Chapter 52: Summer Blue
Xia Cun hopes that summer vacation will not end because she wants to be with Xiao Lan forever.
She knew that Aunt Han Fu took good care of her, but she also knew that Xiaoyi didn't like her, so she didn't want to live with Xiaoyi.
She loved summer vacation; she could live in her own home, eat, live, and do crafts with Xiaolan. She wanted Xiaolan to take her with her to the supermarket, to dinner with friends, and to a movie date with her boyfriend. Even with Xiaoyi at home, she still felt it wasn't enough; she wanted Xiaolan.
She started lying on the sofa and doing her homework so that she would know when Xiaolan went out.
Xiao Lan didn't know what she was thinking. She just thought it was a bad habit and wanted her to at least do her homework in a different direction while lying on the coffee table. It seemed to be no different, but she found that she just liked the bad habit more.
She hoped summer vacation wouldn't end, but she and Xiaolan both needed to go to school. Although Xiaolan's school was in H City, she couldn't go to and from school every day like she did. Xiaolan had to walk a long way to school and then take two subways.
Back to school was imminent. After packing her own luggage, Xia Lan also packed for Xia Cun. She planned to drop her off at Han Fu's house before returning to school. After packing a box of daily necessities, she turned to look for clothes for Ruqiu, but then froze in her tracks.
At the door, Xia Cun looked at her with tearful eyes, not saying a word, and the teddy bear in her hand had been squeezed out of shape.
Caught off guard, Xia Lan felt a pang of pain in her nose, and she squatted forward and hugged her.
Why did this happen? How could her sister, such a good person, be so unlucky?
First, she worked hard to raise her younger sister, and then worked hard to raise Xia Cunxin. In the end, she died on the way to celebrate after she finally won a successful lawsuit.
What to do? She has no sister.
What to do? The child has no mother.
Xia Lan had long known that only she and Xia were left in this family, and she had long known that she should take care of her daughter like her sister had taken care of her, so she made up her mind early on not to cry in front of the child, and she wanted to be a reliable adult.
But on the day when the holiday ended, when she saw the tearful little girl, she finally couldn't help but hug her and shed tears. It was so sore, my nose was sore, my eyes were sore, my throat and ears were sore.
"Can I not go to school?" The child was still holding back tears and asked her in a sobbing voice.
"No, Xia Zuncheng. If you don't go to school, you won't be able to graduate. You won't be able to find a job and you won't have anything to eat."
"Then we can skip dinner."
"Really? Then try not eating today."
But she seemed to have made the child cry. Xia Cun finally couldn't hold it back anymore and cried in her arms, saying intermittently: "I want to live at home. I don't want to go to Xiaoyi's family. I only like my mother and Xiaolan."
Ugh. There's nothing I can do.
"Okay, but you still have to stay at Little Ripple's house for the next two days. I need to ask the counselor for permission to live outside."
The child seemed to understand and lifted up her T-shirt to wipe away her tears.
“…”
Brat.
Xia Lan was somewhat glad that Xia Qing forced her to learn how to drive two years ago, so after she applied for off-campus accommodation with the school, she went to the used car market and picked up a third-hand Peugeot.
She preferred this antique car to the new cars on the market. She drove it back and forth between school and home every day. It was so cool, just like the heroine of a road movie. Unfortunately, many years later, this cool antique car caught fire.
Xia Cun asked her what "lafeng" meant, and she said, "It means very cool, but when you ask me that, I always feel that the word sounds a bit outdated."
When asked what a road movie is, she said, "It's one of those movies where the protagonist experiences a story while traveling."
"What kind of story?"
“Emmm…it could be a story of escape, or it could be a story of searching.”
"Escape from what?"
"Law, family, or society or something."
"What are you looking for?"
"Freedom, self, meaning, and so on."
"What is self-..."
"stop!"
Xia Lan simply took her to watch a road movie.
The two of them spent more time together than at any other time in the past. Xia Lan felt that Xia Cun was becoming more and more dependent on her, and even occasionally sending her to Han Fu's house to stay for a night became unbearable for Xia Cun.
But she also has her own things to do.
Her roommates traveled to nearby cities every weekend, and didn't she want to join them? Her new boyfriend invited her to a film festival, and didn't she want to go? Sometimes, even when she just went out to see a movie, she would look at her with those dark eyes, looking at her with longing.
What's more, she has to run back and forth between school and home every day, watching the money her sister earned with her life turn into oil and car exhaust, and she is always troubled by trivial matters such as being deducted daily points for skipping classes, being accused of not doing her job properly by the teacher for not finishing her homework in time, and He Shiyan wanting to interfere with her care for Xia Zuncheng.
It was hard for Xia Lan not to feel annoyed, but the more annoyed she became, the more guilty she felt, and the more painful she became.
Didn't her sister go through the same thing? She'd only been with the child for less than a year, how could she be so tired of her? But she couldn't accept it. She was only 20, why did she have to live like this? She needed freedom, a future, meaning...
Xia Lan has always been an emotionally stable person. Xia Qing said that was because she was too lazy since she was a child. However, Xia Qing did not think that laziness was a shortcoming. At least it made people worry less. Unlike Xia Cun, who had been active since she was a child and was very worrying. People always worried that she would get lost or get into trouble.
So, it's normal for her to lose her temper with a troublesome child, right? After all, she is just very tired.
This is how Xia Lan comforted herself after she scolded Xia Cun.
But she found out that Xia Cun was really lost, and she didn't take the old cell phone she gave her with her.
Xia Lan quickly wiped her face and went out to look for someone, but apart from Han Fu's house and the fruit shop, there was nowhere she could look. Who would know where a planet with a strange trajectory would appear?
It was definitely impossible to report the missing person because there was not enough time to file a case, but fortunately, Xia Qing and her mother knew some friends and neighbors who could help find him.
Some people said they saw the child enter the vegetable market, and some said they saw her following a dog. It was not until the evening that one of Xia Qing's colleagues finally called her and said that someone had seen the child in the photo. They said that they saw her getting wet in the rain when she was going home, and wanted to go up to ask if she was lost, but the child turned around and ran away when she saw him.
Uh, that sounds a lot like what she taught.
According to all the statements, that person was indeed the last person to see the child. Xia Lan and Han Fu went there together and searched separately.
Passing the abandoned old playground, Xia Lan paused. Concept drawings for a new development had been put up outside, waiting for the construction crew to demolish them. As if by sheer inspiration, she slipped through the fence and entered the playground.
She had a feeling that if Xia Cunzi passed by this abandoned amusement park, she would definitely walk in, and something would definitely attract her attention.
Xia Lan was thinking about it and saw the yellow duck boat by the lake.
Then, in the moonlight, she saw another yellow duck boat floating on the lake, with a small shadow squatting on the boat.
Silly kid, he actually ran into the middle of the lake.
But is she looking at the moon?
Xia Lan didn't call her out loud, but after seeing the carousel by the lake, she came up with a brilliant idea. She raised the high-intensity flashlight that was almost useless in the light pollution of the city. The beam of light swept gently across the lake like a cat toy, and then fell on a carousel.
If the angle is right, the shadow of this beautiful white horse should appear on the lake.
The pony would shimmer, break, and tremble in the water.
Will it succeed?
I don’t know, let’s give it a try.
I don’t know whether she succeeded or not, but I only know that she was unreliable and caused the child to fall into the lake. When she returned home after the examination at the hospital, it was already late at night. She put the dirty child down and did not move for a long time.
She's already so unreliable, so what if the child messes with her? So, let's just say the two things cancel each other out. But can it really be calculated that simply?
Forget it, it’s too complicated. I’ll think about it another day.
Xia Lan fell asleep exhausted on the edge of the bed.
…
Xia Lan suspected she was a witch. Either she had managed to make the wooden horse reflect in the lake, or she had used that dreamy and beautiful cartoon to tamper with the child's memory... A scientific explanation like the child drowning and causing the memory disorder couldn't possibly be possible, right? Hmm.
In short, she must have cast some kind of magic on Xia Cunzi, and Xia Cunzi saw the reflection she wanted her to see, so she wanted to find the horse.
She took Xia Cun back to the abandoned amusement park, walked to the carousel by the lake, pointed to the horse she had illuminated that night and asked her, "Is this the one?"
The painted carousel, with its roses and vines and blue glass eyes, was much prettier than the fragmented image she had drawn in the comics.
"I want it."
"Wait, I'll steal it back home for you."
Being able to steal is certainly good, and she can also experience the feeling of being the protagonist of a crime film, but stealing is indeed not easy, so she had to find a way to contact the person in charge of the amusement park and expressed her desire to buy one of the wooden horses that would be abandoned sooner or later.
This seemed to be a strange business that had never been seen before. The person in charge even asked her if she wanted to buy a few more horses, offering a buy three get one free deal or something like that.
“…”
Does she look like some kind of weirdo? Besides, there's no room like that at home.
Finally, the wooden horse's poles were sawed off and loaded onto a pickup truck. The pickup truck drove away from the abandoned amusement park and finally arrived at the downstairs of the old public housing estate.
Xia Zun's pony has arrived home.
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The author has something to say: It is a dream, so it is hard to explain. It is impossible that it is because Xia You drowned and had memory disorder. There is a scientific explanation, so it must be that Miss Xia Lan has magic [milk tea]
This is the beautiful dream that Miss Xia Lan gave to Xia Zunsheng! That's why Xia Lan is the one who cares more about Xiao Ma, that's why she mentioned Xiao Ma to Jiang Song. Xiao Ma's stay or departure is up to Jiang Song's alarm clock. Anyway, they will meet again no matter what ^ ^
Okay, I think I'll stop here. I'm so tired.
It’s time to write the final closing remarks! Thank you so much to everyone who has been following me, thank you to my two good friends, and thank you for every positive feedback. It would be really hard to finish writing without positive feedback! [猫头]
Actually, after rewriting the article, I've become much less anxious about the data, and my mentality is completely different from before! And I just happened to make 100 yuan on the day I finished it, so I'll consider it a perfect score!
Even so, the creative process was still incredibly difficult. There were times when I was tossed and turned, and it was truly excruciating. I truly deserved to finish this story! And it's still relatively coherent overall! Very good! While it still feels stream-of-consciousness and abstract (with a shrug), I have a lot more to say about this, but I won't recite it here. See you in the column!
If there are any extra chapters later, please see them in the column, or I will study how to post the welfare extra chapters. That’s all for now. Bye Mina-san [waves hand][waves hand]
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