Chapter 62 Lin Yan, he must remember
After saying that, Lin Yan slowly walked towards the locust tree.
In the night, she couldn't help but raise her hand and touch the tree trunk. In an instant, her memory was brought back to when she was nine years old.
At that time, grandma lived alone in Hongshui Village. Every summer vacation Zhou Gang would bring her and Zhou Feiyue to the village to visit her grandma who was in poor health.
But grandma didn't like her, and gave all the delicious food and fun things to Zhou Feiyue.
He never smiled at her, only bared his teeth and looked coldly at her...
He would only call her "Yan Yan" hypocritically when he ordered her around or asked her to do work.
So she didn't like coming to Hongshui Village. Every time she came, she would sneak out, hide under the locust tree, hug her legs, and stare blankly at the ducks swimming on the river.
When she got tired of staring at the river, she picked up leaves from the ground.
After picking up all the leaves, she used her little fingers to pick up the soft soil on the ground.
Make a small hole one by one and then bury the leaves in it.
The sun is scorching and mosquitoes are rampant.
Even if you are covered in sweat from the sun, even if your arms and legs are covered with big red and swollen lumps from mosquito bites.
She would rather stay under this locust tree and waste time than go back...
"What are you thinking about?" Xing Yu suddenly asked.
The hand that was stroking the locust tree fell, and the thoughts also stopped.
She leaned her back against the locust tree, hesitated for a moment, and then sat down with her legs crossed, like she did when she was a child.
"Nothing."
Xing Yu sat down with her, his eyes fixed on her face. "You seem very familiar with this place?"
"This is my grandmother's house. I used to come here every summer vacation."
Xing Yu was not surprised and continued to ask, "Do you like this tree very much?"
"Yeah, I like it." It was my secret base when I was a child, of course I like it.
"Why?"
"No reason."
"Friend, tell me some funny stories from your childhood. You're leaving tomorrow, so just think of it as a joke."
Interesting thing?
She has never encountered any interesting things since she was a child.
When she was a child, she did something here that she thought was quite remarkable.
Maybe it was the atmosphere, or maybe it was everything that made her feel calm and peaceful.
She pointed to the river in front and talked to Xing Yu.
"When I was eight years old, I saved a brother who was older than me from drowning in that river."
Xing Yu's eyes were filled with tenderness: "You are so powerful, and you even saved my brother."
Lin Yan nodded, her thoughts drifting away again...
That day, she was digging a hole under the locust tree as usual, when suddenly several tall boys dragged a thin and weak boy to the river.
Lin Yan glanced over there and knew that the skinny boy was being bullied by them.
I could hear their mocking and laughing voices at the boy.
A bastard without a father, a dwarf who can't grow tall, a mute who can't speak...
These sharp words were shouted out from their mouths and entered her ears.
She was still young at that time and had no sensitivity to these words.
While listening indifferently, she lowered her head and buried her leaves quietly.
It was not until she heard a splash that she looked up and saw that the skinny little boy had fallen into the river.
Those who bullied him fled in panic.
Lin Yan stood up, tickling her muddy fingers while looking at the figure struggling in the river.
After a few seconds of stunned silence, she turned and ran to the nearest resident.
In the end, the boy was rescued by adults.
He was soaked to the skin and hunched his neck like a drowned rat, staring at her with a pair of gloomy eyes.
She was a little scared, so she turned around and ran back to the locust tree.
But there was a shadow following behind him.
Lin Yan ignored him, but her heart was pounding, not knowing what he was trying to do.
Just as she was wondering, the boy squatted down beside her, silently lowered his head and helped her dig a hole in the dirt.
Lin Yan tilted her head and looked at his wet clothes, and whispered, "Aren't you going home to change clothes?"
The boy didn't speak.
"I'll dig it myself, you go back quickly."
He still didn't speak.
Lin Yan blinked: "Are you...mute?"
Still no words.
Lin Yan had already assumed in her heart that he was a mute.
Then he started talking: "Brother, if someone bullies you, you must go back and tell your parents, they will protect you."
The boy stopped and looked up at her.
In less than three seconds, he lowered his head and continued the previous action.
That afternoon, Lin Yan remembered that they buried a lot of leaves.
Until his wet clothes were dried by the sun, until both of their hands and faces were covered with mud stains, until the sun set in the west.
The boy left.
Lin Yan looked at his paper-thin figure and couldn't help but call him, "Brother, what's your name?"
After asking, Lin Yan remembered that he couldn't speak.
I ran up to him quickly and said, "Brother, thank you for helping me bury the leaves today."
The boy stared at the mole at the corner of her eye and whispered, "Why are you burying leaves?"
The sudden flat tone of the voice startled Lin Yan: "Aren't you mute?"
The boy didn't respond again.
Lin Yan pinched the corner of her clothes and felt that his voice was very cold.
The good impression I had built up towards him over the entire afternoon was immediately shattered the moment he opened his mouth.
"Only when you bury...leaves will...new leaves grow..."
"No," the boy said, "leaves can't survive without roots."
Lin Yan insisted: "My uncle said that as long as there is sunshine, there will be life."
"No, your uncle lied to you."
Lin Yan stopped talking, her lips gradually turned down, and she glared at him angrily.
"If I say I can live, I can live!"
After saying that, she turned around and went back to squat under the locust tree with her legs hugged.
His low voice came from not far away.
"My name is Jing Xu."
When she turned around to look at him again, the figure had already disappeared into the distance.
The next day, when she came under the locust tree, Jingxu had already dug many holes for her in advance.
Still with an emotionless tone: "Bury it, bury it thoroughly."
Lin Yan stared at his red fingers and the dirt under his fingernails, and instantly forgot the unpleasantness of yesterday.
After burying the leaves, Lin Yan sat down against the tree trunk and looked at him who was silent beside her.
"Brother Jingxu, my name is Lin Yan. You will be my friend from now on. Are you willing to be my friend?"
"friend?"
"Yeah." Lin Yan's eyes sparkled with anticipation: "Good friend."
Jing Xu stared at the obvious mole at the corner of her eye and nodded: "Yes, friend."
That summer vacation, she and Jing Xu stayed under the locust tree almost every day, doing boring things together.
That was also the happiest and most memorable summer vacation she had.
At the end of the holiday, the day before she returned to town, she asked Jing Xu under the locust tree: "Brother Jing Xu, will you still play with me next summer vacation?"
"Um."
"I will definitely grow taller next year, so you won't forget me."
"No." He shifted his gaze to the corners of her eyes: "No matter how tall you grow, I will remember you."
A year passed like this with the promise to meet Jing Xu in mind.
But the next year, she was the only one under the locust tree.
Jing Xu did not appear again.
I heard from the villagers that his mother had an accident and he was taken back to the city by his father.
The boy only left a shallow impression in her short childhood, but he became the most nostalgic and most profound happy memory in her twenty-eight years.
Later, she never saw the boy named Jing Xu again.
Later, my grandmother passed away, and no one squatted under the locust tree in Hongshui Village to dig holes in the mud and bury leaves anymore.
Putting away this memory, Lin Yan tried hard to break free from it.
Pick up a dead leaf from the ground, twist it lightly between your fingers, and make a soft sound.
"Not really. Actually, I didn't save the person. I just went to call for help."
Xing Yu: "My friend, he must be very grateful to you."
Lin Yan shook her head: "After so many years, who would still remember what happened when they were little?"
"He remembers." Xing Yu looked at the corner of her eyes and said, "Lin Yan, he must remember."
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