Bai Lu remembers the address.
The train arrived in Beijing on the second night, so we had to find a hotel nearby to stay for the night.
I went to the family compound the next morning.
There are security guards on duty at the entrance of the residential compound. Entry and exit are registered, and strangers are not allowed to enter.
On a sweltering summer day, Bai Lu stood across from the entrance of the family compound, waiting under a large, leafy tree. As time ticked by, people came and went, but none of them were familiar faces. Her anxiety and unease grew until they reached their breaking point.
Where did Mom and Dad go?
It's the weekend, aren't you home?
The family compound has complete living facilities, including leisure, entertainment, sports, sports fields, and all kinds of living amenities, forming a self-contained living system. On weekends and holidays, the auditorium will also show movies and hold parties from time to time.
Aside from grocery shopping and cooking, my parents don't go out often, so they should be back by now.
Just then, the sound of a car horn came from afar, and the type, color, and license plate of the car were exactly as she remembered. Bai Lu immediately hid behind a big tree.
The first black SUV with military license plates opened its door.
Next came a middle-aged man with a straight posture, a heroic and imposing presence, and a restrained air of killing intent. Time had not left any marks on his face, but his thick eyebrows accentuated his decisive and ruthless aura.
That was Bailu's grandfather. Even though he was dressed in civilian clothes, it couldn't hide the imposing presence of a soldier.
The second person to come down was my grandmother, dressed in an elegant cheongsam, exuding a refined and scholarly air.
Time has transformed into a serene and otherworldly peace, adorning Grandma's delicate features, giving her an air of otherworldly grace.
The people who got out of the second car were my kind-faced, slender but healthy-looking grandmother and my upright, honest grandfather.
Also, there's the uncle, whose words and actions are somewhat carefree and casual, yet he becomes well-behaved at the slightest glance from his aunt.
My aunt, who was eighteen years old at the time, was riding in a car with my parents. When she opened the door to get out of the car, her slender, fair hand was holding the hand of a three-year-old boy.
The little boy was exquisitely handsome, with delicate and well-proportioned features. His slightly pouting lips were pink and his clear, bright eyes darted around before his gaze fixed on the direction of the big tree.
Bai Lu, who was immersed in the joy of seeing her family, was stunned for a moment. After a slow reaction, she quickly pulled her head back behind the tree and hid her slightly tilted body.
Whose child is that? Nobody else was looking over. Why did he suddenly look over? Did he notice her?
Bai Lu leaned against the trunk of a large tree, crossed her arms and pulled them back in front of her, trying to shrink her body to its smallest and narrowest size, minimizing her presence and letting the tree act as her protective umbrella.
From the direction where my aunt was, I heard the playful laughter of someone teasing a child: "Little rabbit, what are you looking at? What's over there on the other side of the tree, a bird or a cicada?"
Giving adorable little babies cute and endearing nicknames is one of my aunt's hobbies.
I gave her that name in my past life.
"Let's go home, bunny, and make some delicious food." This is... a mother's voice soothing her child.
She has clearly accepted this adorable nickname and invited the soft and cute little white rabbit to her house for dinner.
Bai Lu subconsciously peeked out and, sure enough, saw the young and beautiful "mother" with a gentle smile on her face. The little white rabbit, who had already turned around, suddenly turned back and stared at her direction again with her bright eyes.
Mom also glanced over instinctively.
My aunt, uncle, maternal uncle and aunt, maternal grandparents, paternal grandparents, and my father who had just gotten off the bus all looked over at the same time, their gazes covering the entire tree like a large net.
Bai Lu, who had been hiding behind a tree for a second, held her breath, crossed her arms in front of her, and dared not move.
Grandpa is very perceptive; he can sense anything amiss from the slightest movement. It's best to keep your heart rate and breathing rate steady, and let the tension continue as it may.
Any侥幸心理 (侥幸心理 refers to a mentality of taking chances or hoping for the best) is completely transparent to Grandpa.
Bai Lu's current identity is that of a complete stranger to them. She is sneaking around at the entrance of the family compound, spying on them. Anyone would suspect that her motives are impure.
Time slipped away with each soft breath, and I don't know how much time had passed, but it felt like an eternity.
The piercing gaze that swept across the tree gradually disappeared, lingering on the trunk for a while before vanishing, making Bai Lu's palms sweat profusely.
Fortunately, after the scanning gaze left one after another, the sound of footsteps departing followed.
Just when Bai Lu thought that her first trip to visit her family after arriving in the 1990s was coming to an end.
The little white rabbit's innocent and childlike voice struck Bai Lu like a thunderbolt, making her body stiffen.
The little rabbit said, "Mommy, hug me."
The voice that agreed to pick up the little white rabbit was Bailu's... Mom: "Good girl, bunny. Mom will make you braised pork when we get home. Don't kick your legs while I'm holding you, okay?"
Bai Lu's father's stern voice followed: "If you kick around, tie your feet up and walk by yourself."
Auntie: "Little white rabbit, hurry up and hide your feet, or you'll be stewed! Be a good girl and you can eat lots of birthday cake when we get home. Today is your birthday, don't you want to eat lots of cake?"
"think."
It turns out that today wasn't the usual family dinner between the two families, but rather Little Rabbit's birthday.
The cake box that Dad is holding is also a birthday cake for his son, "Little White Rabbit".
It wasn't that she remembered wrong, nor was it that anyone was celebrating their birthday early; it was that it was Mom and Dad's child's birthday.
In the 21st century, her parents only had her as their child; they had no other children.
How could this be...?
Bai Lu was stunned by the sudden, unannounced news, leaving her mind blank and unable to think.
After calming down for what seemed like an eternity, I managed to recall a fragment of the memory with all my might and focused concentration.
When I was little, I have a vague memory of my grandmother giving my mother health supplements.
They said that her mother slipped and fell during her last pregnancy, which damaged her health and made it difficult for her to conceive again. Five years later, she finally became pregnant with this child, but then had a difficult childbirth, and her body will probably never fully recover...
So, that three-year-old child, the little white rabbit, is the child that the mother couldn't keep in her past life?
Is it a replacement for her? Then, in 1999, will "she" not be born?
White Dew makes one feel cold all over.
If this is a parallel world, the life trajectories of Xiao Cheng, Luo Shiliu, and others will not be exactly the same as the memories she saw in the 21st century.
The kinship ties between parents, grandparents, maternal grandparents, uncles and aunts, and cousins, as well as the mannerisms, clothing, and demeanor that reflect their work, will not be exactly the same as in the 21st century.
If it weren't a parallel world, she would still be in the 21st century where she lives, only 23 years ago, and everything would be the same.
But the reality has an additional variable: the "little white rabbit".
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