Chapter 67 Finale
The iron gate of the juvenile detention center slowly closed behind him with a dull clang. Yu Hao stood outside the door. The sound rippled across the empty yard and was finally swallowed by the high wall, leaving only the whimper of the wind passing through the barbed wire. The gray high wall shone coldly and hard in the sunlight. The electric fence on the top of the wall cast fine shadows, weaving an invisible net on the ground. Just now, Sun Lei walked in. The shoulder line of his blue prison uniform was as thin as a taut string, and the protruding vertebrae on the back of his neck looked like a string of untied abacus beads. "Uncle Yu." Sun Lei stopped and opened his palm, where a white butterfly music box lay. "Give it to Luo Xue." When Yu Hao took the music box, his fingertips touched the uneven incisions on the butterfly's wings. He got closer to see clearly that it was countless tiny "snow" characters, like circles of tree rings, densely engraved all over the wings. The word at the bottom was carved the deepest, with burrs on the edge, probably because too much force was used when carving it the first time. "This is..." "A birthday present." Sun Lei's voice was very soft, with the hoarseness unique to voice change. His eyes passed over Yu Hao's shoulder and fell on the fields in the distance, "The last gift." He turned and walked through the iron gate without hesitation. Yu Hao stood there, watching the thin figure being swallowed by the iron gate, the corner of his prison uniform fluttering in the wind, like a butterfly with broken wings. * The music box was handed to Luo Xue on a weekend. In the wetland park on the outskirts of the city, Luo Xin was holding his daughter's kite string, and the spool was spinning rapidly in his hands. Luo Xue was wearing a light yellow shirt, and the red bow she tied when she ran danced in her hair. Her sneakers were covered with grass clippings, and a dandelion was pinned to her trouser leg, the fluff rubbing against the fabric, leaving spots of white. "Luo Xue, look who's here?" Luo Xin saw Yu Hao first and raised her hand to tuck her wind-blown hair behind her ear. There was a faint dark blue under her eyes, but she looked more lively than the last time they met. Luo Xue ran towards Yu Hao, "Uncle Yu! Why are you here just now? I made cookies specially for you!" The girl raised her face and smiled, revealing two small canine teeth. "Something delayed me." Yu Hao squatted down and placed the music box in her sweaty palm. "This is what Sun Lei asked me to give to you." "Brother Sun Lei!" Luo Xue's eyes shone like obsidian soaked in water, and her fingers couldn't wait to tighten the spring. The intermittent "To Alice" flowed out, "It's butterflies! He remembers that I like butterflies!" Yu Hao nodded, "He always remembers it." As for Sun Lei's matter, due to the provisions of the Minors Protection Act, except for a few...
The iron gate of the juvenile detention center slowly closed behind him with a dull clang. Yu Hao stood outside the gate. The sound rippled across the empty courtyard, finally swallowed by the high walls, leaving only the whimper of the wind through the barbed wire.
The high grey walls glowed coldly in the sunlight, and the electric fences on top of the walls cast dense shadows, weaving an invisible net on the ground.
Just now, Sun Lei walked in. The shoulder line of his blue prison uniform was as thin as a taut string, and the protruding vertebrae at the back of his neck looked like a string of untied abacus beads.
"Uncle Yu." Sun Lei stopped and opened his palm, where a white butterfly music box lay. "Give it to Luo Xue."
When Yu Hao took the music box, his fingertips touched the uneven indentations on the butterfly's wings. Only when he got closer could he see clearly: countless tiny characters for "snow," like rings of tree rings, densely carved across the entire wing. The bottom character was the deepest, with burrs around the edges, probably because he'd used too much pressure the first time he carved it.
"This is……"
"Birthday present." Sun Lei's voice was soft, with the hoarseness of a puberty-sounding person. His gaze passed over Yu Hao's shoulder and fell on the fields in the distance. "The last gift."
He turned and walked through the iron gate without hesitation. Yu Hao stood there, watching the thin figure being swallowed by the iron gate, the corner of his prison uniform fluttering in the wind, like a butterfly with broken wings.
*
The music box was given to Luo Xue on a weekend. In a wetland park on the outskirts of the city, Luo Xin was holding his daughter's kite string, the spool spinning rapidly in his hands.
Luo Xue wore a light yellow shirt, the red bow she'd tied in her hair bouncing back and forth as she ran. Her sneakers were stained with grass clippings, and a dandelion was pinned to her trouser leg, its fluff rubbing against the fabric, leaving specks of white.
"Luo Xue, look who's here?" Luo Xin saw Yu Hao first and tucked her wind-blown hair behind her ear. There was a faint dark blue under her eyes, but she looked more lively than the last time they met.
Luo Xue ran towards Yu Hao, "Uncle Yu! Why did you come just now? I made some cookies specially for you!" The girl tilted her face up and smiled, revealing two little canine teeth.
"Something delayed me." Yu Hao squatted down and placed the music box in her sweaty palm. "Sun Lei asked me to give this to you."
"Brother Sun Lei!" Luo Xue's eyes shone like water-soaked obsidian, and her fingers couldn't wait to wind the spring. A fragmented rendition of "To Alice" flowed out. "It's butterflies! He remembered that I like butterflies!"
Yu Hao nodded, "He always remembers it."
Because of the Minors Protection Act, no one except a few people knew the details of Sun Lei's case. Luo Xue only knew that he had gone to study far away, and that he would be gone for a long, long time. She spun in circles on the grass, her music box in hand, while a pink butterfly kite chased her in the wind.
She didn't know that the boy who always followed her had locked himself in a gray wall to protect the world in her eyes. Perhaps this was exactly what Sun Lei wanted to protect - to let her live in the sunshine forever, without having to see the wrinkles in the shadows.
"We're moving out next month." Luo Xin looked at her daughter in the distance, her voice soft as a sigh. She pulled an enamel bowl from her canvas bag, filled with freshly baked locust flower cakes. The steam seeped through the coarse cloth, carrying a sweet fragrance.
"I quit my job at the KTV and found a job at a garment factory. Although the salary is lower, I can get off work on time to pick up Xiaoxue from school."
She looked up at her daughter, who was jumping and skipping not far away, with tenderness in the fine lines at the corners of her eyes. "Luo Xue did well in the entrance exam for junior high school and got into the middle school she wanted. After moving, it's not far from the school, only a fifteen-minute walk away."
Yu Hao nodded and took a bite of the locust flower cake. The sweet taste was slightly bitter. He knew this was the best choice.
Watching the girl soar into the sunset, kite in hand, he couldn't help but wonder: when she grows up and understands the meaning of "sacrifice" and "sin," how should he tell her that the boy who always carved butterflies for her had walked into those gray walls to protect her? Would those scars, so deliberately hidden, suddenly open one day, revealing the hideous truth?
As they were leaving, Luo Xue suddenly grabbed the corner of Yu Hao's clothes. A pink butterfly kite floated in the air, its wings rustling in the wind. "Uncle Yu, when Brother Sun Lei comes back, can we fly a kite together? Let's fly this butterfly kite."
"Okay." Yu Hao squatted down, "Uncle promises you."
*
The bus swayed along the tree-lined avenue. Luo Xue put the music box on her knees, stroked the butterfly's wings with her fingers again and again, and suddenly she cried out "Ah".
"What's wrong?" Luo Xin was adjusting her temples in front of the car window and turned around when she heard that.
The girl pointed to the base of the music box, where crooked small characters were engraved: "Xuexue's Guardian." The words were so deep that they almost pierced through the plastic shell, and there were tiny crumbs on the edges, obviously chiseled out bit by bit with a carving knife.
"Mom, did Brother Sun Lei do something wrong because of me?" Her voice was filled with tears, and the light in her eyes gradually dimmed. "My classmates said that he was taken away by the police. Is that true?"
Although the adults didn't say it explicitly, a child's intuition is sharper than anyone else's. Those sudden silences on the topics, those deliberately avoided glances, slowly formed in her mind like a puzzle.
Luo Xin looked at her daughter's red eyes and reached out to hold her in her arms. The girl's hair rubbed against her neck, carrying the scent of strawberry shampoo.
"Sun Lei is a very good person." Her voice trembled a little. "You must always remember him and grow up happily. When you see him next time, you will be able to repay his kindness."
Luo Xue nodded and rubbed her little head against her mother's arms: "Mom, let's all live well, okay? I know it's hard for us to play with Brother Sun Lei and Uncle Yu Hao anymore, but we can't let them worry, right?"
Luo Xin sighed and gently rested her daughter's head on her shoulder. The shadows of the sycamore trees outside the car window flashed by, like a fleeting flashback to the past. "Yes, living a good life is the best way to repay them." She looked at the music box in her daughter's hand and seemed to see that stubborn boy.
*
On the day Sun Yong's final verdict came down, Yu Hao visited the prison for serious criminals. The glass in the visiting room was polished to a shine, allowing him to clearly see Sun Yong's newly grown white hair, which looked like a layer of frost. He was thinner than the last time they met, and his cheekbones were prominent, making his eyes look particularly large.
"Captain Yu, thank you for your trouble." Sun Yong's voice came through the microphone. The calluses on his fingertips had faded a lot, but the marks of years of holding a knife could still be seen.
"The verdict..." Yu Hao's Adam's apple moved, as if a stone was stuck in his throat. "The original verdict is upheld."
Sun Yong smiled, the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes crinkling. "As expected." He paused, his gaze passing over Yu Hao's shoulder to the sycamore tree outside the window. Its leaves were bright green, patting the glass in the wind. "How's Lei Zi? Did he not fall behind in the entrance exam?"
Yu Hao tightened his grip on the microphone and said, "Very well, the teacher said he has always been excellent." As he lied, a sycamore leaf happened to fall outside the window, swirling down like a butterfly with broken wings.
He didn't say that Sun Lei didn't take the junior high school entrance examination at all. In the classroom of the juvenile detention center, the boy was drawing butterflies on the draft paper with a pencil, and his wings were always closed.
"That's good." Sun Yong's eyes lit up. He leaned forward, his shadow reflected on the glass. "This kid is smart. When he gets into college, I'll..." He stopped short, the smile on his face frozen like a mask.
Yu Hao knew what he was trying to say. Sun Yong had said more than once that when Sun Lei got into college, he would sell his night market stall and open a small restaurant in the city where his son was studying. He would make braised pork for his son every day, slowly simmering it in a clay pot until the skin was shiny and melted in his mouth. This simple wish had now become a dream that would never be realized.
"He said he wanted to apply to the Police College." Yu Hao suddenly spoke, his voice trembling slightly.
This is what his teacher at the juvenile detention center told him. Sun Lei wrote in his composition that he wanted to be a policeman when he grew up, catch all the bad guys in the world, and protect all girls like Luo Xue.
Sun Yong's shoulders shook violently, and turbid tears finally rolled down, hitting the microphone and leaving a small wet mark.
"Okay... okay..." He choked, as if something was blocking his throat. "Being a policeman is good... It's upright..."
When Yu Hao walked out of the prison, a light rain began to fall. He tilted his head back, letting the rain fall on his face...
*
On the day the demolition began in Nan'an Village, Yu Hao deliberately wore a pair of old leather shoes. The grooves on the soles had long since worn away. They were from when he was working on a case in Nan'an Village. The heels had been patched with rubber, so they made a squeaking sound when he walked.
As the bulldozer rolled over the blue brick road, it made a harsh friction sound, and the flying gravel splashed on his ankle, bringing a familiar pain - many years ago, when he was chasing a thief here, he was scratched by the same stone, and Luo Xin gave him a Band-Aid at that time.
Uncle Zhang squatted under the old locust tree, holding a faded enamel pot in his hands. The words "Labor is the Most Glorious" printed on the pot had long since faded, and a piece of porcelain had been chipped off the edge, revealing the black iron inside, which he had rubbed until it shone.
"Xiaohao, look at these roots." He pointed at the exposed roots of the old locust tree, which were tangled together. "They've been buried in the soil for decades. I can't tell which belongs to the Zhang family and which belongs to the Li family. Now, this root is about to break off."
The demolition crew yelled at Uncle Zhang to move; the old locust tree was about to be toppled. Uncle Zhang touched the rough trunk one last time. "Your Aunt Zhang and I confessed our love under this tree. She even said I looked handsome in my police uniform." His voice trembled, like the wind through a worn bellows. "It's been almost forty years."
Yu Hao helped Uncle Zhang move the rattan chair to the side of the road. The bulldozer crashed into the old locust tree with a dull thud. Yu Hao watched countless green leaves fall simultaneously, like a grand funeral. Sunlight filtered through the leaves, casting flickering spots of light on the ground.
Watching the familiar scenes being torn down, Yu Hao felt a little dazed. He wanted to keep them, but he was powerless.
"By the way, Zhang Li gave birth to a girl," Uncle Zhang suddenly said. He pulled out his phone. The baby on the screen was wrinkled, with big, dark eyes. When she smiled, her cheeks had a pair of shallow dimples. "Her eyebrows and eyes are just like her grandmother's, especially those dimples. When she smiles, they can hold wine."
Yu Hao looked at the photo and suddenly remembered the story Qin Guoan had told him. Fate twists and turns, always inadvertently turning pain into new hope.
*
As the sun set, Yu Hao and Sun Wei walked through the ruins of a demolished building. The wind swirled broken bricks and tiles around their feet, kicking up dust that made them cough.
"I didn't expect it to be demolished so quickly." Yu Hao kicked away the half brick at his feet. There was a dry ivy leaf stuck on the brick.
Sun Wei held his hand, the warmth of her palm soothing the coolness of his fingertips. "It'll be fine." She looked at the sunset in the distance. The sky was dyed the color of wine, and the edges of the clouds were rimmed with gold. "Every wound will grow new flesh."
They walked slowly on the ruins, their shadows stretched long by the setting sun.
Tower cranes in the distance are constructing new buildings. The steel skeletons are lit up in the twilight, like a group of silent giants.
Yu Hao knew that it would not be long before new residential buildings, supermarkets, schools, parks and everything would be erected here, except for the blue brick roads and old locust trees of Nan'an Village.
But those stories hidden in time never truly disappear. They become the dimples of a newborn baby, the name on an admission letter from a police academy, the aroma of braised pork wafting from a night market stall, and at some unexpected moment, they suddenly creep into your heart, reminding you of the paths you've walked, the people you've loved, the mistakes you've made.
Yu Hao took one last look at the ruins. The last rays of sunset fell on the rubble, like a gentle stamp on all the unfinished stories. He knew that this was not the end, but another beginning - just like those knocked down walls, broken into bricks, they could be used to build a new home.
The evening breeze blew by, carrying the scent of cement from a distant construction site and the delicate fragrance of an old locust tree. Yu Hao held Sun Wei's hand tightly and walked out of the ruins step by step. His shadow gradually faded, blending into the rosy glow of the sky.
(End of full text)
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