He quickly put down the herbs he was holding and went over. "What's wrong, Qingxiao?" Little Qingxiao didn't speak, she just kept staring at him. He was worried that something had happened, so he asked her several times, "Qingxiao, is something wrong?" Suddenly, little Qingxiao hugged him and burst into tears.
This startled Huang Zhenhua, who quickly squatted down to check on Qingxiao. "Qingxiao, don't cry. Tell Brother Zhenhua, did someone bully you?" Little Qingxiao shook her head, still crying. Huang Zhenhua was anxious, but he couldn't do anything if Qingxiao wouldn't tell him.
He wiped away Qingxiao's tears and told her that if anything happened to her, she must tell her brother, and he would help her. Huang Zhenhua patiently instructed her. "I'm fine, I just miss Brother Zhenhua."
Huang Zhenhua didn't know whether to believe him or not. He nodded Qingxiao's head and said, "If you miss your brother, you can come find him. If he's not home after school, he must be at the pharmacy. You can wait for me at home. Don't go out alone, okay?" "Okay, I understand, Brother Zhenhua."
After that, whenever she had time, Xiao Qingxiao would look for Huang Zhenhua. People in the neighborhood would joke that the two children would definitely be a couple when they grew up. One day at the Huang family's pharmacy, Huang Zhenhua was counting medicinal herbs, and Xiao Qingxiao was watching beside him.
Upon seeing a medicinal herb, Huang Zhenhua couldn't recall its name. Xiao Qingxiao, standing nearby, told him, surprising Huang Zhenhua. He hadn't expected Qingxiao to know. He didn't think much of it, assuming an adult had told her.
But some things happened later that were somewhat unexpected. He had to go out for a while and asked the pharmacy worker to look after Qingxiao. He would be back soon.
When he returned after finishing his work, he overheard Qingxiao and the shop assistant talking about the names of medicinal herbs. They had practically covered all the herbs in the shop, and she even described their effects.
Huang Zhenhua felt a pang of panic. He knew Qingxiao; the two had been close since childhood. As he grew older, he wanted to learn about the names and effects of medicinal herbs. When Qingxiao was with him, he would ask her to learn with him, but she never liked it and even said he was being mean by forcing her to learn these things. She would always hide behind him and hadn't come to the pharmacy for a long time.
When did Qingxiao learn all this? No one in the Gu family is a doctor; where did she get such thorough knowledge? It wasn't until Qingxiao's voice came again from the pharmacy—"Brother Zhenhua taught me"—that he completely panicked. He hadn't taught her at all; he was willing to teach, but Qingxiao wasn't willing to learn.
He thought about many things but couldn't find a reasonable answer. But he wouldn't ask Qingxiao either. Since Qingxiao said he was the one who taught her, she definitely didn't want others to know how she met him.
In the days that followed, he would often unintentionally notice that Qingxiao was different from before. The old Qingxiao was afraid of pain; if she fell, she would cry out in pain and wail. The current Qingxiao was still afraid of pain, but she would hold back her tears, keeping silent. The old Qingxiao would follow him around, but not often. The current Qingxiao would still follow him around, but she would stick close, and would panic if she couldn't find him.
Qingxiao often said things he couldn't understand, asked questions he couldn't comprehend, looked at him with sadness, and then flashed an innocent smile when he looked back. But he felt that smile was unnatural, almost contrived.
He felt that Qingxiao was acting strangely. He couldn't understand why, given his age and experience, but Qingxiao no longer seemed like a carefree little girl. Her speech and behavior unconsciously resembled that of an adult. He didn't know why, but he felt this way.
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