Chapter 202 Piecing Together the Past

Before Qi Gu entered the room to study the Tongxin Pendant, he turned on the courtyard light for Lin Hanzhi, fearing that he would have trouble finding things in the dark.

After thinking for a while, he said, "If you feel scared to go alone, you can let Jin Chan accompany you."

Lin Hanzhi: "Don't be afraid, this is your home, what should I be afraid of in your home?"

Qi Gu's cheeks turned slightly red, but fortunately the clouds in the evening were red, reflecting on the earth, so his blushing was not obvious.

"See you later." Qi Gu said as he fled into the room with the Tongxin Pei.

In Fuai Temple, it is not difficult to find traces of Qi Gu. After all, Qi Gu proposed this game not to embarrass Lin Hanzhi, but to let Lin Hanzhi find it.

Under the evening clouds, there were many scratches on a tree trunk in the courtyard that had been dry for many years but still stood straight. They were of different heights and were obviously the traces of Qi Gu's growth.

Lin Hanzhi slowly stroked each mark with his fingertips. He could almost see the little Qi Gu standing next to the dead tree every time and having his height recorded by his master.

Children probably don’t hate having their height recorded. Children like to grow up, so they will be more proactive in this matter.

At a certain stage, Lin Hanzhi also longed to grow up and gain strength.

Qi Gu was obviously no exception. These traces recording his height were particularly dense during a certain period of time, with one mark every one or two centimeters.

Lin Hanzhi raised his eyes and looked at the position on the tree trunk where Qi Gu's current height could be drawn. He thought, he would press him here in a while and he would record it for him.

If they had known each other and become friends at that time, there might have been two parallel height marks on this tree trunk.

But... I was so quiet at that time, and if I were with Qi Gu, I'm afraid we would have to communicate with facial expressions the whole time.

Lin Hanzhi thought about the scene and felt that it was not impossible.

As I was thinking about these things, the golden crows set in the west and darkness swallowed the sky. The pilgrims had left long before Qi Gu and Lin Hanzhi went up the mountain. Now the grass and trees were silent and the leaves were rustling.

The garden lights scattered among the flower paths are like broken stars scattered in the sky. They seem messy, but they just illuminate the garden brightly without any blind spots.

Lin Hanzhi continues to search and piece together Qi Gu's childhood.

It was a very subtle and pleasant feeling, as if Qi Gu trusted him so much that he was willing to lay everything out to him and there were no secrets between them.

During this time, Jin Chan ate too much and passed by while digesting the food. He asked Lin Hanzhi if he needed help, but Lin Hanzhi decisively refused.

Golden Toad: Oh. It turns out it was just for fun, so that's fine.

Then it jumped away with a click.

The next thing found was a mark left by Qi Gu on a stone. Xiao Qi Gu seemed to be recording some things that he thought were worth recording by carving words on the stone.

Most of them were about things that happened between him and his master. Qi Gu had been taciturn since he was a child, so even when recording events, he used very concise words. Each time, he only carved a few words to summarize the main idea, without any extra words. Lin Hanzhi only understood half of it, but he could tell from the handwriting which words were written first and which were written later.

However, there is one line that Lin Hanzhi can really understand, which is a simple sketch of a chicken drawn by Qi Gu. Drawing a chicken means eating a meal of chicken. It seems that the master and apprentice have eaten a lot of chicken over the years.

I should have a lot of common topics with the weasel in Huaishui Village.

In front of Lin Hanzhi's eyes appeared a tiny, three-headed Qi Gu, who was expressionless as he carved a stick figure of a chicken on a stone. She was so adorable.

He thought that if he met a little Qi Gu like that, he might get carried away and contract a chicken farm for Qi Gu.

There was another mark that concerned Lin Hanzhi. It was a crying face. It was also the only mark among the marks that Qi Gu had painted on the big stone that expressed a clear emotion.

What happened then? That's why Qi Gu drew that crying face on this stone?

Lin Hanzhi was a little concerned.

The Qi Gu he knew was too calm, with a pair of deep and still eyes, and he rarely revealed his true emotions. To make Qi Gu draw a pattern like that, at that time... he must have been very sad, right?

He tried to feel every part of Qi Gu and keep those emotions in his heart.

Then continue searching.

The third trace was hidden in a rather tricky way, on the beam of the main hall. Lin Hanzhi only discovered it with an occasional glance. There were two tablets, one with a candy wrapper of White Rabbit milk candy, which was mottled and faded with countless creases. Under the candy wrapper were several folded pieces of letter paper. The handwriting on the piece was childish, but not dusty, and showed signs of being frequently read.

The names on the tablets were completely unfamiliar to Lin Hanzhi. He had never heard of them before. Judging from their years of birth and death, they should be a mother and daughter, at least the age difference matched.

He bowed to the spirit tablet and then picked up the folded letter.

*

When Qi Gu was eight years old, he was picking wild fruits in the mountains when he accidentally met a woman who had the same goal as him and was two years older than him.

The other person was a very gentle woman named Wang Xiangxiu. She had long hair and there were always bruises on her cheeks. Basically, this was the case every time Qi Gu saw her.

Whenever Qi Gu asked her, she always said that it was because of her poor tree-climbing skills that she accidentally fell while climbing trees to pick fruits. Then she would tell Qi Gu where the wild fruits were ripe and let him pick some.

A poor adult and a poor child established a connection that was neither deep nor shallow. They did not open their hearts to each other, but only said hello when they met, exchanged glances, or found a new place to collect wild fruits.

Half a year later, Qi Gu found out that Wang Xiangxiu had a daughter. Her daughter was about the same age as Qi Gu, but she did not go to school because she was born with intellectual disabilities. She was sent back to school just a few days later.

Of course, these were not said by Wang Xiangxiu herself. Qi Gu heard them later from other people in the village at the foot of the mountain. She is a very traditional woman who believes in "don't tell others about your family's bad deeds".

Not long after Qi Gu knew about Wang Xiangxiu's daughter, on an unrelated holiday, he received a pink drowning prevention notice from the school.

He didn't take it seriously at the time. After all, every elementary school student would receive several such lists a year and would have been tired of seeing them.

Some naughty kids even folded the notices into pink airplanes before the get out of class was over, and flew them out of the window quickly into the blue sky.