Chapter 999 Qingxia (Extra Chapter - End)

There is a dirt slope to the west of Lucheng that becomes very muddy after it rains. Children don't want to run there because if they step in the mud, their parents will whip their bottoms with bamboo sticks when they get home. If they're unlucky, they might even get a mixed doubles beating from both boys and girls.

I heard that this place used to be a garbage dump. When it rained, large amounts of rainwater washed away the slope, exposing some of the garbage underneath the soil.

This trash isn't all useless junk; it contains all sorts of things: plastic bottles, small pieces of iron, scrap wires, and wires with the plastic sheathed removed, which contain copper wires inside—these are the most valuable, but they're not easy to find.

A little girl in a school uniform walked over carrying a heavy snakeskin bag, her eyes carefully searching the earthen slope.

She walked around the mud, deliberately avoiding puddles, because the soles of her shoes were quite worn and water would seep in if they got wet. The weather in November was still quite cold, and her shoes were canvas shoes without thick socks.

Her school uniform was black, yellow, and white, which was the autumn uniform of the 65th Middle School in Lucheng City. It was quite recognizable in the area. If she could, the little girl would not choose to wear her school uniform on Sunday when she was picking up trash, because there was a certain probability that she would be stared at by her classmates on the way.

Every time she encountered this situation, she felt helpless and could only bury her head and hurry away.

What she fears most is running into her classmates.

Fortunately, no students come to this area.

On her way home, she would sell the recyclables at a recycling station. There was an old man there who was quite friendly with her. They were so close that even if she only collected five plastic bottles in the afternoon, the old man would still pay for them.

She thought that once she got into high school, she would stop collecting recyclables.

She wanted to spend all her time studying. Going to university could change her destiny, a common saying among the adults in Guihua Lane, and she firmly believed it.

Her dream high school is Lucheng No. 1 High School, which is the best high school in Lucheng.

However, you can spend more time saving money now, since junior high school courses are quite simple and don't require too much time to study. I've heard that high school courses will be more difficult.

"Click".

The stick in her hand struck something hard.

It's a plastic bottle.

Her hair in the front was a bit long, and she brushed it aside with her hand, revealing a small face with rough, dark red skin caused by the wind and cold weather. Her lips were also dry and chapped, but her eyes were big and beautiful.

The little girl pulled the bottle out of the mud, emptied the soil out, flattened it, and put it in a bag.

A smile appeared on her face; it was a sense of accomplishment.

My neighbor, Sister Li, said she's very pretty.

She didn't think so; she thought all the other girls in her class were prettier than her, especially her best friend Liu Xian.

Several boys in the class had a crush on Liu Xian. They were proud to stand in the same row as Liu Xian during exercise, and when they were assigned to be Liu Xian's deskmate, they would secretly tell their best friends that they were happy.

This was a treatment the little girl had never received before.

But she wasn't envious.

She hoped that the boys in her class would treat her like air, and ideally, forget that she even existed.

That way, even if she's spotted picking up trash one day, no one will recognize her. It's like she's wearing an invisibility cloak; how free and easy that would be!

The stick picked out another bottle. The little girl pulled the bottle out, but it wasn't filled with dirt. There were several cigarette butts and a semi-transparent balloon inside, but the balloon was leaking air. The little girl threw it away forcefully, crushed the empty bottle, and threw it into the bag.

After picking through the items for over an hour, she was preparing to head back when she suddenly caught sight of a discarded sneaker on the earthen slope. The little girl's eyes lit up, and she immediately went over and picked it up.

But there was only one.

It has sizes listed, and it's one size larger than her feet, so she can wear it.

She looked around and searched the vicinity for about ten minutes before finally finding another one in the grass.

The sneakers were her favorite pink, but several large patches of paint had chipped off the surface, revealing the yellow material underneath. Otherwise, they were in good condition.

An unexpected delight.

The little girl sold the large sack of recyclables she had collected in the afternoon to the old man for a dollar. She took the money home, but before she could even unlock the door, her father was standing at the window, happily banging on it. From inside came his muffled voice calling, "Xiaxia! Xiaxia!"

"Dad, I'm home! Look! My new shoes!"

"This one isn't broken; it's perfectly intact."

She opened the door and happily showed the shoes to her father. The middle-aged man clapped and jumped up in a silly manner, and she followed suit, laughing and jumping a few times.

After finishing her dance, she remembered her real business and immediately went out of her room to look to the side. With a thief-like expression, she took a basin from her room while the woman next door was still sleeping and it wasn't time for her night shift. She then secretly took the shoe brush that the woman had left on the windowsill.

She didn't take the soap because she knew it would be obvious if she used it. Although the woman wouldn't say anything, she didn't want to owe this woman anything.

She didn't like this woman; she always dressed like a ghost and smelled of cigarettes.

The woman was quite nice to her.

But the little girl still didn't like talking to her.

After brushing the shoes, the little girl hung them to dry on the rooftop, secretly putting the shoe brush back in its original spot, exactly where it was.

As night fell, she put away her shoes and sat in her small cubicle. She took out a red pen from her bag and began to clean the areas on the shoes where the paint had chipped off.

But after applying a little, she noticed that the red of the pen and the pink of the shoes were two different colors, making it easy to spot.

The next day, Class 5, Grade 7.

Once no one was talking to Liu Xian, the little girl walked over and whispered, "Liu Xian, can I borrow your pink paintbrush for a moment?"

"Okay, here you go." Liu Xian smiled and handed it to her.

The little girl accepted it with both hands: "Thank you, I'll return it to you tomorrow."

She sat back down in her seat.

During class, she uncapped her paintbrush, held it to her nose, and smelled it. It smelled fruity, and the little girl greedily sniffed it several times before capping it back on.

On her way home from school, she happily ran towards home when she suddenly saw two people walking towards her. She paused, her eyes changed, her pace slowed, and her hands nervously reached for the bags on either side of her schoolbag. She lowered her head slightly and peeked through the gaps in her hair.

A boy with a buzz cut and a boy with a mushroom haircut crossed the road side by side, talking as they walked in the same direction.

The little girl walked very slowly, her gaze fixed on the boy with the buzz cut.

The two people walked past her, and the little girl lowered her head. She stopped and looked at their backs.

She seemed to have forgotten that her primary task was to get home, and couldn't help but follow behind the two people.

Two boys stopped at a small shop, squatted down in front of two large cardboard signs, and competed with each other, shouting and handing coins to the shop owner.

The little girl walked slowly away and stood at a distance by the roadside watching their figures. She glanced to the side and then walked behind a telephone pole, a good spot to peek.

"Damn it! Damn it!" The short-haired boy cursed repeatedly.

He slammed a card on the ground, exclaiming in despair, "Another useless card!"

Then he slapped five cents into the smiling boss's palm.

"Me too, damn it!" Mushroom Head also threw a card on the ground.

He also slapped five cents at the shop owner.

The little girl watched as the two men kept giving her money, opening cards, and swearing, while the shop owner laughed incessantly.

How could they have so much money...?

With just this short amount of money, the little girl had no idea how long she would have to collect recyclables.

However, her focus is not actually on money.

"I want my gold! I want my gold! I want my gold card!!" The boy with the buzz cut roared as he knelt on the ground.

As he shouted, he suddenly went berserk, grabbing the mushroom-headed guy from behind who was removing the card, choking him and shaking him violently. Then, he grabbed the guy's hair and screamed at the top of his lungs, "God, let me win! I'd sacrifice ten years of this idiot's life!"

"You son of a bitch, Lu Yuanqiu! Get the hell out of here! Don't touch me!"

The little girl behind the telephone pole blinked, not understanding why the two people were suddenly hurling insults at each other.

The two boys continued to squat down and bury themselves in dismantling the cards.

The little girl didn't leave either. She didn't have many chances to run into him outside, and she greedily wanted to peek at him a little longer.

As dusk fell, the crew-cut and mushroom-headed boys returned empty-handed, grumbling as they walked towards the telephone pole. The crew-cut boy glanced at her, but only for a moment before continuing his conversation with his friend. Red maple leaves fluttered in the wind as the little girl walked on, her head down, brushing past the two boys.

She had walked that way to cover herself up, but when she looked up, she found herself already at the entrance of the convenience store.

"What would you like to buy, classmate?" the shopkeeper asked with a smile.

Just as the little girl was about to turn and leave, her gaze suddenly fell on two large cardboard boxes on the ground, covered with many thin plastic bags. The little girl knew that the cards were inside.

"Oh, you're doing a gacha pull? It's 50 cents a time, want to give it a try? Gold cards are rarer, the most precious ones."

The little girl touched the two 50-cent coins in her pocket; these were the money she earned from collecting recyclables yesterday.

She readily pulled out a coin and handed it to the boss.

She also wanted to experience what it felt like for a boy with a buzz cut to play with this kind of thing, just in case they started talking to each other... at least they would have something in common. After entering junior high school, she felt that "something in common" was extremely important.

Sometimes in class, sitting in her seat, the girls around her chatted, but she couldn't understand their conversation and couldn't join in, which made her feel very lonely and uncomfortable.

She could only pretend to read a book, touch the cup, lie down and sleep, or look out the window, pretending that she was busy and had something to do.

Although she doesn't need much communication.

But she really longed for what her peers were doing, or what they were doing, and what her peers knew about, but she had never heard of.

This kind of longing is probably something no one can understand.

After all, no one around her is like her, having to pick up trash every week at this age, and no one is willing to discuss with her how many cents a bottle can be sold for.

No one would discuss with her how to live every day with a mentally challenged father.

The shopkeeper took one off and handed it to her. The little girl took it with both hands, squeezed it, and found a thin piece inside.

"Let's open it and take a look." The boss raised his chin.

The little girl tore it open, and inside was a blank whiteboard, with nothing inside.

"Oh dear..." the boss said regretfully, "The worst one, a blank card, there's not even a drawing on it."

The little girl was saddened and heartbroken upon hearing this. She blinked and turned to leave.

"Try one more, little girl!"

The little girl stopped and looked back at him, asking in a soft voice, "What does the picture above look like?"

The boss didn't hear her clearly at first and thought he misheard. After thinking for a moment, he replied, "There are all kinds, tigers, lions and so on, and they even have star ratings. For cards of the same level, five-star cards are the highest, and for cards of the same star rating, gold cards are the highest."

The little girl squeezed the 50-cent coin, then handed it over again.

This time, she quickly reached her little hand downwards and pointed to one: "This one."

The boss took it apart and handed it to her.

Before tearing open the packaging, she took a deep breath and slowly pulled out the card, gradually revealing a gold border and five stars...

She opened her eyes wide.

The image on the card gradually came into view: two black ears, a round head, dark circles around the eyes, emerald green bamboo, and a憨憨 (simple and honest) posture.

That was a giant panda holding a bamboo.

At that moment, she suddenly felt that this was the cutest animal in the world.

"Wow! Five stars! Gold medal!" the boss exclaimed.

The little girl smiled happily, hugged herself, and then said, "But it's not a tiger or a lion. Giant pandas aren't very powerful, are they?"

"It's the rarest one, almost no one gets it. That short-haired boy wanted this card, he'd been trying to draw it for a week, but you got it. You're definitely more destined for the panda."

The little girl looked back and saw no one behind her before realizing that the boss was talking about Lu Yuanqiu.

"Have you ever seen a giant panda?" The shopkeeper leaned over the counter and chatted with her, perhaps because he thought the little girl had big, cute eyes.

The little girl nodded.

"I said, have you ever seen giant pandas in Keto City? Real giant pandas."

The little girl then shook her head.

"Haha, let your parents take you to see it during your holiday," the boss said with a smile.

The little girl smirked. Although she couldn't go, she was still happy at that moment. She carefully put the card into her pocket and ran happily home.

"Keep smoking!" the boss shouted from behind.

The little girl ignored him.

When she got back to her front door, she stood there stiffly. The lock had been broken open, the door was wide open, and her father, who had been locked inside, was nowhere to be seen.

Because her father always runs to her school gate, she recently locked him at home. Today he was probably a little late coming home, and he got worried.

The little girl threw her schoolbag into the house and immediately ran out.

She searched at the school gate and anywhere else her father might be, running until she was breathless, but she couldn't find him. It was already dark when she finally returned home alone, dejected, and sat on her father's bed, crying loudly and helplessly.

Is she about to lose all her family?

This was the day she feared most.

As night fell, there was a noise coming from the doorway.

Exhausted from crying, the girl, who had been sleeping wrapped in her father's blanket, sat up and saw the neighbor, a woman dressed in a flamboyant manner, pulling her father's arm and pushing open the door to enter the house.

"How did your dad end up wandering off to my workplace? Keep an eye on him! I had to bring him back for you; my customers are complaining," the woman scolded.

The little girl immediately rushed over, hugged her father, and cried silently.

Seeing this, the woman couldn't bear to lecture him anymore. She lit a cigarette, leaned against the door, and frowned, saying, "I'm telling you, why don't you just quit school? What's the use of going to school? Just keep an eye on your dad and find a job yourself."

"Thank you... thank you, sister. We're going to sleep now." The little girl wiped away her tears, choked back sobs as she pushed the door open. She didn't look at the woman, still shrugging and sobbing, as if she was seeing the woman off.

"You brat, is this how you thank me?" the woman cursed from the doorway.

Seeing that the little girl insisted on closing the door, the woman kicked the door while cursing and ran to the next room.

Seeing his daughter crying, the middle-aged man sat on the bed, scratching his head helplessly, and said in a simple, honest voice, "Xiaxia, don't cry..."

The little girl immediately ran to the small cubicle, pulled the curtain closed, and ignored him.

She placed the sneakers on her desk, and while crying softly, she carefully used Liu Xian's pink paintbrush to paint over the chipped areas on the shoes.

The edges were painted very carefully so that no one would notice.

She had only applied half of the ointment when she suddenly became upset again, burying her face in her arm and sobbing quietly.

The next day.

The little girl went to school wearing her "new shoes".

She returned the paintbrush to Liu Xian.

When get out of class ended, he sat in his seat and spaced out.

What if Dad disappears again...?

She tore a piece of cardstock from a notebook and wrote on it with a pencil:

[His name is Bai Songzhe. He is mentally unstable. If he is lost, please take him to No. 15 Guihua Lane, second floor, and hand him over to his daughter, Bai Qingxia.]

Just then, several classmates walked by in the aisle, playing around. Upon seeing this, the little girl immediately covered the words with her hand.

After the classmates who were playing around walked away, she lowered her head, thought for a moment, picked up an eraser again, and quietly erased the three words "Bai Qingxia" from the line "Given to his daughter Bai Qingxia".

The little girl carefully put the cardboard into her pocket.

At that moment, she suddenly felt a little sad.

Because she remembered the image of her father happily lifting her high in the air and proudly saying, "This is my daughter!"

The little girl wiped her nose, took out the cardboard, and silently added the three characters "Bai Qingxia" to it.

At noon, after school, she went downstairs with her schoolbag and watched the students of Class 5 leave one by one until the classroom was empty. She quickly went into the classroom and put the five-star panda gold card into a desk drawer.

Then he left immediately.

She took half a step, then turned back, opened the book on the table, and glanced at the three crooked words "Lu Yuanqiu" on the title page.

These three words made the little girl feel at ease.

After school in the afternoon, the little girl deliberately went downstairs and waited for Lu Yuanqiu to come out of the classroom. She saw Lu Yuanqiu and Mushroom Head running out of the classroom, holding up the panda card and screaming excitedly like monkeys. The little girl peeked through her hair, her big eyes lit up, and the corners of her mouth turned up slightly. She felt a little comforted.

She followed the two downstairs, and stayed with them until they left the school gate. After leaving the school gate, she followed behind them again, as if seeing Lu Yuanqiu's happy face a little longer would make her life more colorful for a second or two.

She parted ways with Lu Yuanqiu at a fork in the road.

Vibrant maple leaves danced in the wind in the sky before finally falling to the ground.

The next afternoon after school, the little girl suddenly noticed something amiss.

Two ninth-grade boys followed Lu Yuanqiu and Mushroom Head the whole time.

Not long after leaving the school gate, the little girl saw Mushroom Head anxiously turning back, almost bumping into him. Mushroom Head ran towards the teaching building, muttering, "Damn it, if you can't get it yourself, you have to steal it from others! Hang in there, Lu Yuanqiu! I'm going to tell the teacher!"

The little girl's eyes widened, and she quickly tightened her backpack straps and ran out of the school. She anxiously searched for Lu Yuanqiu's figure, but she didn't know where the two older students had taken him.

After searching for about ten minutes, the little girl stopped at a corner of an alley and secretly peered at the base of the wall.

Lu Yuanqiu was beaten black and blue, his eyes were swollen and purple, and he sat there dejectedly against the wall, throwing pebbles forward in frustration with his right hand.

The little girl didn't go over; instead, she squatted down on the ground around the corner, leaning against the wall, quietly keeping watch.

She thought Lu Yuanqiu would walk home by himself soon, and that Mushroom Head would call someone back quickly, but neither happened.

The little girl was squatting by the wall, almost finished with her homework, but Lu Yuanqiu was still sitting there with no intention of leaving.

The little girl couldn't help but worry that he might not be able to stand up, but she didn't dare to go over and talk to him. When she saw a boy walking from another direction, she quickly wrote a sentence on a piece of paper.

When the boy reached the corner, she lowered her head, handed him the note, and pointed in the direction of Lu Yuanqiu.

Is she mute...? The boy glanced at her, then looked down at the note.

"Could you please ask him why he hasn't come home? Thank you."

The boy glanced at her and walked over. The little girl saw Lu Yuanqiu slumped there and mumbled a few words to the boy. The boy then turned back and said to the little girl, "He said he's afraid to go home. If his dad sees him like this, he'll definitely beat him with a clothesline pole."

Little girl: "..."

She whispered a thank you to the boy.

"You're not mute..." the boy exclaimed in surprise. "You can talk, yet you still pass me notes."

He turned back to look at it strangely as he left.

The little girl continued to squat down and watch over Lu Yuanqiu.

The sky gradually turned dusky.

Seeing that Lu Yuanqiu, whose eyes were blackened from being beaten, was still sitting there and not going home, the little girl became anxious. She quickly wrote a note, wrapped it in a stone, and threw it at Lu Yuanqiu's feet.

The idiot shuddered in fright.

Who is it?!

The little girl pursed her lips, shrank into the corner, and did not respond.

As Lu Yuanqiu picked up the stone, he tentatively asked, "Li Sheng?"

He unfolded the paper and read aloud: "You'd better hurry home, it's okay if the card was stolen..."

“Hey Li Sheng, it’s you, right?! When did your handwriting get so good? Get out here!” Lu Yuanqiu shouted.

The little girl remained unmoved, but was very nervous.

"Rob my ass! The kid by the wall suddenly became smug again, his dark eyes crinkling as he laughed. He pulled out the gleaming five-star card from his pocket and held it up in the sunset. The panda on it looked kind and cute, and he, too, was cute.

Seeing this, Bai Qingxia was stunned for a moment, then laughed.

He actually managed to protect her.

sharp!

Lu Yuanqiu put the card back into his pocket and casually curled up one leg: "I punched those two right in the back and beat them so badly they were running for their lives! They were kneeling on the ground calling me grandpa! You didn't see it, they were really scared."

Bai Qingxia squatted down, tore off a piece of paper, and wrote with a smile: "Both of your eyes are blackened from being beaten, so you're a panda too!"

She threw the stone at him, and Lu Yuanqiu untied it to check. He immediately cursed, "Go to hell! You're the panda! What the hell are you doing?! Come out here! You're cowering like a girl!"

The little girl nervously took a step to the side.

Lu Yuanqiu didn't come over. Instead, he shouted to himself, grabbed a handful of pebbles, and threw them at the little girl around the corner: "I'm in a good mood today, so I'll take you to Keton City to see the pandas during winter vacation! How about it?"

After he finished speaking, he chuckled and took the panda card out of his pocket again. He was so delighted with it that he tossed it into the air and caught it steadily in his hand.

Bai Qingxia peeked out and looked at him sitting against the wall.

"It's not bad to see your fake panda."

She smiled inwardly in response.

Red maple leaves drifted down from above the alley, swaying and circling endlessly.

...

November 2025.

The coffee shop was bustling with people.

At the age of 32, Lu Yuanqiu, dressed in a suit and tie, looked at the man sitting opposite him with a gentle expression.

The man sitting opposite him was named Gao Qiang, and he was his high school classmate.

Lu Yuanqiu's gaze gradually fell on the window behind Gao Qiang. A red maple leaf swept past the window, drifted into the street, and flew into the blue sky.

"The slowly falling maple leaves are like longing~"

A video call came in, and Lu Yuanqiu picked it up and answered.

In the video, the little girl who had grown up back then was holding her two-year-old daughter in her arms, and she ordered Lu Yuanqiu with her eyebrows raised, "Come home for dinner!"

(End of extra)

And that concludes their story, which consists of 999 chapters.

I'll probably take a three- to four-month break before starting a new book. During this time, I'll focus on reading, studying, eating well, exercising, and living a good life.

Hello everyone, I am Lu Yuanqiu, the author you have hated, waited for, cursed, and occasionally loved.

(End of this chapter)