Picking figs

Kim Hee-ro did not reach the village far from Deer Town with her younger self.

In her memory, the village was dilapidated and old, with only a few households, no water, no grass, and nowhere near as colorful and bright as the Deer Town.

Jin Xilu stayed in that village for 38 days, and Jiang Yilin stayed for 30 days.

As the one reminiscing, she seemed to have an out-of-body experience, floating in the air and following He Jiafeng away, gazing at the unfamiliar place before her, where crowds bustled about, coming and going.

It was only then that she saw the truth about her childhood trauma from a different perspective.

It turns out that Grandma really, really loved her, and no one wanted to lose them both.

The moment Jin Meiling learned of He Min's death, she turned and walked in the opposite direction from the Jiang family. She was determined to find the two children before Jiang Lianyin discovered them.

She didn't even notice the tears streaming down her face until she bumped into Xin Xuan, who was also trembling.

The two women looked at each other, unable to utter a complete sentence, but they knew from each other's eyes that He Min was dead.

The two stared at each other, feeling a burning sensation from the other's hateful gaze, before realizing the reality of the situation.

Oh, it's true, He Min is dead.

The broken tiles beneath my feet no longer felt light and airy.

He Min is dead, she's dead!

Things happened too suddenly. The groom who was supposed to take Jiang Yilin away didn't arrive in time. Xin Xuan thought for a moment in a panic and decisively chose to leave. They couldn't miss the opportunity to exchange He Min's life for the chance to take Jiang Yilin away.

Jin Meiling was meticulous and didn't trust strangers to take the child away. The two discussed it and decided that Xin Xuan would take Jiang Yilin away, while she would stay behind to control Jiang Lianyin.

That was the original plan.

But the cunning He Jiafeng was also someone who knew about what happened back then. He took the initiative to approach Xin Xuan when she was about to leave with the child.

He knew that Xin Xuan didn't actually want to leave. She couldn't let go of He Min, and she was also worried that Jin Meiling would be blamed by Jiang Lianyin.

He Jiafeng exploited Xin Xuan's psychological weaknesses to swindle a large sum of money from her, verbally agreeing to deliver it to the family he had already contacted in Wuer Village.

As a result, he rode his tricycle, turned around, and drove in the opposite direction.

He was very greedy and wanted to make more money. Originally, Kim Hee-ro wouldn't have been sent away.

But what He Jiafeng wanted to make money from human trafficking was that every child he had meant another money bag.

After tricking Jin Xilu and Jiang Yilin into getting into the tricycle, he drove erratically until he ran out of gas and stopped in an unfamiliar village. He left the children there and tied them up while he went to a larger town nearby to buy gas.

He was overjoyed at the windfall and paid little attention to the two children, thinking that they were just two little brats. He had them tied up, so they wouldn't dare to run away no matter what.

It happened so suddenly that He Jiafeng hadn't even found a buyer yet. On the surface, he was buying oil, but actually he wanted to find a way to get the child in a bigger town.

Whether it was because He Jiafeng had committed countless evil deeds or because God had eyes, he was struck by an old shop sign as soon as he stepped into the larger town next door, and died on the spot, his blood staining the straw on the ground.

Someone died, but it was He Jiafeng who died. This place is far, far away from Milu Town.

Here, nobody knows him, nobody cares about him, and in the end, someone wants to stand up for him, but doesn't know who to give the compensation to.

Jin Xilu witnessed all of this without blinking, turned and left, stepping over He Jiafeng's bloodstains, with the crowd behind her shouting one after another.

"Who is this? Does anyone know him?"

"I don't know her, and no one will take her home!"

"Tsk tsk, bad luck."

The words sounded so familiar; Kim Hee-ro had heard them before. She stopped, unsure of where to go.

She was trapped in her memories and couldn't wake up.

"Oh dear—poor thing, so small."

Two or three sallow-skinned women crowded in the doorway, whispering to each other. Their sharp, murky eyes swept over her again and again. Jin Xilu was choked by the dust filling the room and couldn't speak.

"Take them to your home? These little kids are all so good-looking."

"Why don't I take it to your house! My family doesn't have much rice, and I'm just feeding two mouths for free."

The woman who was speaking rolled her eyes at the person next to her, crossed her arms, moved her heavy body forward, and leaned forward without saying a word.

"Why are you looking at me? I just heard that there were two more kids in the village, so I came to join in the fun and see what was going on."

Jiang Yilin woke up earlier than Jin Xilu. He had already loosened the rope on his hands. He calmed down and observed his surroundings. It was a drafty ancestral hall. It was late summer, the time for harvesting rice. In the corner, there was a pile of empty rice stalks that had finished heading.

He could roughly guess that He Jiafeng had deceived both sides and that they had been abandoned in this village.

Later, someone couldn't bear to see them like that and gave them a thin blanket to sleep on. Fortunately, it was summer, so the two of them wouldn't freeze to death.

At first, Jiang Yilin insisted on gender segregation and refused to sleep on the same straw mat as Jin Xilu, no matter what. Later, the two of them lay on the mat staring at the spider web on the wall, competing to see who could make their stomachs growl louder.

The rice given by the villagers had been eaten up, and Jin Xilu had found a few shriveled sour fruits nearby.

"Jiang Yilin".

"Hmm?" Jiang Yilin closed his eyes when he heard her voice, and then felt something being brought to his lips.

He licked his dry lips and tasted the sweetness; it was glutinous rice cake.

"Where did you come from?" Jiang Yilin asked, taking a bite of the sweet cake.

When Jin Xilu took it back, she found that Tian Gao had only suffered minor injuries. She immediately got up, looking helpless, and said to him irritably, "You should eat the whole thing."

Jiang Yilin wasn't angry when she was yelled at; she just lay there and asked again, "Where did you come from?"

Jin Xilu didn't answer, she just kept feeding Jiang Yilin sweet cakes, regardless of whether he liked them or not. She only knew that Jiang Yilin's illness wouldn't get better if he didn't eat.

Seeing that Jin Xilu was pursing her lips and not saying a word, and kept stuffing the things the idiot had given her into her mouth, Jiang Yilin felt a little annoyed.

She wasn't like this before. She used to love smiling at him and chatting with him endlessly, even though they talked about random things he wasn't interested in.

"Heh, I knew even if you didn't say it, it was that stupid son from the crooked tree family again, right?" Jiang Yilin said, turning to lie down on his side, suppressing his dissatisfaction, his voice becoming a little rough due to his cold.

Seeing that he was still so unyielding, Kim Hee-ro had no choice but to carefully put the sweet cake aside.

She had only taken a few steps off the mat when Jiang Yilin noticed her.

I heard him sneer over there: "How much more do I need to remind you? You're just so eager to become that idiot son's child bride!"

"Jiang Yilin!"

Jiang Yilin, who had been yelled at again, deflated and was no longer the imposing figure he had been just moments before. He reluctantly turned back and looked at him with his misty, light-colored eyes.

If there were surging seawater in the air, Jiang Yilin's gaze would always be like the beam of light from a lighthouse in the middle of the sea, locking onto Jin Xilu as she surged with the seawater, her heart diluted into a thin sheet.

"Explain."

"Oh dear, I was afraid you'd get angry, that's why I didn't dare say anything, but you're still so fierce." Kim Hee-ro had no choice but to sit back down on the mat.

They lived in this dilapidated house with bare walls, and even their eating bowls were cobbled together from scratch; they had no advanced thermometers to speak of.

So Kim Hee-ro had no choice but to use the most primitive method of taking her temperature. She bent forward, but slipped on the mat and lost control of her strength.

Bang--

Their heads collided, and Kim Hee-ro instinctively tried to step back.

But before anyone knew it, Jiang Yilin's fingers were already pressed against the back of Jin Xilu's neck, his thumb and forefinger touching her carotid artery as he pushed her back towards him.

"If you want to take your temperature, can't you just do it properly?"

Her soft, gentle words sound nothing like Jiang Yilin's.

"Oh." Jin Xilu gave up resisting after hearing this. She was facing Jiang Yilin, especially since Jiang Yilin was sick.

Now, his bangs hang down to cover his eyelashes, and he wears a limp, misshapen white short-sleeved shirt. He has lost a lot of weight and his collarbones are more prominent, making him look like someone who is easy to bully.

Their foreheads were touching, and Jiang Yilin's fingers were still cool against her neck. In the sweltering summer, the natural ice was quite refreshing, so Jin Xilu didn't ask him to put them down.

Jiang Yilin could meet Jin Xilu's eyes with just a slight tilt of his head, but he was too embarrassed to look directly at her. He quickly lowered his eyes after stealing a glance and licked his dry lips: "Explain."

"What's there to explain?" Kim Hee-ro wondered if she was doing something wrong with how she was taking her temperature. Did it really have to take so long? Why did she feel hotter and hotter?

"Explain why you went to see that crooked-necked kid again."

"I didn't go looking for him. It's his birthday today, and he gave me a few sweet cakes. That's all."

Jin Xilu felt increasingly uneasy as she took the medicine. Could this guy be faking illness? But he didn't seem like it. After a few seconds, she said, "Also, he doesn't have a crooked neck, and he's not stupid. He just stutters."

Kim Hee-ro felt she couldn't take any more measurements, so she tilted her head back to avoid his forehead.

Jiang Yilin opened her eyes, and in a daze, she only saw her running away.

Jin Xilu stood up and ran towards the door, saying as she ran, "It doesn't seem like a fever. Wait for me, I'll go borrow some more medicine."

After she left, the empty room was filled with the faint sound of cicadas chirping in the corner, which gave him a headache. He couldn't help but call out Kim Hee-ro's name again.

His voice sounded as if it had been dipped in cold water, his hoarse throat cracking: "Jin Xilu."

Unfortunately, no one responded to her.

When Jin Xilu brought a bowl of dark medicine into the room, Jiang Yilin was already lying on the mat with a furrowed brow, his pale and dry lips had lost their luster, and he was breathing softly. He was leaning his head against the wall to cool off, unaware that his forehead was covered in white ash.

Jin Xilu held the medicine bowl in one hand and supported his thin shoulder with the other. He had lost a lot of weight and lay there motionless, his shoulder blades always protruding from his clothes.

But in Kim Hee-ro's eyes, he was still beautiful.

"Jiang Yilin, wake up, wake up and take your medicine." Jin Xilu touched his shoulder, but her gaze secretly slid down to his collarbone. She remembered that he had a red mole on his collarbone, which she had seen by accident at first.

As the two became more familiar with each other, Jin Xilu was able to look at him openly. But for some reason, now that Jiang Yilin was asleep, she felt a little awkward and timid as she looked at him.

Later, when Kim Hee-ro grew up, she realized that she had liked someone without realizing it.

Shyness in front of someone you like is like a flushed fig, its exterior appearing hard and solid, but inside, the countless seeds have already brewed a sweet and sour taste.

"Who are you?" Upon hearing the voice, Jiang Yilin's body trembled, his eyelashes fluttered but he didn't open his eyes, and the fingers pressed under his neck curled up.

"It's me, I'm back."

Jin Xilu didn't want to forcefully wake him up, but the kind old lady helped brew a traditional Chinese medicine remedy and told her to drink it while it was hot.

Jiang Yilin had been feeling unwell for the past two days. This taciturn man didn't say anything, but Jin Xilu noticed that he was waking up later and later each day and pressed him for answers.

Jiang Yilin then admitted that he was sick.

Jiang Yilin heard her voice, frowned and tried to distinguish it carefully. After a few seconds, he sighed softly and realized that he had slept for too long and his hands were numb from being pressed down.

Jin Xilu was frightened by his reaction. He had taken the medicine yesterday, but his illness was getting worse and worse, and now he couldn't even open his eyes.

Kim Hee-ro.

She rarely saw Jiang Yilin like this. Suppressing her fear and unease, she sniffed, forced a smile, and continued to respond to him warmly.

"Yes, it's me, Kim Hee-ro! I'm here!"

Jiang Yilin couldn't see anything. The tingling sensation in his wrist was like an endless string of firecrackers, rushing to his head and grinding over and over again.

He tried hard to open his eyes, but it was still completely dark until one or two drops of water fell on his face. Her tears were warmer than his body temperature.

"I found you some medicine, you mustn't waste it, open your eyes quickly, open them!" Jin Xilu couldn't hold back anymore, tears streaming down her face like a broken string of pearls, chaotic and without any pattern. She cried out with all her might.

She was scared, she was really scared.

Even as she repeatedly reassured herself that her grandmother couldn't possibly be so heartless as to abandon them both.

But as summer gradually passed, the familiar green trees were never seen outside the house; it was always so dim and yellow. Hope, like a house with a hole in it, grew colder and fainter with each passing day.

There was no river here, only deep wells. Every time she drew water, she worried that either she or Jiang Yilin would fall in and drown.

She sobbed, and Jiang Yilin pulled his hand out from under her neck and placed it on the back of her hand, his cold fingers tapping the hollow of her hand bone intermittently.

The crying subsided, and Jiang Yilin became unresponsive.