In order not to irritate his already tense spirit, Su Yan adopted a more tactful way of narrating the story.
"Do you still remember the uncle who took good care of you when you were a child?"
Yu Junzhe nodded: "Of course I remember. We are both poor people abandoned by our families. We often stay together to heal each other's wounds."
The old man Yu Junzhe mentioned did not have a specific name, or rather, he had a specific name, but for some reason, he was particularly resistant to being called by his name.
In order to communicate with him, the villagers gave him a new name based on his occupation: Lao Zhi.
"Laozhi" had a job when he was young. At that time, he was a construction worker. Because he liked to drink, he missed the time to pick up his son from school.
It was this negligence that caused his young son to die at the bottom of the lake.
When he walked to the river in a daze, what he saw was his wife who wanted to kill him and his parents who were crying and about to faint.
After the incident, his wife hated him so much that she left home and never returned. His parents also refused to live with their son because of the death of their grandson.
The old man who was kicked out of his home built a house on the land at the entrance of the village and started a business selling paper money.
It is said that his original intention of doing this job was to make some toys that his son liked so that he would not be lonely down there.
Because of his dedication, his skills improved quickly, and the business he originally intended to use to make a living attracted many people.
Before long, his small stall turned into a paper-making shop.
However, he had an unwritten rule that no matter how many orders were placed that day, he would close the shop on time at 7 o'clock every evening to make new toys for his children.
His meeting with Yu Junzhe was also an accident.
That day, Yu Junzhe burned his meal and was severely beaten by his family. Just as he ran to the river, wanting to die, he was stopped by an old man nearby.
As a native of the same village, he certainly knew what happened in the Yu family.
Although I understand that Yu Junzhe is unhappy, as the father of my son, he cannot sit idly by and watch others waste their young life.
He thought about his own identity and comforted Junzhe: "Little friend, I know you feel bad. If you are unhappy in the future, you can come to your uncle's place to play."
Maybe because he thought of Yu Junzhe as his son who died unexpectedly, there was a particularly gentle look in his eyes.
Yu Junzhe was also fascinated by this tenderness. He gave up the idea of suicide and returned to the paper-making shop with Lao Zhi.
From then on, Yu Junzhe would come here whenever he had time, and Laozhi seemed to have forgotten the kindness of that day and treated him as just an ordinary villager.
Not overly enthusiastic, but never driving him away.
Yu Junzhe felt a little lost, but he comforted himself that although he did not receive care from others, at least there was a place where he could escape temporarily.
"Unfortunately, not long after I met him, he passed away.
According to the villagers, he accidentally knocked over the candlestick after drinking, causing the paper man in the house to be instantly ignited.
He was burned to death before rescuers arrived.
After his death, some gossipers in the village complained about him behind his back, saying that this was retribution. He had quit drinking for several years, but he lost his life when he drank, which showed that his son was still unwilling to forgive him.
I don't agree with this statement, but I'm young and have no one to support me, so I don't dare to refute them.
After Laozhi passed away, the place where he lived was razed to the ground, and the village returned to its peaceful state, as if no one had ever lived there.
"Master, does this have anything to do with my friends? Could they be the children of my relatives? I was wondering why they look familiar.
But that's not true either. We met after my husband passed away, and I haven't seen any relatives visit him."
Seeing that he was still in a daze, Su Yan couldn't help but remind him of the details: "Do you still remember the paper figurines that I made for the children?"
Yu Junzhe nodded. Since he had no toys when he was a child, he wanted to learn the technique of making paper figures from his parents when he was particularly bored.
One is to kill time, and the other is to have a means of making a living after being kicked out of home.
But the old man refused him: "Child, these things have strong yin energy. You are still young and cannot be exposed to them too much.
If you like, go to the back and see what I have tied up. There are many kinds of them. Just don’t damage them.”
Yu Junzhe kept pestering the old man for a long time, but he didn't give in.
In desperation, he had to go to the back to see the secret base that his father had prepared for the children.
As soon as he entered, he was stunned by the scene before him. He saw a room full of paper-made items.
From as small as a spoon to as big as a house and a car, the variety is perfect and it's like a secret world here.
Especially the row of children at the back, they are all white and chubby, and look very festive at first glance.
After the visit, he asked the old man out of curiosity: "Uncle Zhi, why did you make so many little people?"
The old man smiled gently, with a look of nostalgia on his face: "My son is an extrovert and loves to play with others.
He's a little kid, going to the underworld all alone. No one would want to play with him, so I burned some playmates for him so he wouldn't be so lonely."
Yu Junzhe didn't show it on his face, but he was extremely envious in his heart. He also wanted to receive this kind of deep love and care, but he had nothing.
Later, as he went there more often, he would occasionally lend a hand when I was too busy.
The day before Lao Zhi was burned to death, he felt a little nervous for some reason. When he saw a paper-made man with a smiling face but no eyes, he came up with an idea to help Lao Zhi.
He got down to work right away. While the old man was resting, he secretly took the paint from him and painted eyes on the most exquisite pair of brother and sister.
At this point, Yu Junzhe suddenly reacted. He carefully compared the features of the twins and the pair of paper figures in his mind, and then he found that they had many similarities.
The drawing paper in his hand was crumpled by him, but he was completely unaware: "Could it be that my childhood playmate was..."
【!!! This was a bolt from the blue for this little brother. If the friends I've been playing with since childhood weren't human, I would really go crazy.】
"I've calculated everything, but I never expected this outcome. This sounds incredible."
[Although it doesn't sound real, based on my years of observation and experience, the stranger something sounds, the more real it is.]
[Compared to him getting sick, I'm happier with this outcome. After all, those two things that looked like paper figures didn't hurt him.]
Su Yan's calm voice rang out, and in this silent environment, it seemed a little scary: "You guessed right this time. The ones who have been with you all this time are those two paper figures."
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