They searched all the places he might usually go, but couldn't find him anywhere.
Everyone searched from day to night, and didn't rest until after 3 a.m.
Seeing that everyone was exhausted, someone called the police. Although less than 24 hours had passed since Shen Jingxiu went missing, the police accepted the case because of his significant contributions to local development.
The people who had been searching all day could finally go back and rest for a while with some peace of mind.
But Wen Yan couldn't sleep.
She couldn't sleep because she couldn't find Shen Jingxiu.
Forty-six is still alive.
Wen Yan didn't believe that Shen Jingxiu would leave his old friend behind alone; she thought he must be nearby.
She still needs to go out and look for more.
Wen Yan gently stroked Forty-Six's head and pressed her face against the big guy.
"Forty-Six, you know where he is, right? Please take me to him. I have so much to say to him, to them. I never knew that my arrival would separate me from them by fifty years. Please take me to him, I beg you, Forty-Six, just like you brought me here and took me away. Please?"
Forty-six is a horse.
It cannot speak.
But it raised its feet.
Wen Yan opened the gate of the horse pen and let it lead her.
They walked slowly across the grassland at three in the morning.
Wen Yan could hear the sound of wind chimes from afar.
Looking ahead, the huge tree was glowing.
Fifty years and two days, 18,252 lamps.
Each lamp, taken out individually, can only emit a negligible amount of light.
But when 18,252 lights come together, they become a bright lighthouse guiding the way in the grassland.
They led Wen Yan in that direction.
But Wen Yan had just returned from there.
But she was unwilling to give up any opportunity.
The closer she got, the clearer Wen Yan could see.
Under that tree with its lamps, there really was a figure, as tall and upright as ever, so familiar.
"Shen Jingxiu!"
Wen Yan shouted excitedly and rushed towards the figure.
But as he ran, his slender figure became hunched and aged.
It is the elderly Shen Jingxiu.
No matter what kind of Shen Jingxiu he was, Wen Yan did not stop her.
“Shen Jingxiu, where have you been all day! Do you know how worried we all were about you? We’ve been looking for you all day, we even called the police.”
The old man only glanced at Wen Yan before quickly turning away.
He reached out and, with trembling hands, took a lamp from the tree, slowly turned around and handed it to Wen Yan.
"Take it back, this is your lamp."
Wen Yan shook her head: "Keep it up. I'll wait for that person with you. Once you see her, we won't hang it up anymore."
"There are 18,252 lamps. I didn't hang any today, but there are 18,253 lamps on the tree. This lamp is not mine. You can take it back."
Wen Yan chuckled: "You stubborn old man, did you count all these lights one by one? Could you even count them all?"
The old man smiled and said, "Why count them? Each of my lamps has a number. This one doesn't. Although it looks exactly like my lamp, it's definitely not mine. I know it doesn't belong to this world. Go back now, Wenyan."
"As expected of you, so..." Wen Yan wanted to say, "As expected of you, Shen Jingxiu, so clever."
But then her brain suddenly realized that she had just heard him call her Wen Yan.
"What did you call me?" Wen Yan looked at the old man, tears instantly streaming down her face. "You recognized me, didn't you? You remember me?"
Shen Jingxiu was already in tears. At the age of eighty, his eyes were now full of wrinkles, but his eyes, which had been washed by water, were still bright and spirited when he looked at his beloved girl, while also mixed with reluctance and inferiority.
"Go away. You don't belong to this world. Go back to where you were meant to be and live the life you were meant to live. We are ultimately not from the same world."
"But I'm back. You waited for me for 18,252 days, wasn't it all for this day?"
“I used to think that I was living for this day, and even for every day after this day. But when I really thought of you, and when I really saw you in front of me, I realized that just seeing you for that one moment was enough for me. I know you will stay and even take care of me, but I can't be so selfish. You are still young, you are only in your twenties, you are so beautiful and vibrant, and you have a wonderful future ahead of you.”
"No, don't tell me that, I don't want to hear it! If you say that, then what about your past fifty years! Those were fifty years! More than eighteen thousand days!!! Not fifty hours! Not fifty days! Now that I'm here, now that we've met again, I won't leave!"
Shen Jingxiu slowly shook his head: "Yan Yan, we are on different timelines. My life is already on a countdown. My parents have been gone for decades, and my second, third, fourth children and Yu Long are also getting old. There is no point in you staying. It will only make me feel guilty when I die. So go back. I will be content to see you one more time."
"By the way," Shen Jingxiu asked again, "that Fatty and Xiaomeng, the ones who were in the car accident with you, how are they?"
"good."
"How have you been all these years? Pit No. 46 collapsed after you left, and we suspect that you may never be able to come back."
"Then why are you still waiting for me here?"
"Because I love someone, I will have blind expectations. But please don't feel burdened. I am just an old man who is about to die, and I may forget everything at any time. These fifty years have been my own choice. You don't need to pity me. Yan Yan, you should go back."
"What if I said that sometimes I didn't really treat you as my older brother?"
"Then I can die without regrets."
"I want to stay."
"This won't do. I want you to leave."
"But I'm not sure I'll be able to make it."
“I have a strong feeling that tonight, you have to leave.”
"So I came back just to say goodbye to you again? That would be too cruel of me."
"But fate has granted me a gift. In my lifetime, I have been able to see my beloved one more time. Here, this is your lamp."
"I don't want to."
"Please."
Wen Yan broke down in tears.
Fifty years ago, when she was about to leave, he, who never begged anyone, said, "Please don't go."
Fifty years later, she wanted to stay, but he begged her to leave.
He hugged her one last time, trembling, and placed the unnumbered lamp into her hands.
Her tears fell onto the lamp, and in that instant, almost all the lights on the lamp tree went out, and the sound of the wind chimes stopped abruptly.
It seemed that all the light was absorbed by the lamp in her hand.
Once again, Wen Yan felt herself being sucked into a powerful vortex.
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