Liu Xie once again got into Liu Anran’s car, only this time there was an old man in the back seat.
Liu Xie realized that she actually had something in common with the old man.
For instance, she liked to look out the window while riding in a car, and the old man also liked to look out the window while riding in a car.
While waiting at a red light, Liu Xie, having noticed this, patted Liu Anran and then pointed at the old man in the back seat looking out the window, then pointed at herself.
Liu Anran, who had spent most of his life with Liu Xie, naturally understood what she meant.
“You two are different. You’re curious. He’s reminiscing.”
Liu Anran saw it quite clearly.
When Liu Xie looked at the scenery outside the window, she was like a curious little kitten, wanting to etch every novel thing she had never seen before into her mind.
But when the Dean looked at the scenery outside the window, he was like an aged turtle, seemingly looking at the fresh scenery, yet his gaze also seemed to follow time back to some unknowable distant past, to before the changes here, into his memories.
When people grow old, they always end up spacing out.
Most of the time it’s not dementia or anything like that.
Most of the time they’re just reminiscing about the past.
There was simply too much past to reminisce about.
Before you knew it, you’d sunk right in.
Perhaps this could be considered a downside of experience and accumulated wisdom.
Liu Xie leaned against the car window, her head bumping gently against the glass with the trembling of the car.
This was also one of her favorite little games.
Only most of the time she’d be caught off guard by a real bump, smacking her head hard against the window glass, leaving her clutching her head with a pained expression just like Tom Cat.
And that was when it was Liu Anran’s turn to laugh.
“You laughing again?” Liu Xie flashed her tiger teeth, as if she might pounce at any moment and unleash a bite on Liu Anran.
Liu Anran just kept laughing.
Even the Dean in the back seat, not knowing what was going on, joined in with a smile.
And then he cast his gaze back out the window at the scenery.
He had traveled this road countless times, most of the time bringing the children back and forth here.
As the first protective umbrella, the first safe harbor, he protected the children from the outside world, but he also knew these children couldn’t stay under his shelter forever.
He knew no one, had no connections, and didn’t even have much money.
If someone got sick, it was feast or famine.
The most hateful thing was that he didn’t even have the tuition to send these children to school.
Most of the children were quite adorable.
When they were about to be adopted and leave him, they’d cry with snot and tears, saying they didn’t want to go.
But staying by his side truly offered no way forward, no way to survive.
Of course he couldn’t bear partings either. Rather, the older he got, the less resistance he had to such things.
Every parting was like a sharp knife stabbing into his chest.
But at the same time, he understood the meaning behind it, representing those children’s liberation from suffering to a certain degree, walking toward a brighter future.
The car stopped at the entrance of that dilapidated orphanage gate.
The Dean seemed to be in quite a good mood.
At this moment he pointed at the entrance.
“Anran, do you remember? That day in the heavy rain, someone suddenly pounded on the orphanage gate. I ran out, and you followed behind me holding up an umbrella.”
Liu Anran remembered. Of course he remembered.
“At the time a couple had abandoned their child at the orphanage entrance, wrapped in just two old pieces of clothing, sitting in a cardboard box under the eaves.”
Liu Anran pointed at a corner, beside the rusty water pipe that was clearly no longer usable.
At this moment it seemed both of them were beginning to reminisce, leaving only Liu Xie staring blankly at the rusty water pipe.
She just thought that water pipe was pretty straight. If you took it down, it might make a handy weapon.
Just like how you can’t walk past a particularly beautiful-shaped wooden stick on the side of the road.
“And then you told me to just leave it, saying we couldn’t afford to raise another one, telling me that if I was going to do anything at all, it should be to go find that couple who abandoned their child.”
As the Dean spoke, more and more memories seemed to surface.
Liu Anran fell silent.
The story after that wasn’t quite so heartwarming. After Liu Anran said those words, the Dean beat him on the spot in the rain.
It wasn’t a question of whether they could afford to raise the child. Liu Anran’s way of thinking always carried enough rationality and purpose, but most days in life weren’t supposed to be like that.
So the Dean at the time shouted loudly while striking hard, his face full of the furrows of time, traces of tears or possibly rain streaming down.
It was as if he wanted to carve these lessons into Liu Anran’s brain, to keep Liu Anran from becoming a special kind of deformed person.
He said that when he first found Liu Anran, Liu Anran hadn’t even been weaned yet.
Compared to this one dropped off at the door, he was far harder to raise.
He said that if Liu Anran thought it was troublesome, thought they couldn’t afford it, then he wouldn’t take care of anyone. He’d just live comfortably as an old man on his own.
That was the first time Liu Anran was beaten. Before that, he had always been the most obedient, well-behaved, and most beloved child in the entire orphanage.
Perhaps it was precisely because of that beating that Liu Anran turned out the way he was now.
Otherwise he might really have become a competitor for Liu Xie’s inheritance, and wouldn’t have cared whether Liu Xie lived or died.
Though it wasn’t necessarily so. Without that beating, Liu Anran wouldn’t have left the orphanage because the other children had no food, and he wouldn’t have met Liu Xie.
The dilapidated gate was opened, and the three walked in.
Then, just like last time, they followed the country path to that somewhat isolated little courtyard.
The old man’s legs seemed quite sturdy still.
Even on the uneven dirt path where Liu Xie sometimes felt tired, he walked the whole way without stopping to rest once.
He even seemed to glow with vigor, and the closer they got to the courtyard, the more obvious this feeling became.
Arriving at the door, the old man directly pushed open the unlocked door.
There had never been many households here, not even many people.
Liu Xie even felt that the lock hanging on the door seemed somewhat superfluous.
After all, that lock was secured to one side of the door, and extremely loose.
On the wooden door clearly showing its age, it seemed so fragile.
It looked like the Maginot Line. No matter how many locks you hung on it, when someone really wanted to get in, it was probably completely useless.
The old man walked in, and Liu Xie looked inside along the open door.
She still had never been inside, and didn’t know what it actually looked like.
She had to admit she was a bit curious.