Ling Shen didn't know if the little girl had seen him, but he still unconsciously hid in a more secluded corner.
Fortunately, the little girl didn't look for long before she looked away and asked Ning Zhiyao.
"Sister, do you live alone at home?"
After Ning Zhiyao finished disinfecting the wound on her leg, she straightened up slightly and continued to treat the wound on her arm.
“This isn’t my home,” Ning Zhiyao said. “I’m just the caregiver for this family.”
"A caregiver?" The little girl looked around, puzzled. "Are there any patients here?"
Ning Zhiyao paused, then smiled and looked up at the little girl: "He's not a patient, just someone I need to take care of. He's a bit quiet."
The little girl probably remembered the window with its heavy curtains drawn day and night, and combined that with the oppressive and quiet atmosphere of the house, she could probably guess what the other person in the house was like.
She had just finally climbed to the second floor when she discovered a small gecko on a Virginia creeper leaf. Startled, she fell from the second floor.
After treating the little girl's wound, Ning Zhiyao also put on a band-aid. When Sheng Xialiang left, Ning Zhiyao reminded her not to let the wound swell, and the little girl obediently nodded.
She took the green tennis ball and walked out of the yard. Standing at the gate, she looked back and saw that the window on the third floor was still tightly closed.
The little girl pouted, "She looks just like a witch from a fairy tale."
...
Ling Shen's old house is located in an old town area with old streets lined with towering banyan trees. When the weather is nice, sunlight shines through the leaves, creating light green waves.
The sky was quiet, but the ground was bustling. A vendor selling popsicles from a tricycle was shaking his rattle drum merrily, and a group of children were running after him with spare change in their hands.
Young people all go to prosperous places to develop their careers, while those left under the trees are mostly elderly people holding palm-leaf fans and wearing T-shirts, enjoying the cool shade.
Ling Shen has been living here for almost a year, but he has only ever been in contact with the outside world on the day he moved in.
Yes, Ling Shen hasn't left since the day he moved in.
He locked himself in this house, in that dark room.
Only darkness and deathly silence could give him a sense of security.
Because it's an old town, the people living here are all "old"—not in terms of age, but in terms of those who have lived here since birth.
For those people,
They knew everything about this street too well; they knew every vendor, every blade of grass, and every face.
Apart from that villa, which had been empty until about a year ago when someone moved in, the younger generation had heard from the older folks that the villa was the old residence of a wealthy family.
Although someone had moved in, the villa remained as quiet as if no one lived there. The occasional caregiver going out to buy groceries and the light shining through the window cracks at night proved that someone was inside.
Some teenagers had been watching for a long time; they were like kings of a country, and that villa was territory they had not yet conquered.
Sometimes Ling Shen would sit by the window, pull the blackout curtains open a little, and look at the outside world through that crack.
The outside world is bustling, but he feels that he doesn't belong to this world.
Yes, he doesn't belong to this world. He should have died the day he witnessed his parents' tragic deaths.
In the year since moving in, whenever Ling Shen couldn't sleep, he would peek out the window at the world outside, like someone who was not accepted by the world, greedily gazing at its beauty.
Until recently, all he could see was that little girl.
Across from the old house, someone was selling watermelons from a cart on the roadside. A little girl appeared, skipping and hopping, and stood next to the watermelon stall. She said something to the stall owner, who laughed and then took a watermelon from his cart and gave it to her.
Ling Shen's eyes flickered slightly when he saw this scene.
He also felt a bit craving watermelon.
He stayed in his room and didn't go out. Although Ning Zhiyao had been providing him with good meals, children always crave things that have no nutritional value.
He hadn't eaten watermelon in a long time.
As Ling Shen was watching, he saw Ning Zhiyao return from outside. She hailed a taxi, parked it on the side of the road, and got out, carrying large and small bags, wondering how to move them inside.
The little girl across the street saw it, said something to the watermelon vendor, and then skipped over.
"Sister Zhiyao, let me help you." As she said this, she took the things from Ning Zhiyao's hands.
When Ning Zhiyao saw that it was her, a smile immediately appeared on her tired face: "It's you. Is the scrape on your arm healed?"
The little girl raised her arm and glanced at it. She hadn't noticed whether it was good or bad. After that day, she tore off the band-aid that Ning Zhiyao had put on, letting the wound scab over. When Ning Zhiyao asked her about it, she looked down at her arm and saw that the wound was healed, so she said, "Much better."
The little girl helped Ning Zhiyao carry her things back to the villa. Ling Shen saw this, drew the curtains again, and just like last time, went out of his room and went to the corner on the second floor to spy on the little girl.
The little girl helped Ning Zhiyao, so Ning Zhiyao kept Sheng Xialiang with her to make desserts.
The little girl was cute and thin, and often looked at everyone with a simple and innocent expression. Ning Zhiyao was immediately captivated. In just a short while, she began to treat the little girl as her younger sister and forgave her for climbing over the wall and building last time.
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