Reunion and Strangers

On the first day of the second semester of my senior year of high school, the leaves of the sycamore trees at the school gate began to turn yellow. When the wind blew, a few leaves swirled down.

A few of us, holding the newly received textbooks, walked towards the teaching building, stepping deeply and shallowly on the thick fallen leaves.

"The physics competition class is such a horrible place to be!" Lulu complained as she walked. "I stayed up until one last night again. My mom said I'd die sooner or later if I kept going like this..."

As she spoke, she yawned deeply and tears welled up in the corners of her eyes.

Just in the shadow of the corner of the teaching building, I unexpectedly bumped into a tall and thin figure.

I staggered and my forehead hurt.

"I'm sorry..." I rubbed my forehead which was hurt by the collision and looked up while apologizing.

At first glance, I felt that the man's outline was inexplicably familiar.

Tall and thin.

Before my brain could process the information, there was a loud crash next to me.

The book in Lulu's arms almost fell to the ground. She frantically grabbed it and said, "...Cheng Yu'an?"

Cheng Yuan?

Is he the Cheng Yuan who was always quiet and followed us like a little tail when we were little?

Is it the Cheng Yu'an who has eyelashes long enough to tie into pigtails and smiles shyly?

I looked up and identified it carefully.

It was him, his basic facial features were still there, but his entire demeanor had changed drastically.

He was half a head taller than us, and his school uniform hung loosely on him, with the collar askew, revealing his clearly defined collarbone.

There was no expression on his face, revealing an indifference that was inconsistent with his age.

Her eyelashes were still as long, but now cast a shadow under her eyes.

The most striking thing is that there is a newly healed scar above his left brow, which adds a bit of hostility.

Lulu took a step forward, completely oblivious to these details.

"Do you still remember me? I'm Lulu. When you were little, you always came to my house to do your homework. My mom always scolded you..."

"I don't know him." He interrupted her expressionlessly.

Lulu's smile froze on her face.

I subconsciously pulled her sleeve and touched her frighteningly cold fingers.

Cheng Yu'an didn't look at us again, turned around and walked towards the teaching building without even stopping.

"he……"

Jiang Yuanzhou's brows furrowed, his gaze following the disappearing figure. Lu Xingye remained silent, staring in the direction Cheng Yu'an had vanished, before saying calmly, "Gone."

Lulu was unusually quiet the entire morning.

She usually comes over to me and chats non-stop during breaks, but now she just sits there quietly.

During the break, she stood in the line, staring blankly ahead.

After the disbandment, after the disbandment, I really couldn't bear to watch it.

Dragging her into the toilet cubicle.

In the small space, Lulu leaned against the partition and finally cried out "wow".

"How could he...how could he say he didn't know me..." She choked and clutched the sleeve of my school uniform.

Aunt Han makes sweet and sour pork ribs, and he always gives me the biggest piece... When my mom works overtime, we watch the Legend of Nezha together..."

Among our group of friends who grew up together, if we were to ask who was the saddest and the one who found it hardest to let go after Cheng Yu'an was forcibly taken away by his father, it would definitely be Lulu.

When Lulu was young, Aunt Zhou was busy with work and often left her at Cheng Yu'an's house across the street.

The two of them often ate together, did homework together, and sometimes even slept in the same bed when they were tired from playing, sharing all the secrets of their most innocent childhood.

Cheng Yu'an is like Lulu's little follower, her non-blood-related "brother", and also her closest family member besides her parents.

In the years since Cheng Yu'an left, Lulu never mentioned him on the surface.

But we all know that every time she passed by the house in the community that had long been vacated and had a new owner, she would unconsciously slow down her pace, with a lonely look in her eyes.

She treated him as family, and family members shouldn't be strangers.

"I saw it with my own eyes..." Her voice broke, choked with sobs. "That year, Aunt Han had a high fever. Cheng Yu'an was only ten years old, but she learned to cook porridge and wash clothes by herself..."

"Later, Uncle Cheng came back with that woman and said he wanted to take him away."

Her voice became hoarse. "But what happened after they took him away? They left him at my grandmother's house in the countryside and didn't care about him much. He found a new wife in the city and had a little son... Cheng Yu'an was like an unwanted package, being tossed around..."

At this point, her voice choked, leaving only suppressed sobs.

"Over the years, I have always wondered if he is still in Hanchuan..."

"He was still in Hanchuan, but he never thought of contacting me...we..."

"Why?"

"Niannian, we all grew up together. Cheng Yu'an... and Ye Zhixia, why did you all get separated in the end?"

I am silent...

I couldn't answer her.

I thought Lulu was always carefree. When I was depressed because of the breakup with Ye Zhixia, it was she who comforted me. It turns out that she has always cared about me.

I looked at Lulu who was crying uncontrollably, and my chest felt stuffy and painful.

I don’t know what Cheng Yu’an has been through over the years to turn that gentle and well-behaved boy into the man with thorns all over his body and cold eyes.

But at this moment, I don't care why.

Rather than exploring Cheng Yu'an's transformation, I feel more sorry for Lulu in front of me.

"Don't let people who don't care about you affect you. It's not worth it."

I could only imitate her previous words to comfort her, but I didn't know how much power it would have.

Later, we heard some rumors about Cheng Yu'an intermittently.

It was said that he became very good at fighting, was ruthless, often skipped classes, and hung out with some bad people outside of school, becoming what the teachers called "that Cheng Yu'an."

Occasionally, a bruise or a scab would show under the cuff of his school uniform.

Some classmates were talking about it quietly. They once saw him surrounded by several people in a back street. His eyes were as fierce as a small beast that was forced into a desperate situation.

These fragments piece together a Cheng Yu'an who is completely unfamiliar to us, a stranger who is struggling alone in the thorns and covered with scars.

Jiang Yuanzhou sighed helplessly, "How did this kid become like this?"

One day, on his way home from school, Lu Xingye saw Cheng Yu'an smoking alone at the corner of an alley. After a long silence, he said to me, "Cheng Yu'an has changed. It's best for Lulu to stay away from him."

When Lulu heard this, she just pursed her lips and had a complicated look in her eyes. She no longer rushed out to protect her "brother" like she did when she was a child.