Chapter 38: The Pursuer

“Take care on the way, Young Master,” Zhang Yin called from the car after rolling down the window.

Wen Xiao nodded. Wen Yu stood beside him and tugged his scarf tighter, nearly wrapping him up like a dumpling, leaving only his head exposed.

“Don’t catch a cold,” Wen Yu said.

He remembered how his little brother used to come down with a cold and fever every winter, then suffer for a long time afterward. He hoped that this winter, his brother would stay healthy.

The child, who came only as high as his chest, nodded. A pair of clear, limpid eyes gazed fixedly at him, and a muffled voice came from beneath the scarf.

“Mm.”

Wen Yu took Wen Xiao by the hand and led him through the school gate. With his obviously smaller little brother beside him, Wen Yu seemed taller too, like a grown-up child.

Zhang Yin watched until the two of them disappeared through the gate before finally relaxing. He took out a cigarette and drew on it. Living like this every day, surrounded by these children, he felt that he had grown younger as well.

The ginkgo trees lining the road were no longer as lush as they had been the month before. Half their leaves had fallen, while the rest swayed unsteadily in the cold winter wind, as if they might be blown away at any moment.

When they reached the elementary school building, Wen Yu was still reluctant to let go of Wen Xiao’s hand, but his little brother had to go to class eventually.

He reached out and rubbed Wen Xiao’s head.

“It’s cold outside. When school’s over, ask Uncle Zhang to take you straight home.”

After saying goodbye to Wen Yu, Wen Xiao watched his brother’s figure gradually vanish along the path before turning and entering the teaching building.

By now, he had more or less adapted to living as a child. Being a child was rather nice. He had nothing to worry about, and someone else took care of his food and clothing.

As soon as he entered the building, a teacher called out to him.

“You there! Come with me to the office for a moment!”

Wen Xiao glanced to the side, assuming the teacher was calling someone else, but the teacher walked up to him and said, “Do you remember the gift box you found and brought to the office last time? The child who lost it said he wanted to give it to you.”

“Give it to me?” Wen Xiao tilted his head, bewildered by how he had somehow acquired a gift.

In the office, he received a familiar-looking wrapped gift box. Even as he walked back toward his classroom, he was still completely puzzled.

Suddenly, a tremendous force struck him from behind. An arm hooked around his neck, and the other person leaned his entire weight against him, nearly knocking Wen Xiao flat.

This kind of ambush had happened more than once. Wen Xiao hugged the gift, which had nearly fallen to the ground, and could not help calling out, “Huo Zhanyan…”

There was no need to guess. It was obviously Huo Zhanyan. Who else could be so bored?

Huo Zhanyan leaned over at once and stared at the gift box in his hands, sounding rather displeased.

“Who gave that to you?”

“Why do you care who gave it to me? It has nothing to do with you.”

Wen Xiao rolled his eyes at him. He pulled Huo Zhanyan’s arm away, ducked beneath it, and ran toward the classroom.

As he ran, he wondered whether Huo Zhanyan had grown a little taller again.

When he passed a wall covered with photographs, Wen Xiao suddenly stopped.

The pictures on the wall were all photographs from their autumn outing the previous month. He had no idea how they had ended up being displayed there.

Most of the photographs on this floor were of the first-grade students.

His gaze suddenly halted on one particular photograph. A hand reached over from the side and blocked it.

Huo Zhanyan stepped in front of Wen Xiao.

“You’re not allowed to look!”

The more Huo Zhanyan said that, the more Wen Xiao felt he absolutely had to see it.

“Move.”

Wen Xiao stared at Huo Zhanyan expressionlessly. Huo Zhanyan shook his head vigorously. The more secretive he acted, the more Wen Xiao suspected that he had something to hide.

“If you don’t move, then you can forget about coming to my birthday party this Saturday.”

After saying that, Wen Xiao turned and began to walk away.

He had taken only one step when someone grabbed him. Huo Zhanyan hurriedly pulled him back.

“No! You said I could come!”

He followed Wen Xiao around, pestering him for a long time before finally getting Wen Xiao’s permission. At last, he would no longer have to sneak into Wen Xiao’s house.

This time, he had been invited to Wen Xiao’s birthday party. He could go openly and proudly!

Preferably, he could even secretly stay the night at Xiao Xiao’s house.

He still remembered how Song Jingbai had spent the night at Xiao Xiao’s home.

Huo Zhanyan moved aside reluctantly, allowing Wen Xiao to see what was on the wall.

The photograph showed Huo Zhanyan crying so hard that his nose was running and tears streamed down his face. Even as a still image, it conveyed the child’s sorrow and despair at that moment.

Beside it was a line of text:

Huo Zhanyan of Class Two left the group without permission and became lost in the mountains. Everyone is urged to learn from this incident.

It was almost as if the notice were saying: Is the child in the photograph crying sadly? Is he suffering? This is what happens when you leave the group without permission!

Wen Xiao realized that displaying the photograph really might serve as a warning. There was no other reason except that the person involved had cried far too miserably.

He looked at the background and recognized the place where they had found Huo Zhanyan hidden inside the hollow of a tree. Had someone taken the photograph then?

Had it been Song Jingbai, or Leng Shucheng?

Huo Zhanyan felt that the person in the photograph was absolutely not him. There was not the slightest resemblance. Someone had maliciously uploaded an embarrassing picture of him.

“That isn’t me!” Huo Zhanyan shouted beside him.

Wen Xiao glanced at him and suddenly said, “Fine. I invited the Huo Zhanyan in the photograph to my house. Since you’re not him, you can forget about it.”

“That’s me! It’s me!”

Huo Zhanyan panicked at once. He placed both hands on Wen Xiao’s shoulders and turned him toward himself, then bared his teeth and contorted his face just like the child in the photograph.

“Look! Don’t I look like him?”

Wen Xiao stared at him for a moment before suddenly bursting into laughter.

He tugged his scarf up to cover half his face, but his clear, watery eyes curved into crescents, as if the tears in them might spill over. Just looking at him made it impossible not to laugh foolishly along with him.

Huo Zhanyan’s expression froze. He stared blankly at Wen Xiao, then scratched his head and said with a grin, “Xiao Xiao, you smiled.”

This was the first time he had ever seen Xiao Xiao smile at him. Before this, Xiao Xiao had only glared at him.

He discovered that, compared with being glared at, he truly liked it when Xiao Xiao smiled at him every day.

Once was never enough. After seeing it once, he wanted to see it a second time.

Just then, Wen Xiao saw Leng Shucheng emerge from the office and come to stand beside him.

“I took that photograph,” Leng Shucheng said.

The teacher had even chosen his photograph for the display.

Huo Zhanyan’s expression changed instantly. He gritted his teeth.

“You secretly photographed me and made me lose face! You did it on purpose!”

The cast on Leng Shucheng’s arm had been removed a few days earlier, so it no longer interfered with his activities.

Moreover, thanks to his mixed-race heritage, Leng Shucheng was tall. Although he was not as sturdy as Huo Zhanyan, he did not seem overpowered when the two stood together.

Wen Xiao wondered if something was wrong with his mind. He was actually comparing the presence of two elementary school students.

What kind of presence could they possibly have at that height?

“That wasn’t secret photography,” Leng Shucheng emphasized coldly, looking at Huo Zhanyan.

Suddenly, someone stepped up beside Wen Xiao and rested his head almost on Wen Xiao’s shoulder.

“Good morning, Xiao Xiao.”

Song Jingbai placed a hand on the photographs and brushed his fingers over them.

“All the photographs on this wall were printed together as one whole sheet. Even if Huo Zhanyan wanted to tear his picture down, he couldn’t.”

He seemed extremely interested in Huo Zhanyan’s embarrassing past.

Then he noticed the gift in Wen Xiao’s hands.

“Did someone give that to you?”

Wen Xiao nodded, and Song Jingbai continued, “But that gift box looks familiar. Isn’t it the one you found last time?”

“It is. The teacher said the person who lost it wanted me to have it.” Wen Xiao was puzzled as well.

“Should we open it and see?”

“Let’s look at it back in the classroom.”

Wen Xiao thought about it and decided that standing outside was not a suitable place to unwrap a gift. Then he glanced back at the photograph wall and noticed several pictures of them among the others.

One showed the four of them asleep on the school bus. Each was sleeping in a different position, yet they looked peaceful, as though the commotion coming from the back seats could not affect them at all.

It was almost as if they were surrounded by a field that shut everything else out, a field containing only the four of them.

Judging from the angle, a teacher seated somewhere nearby must have taken the picture.

Wen Xiao’s feelings were complicated. He had thought he was the only one who had fallen asleep that day. Could sleep really be contagious?

“I’m going back to class,” Wen Xiao said, then walked into the classroom.

There was a music lesson that morning. The teacher would have them practice a piece together, allowing them to choose different instruments so that the entire class could perform an ensemble.

Previously, they had only been taught the fundamentals of music theory. Strictly speaking, it seemed too soon for them to be playing instruments.

Wen Xiao glanced at Song Jingbai and thought that Song Jingbai would surely choose the violin.

When Wen Xiao entered the classroom, he saw Wei Nanxing lying across his desk, drawing on a sheet of paper with a pen. The moment he noticed Wen Xiao, his eyes brightened.

Wei Nanxing saw the gift box in Wen Xiao’s hands. He had been planning to go over, but now he hesitated.

Xiao Xiao was about to open his gift himself.

He was nervous. He was afraid that going over would only make him even more nervous.

Unable to resist, Wei Nanxing secretly turned his head to watch Wen Xiao open the gift box.

He found the feeling strangely wondrous, though he had thought about it for a long time and still could not find the words to describe it.

He had spent all his pocket money on a metal three-dimensional puzzle. Over many evenings, he had assembled it into a heart for Xiao Xiao.

The gift had been taken away by some mean children, but Xiao Xiao had helped him retrieve it. It had also been sent to the lost-and-found office, and in the end, it had returned to Xiao Xiao’s hands.

What belonged to Xiao Xiao had ultimately returned to Xiao Xiao. He wondered whether Xiao Xiao would like it.

Wen Xiao saw the three-dimensional heart lying inside the gift box. A piece had been knocked off when it was bumped, leaving a small gap.

The heart was orange-red with a hint of pink. It was not a vivid blood red, but the color gave it an extra touch of sweetness and warmth.

Since it was made of metal pieces, it seemed almost to be glowing. Beside it, Wen Xiao found a lamp base and guessed that it might be a small three-dimensional lamp, the kind that lit up when plugged in.

Wen Xiao could tell how much care had gone into making the gift. But if it had been made with such care, why had it been given away so easily?

Had the person it was originally meant for refused it? If so, what a pity.

Huo Zhanyan noticed it too. He stared at the slightly pink heart and frowned.

“Don’t tell me some little girl gave that to you. It’s not even nice-looking.”