84 New World 03

◎He came here to wait for someone◎

Helan Dao had slept under the snow-capped mountains for hundreds of thousands of years, undisturbed by anyone. However, for unknown reasons, he was awakened by the first spring thunder that struck the top of the snow-capped mountains a month ago.

Hundreds of thousands of years had passed, and the outside world had changed dramatically, completely different from what he remembered. But this snowy mountain, their final resting place, miraculously remained exactly as it had been when he first saw it.

There is just a new road at the foot of the mountain and a small hotel on the side of the road.

After waking up, he came down from the snowy mountain and went to a small hotel at the foot of the mountain to work odd jobs for a month, helping to entertain guests and do odd jobs.

The husband and wife owners of the small hotel always grumbled privately that this new helper looked like a rich young man who had run away from a wealthy family to experience life, but he was so meticulous in his work that he seemed like a soldier who had received rigorous training.

Sometimes, he would inadvertently reveal the fierce aura of a superior, which made the couple feel scared when they ordered him to do work; however, when there were not many customers in the store, he would always be seen lying on the counter, staring blankly at the sky outside the door, his back looking particularly lonely and endearing.

Such a person, staying here with them, would not be able to stay long.

Sure enough, a month later the new helper said goodbye to the couple, saying that he wanted to go out into the world.

The couple intended to pay him this month's wages, but he refused unexpectedly, saying that he was grateful for their free food and lodging, and that the wages would cover this month's accommodation and meals.

Without any luggage and penniless, he left the snow-capped mountains on foot with nothing in his hands.

As for where he would go or how he would travel, the couple had no idea.

I thought I would never see him again, but unexpectedly, in the spring of the following year, before the first spring thunder fell, this man who exuded a mysterious aura came back to the snow-capped mountains and returned to the small hotel, where he continued to work as a helper for a month.

After that, he would return to the snow-capped mountains every year when spring came and flowers bloomed, stay for a month, and then set off again to continue traveling around the world.

In the past, he left the snow-capped mountains on foot, and when he came back later, he drove his own car. The car he owned was different every year, and it became more and more expensive. His clothes also became better and better every year.

Over time, the couple gradually realized that he came here to wait for someone.

Who are you waiting for?

Is it a boy or a girl.

What time is agreed upon?

The couple was clueless.

All you often see him doing is looking at the sky somewhere, without eating or drinking, for the whole day.

One year, when he came back from outside, he also dragged a huge apricot tree sapling with him.

He planted apricot blossoms on the grassland in front of the hotel. The couple secretly looked out from the hotel window to see how he dug the holes, transplanted the soil, and watered and added nutrient solution.

Then he discovered that the location of the apricot tree was facing the sky that he often stared at in a daze.

The couple was puzzled by this.

"Why does he always look there?"

"I don't know. But looking at him like this, I would mistakenly think that the person he is waiting for will fall from the sky one day."

"Hiss—you'd better not say anything."

In the second year after Helan Dao planted the tree, when the first apricot blossom bloomed on the branch, he returned to the foot of the snow-capped mountains on time.

The small hotel was a little different this year. It had a bit more life than usual. As soon as Helan Dao entered, he smelled a strange smell.

That is the beautiful breath that belongs only to new life.

During the year he was away, the couple had their own child, a girl.

Helan Dao returned just in time for his child's hundred-day party, and the couple invited him to join them.

Over the years, the couple has long treated Helan Dao as one of their own, and the relationship between them is more like family than family.

Helan Dao carefully took the child and held him in his arms gently. The smell of milk from the baby filled his arms.

He looked at the babbling child in his arms, a soft smile between his brows: "Have you chosen a name?"

The couple looked at each other and replied with a smile: "Lielie, her name is He Lielie."

He Landao stretched out his finger, which was immediately grasped by the child's small hand. He looked at her and smiled: "He Lielie? What a nice name."

He had been frozen for hundreds of thousands of years and had long forgotten what normal human temperature was. Until just now, when the newborn's body temperature was transmitted from his fingertips to his limbs, and then from his limbs to his whole body, he sincerely felt a sense of joy from the bottom of his heart.

"Thank you for coming here." He Landao couldn't help but lower his head and kissed He Lielie on the head. "Your existence makes me realize that everything we did all those years ago was meaningful."

For some reason, the proprietress couldn't help but tear up when she saw this scene.

Seeing his wife about to cry, the boss quickly hugged her in his arms and said, "Okay, okay, you can't cry. Crying too much is bad for your health. Let's go, let's drive to town to buy some things for the hundred-day banquet."

He Landao was about to return Lie Lie to the couple when he heard this, but the boss stopped him with a wave of his hand: "It's just the two of us going out. You can help take care of the child first. We'll be back soon."

"How about I go with you, and mother stays in the hotel with the child." Helan Dao suggested.

"Hey, it's okay." The boss touched the back of his head and said embarrassedly while holding his wife, "It's mainly because she hasn't been out for a long time. She said she was going to town to do some shopping, so I took her out for some fresh air on the way."

Helan Dao looked at them knowingly, carried the child all the way to the door, and watched them leave.

"Be careful on the road." He held the child's hand and waved to the couple, "Come on, tell mom and dad to come back early."

The couple got into the car with a smile on their faces and drove away from the hotel with apricot petals floating all over the road.

As soon as they left, Helan Dao turned to look at the lonely apricot tree on the grassland.

I don’t know when it happened, but the apricot blossoms suddenly bloomed in just one night. The petals were everywhere, and against the backdrop of the snow-capped mountains in the distance, the nearby streams, and the wooden bridge under the trees, it was so beautiful that it seemed unreal.

"Do you know why I planted it?" Helan Dao held the child, as if talking to her, but more like talking to himself.

"I'm afraid that one day I'll forget the location of the wormhole, but I'm even more afraid that one day I'll forget our past. Once people adapt to their present lives, their memories of the past become increasingly blurred."

He Lielie opened her black eyes and looked at him curiously.

When Helan Dao lowered his head, he saw the child's lively eyes rolling around.

"What are you looking at? Are you listening to me? You don't understand." Helan Dao pretended to tease her and sighed silently.

It was because she didn't understand that he said these words without restraint. When she could understand, he would stop saying them.

He returned to the hotel with the child and glanced at the time on the wall. "It's ten o'clock in the morning. Your parents will be back before noon. Be good and don't cry."

He Lielie did not cry or make a fuss, but Helan Dao waited until the sun set that day, but the child's parents did not come back.

When Helandao received a call from the hospital in the evening, the couple's bodies were already cold.

They had been in a car accident on their way back. The mountain road was difficult to navigate, with many bends. The car plunged into a cliff, killing the two people inside instantly. The road they were taking was not very popular, and the car hung at the bottom of the cliff for a long time before being discovered near dusk.

He Landao stood at the door of the hospital morgue, holding the child. A slight chill invaded his body. He hugged Lielie tighter in his arms, looked down at her and said, "From now on, I will be your father."

Helan Dao took over the small hotel and started to live here permanently with He Lielie.

Seven years passed in a flash.

It was spring again, and the apricot blossoms outside the hotel were in full bloom. He Lielie, who was already seven years old, picked a bunch of wild flowers and skipped to the apricot tree. There was an extra grave mound there than seven years ago.

She placed wild flowers in front of the grave. Her father told her that her biological parents were lying there, so every year when the apricot blossoms bloomed, she would come to pay her respects - and by the way, complain about Helan Dao to them.

"Mom and Dad, I think it was a complete mistake for you to entrust me to Dad to raise."

He Lielie bowed three times respectfully and placed the wild flowers on the grave.

"For example, the teacher gave us homework, but when I got home, my dad wouldn't let me do it," Lielie paused and thought. "He said, 'Your education is garbage.' Then he forced me to play games every day. Those games were super hard, super hard, harder than the homework."

"So the next day when I went to school, I had to hand in a blank paper. The teachers were so angry that they called my dad to school. He always admitted his mistakes with a positive attitude, but he just wouldn't change. Luckily, I got first place in every subject on the final exam, so the teachers didn't care about me anymore."

"That's actually not all bad, but what I'm about to tell you will definitely make you crawl out of your shells after hearing it. Have I never told you that there were classmates who bullied me at school? They said that you left early because I was unlucky, and they always used you to attack me, but I didn't really care that much. But Dad found out, and he told me to fight back if I was bullied. I said I didn't know how to fight, so Dad taught me some kung fu moves."

He Lielie said she was tired and sat down on the ground against the apricot tree, mumbling, "But I always felt something was wrong, so I searched online. Guess what? The moves my father taught me are all fatal in one go. Can I use them? Of course not."

"Mom and Dad, please judge for yourself. Do you think Dad is raising me, or is he cheating me? So I'm telling you, not being a biological child still lacks some meaning..."

He Lielie was talking incessantly when her scalp suddenly felt numb. With a "pop", a brown object fell from above the apricot tree and hit her head accurately.

What?

He Lielie stopped talking.

I reached my hand over my head and touched a piece of bark the size of my palm.

She took it down and looked at it, and found that the edge of the bark was cut very smoothly, and it was obvious that it was peeled off by humans.

After flipping the bark over casually, He Lielie suddenly widened his eyes.

There are words on the bark!

Although He Lielie was only seven years old, she was able to recognize most words at an early age due to Helan Dao's "torture", so she could easily identify the contents on the bark.

It tells the story of Li Bai, a poet from the Tang Dynasty. He Lielie is very familiar with it because she finds that it is the same as the content of the game her father forced her to play.

He Lielie was overjoyed. He hid the piece of bark and immediately rushed back to the hotel.

Take it back and use it as a cheat sheet!