The little girl greeted expressionlessly, “Hi, Li Cangshan. It’s really good that you’re okay.”
Li Cangshan: “…”
‘Now I can’t tell whether I am okay or not.’
The little girl and the old man looked at each other, and both saw helplessness in each other’s eyes.
Between the two of them, it seemed impossible to determine who was in a slightly worse situation…
After a brief exchange, Zhou Guang followed Li Cangshan to the middle class carriage to hide temporarily. By the time they had finished talking about the surveillance on the train, the outside sky had completely darkened.
The farther north they went, the earlier it got dark. Although it was already dark now, it was only a little past 5:00 p.m.
According to the schedule of this train, it would stop for at the second station for an hour around 11:00 p.m. The three had agreed to disembark when the train stopped and find a place to discuss the progress of the game.
After the simple agreement, Bai Lixin returned to the first-class carriage.
He first went back to the A-1 compartment and took a glance. Dijia was still busy with his work. Bai Lixin simply said a few words about going to hang out with a friend and left again.
Dijia showed his magnanimity as usual. But as soon as Bai Lixin closed the door and left, the man’s originally amiable face instantly froze, staring coldly at the place where Bai Lixin left…
Bai Lixin then went to the A-7 compartment.
He knocked on the door twice, and the door instantly opened from the inside.
It was so fast that it seemed like the person opening the door had been waiting at the entrance.
The one who opened the door was a young man with autism. He mustered the courage to glance at Bai Lixin and quickly lowered his head, “You really came. Welcome.”
“I promised you I would come, of course I won’t break my word.” Bai Lixin naturally swept his gaze across the spacious room. Besides the young man, there were two other people in the room—one was the woman he had seen during the day, and the other was a middle-aged man he hadn’t met, presumably the young man’s father.
The two people slowly stood up from the sofa and said hello to Bai Lixin.
Unlike the woman, the old man had a kind smile on his face. “Are you the friend my son made today? Handsome indeed. Please, have a seat, you’re welcome.”
After sitting down, Bai Lixin casually surveyed the room. The luggage was neatly arranged in their designated places. The room had a double bed and a single bed, with the latter appearing to be where the young man slept.
There was a framed photo on the desk attached to the wall. In the frame, there was a group photo of three people. The young man in the picture looked a few years younger than he did now, and the parents didn’t appear as old as they did currently. Although the young man looked smaller, he seemed much healthier back then—rosy complexion, white teeth, and a genuinely happy smile. He exuded a full sense of vitality.
Bai Lixin swept past the photo and then glanced at the young man’s pale cheeks and unhealthy bluish-purple lips.
When the young man went to the tap to wash the fruit, Bai Lixin asked in a low voice, “Does Chai Li have a weak heart?”
The man and woman were startled, and then the man asked cautiously, “Are you a doctor?”
Bai Lixin shook his head, “I’m not, but I’ve studied a bit about this, so I have a superficial understanding. His hands kept trembling when he turned the Rubik’s Cube and some simple turns were not easy for him. Hand tremors and purple lips are common external symptoms of palpitations and heart disease.”
The man glanced at the bathroom, sighed lightly, and said helplessly, “You’re right. He developed acquired heart disease a few years ago. We have been up and down in the past few years, looking for a suitable match for him in the hospitals. However, even after so many years, we haven’t found a suitable heart source for him. He has a rare B-negative blood type, commonly known as panda blood. Finding a match for a regular blood type is challenging, let alone for this rare type. Doctors say that if we don’t hurry with the surgery, he won’t survive another year.”
“We originally didn’t want to reveal this to the outside world, but since you’ve noticed, it doesn’t matter if we tell you.” The woman continued, “I didn’t tell you about this in the dining area today because it’s for the protection of my son. He has always wanted to see the snowy scenery on the mountain, so we decided to take this train. By the time this trip is over, he will have seen most of the scenery. As a mother, I’m useless. I gave birth to him, but I couldn’t give him a healthy body. Even if the child is sick, we can’t prolong his life; we can only try to fulfill his wishes and let him pass away without regrets.”
As she spoke, her eyes gradually reddened, and her voice choked up.
The man embraced her, patting her back gently to comfort her. “He still doesn’t know about his condition. We lied to him, saying he had a cold and needed to take medicine regularly. We hope you can keep this secret too and not tell him about it. We want him to be happy in the last period of his life. Leave the sorrow to us, his irresponsible parents.”
While they spoke, the bathroom door opened. The man immediately stopped talking, changed the topic abruptly, and said, “This tea is good, isn’t it? It’s the finest Longjing, something most people can’t taste.”
“The taste is indeed good.” Bai Lixin calmly raised the tea cup and took a sip, then saw the fruit plate with water droplets placed on the coffee table.
Chai Li sat obediently on the sofa. His legs were neatly arranged, hands were placed on his knees and his shoulders were straight, he looked like an exemplary student. “The fruit is washed. Try it.”
Bai Lixin cooperatively picked up a grape and put it in his mouth, “Mm, very sweet.”
The young man smiled shyly, “Bai Lixin, later, will we still play with the Rubik’s Cube?”
Bai Lixin replied, “How about trying something else?”
The young man rubbed his hands nervously, “But I don’t know how to play anything else.”
Bai Lixin once again glanced at the photo on the desk, “Then let’s chat or look at pictures. I like chatting with you.”
The young man hesitated and looked at his parents. After receiving their affirmative answers, he nodded, “Okay, let’s chat. What do you want to talk about?”
“Let’s chat about anything, about what you’re most familiar with,” Bai Lixin paused, “let’s talk about family. Chai Li, are your parents good to you?”
The man and the woman instantly tensed their shoulders, and looked at Chai Li nervously.
Chai Li nodded sheepishly, “Yes, they are the best parents. They are very kind to me.”
A moved expression appeared on the faces of the parents.
Bai Lixin: “Do you love your mom and dad a lot?”
Chai Li: “Yes.”
The elderly couple’s eyes became even redder.
Bai Lixin continued nonchalantly, “Then besides your parents, who else do you love?”
This time, Chai Li hesitated for several seconds before answering softly, “I also love my sister.”
Bai Lixin’s eyes flickered slightly, “Sister? You have a sister?”
Here it comes, the thread connecting to the truth has been found.
The parents showed a slightly unnatural expression at these words, and the man explained, “We adopted a little girl before.”
Bai Lixin looked surprised, “Oh, is she working now? I didn’t see her.”
“No,” the woman shook her head, “She ran away from home a long time ago. We tried to find her, but there has been no news.”
Bai Lixin: “Why did she run away from home? It’s a pity. You must have been heartbroken. Did she really run away, or did she meet some bad people and something happened to her?”
“Hmm, that’s why adopted children need to be raised from a young age.” The woman sighed, “She ran away on her own. She never wanted to stay in this family. I had health issues and couldn’t have more children after giving birth to Chai Li. However, we both wanted two children and didn’t want Chai Li to be lonely. In the end, we decided to adopt a child from the orphanage.”
“Because Chai Li is a boy, we planned to adopt a little girl. Originally, we wanted to adopt a younger one, so that she could be close to us from an early age. However, while walking around the orphanage, we encountered my adopted daughter. She was already eleven at that time. Although she grew up in the orphanage, she was very polite and I liked her at first sight. In addition, the orphanage director said that it was challenging to find a family willing to adopt an older child like her, and she would have to stay in the orphanage until she reached adulthood.”
“I felt sorry for her when I heard that.”
“Let’s just say that relationships are a matter of fate. I felt a connection with her, and after seeing her, I couldn’t look at other children. There is nothing wrong with being a bit older. At that time, Chai Li was only six years old, and since she was already at an age where she understood things, she could help take care of Chai Li.”
“In the end, we adopted a daughter.”
The woman sighed, “We thought she was a good girl at first. Little did we know she was pretending. In the first month she came to the house, she acted very considerate. However, in the second month, her true nature began to show.”
“She cursed people, got into violent fights, and even bullied Chai Li. Several times, she came back from school with a bruised face, and at first, we thought she was being bullied at school. We even made a scene at the school, but the students testified that she was the one bullying others. She was the bully.”
“It was then that I knew she had deceived me. But the child was already adopted. It’s not like we can throw her away. She was still a child. As long as I gave love and time, she would eventually become better. However, over the years, she didn’t improve at all. On the contrary, her behavior became more and more outrageous. Smoking, drinking, tattoos, dyed hair—she didn’t miss anything a troublemaker would do. Moreover, her relationship with us was deteriorating. Sometimes she didn’t even come home all night. Because of her, I was often called to the school by her class teacher.”
“One day when she was fourteen years old, she stayed out all night again. We were used to it and thought she had gone to stay with some friend. But then, after several days, she still hadn’t come home. The school called me, saying she hadn’t attended classes for several days. That’s when I realized she might be in trouble.”
“I called the police and reported her missing, but we never found her.”
“I knew she had ran away from home. She had been talking about leaving this home for a long time to search for true love and freedom. I didn’t let her, and we argued. She said I was a stepmother who didn’t love her. Listen, what kind of words are those? How could I not love her? If I didn’t love her, I wouldn’t have brought her back from the orphanage. She’s just a white eyed wolf. I treated her so well, and not only did she not appreciate it, but she also took ten thousand yuan from me before leaving. I was furious.”
The woman was angry by the end of her words, and her chest heaved with her accusations.
Seeing this, the man hurriedly helped her calm down, soothingly saying, “Alright, it’s all in the past. There’s no need to get angry over such a child.”
“Listening to this, that girl seems a bit ungrateful. But why would Chai Li say he loves her too?” Bai Lixin stared at Chai Li, softly asking, “Why, Chai Li?”
Chai Li shrank his neck timidly, “Sister is very good to me. She takes care of me, gives me delicious things and plays with me. “
“Chai Li was still young at that time, what can he remember?” The woman gasped, “My son is good at everything, but he is too kind. My adopted daughter slapped him in the face and gave him a candy, but he only remembers the candy but not the slap.”
Chai Li’s face turned pale, his lips trembled, his eyes flickered, but he didn’t want to say anything more.
Bai Lixin: “It seems your adopted daughter is quite free-spirited, she ran away at fourteen. She was adopted when she was eleven, meaning she lived in your house for three years? It’s not a short or long time, and after so many years, she should be around thirty now?”
“Approximately,” the man rubbed his forehead, “We adopted her when Chai Li was only six, and she was eleven at the time. Now Chai Li is twenty-four. If she’s still alive, she would be around thirty.”
Bai Lixin: “…”
—If she’s still alive.
That statement seemed a bit unnecessary.
“Sister hasn’t aged,” Chai Li refuted in a low voice, “We saw my sister today. She’s still the same as when she was young.”
The woman glanced at Chai Li disapprovingly, “How is that possible? People grow old. Aren’t your dad and I the same? That’s just a little girl who looks like your sister. She’s not that old; she can’t be your sister. She just looks similar.”
Bai Lixin: “…”
They girl they saw should be Zhou Guang.
The little girl greeted expressionlessly, “Hi, Li Cangshan. It’s really good that you’re okay.”
Li Cangshan: “…”
‘Now I can’t tell whether I am okay or not.’
The little girl and the old man looked at each other, and both saw helplessness in each other’s eyes.
Between the two of them, it seemed impossible to determine who was in a slightly worse situation…
After a brief exchange, Zhou Guang followed Li Cangshan to the middle class carriage to hide temporarily. By the time they had finished talking about the surveillance on the train, the outside sky had completely darkened.
The farther north they went, the earlier it got dark. Although it was already dark now, it was only a little past 5:00 p.m.
According to the schedule of this train, it would stop for at the second station for an hour around 11:00 p.m. The three had agreed to disembark when the train stopped and find a place to discuss the progress of the game.
After the simple agreement, Bai Lixin returned to the first-class carriage.
He first went back to the A-1 compartment and took a glance. Dijia was still busy with his work. Bai Lixin simply said a few words about going to hang out with a friend and left again.
Dijia showed his magnanimity as usual. But as soon as Bai Lixin closed the door and left, the man’s originally amiable face instantly froze, staring coldly at the place where Bai Lixin left…
Bai Lixin then went to the A-7 compartment.
He knocked on the door twice, and the door instantly opened from the inside.
It was so fast that it seemed like the person opening the door had been waiting at the entrance.
The one who opened the door was a young man with autism. He mustered the courage to glance at Bai Lixin and quickly lowered his head, “You really came. Welcome.”
“I promised you I would come, of course I won’t break my word.” Bai Lixin naturally swept his gaze across the spacious room. Besides the young man, there were two other people in the room—one was the woman he had seen during the day, and the other was a middle-aged man he hadn’t met, presumably the young man’s father.
The two people slowly stood up from the sofa and said hello to Bai Lixin.
Unlike the woman, the old man had a kind smile on his face. “Are you the friend my son made today? Handsome indeed. Please, have a seat, you’re welcome.”
After sitting down, Bai Lixin casually surveyed the room. The luggage was neatly arranged in their designated places. The room had a double bed and a single bed, with the latter appearing to be where the young man slept.
There was a framed photo on the desk attached to the wall. In the frame, there was a group photo of three people. The young man in the picture looked a few years younger than he did now, and the parents didn’t appear as old as they did currently. Although the young man looked smaller, he seemed much healthier back then—rosy complexion, white teeth, and a genuinely happy smile. He exuded a full sense of vitality.
Bai Lixin swept past the photo and then glanced at the young man’s pale cheeks and unhealthy bluish-purple lips.
When the young man went to the tap to wash the fruit, Bai Lixin asked in a low voice, “Does Chai Li have a weak heart?”
The man and woman were startled, and then the man asked cautiously, “Are you a doctor?”
Bai Lixin shook his head, “I’m not, but I’ve studied a bit about this, so I have a superficial understanding. His hands kept trembling when he turned the Rubik’s Cube and some simple turns were not easy for him. Hand tremors and purple lips are common external symptoms of palpitations and heart disease.”
The man glanced at the bathroom, sighed lightly, and said helplessly, “You’re right. He developed acquired heart disease a few years ago. We have been up and down in the past few years, looking for a suitable match for him in the hospitals. However, even after so many years, we haven’t found a suitable heart source for him. He has a rare B-negative blood type, commonly known as panda blood. Finding a match for a regular blood type is challenging, let alone for this rare type. Doctors say that if we don’t hurry with the surgery, he won’t survive another year.”
“We originally didn’t want to reveal this to the outside world, but since you’ve noticed, it doesn’t matter if we tell you.” The woman continued, “I didn’t tell you about this in the dining area today because it’s for the protection of my son. He has always wanted to see the snowy scenery on the mountain, so we decided to take this train. By the time this trip is over, he will have seen most of the scenery. As a mother, I’m useless. I gave birth to him, but I couldn’t give him a healthy body. Even if the child is sick, we can’t prolong his life; we can only try to fulfill his wishes and let him pass away without regrets.”
As she spoke, her eyes gradually reddened, and her voice choked up.
The man embraced her, patting her back gently to comfort her. “He still doesn’t know about his condition. We lied to him, saying he had a cold and needed to take medicine regularly. We hope you can keep this secret too and not tell him about it. We want him to be happy in the last period of his life. Leave the sorrow to us, his irresponsible parents.”
While they spoke, the bathroom door opened. The man immediately stopped talking, changed the topic abruptly, and said, “This tea is good, isn’t it? It’s the finest Longjing, something most people can’t taste.”
“The taste is indeed good.” Bai Lixin calmly raised the tea cup and took a sip, then saw the fruit plate with water droplets placed on the coffee table.
Chai Li sat obediently on the sofa. His legs were neatly arranged, hands were placed on his knees and his shoulders were straight, he looked like an exemplary student. “The fruit is washed. Try it.”
Bai Lixin cooperatively picked up a grape and put it in his mouth, “Mm, very sweet.”
The young man smiled shyly, “Bai Lixin, later, will we still play with the Rubik’s Cube?”
Bai Lixin replied, “How about trying something else?”
The young man rubbed his hands nervously, “But I don’t know how to play anything else.”
Bai Lixin once again glanced at the photo on the desk, “Then let’s chat or look at pictures. I like chatting with you.”
The young man hesitated and looked at his parents. After receiving their affirmative answers, he nodded, “Okay, let’s chat. What do you want to talk about?”
“Let’s chat about anything, about what you’re most familiar with,” Bai Lixin paused, “let’s talk about family. Chai Li, are your parents good to you?”
The man and the woman instantly tensed their shoulders, and looked at Chai Li nervously.
Chai Li nodded sheepishly, “Yes, they are the best parents. They are very kind to me.”
A moved expression appeared on the faces of the parents.
Bai Lixin: “Do you love your mom and dad a lot?”
Chai Li: “Yes.”
The elderly couple’s eyes became even redder.
Bai Lixin continued nonchalantly, “Then besides your parents, who else do you love?”
This time, Chai Li hesitated for several seconds before answering softly, “I also love my sister.”
Bai Lixin’s eyes flickered slightly, “Sister? You have a sister?”
Here it comes, the thread connecting to the truth has been found.
The parents showed a slightly unnatural expression at these words, and the man explained, “We adopted a little girl before.”
Bai Lixin looked surprised, “Oh, is she working now? I didn’t see her.”
“No,” the woman shook her head, “She ran away from home a long time ago. We tried to find her, but there has been no news.”
Bai Lixin: “Why did she run away from home? It’s a pity. You must have been heartbroken. Did she really run away, or did she meet some bad people and something happened to her?”
“Hmm, that’s why adopted children need to be raised from a young age.” The woman sighed, “She ran away on her own. She never wanted to stay in this family. I had health issues and couldn’t have more children after giving birth to Chai Li. However, we both wanted two children and didn’t want Chai Li to be lonely. In the end, we decided to adopt a child from the orphanage.”
“Because Chai Li is a boy, we planned to adopt a little girl. Originally, we wanted to adopt a younger one, so that she could be close to us from an early age. However, while walking around the orphanage, we encountered my adopted daughter. She was already eleven at that time. Although she grew up in the orphanage, she was very polite and I liked her at first sight. In addition, the orphanage director said that it was challenging to find a family willing to adopt an older child like her, and she would have to stay in the orphanage until she reached adulthood.”
“I felt sorry for her when I heard that.”
“Let’s just say that relationships are a matter of fate. I felt a connection with her, and after seeing her, I couldn’t look at other children. There is nothing wrong with being a bit older. At that time, Chai Li was only six years old, and since she was already at an age where she understood things, she could help take care of Chai Li.”
“In the end, we adopted a daughter.”
The woman sighed, “We thought she was a good girl at first. Little did we know she was pretending. In the first month she came to the house, she acted very considerate. However, in the second month, her true nature began to show.”
“She cursed people, got into violent fights, and even bullied Chai Li. Several times, she came back from school with a bruised face, and at first, we thought she was being bullied at school. We even made a scene at the school, but the students testified that she was the one bullying others. She was the bully.”
“It was then that I knew she had deceived me. But the child was already adopted. It’s not like we can throw her away. She was still a child. As long as I gave love and time, she would eventually become better. However, over the years, she didn’t improve at all. On the contrary, her behavior became more and more outrageous. Smoking, drinking, tattoos, dyed hair—she didn’t miss anything a troublemaker would do. Moreover, her relationship with us was deteriorating. Sometimes she didn’t even come home all night. Because of her, I was often called to the school by her class teacher.”
“One day when she was fourteen years old, she stayed out all night again. We were used to it and thought she had gone to stay with some friend. But then, after several days, she still hadn’t come home. The school called me, saying she hadn’t attended classes for several days. That’s when I realized she might be in trouble.”
“I called the police and reported her missing, but we never found her.”
“I knew she had ran away from home. She had been talking about leaving this home for a long time to search for true love and freedom. I didn’t let her, and we argued. She said I was a stepmother who didn’t love her. Listen, what kind of words are those? How could I not love her? If I didn’t love her, I wouldn’t have brought her back from the orphanage. She’s just a white eyed wolf. I treated her so well, and not only did she not appreciate it, but she also took ten thousand yuan from me before leaving. I was furious.”
The woman was angry by the end of her words, and her chest heaved with her accusations.
Seeing this, the man hurriedly helped her calm down, soothingly saying, “Alright, it’s all in the past. There’s no need to get angry over such a child.”
“Listening to this, that girl seems a bit ungrateful. But why would Chai Li say he loves her too?” Bai Lixin stared at Chai Li, softly asking, “Why, Chai Li?”
Chai Li shrank his neck timidly, “Sister is very good to me. She takes care of me, gives me delicious things and plays with me. “
“Chai Li was still young at that time, what can he remember?” The woman gasped, “My son is good at everything, but he is too kind. My adopted daughter slapped him in the face and gave him a candy, but he only remembers the candy but not the slap.”
Chai Li’s face turned pale, his lips trembled, his eyes flickered, but he didn’t want to say anything more.
Bai Lixin: “It seems your adopted daughter is quite free-spirited, she ran away at fourteen. She was adopted when she was eleven, meaning she lived in your house for three years? It’s not a short or long time, and after so many years, she should be around thirty now?”
“Approximately,” the man rubbed his forehead, “We adopted her when Chai Li was only six, and she was eleven at the time. Now Chai Li is twenty-four. If she’s still alive, she would be around thirty.”
Bai Lixin: “…”
—If she’s still alive.
That statement seemed a bit unnecessary.
“Sister hasn’t aged,” Chai Li refuted in a low voice, “We saw my sister today. She’s still the same as when she was young.”
The woman glanced at Chai Li disapprovingly, “How is that possible? People grow old. Aren’t your dad and I the same? That’s just a little girl who looks like your sister. She’s not that old; she can’t be your sister. She just looks similar.”
Bai Lixin: “…”
They girl they saw should be Zhou Guang.
