Chapter 179 Ah He and Brother Yanzi have no secrets

The boundless blackness seemed to sink into the bottomless abyss.

Qu He felt lightheaded, as if her body had lost its weight and was floating in a daze.

Suddenly, I was pulled by an invisible force towards a bright exit.

The familiar sweet scent of bayberries wafted through the air.

Under the tree, a little girl with pigtails was tiptoeing up the bayberry tree.

At the highest point, large, red bayberries hung on the branches, tempting her to lean forward.

Suddenly, her foot slipped, and the girl cried out and fell, but instead of the expected pain, she bumped into a hug that smelled faintly of medicine.

She looked up and met a pair of amber eyes, like the stars in the night sky at Yujia Ferry.

Beneath him sat a boy in a wheelchair, with fair skin and delicate features.

The girl was stunned, forgetting her fear, and blinked her big eyes, "You're so beautiful."

That was when she was five years old, and it was the first time she met Zhuang Bieyan.

Zhuang Bieyan, who was raised in the ancestral hall since childhood, has always followed the 321 family rules of the Zhuang family and has never been praised so directly before.

His ears turned slightly red, and he looked away awkwardly, his tone stiff, "...Be careful."

From that day on, the fearless girl with pigtails in Yujia Ferry had a little tail by her side.

Xiao Quhe carried a half-full basket of bayberries and ran huffing and puffing towards Zhuang Bieyan's house.

She pushed open the courtyard gate that was always tightly closed. The bamboo basket made her arms red from the pressure, but she still smiled with her eyes crinkling.

Xiao Quhe popped the biggest, reddest bayberry into the boy's mouth: "The barefoot uncle just picked it for me, it's sweet! Try it, it's not sour!"

Zhuang Bieyan initially always frowned and avoided the banquet.

He was used to being wary and distant, and he didn't feel comfortable with this overly enthusiastic girl who was like a little sun. "I don't want to eat it, take it away."

But she never gave up. If it didn't work the first time, she would try again. She was persistent every time.

Each time, he would give up and reluctantly open his mouth, letting the sweet and sour taste spread in his mouth, but it seemed that the bitterness in his heart was indeed diluted a little.

Later, Xiao Quhe would always push his wheelchair to accompany him to play in the alley. Although she said she was pushing, Zhuang Bieyan actually operated the wheelchair himself every time.

She would chatter away beside him, and when she got tired of playing, she would unceremoniously lie down on his lap and fall asleep.

The warm sunlight shone on her face. Zhuang Bieyan looked at the person on his lap, his body stiff, not daring to move.

Once, she fell asleep on his desk. When she woke up, she saw him doing his homework. She couldn't understand the complicated words and felt that the notebook was empty.

"Brother Yanzi, your notebook is so white! It would look so nice if you drew on it!"

Xiao Quhe awkwardly picked up a pen and drew swallows on it.

Helpless, Zhuang Bieyan grabbed her mischievous hand and wiped the pen stains off it, saying, "Stop fooling around."

At the entrance of Yujia Ferry Village, there were a few mischievous little boys who always laughed at Xiao Quhe, calling her a "wild child who has no parents and lives with her grandparents." They even snatched her basket of bayberries and threw it on the ground.

She squatted on the ground and cried, while the boy who always sat in a wheelchair suddenly stood up.

His movements were somewhat stiff, but he steadily stood in front of her.

The children ran away in fright, and little Quhe, with teary eyes, tugged at his sleeve: "Brother Yanzi, so you can walk?"

Zhuang Bieyan stiffened for a moment, then silently sat back in his wheelchair.

He turned his head away, his face showing panic and stubbornness: "You can't tell anyone, this is my secret."

Xiao Quhe got up and walked to the wheelchair. "What is a secret?"

Zhuang Bieyan looked into her innocent eyes and offered an explanation she could understand: "The secret is that you have a particularly large and sweet bayberry, but you don't want to share it with anyone else, so you can only keep it to yourself."

"I understand!"

Her eyes lit up, and she grabbed his cool fingers, saying with utmost seriousness, "Then Ah He and Brother Yanzi have no secrets. Ah He will give you the biggest and sweetest bayberries."

My chest was filled with an unfamiliar emotion, both bittersweet and warm.

Zhuang Bieyan stubbornly replied, "I don't want to eat them. Don't go picking bayberries anymore. After I leave, who will help you if you get bullied?"

She grew anxious and grabbed his hand, shaking it: "Then please don't leave, okay? Let's go pick bayberries together."

"I will definitely leave."

"Wah!" Her little face fell, and she cried even louder than before.

"Okay, okay, stop crying. I'll go pick bayberries with you, alright?"

The children's innocent chatter in the alley gradually faded into the distance.

The setting sun cast long shadows on them.

Later, she heard that he was leaving.

Little Quhe pestered her grandfather, wanting him to have a ceramic swallow made.

Brother Shi'an from next door volunteered to help. The two of them worked at the kiln for several days, firing several clay pieces until they finally managed to fire a small swallow before he left.

Saying goodbye by the lotus pond.

The wind was gentle that day, and a few late-blooming lotus flowers swayed in the breeze.

Xiao Quhe handed him the ceramic swallow: "Brother Swallow, this is for you. The clay was dug up from the mountain by the barefoot old man. He prayed to the Bodhisattva, who said it could help you get rid of your illness, and you won't need to use a wheelchair anymore!"

The boy looked at the little swallow and slowly reached out to take it.

He looked down at the little girl in front of him, her eyes filled with tears, and felt a tightness and swelling in his heart, as if something was tightly wrapped around it.

He took off the mutton-fat jade pendant from his neck and gently hung it around her neck; the jade was warm against her skin.

“This was a gift from my mom. Wearing it will feel like I'm with you. I'll come back before you start school, and then I'll teach you how to write my name, okay?”

The boy's voice was somewhat low and hoarse.

She always called him Brother Swallow, and at the time he also thought the three characters "Zhuang Bie Yan" were too difficult to write, so he never let her learn them.

"Really? Pinky promise!"

"Pinky promise, a hundred years from now."

Two little fingers hooked together.

Zhuang Bieyan left, taking the ceramic swallow with him.

The bayberry season is over, and the fruit on the branches has fallen to the ground.

She will be leaving Yujia Ferry soon as primary school starts.

During those days, she would run to the old locust tree at the entrance of the village every day to wait, clutching the notebook he had given her, every page of which was filled with drawings of swallows.

She waited day after day, but the boy who promised to come back and teach her to write her name never appeared.

Until that day, a strange man came up to her and said, "Your brother asked me to pick you up." She followed him in a daze and was forcibly dragged into a van.

There were other children on the bus, and the sound of crying filled the air.

She was terrified.

"Grandpa! Grandma! Mom! Dad! Brother Yanzi!"

She cried and pounded on the car window.

The car sped up, and the scenery outside the window became increasingly unfamiliar, until a loud crash was heard and the van was hit by another vehicle and overturned into the river.

The river submerged her; she struggled desperately, choking, suffocated, and overwhelmed by despair.

Darkness engulfed her.