44

Xu Ze was brought back to the living room, somewhat at a loss, not knowing what he had done wrong. The Hostess sat down on the sofa, lifted her teacup for a sip, and said to him, "If you like a Toy, you can tell your brother and let him give it to you — how could you steal it?"

Accused out of nowhere, Xu Ze didn't catch up for a moment; he heard his grandmother ask, "Where was that Toy Car put?"

Xiao Pan was still crying, but not a single tear had fallen. Xu Ze ran to the corner where he'd been sitting, pushed aside the various Toys around it — but underneath there was nothing. He had clearly set the Toy Car down here.

Xu Ze didn't know how to explain himself; he could only shake his head.

"Then let's check the surveillance," the Hostess said gently.

The nanny pulled up the footage on the tablet — from the moment Xu Ze sat down in that corner and picked up the Toy Car, to Xiao Pan's ceaseless harassment and bullying of him, to Xu Ze standing up: twenty-eight minutes in all.

In the final moment, when Xu Ze set the Toy Car on the ground and rose, his motion had been so quick that it looked as though his hand had pressed against the floor for support, blocked by the Toys beside him — making it impossible to tell whether he had truly set the Toy Car down or kept it clasped in his hand.

The nanny turned off the footage, exchanged a glance with the Hostess, then searched Xu Ze's person — and found nothing.

"Then we'll have to ask the property management to pull up the surveillance from the road outside. Perhaps he was afraid of being caught and hid it in the grass by the roadside." The Hostess looked at Xu Ze with a faint smile. "But that's too much trouble — no need to make such a fuss. Guests are about to arrive, so let's just let this go. Children make mistakes; don't do it again."

It was the first time Xu Ze had tasted what it meant to be wronged, and he had never known it could feel so wretched.

"He wouldn't." Ye Yunhua, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke. She had always been very courteous toward the Hostess, but now her voice had gone cold and hard. "Xu Ze would never do something like this. You can check the surveillance from the road outside."

The Hostess was somewhat taken aback, but she kept her elegant composure and said softly, "Master Ye, I know you dote on your grandson, but a child cannot be spoiled like that — he'll go bad."

"Check the surveillance." Ye Yunhua untied her apron and wiped her flour-dusted hands on it. "Wait until Madam has seen the footage, then we'll talk. If Xu Ze really did take it, I'll bring him to apologize and make it right. I'll head back for today. The oven timer is already set — just take the pastries out when it's time."

"Let's go." She took Xu Ze's hand and led him through the kitchen, out into the back garden.

They walked in silence for a while, and then Xu Ze, for the first time since they'd been here, made a sound: "Grandma, I want to go over there."

"Go over there for what?"

"I made a little friend." Xu Ze said quietly. "He always waits for me."

Ye Yunhua asked no more, just as she had trusted that Xu Ze would neither steal nor lie. She followed Xu Ze to the outside of a villa's back garden; Xu Ze ran over, stood by the railing and looked inside — no one.

"Can I wait for him a while, until he comes out?" Xu Ze looked up at Ye Yunhua and asked. Today he couldn't eat with Lu Heyang, couldn't read comics with him, couldn't play with Toys — and probably wouldn't have the chance again in the future, so he wanted to say goodbye to Lu Heyang.

"Wait here." Ye Yunhua beckoned Xu Ze over, telling him to stand beneath the tree across the road.

Xu Ze stood under the tree, clutching the hem of Ye Yunhua's clothes, his gaze fixed unwaveringly on the back garden, waiting for Lu Heyang to come out.

He waited for over half an hour, his legs gone sore, but Lu Heyang did not come.

"Grandma, let's go." Xu Ze lowered his head.

Ye Yunhua said nothing and lifted Xu Ze into her arms. She had always been capable, stern, and a woman of few words; Xu Ze rarely felt any warmth or tenderness from her, and had always thought his grandmother was unlike anyone else's.

"Grandma, I'm sorry." Xu Ze lay against Ye Yunhua's shoulder and said.

"Why are you sorry? You didn't steal anyone's Toy."

"But Grandma can't earn money here anymore."

"Money can be earned elsewhere. But no one is allowed to bully you like that."

Xu Ze felt a little more at ease. He rubbed his eyes, watching the empty swing set grow smaller in the distance, and silently said in his heart, "See you again."

Xu Ze had a little notebook. One of its pages had eleven circles drawn in watercolor, each one standing for a time he had seen Lu Heyang; beside the last circle, seven-year-old he had written, in crooked, unsteady characters: See you again.

A childish wish, held without much hope — and just when Xu Ze was nearly about to forget it, one day it suddenly came true, though seven years had already passed.

In his second year of middle school, Xu Ze underwent his second differentiation as an S-Class Alpha. The Preparatory Academy pulled his file and notified him to sit the entrance examination. After passing it without incident, Xu Ze went to the Preparatory Academy to submit his paperwork.

In the office, Xu Ze stood before the desk of the teacher who was about to become his homeroom teacher, waiting for her to review his documents. The door was knocked twice; a teacher called out "come in," and the door swung open. A teacher looked up and smiled, "Lu Heyang — here to pick up your report card?"

The name was familiar and long-untouched. Xu Ze started, and stiffly raised his head.

Sunlight came through the doorway in a long shaft, and the Alpha stood within that beam of light, like a tree growing tall and upright.

"Mm." The Alpha's voice was low and clear — a timbre that did not sound hoarse even in the middle of his voice change. "Sorry, teacher. I only just got back yesterday."

"No trouble at all. I thought someone else had come to pick it up for you — didn't expect you'd come all this way yourself."

Lu Heyang smiled slightly. As he took the report card, he lifted his eyes; his gaze briefly swept over Xu Ze, his face still carrying a trace of a smile — the polite, cool sort one gives a stranger.

He left quickly, paying no particular attention to Xu Ze — the Alpha standing silently beside an office desk, his face a touch pale.

Nor would he know that in that half-second of eye contact, what great waves had risen in the heart of this unknown Alpha.

Seven years. The Lu Heyang of memory — always smiling, voice bright and clear — had grown into a tall Lu Heyang with a low voice, strikingly outstanding in looks and bearing, but also genuinely appearing far colder.

Back then, every time they parted, Lu Heyang would tell Xu Ze to see him again; yet when they truly met again, he did not recognize Xu Ze.

Xu Ze thought this was only reasonable. He had never told Lu Heyang his name; they had lost touch for years; appearances had changed — forgetting and unfamiliarity were inevitable.

But for Xu Ze, the last meeting of his childhood had never happened, and so there was a lingering regret, and so the memory was especially deep.

Just as happiness does not keep one awake — what makes one toss and turn are always the regrets one cannot smooth flat.

That day, back home, Xu Ze dug out that yellowing little notebook from his room, opened it, and after the eleven somewhat faded colored circles, added one more in black pen, writing beside it: Met again.

"After that, because of some things, Grandma stopped making pastries at other people's homes. She opened a breakfast shop by the road." The recollection was long, but Xu Ze condensed it all into a single sentence. He looked at the IV drip, as though telling someone else's story. "After that, my mother passed away. Grandma's mind started to go. In recent years her illness worsened, and she was sent to a psychiatric hospital."

"Her health was never good either. She had a hard time of it in the psychiatric hospital, so I started earning money — so that Grandma could go to a better Sanatorium."

Xu Ze stopped there, afraid of being too long-winded, even though he had only said a few sentences in all — but perhaps Lu Heyang didn't want to hear all this. Xu Ze licked his lower lip. "It's late. Are you sleepy?"

"Not sleepy." Lu Heyang had listened quietly, poured a glass of water and handed it to him, then asked, "You said you wouldn't fight anymore. Is that true?"

"I don't know." Xu Ze answered honestly. He had told Tang Feiyi he wouldn't fight because, in that situation, he had genuinely felt exhausted and weary — but many things were not his to decide.

"I'll go less in the future," Xu Ze added. "Summer break is coming. I've found a job, and a subsidy I applied for for Grandma is about to come through."

Working odd jobs could not earn much, and the subsidy was not much either; everything rested on the foundation of Ye Yunhua's condition remaining stable. If anything unexpected happened to her, this money alone would never be enough.

"What kind of job?"

"Some odd jobs."

Lu Heyang did not press further, and changed the question: "How much is the subsidy?"

"A few thousand, probably. Better than nothing." Xu Ze seemed already content with it. "There are two other subsidies too — I applied a long time ago and haven't heard back. They probably won't come through."

He stated his — to others, quite dire — situation calmly and truthfully, and Lu Heyang thought that if Xu Ze were a little thicker-skinned, a little more calculating, or knew how to play the sympathy card, he would certainly have an easier life than he did now.

But that would not be Xu Ze.

Lu Heyang looked at him for a while, then said, "I'll head back first. Get some rest. If anything feels off, call the doctor."

He took the water glass from Xu Ze's hand and set it aside. Xu Ze leaned against the pillow watching him; when Lu Heyang stood up, Xu Ze's gaze followed upward.

"Looking at me like that again." Lu Heyang seemed to smile faintly and said.

Xu Ze lowered his eyes and obediently said, "I won't look anymore."

But the answer seemed wrong, because Lu Heyang stood by the bed for a moment, then suddenly leaned down — one hand bracing beside Xu Ze's pillow, the other lightly brushing the dark bruise on Xu Ze's swollen lip corner — his tone soft: "I didn't say you couldn't look. Sleep well tonight. There will be plenty of chances to look in the future."

He said there would be plenty of chances, but Xu Ze knew there really wouldn't be.

"Be careful on the way back." Xu Ze paused, then said, "See you next time."