Small Town Rebirth: Starting From Birth

On the internet, people often commemorate their childhoods. Chen Bing, a young man from a small town who was one of them, found himself back 24 years ago, in the small town of his birth, after his ...

Side Story (7): Back to the Past

"What's wrong?" Shang Yunmiao asked curiously.

"How come it's not much different from what you're wearing now?"

Upon hearing this, Shang Yunmiao understood that Chen Bing meant that she hadn't grown at all over the years.

The girl was naturally very unhappy with this attack.

She widened her eyes and argued defiantly, "No way! The elementary school uniforms weren't issued until fifth grade. By then, girls had already reached a point where they were mostly developed, and school uniforms are definitely looser than regular clothes."

After saying that, she reluctantly took the school uniform and put it on.

"Look! Doesn't it feel very tight now that I'm wearing it?"

Although Shang Yunmiao was trying her best to straighten her chest, the school uniform still didn't look tight on her.

How should I put it? Xiao Shang's current attempt to prove herself is kind of cute; she's petite and delicate, and I just want to pout.

Temporarily withdrawing his thoughts (imagine the timeline before Mr. Chen was able to withdraw his thoughts), Chen Bing perfunctorily agreed and took out his phone to take a few photos of Xiao Shang at that moment.

After filming, ignoring Shang Yunmiao's still somewhat unconvinced attitude, Chen Bing walked to the girl's wardrobe and peered inside to see if there was anything interesting. As it turned out, he actually saw something.

"Why are you wearing a school uniform again?" Chen Bing asked, puzzled. She took out the clothes and unfolded them to take a closer look.

It was obvious that this was also a primary school uniform, but it was much smaller than the one in Shang Yunmiao's hand.

"Were the school uniforms we were issued the same style every time we were in elementary school?" Chen Bing looked suspiciously at the uniform Shang Yunmiao was wearing, then at the one in her hand. The more she looked, the stranger it seemed.

He wasn't the only one who found it strange; Shang Yunmiao was also bewildered.

Who am I? Where am I? Why do I have two school uniforms?

In an instant, Shang Yunmiao and Chen Bing simultaneously made a guess and each voiced their own.

"Did you take this from me secretly?"

"You forgot this when you came to my house, didn't you?"

Chen Bing looked incredulous and questioned Shang Yunmiao, "Nonsense! I know you too well from when you were a child. You would definitely do something like secretly taking my clothes back as a collection."

Shang Yunmiao knew that this was in line with her way of thinking at that time, but she had no recollection of such a thing, and it was not recorded in her notebook, so it must have been Chen Bing who forgot it here.

"No, that's not true. If that were the case, I would definitely remember."

Neither of them could convince the other, so the matter was eventually left unresolved, ending with Chen Bing accepting the smaller school uniform and Shang Yunmiao accepting the larger one.

So even if we relive our lives with the experiences of growing up, we will still forget a lot of things. Like this school uniform incident, it's a confusing thing that neither Chen Bing nor Chen Bing can remember.

There's a saying that goes something like this: the picture quality gets clearer and clearer, but the memory gets blurrier and blurrier.

Putting the matter aside, Chen Bing felt a little embarrassed seeing that Xiao Shang was still somewhat unhappy about what had just happened. After all, she didn't know the truth of the matter, yet Xiao Shang had just asserted that she was the one who did it.

Feeling a little guilty, Chen Bing wanted to try and appease the other party.

"Come to my house with me again, I'll show you something good."

Although she was somewhat upset, Shang Yunmiao, who was born to be a pushover, didn't make a fuss. She sullenly left with Chen Bing.

Pushing open the familiar door, the two entered Chen Bing's room this time.

Shang Yunmiao had been here many times when she was a child, so it was not unfamiliar to her.

This includes large posters on the wall, a desk by the window, or even a fitness mat lying quietly on the floor...

"Come here for a second, do you see this poster?"

Shang Yunmiao looked in the direction Chen Bing was gesturing, and saw that the poster on the wall was still the same as before, with a retro-style anime landscape oil painting on it.

"What's wrong? What's wrong with this?"

Seeing Xiao Shang's confusion, Chen Bing stepped forward and cleared up her doubts.

He grabbed a corner of the poster and gently peeled it off.

And so, an entire wall covered with photos came into Shang Yunmiao's view, and the vast majority of them were related to herself. From her kindergarten days long ago until she entered junior high school, there were even many photos that she had never seen before.

"Hehe, how about it? I secretly made this all by myself. There are a lot of photos in it that you've never seen before, right? They were all taken a long time ago, and I couldn't upload them to my phone, so I just kept the photos."

Listening to Chen Bing's introduction, Shang Yunmiao took a few steps forward, and her eyes were immediately drawn to a photo in the center of the wall.

It was a photograph surrounded by darkness, except for the center of the image, which was illuminated by colorful fireworks. In the illuminated area, a cute little face was smiling brightly.

"This photo is..." Shang Yunmiao recalled. It seemed to have been taken when she was very young, around four or five years old, on her and Chen Bing's birthday.

If we were to delve into the details, this might be one of the earliest photos Chen Bing took of himself.

After watching for a while with emotion, Shang Yunmiao put aside the question of whether she was innocent or not, and happily turned around to hug Chen Bing.

"My brother is so good!"

It's clear that Shang Yunmiao is genuinely happy at this moment, even using the term "brother" in her voice. Coupled with her naturally soft tone, she looks exactly like a little green tea b*tch.

"Should the photos be left here?"

"You want to take it home?"

"Yes!" Shang Yunmiao nodded heavily and replied with her eyes shining, "When we go back, we'll buy a big photo album. I'm going to spend a very long time decorating it with these photos."

"Okay, sure, but before that, how about you come with me somewhere first?"

Xiao Shang kissed Chen Bing first, and then agreed.

So, after removing and organizing the photos, the two left.

Shang Yunmiao didn't ask Chen Bing where she wanted to go because she completely and unconditionally obeyed his wishes. Since it didn't matter what she did, it didn't matter if she knew either.

After leaving the residential area, I walked north along the wide road. Before long, a residential area with an average of six or seven stories came into view.

As Shang Yunmiao walked, she reminisced, then suddenly seemed to remember something and asked Chen Bing, "This seems to be the village where you used to live, Chen Bing. Has it been demolished?"

"You got it right! You really are a smart student, Xiao Shang. You only came here once when you were so young and you still remember it." After praising Xiao Shang, Chen Bing looked around at the drastically changed surroundings and felt a sense of things being different now.

"Hehe, I was so nervous when I first came to your house, so I remember it very clearly. But Chen Bing, what are we doing here? Wasn't the village demolished?"

Chen Bing didn't answer Xiao Shang directly, but said rather sadly, "Well... let me tell you about my childhood, before we met. When I was born, Old Chen worked in Guangdong Province all year round, only coming back around the Spring Festival. Sister Yue was busy with the breakfast shop, so I spent a lot of time at my grandparents' house."

Old Chen grew up in an orphanage and had no parents, so my maternal grandparents were like my paternal grandparents.

My maternal grandmother passed away early, before I was even a year old. My maternal grandfather passed away a little later, when I was about four or five years old…