed at later in the prison would be worse than explaining it upfront, "Xiao Xu, did I ever tell you my father is a murderer?"
"..." Is it about this fear? So, does she rember or not rember?
Hearing no response from him, she indeed panicked. She didn’t want to hear him say not to play with her, didn’t want him to throw eggs and buns at her. It’d be better for her to run far away. She could endure anyone else’s ridicule but not being looked down upon by Xiao Xu!
"Yes, my dad is a murderer! We might see him later in Beishan Prison! Let’s just pretend not to know each other in the prison! Afterward, we can just pretend we never t!" She spoke sowhat brokenly, fearful of his reaction, and turned to run back after finishing.
Yet, having only taken one step, soone grabbed her wrist.
"Why pretend not to know each other?" He held on tightly.
"Or, I won’t go. You let Chen Qi send another photographer!"
He gripped even tighter, directly swiveling her to face him, "Tu Hengsha! You were the one who forced to admit that I’m Xiao Xu by holding my old belongings! You said you wanted us to cross a certain line together! You wanted to always be Xiao Xu and never change! Now what is happening? Dismissing with just one casual sentence, kicking far away to watch the stars with soone else? I don’t care who your father is, or who your mother is. Go ho imdiately, eat breakfast, clean yourself up, and co out right away! With your muddle-headed, confused state, it’s really embarrassing to take you out!"
"I..." She bit her lip, making no further sound.
"What do you an ’I’? Aren’t you going back to tidy up? If you continue to be so disorderly, I’ll spank you!" He put on a stern face.
She widened her eyes, seeing images flashing of Da Qiang’s dad spanking him along the way.
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