At the entrance of the appraisal center, there is a towering ginkgo tree with a lush crown that looks like an umbrella when it is spread out. It is said to be more than 500 years old.

As she walked down the stairs, Lin Chaoxi kept looking at the ginkgo. In Strawberry World, when she was little, Old Lin liked to bring her to Anning University to play.

In spring, they would fly kites on the large lawn next to the ginkgo trees. In autumn, they would spend the whole day watching the gardeners at Anning University picking ginkgo nuts. Perhaps because they watched from morning to night, the gardeners would always give them a big bag of ginkgo nuts at the end.

Put the ginkgo nuts in the iron pan and stir-fry them. They smell a bit smelly when you peel them, but taste sweet. Lao Lin would stir-fry a few for her every day as a snack on the way to school.

She thought it was a normal life at that time, but looking back now, it is a desirable life.

Lin Chaoxi used his hands to press the cotton to stop the bleeding, but Old Lin had thrown the cotton away long ago.

The party dean walked in front with a shoulder bag, stepped down the last step, turned around and looked at them deeply. Just before she was about to speak, Lao Lin interrupted her.

"Give me a few minutes, I need to make a call." said Lao Lin.

This was the first thing he said after coming out of the Oasis base.

Lin Chaoxi was still standing nearby. She subconsciously retracted her hands to avoid him, but Old Lin held her tightly.

He pulled her out of the appraisal center, crossed the path, took a few quick steps, and stopped under the camphor tree. The tree cast a shadow, dotted with small spots of light.

Lao Lin took out his cell phone and turned on the screen of the old Nokia.

No one knew if it was because of the wind in the shade or some other reason, but although he remained calm and restrained, the bulging veins on the back of his hand betrayed him.

Lin Chaoxi thought for a moment and asked, "Do you want to smoke a cigarette?"

These were the first words she said to Lao Lin after they left the base.

Old Lin looked down at her, smiled self-deprecatingly, and then quickly pressed a string of numbers without avoiding her. Lin Chaoxi easily saw the number on the screen.

It started with 021, which was a long way off, but when she wanted to see all the numbers, the last two digits were not clear because of the reflection.

Lao Lin picked up the phone and waited. Lin Chaoxi couldn't hear the sound on the phone, but she could clearly feel the moment the call was connected. She knew someone said "Hello" on the other end, but Lao Lin remained silent.

After a while, just before the other party hung up the phone, he said two words: "It's me."

The wind blows the ginkgo leaves, and millions of them flutter in unison.

Lao Lin said in a very straightforward tone: "Now, a girl held my hand and said she was my daughter. We just came out of the appraisal center. I want to ask you, what is the probability that we are related?"

I don’t know what the person on the other end of the phone said, but it’s also possible that he just hung up. After a few seconds, Lao Lin sneered and put away his phone.

It doesn't even take a few minutes, the entire call including the waiting time is no more than 30 seconds.

Lao Lin threw the phone back into his pocket. Although he sneered, his face finally showed normal human emotions. A few spots of leaked light fell on the corners of his mouth and between his eyebrows. They were very bright, making other parts of his face appear darker.

He enjoyed the breeze for a while before looking down at her.

"What's the probability?" Lin Chaoxi asked, looking up.

Lao Lin subconsciously wanted to touch his pocket to take out a cigarette, but he finally held back. He squatted down and looked at her in a different posture.

Lin Zhaoxi looked at his father, who was shorter than him, and asked, "Who is it? Why did you throw me into the orphanage?"

This question was like a spell that lifted the seal. Lao Lin smiled slowly and said, "You obviously know more than me, why are you still asking me?"

Lin Chaoxi was speechless for a moment. She cleared her throat, and her explanation finally came in handy.

"Let me tell you, the thing is..."

Before she finished uttering the last word of the word "love", Lao Lin stretched out his arms, pressed the back of her head with his broad palm, and pressed her tightly against his shoulders.

Lao Lin was half squatting but still standing, and she was still standing.

The bright green of the ginkgo tree covered her retina, and seemed to transform into a soft summer breeze in an instant, supported by dense blood vessels, with a very strong skeleton.

Lin Chaoxi's hand rested lightly on Lao Lin's back. She could feel the tremendous strength contained in Lao Lin's arms as he held her body. Lao Lin seemed to have unloaded all the burdens he had been carrying. She could feel it, but she couldn't say anything.

Dang Aiping stood on the steps, watching them.

She saw the little girl's curious and inquiring eyes, saw their brief conversation, and witnessed the man slowly hugging the child after he hung up the phone.

Finally, she let out a long sigh. She had been wondering why people always had to give children a home. In fact, not only children but adults also need it.

Too lonely.

——

On the way back, Dang Aiping refused to go back to the Oasis Base again. She directly asked the head of the summer camp to drive the car to the gate of the Red Star Welfare Home.

In front of her was a familiar and narrow alley. She opened the car door, and the man who had been sitting silently in the back seat also opened the door at the same time.

Lin Chaoxi wanted to follow him, but was stopped by the man who closed the car door. The door locked with a click, and the little girl clung to the car window, pointed at the driver in the cab, and knocked on the window with a terrified expression.

Looking through the car window at the little girl's wonderful and rich expression, Dang Aiping felt both warm and sad. The child she raised was probably really going to leave. The hug under the ginkgo tree made her feel this very clearly.

She shifted her gaze to the man beside her. She gave the young man whom Lin Chaoxi kept calling dad a nickname, "Tentative Father Lin".

She asked "what's going on", and Lin's father took her a few steps to a quiet corner. In all these years of living in the orphanage, she had seen too many people's warmth and coldness and helplessness, but Lin's father's answer was still an excuse she had never heard before.

"I don't know." The man said this, holding a cigarette between his fingertips and lighting it at the trash can.

"What do you mean you didn't know?" Dang Aiping frowned and used her experience to complete the story, "You didn't know she existed, so the child was abandoned by her mother after she got pregnant out of wedlock?"

The man lowered his eyebrows, took a puff of cigarette and shook his head.

"What do you mean by shaking your head? Are you saying that you don't have any children and all this is just wishful thinking? But if you don't have any children, why would you go to the welfare home to look at her file?" Dang Aiping became a little angry again.

"I went to the orphanage purely because I didn't know where this girl came from. She kept pestering me, so I went to investigate where she came from."

"What is the motivation behind the investigation?"

“No, maybe I was too free.”

"You didn't give a direct answer." Dang Aiping said sharply, "You had a child, and then the child was lost. If a man who has never had sex, he would never investigate the children of an orphanage for no reason."

"I had a child, but I thought he was dead, so there was no abandonment or investigation." Lin's father said calmly, adding, "You are very sharp."

"I've seen a lot."

"Yes, I understand."

Dang Aiping looked at the man and knew he was telling the truth.

She receives some parents every month, many of whom come from far away, holding on to a one-in-a-million hope, to look for their lost children at the orphanage.

She didn't know what kind of mood this "tentative father of Lin" was in when he looked at Lin Chaoxi's file. Maybe it was even more difficult for him than for those people.

"How can you be so foolish?" Dang Aiping turned her head to look at the car. Lin Zhaoxi and Zhang Shuping both maintained a stiff posture. "Not as good as Lin Zhaoxi."

Assuming that Father Lin also took that look, he shook off the cigarette again and revealed the needle hole on his hand: "I am not as good as her."

Dang Aiping said: "But have you ever thought about what you would do if your DNA doesn't match?"

"Are you asking this because you want me to say that I am still willing to adopt her?" Mr. Lin put out his cigarette and asked back.

"She was determined to go with you. She even told me before that she would bet the Jin Cup championship that if she won first place, she would have the right to freely choose her family. Was it because of you?" Dang Aiping said, "I don't know what's going on in her mind all day long. How could she know these things that you don't know."

"Children have secrets," said Lao Lin, "and adults aren't much better."

He put out his cigarette, walked to the parking lot, and said, "Wait five days. Don't ask her. I'll ask her."

——

Lao Lin's conversation with the Party Dean was very brief, and Lin Chaoxi was looking around the whole time.

The party president would definitely ask Lao Lin how he lost her. This was a past event that she really wanted to know, but after so many years, even she, as a daughter, didn't know much about her father's past, so the party president would definitely not be able to get any information out of her in a few words.

And in the end, the dean's mother will definitely target her again. She likes to hide things, is weird, and no one knows what is going on in her mind...

But in fact, this is what Lin Chaoxi fears the most. She is afraid of being interrogated by them.

However, the three-court trial she had imagined did not happen, and Lao Lin did not mention it on the way back.

William Chang dropped them off in front of the teaching building.

When parking the car, Vice Principal Zhang, who had said nothing the entire time, pulled the handbrake and finally spoke: "According to regulations, this is a closed summer camp, and parents cannot stay with their children."

After watching a father-daughter reunion scene from beginning to end, it turns out that what William Chang cares about is the summer camp rules?

Even Old Lin was stunned, let alone Lin Chaoxi.

Vice Principal Zhang glanced at the rearview mirror and said, "What else can I do? I asked you whether you were biological father and daughter, and asked you to tell me your mental journey for an hour each. What does this have to do with me?"

"The DNA test results will not be available until five days later," said Lao Lin.

Lin Zhaoxi: "So during these five days we are not father and daughter."

Zhang Shuping snorted disdainfully, and without saying anything else, he told them to get out of the car and drove away.

It was less than four hours since I left, and there was no change in the Oasis Base.

The sound of Jie Ran's lecture came from the 7th floor. Lin Chaoxi looked around but couldn't find the words to express his gratitude. He could only look up at Old Lin, seeming to be hesitant to speak.

This was their first time alone together after they became kin, and Old Lin must have a lot to say to her. Lin Chaoxi looked up at Old Lin, ready to have a long talk with her father.

But Lao Lin touched her head and said four words: "Go to class."

After he finished speaking, he turned around and left without any hesitation.

"Dad, what are you going to do?" Lin Chaoxi was anxious.

"Go to work." Lao Lin took out his phone and checked the time. "It's almost time for lunch. The cafeteria is busy."

Lin Zhaoxi: ???