The man who gave her life, her father, who deeply loved the Wen family.
She defined his short life in every way.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention something.
A pathetic man who was killed by his own daughter.
She died. Death—the profoundness of this word was something he also taught her.
It's even impossible to refute.
He said, "Don't tell your mother. She should be proud. This is a secret between us, father and daughter, a secret only I and my little Aheng know."
Two years later, on January 8th, her last day in City B, the still-chilly winter sun was followed by heavy snow.
The world was a vast expanse of white.
The inscription on the stele had long been blurred and illegible in the snow.
She gently wiped away the snow with her hand, her fingertips tracing the uneven engravings.
The image of the person who erected the monument, a figure she had no right to participate in, flashed before her eyes, even though the blood of the person who lay here forever bestowed upon her the surname Wen.
The widow, Wen Yunyi.
Unfilial son, Wen Siwan, Wen Sier.
She smiled, thinking it was the end, but her finger froze when she moved to the next line.
The six solitary characters, written in beautiful regular script, are sharp and piercing.
It is the result of repeated engraving.
Wen Hengyan wrote this on behalf of hope.
Her nose stung with tears. She hugged the tombstone, her lowered forehead pressed against the biting cold. The clean corner of her sleeve was covered with snow, and she felt a sudden chill.
She thought she had only turned around, but what she saw was a vast and boundless sea.
If the separation is not a matter of unfulfilled desires at the time of parting, then can I interpret it as the separation occurring while we are still alive?
Not far away, the sound of footsteps, some deep and some shallow, echoed through the snow, heavy and muffled.
Ah Heng spread snow to smooth out his footprints and walked behind a large tree in the opposite direction, where a row of tombstones completely blocked his view.
In this kind of weather, very few people come to the cemetery.
She peeked out and saw the backs of five people.
Holding umbrellas, they were not very clear in the snow, but could be identified as two men and three women.
They stopped and stood where she had just been standing.
The woman at the head of the group folded her umbrella and placed the bouquet of flowers she was holding in front of the grave.
Her hair was adorned with a hundred flowers, and she spoke with a sorrowful tone, filled with longing, "Anguo, my children and I have come to see you."
The young couple behind him knelt down on the cold snow, sobbing uncontrollably.
Such open and honest tears of sorrow are truly...enviable.
Looking at them, Ah Heng could only recall their endless indifference. It seemed that when they left her, they weren't even a fraction as sad as they were now.
The silent mother, who remained unmoved even after kneeling in front of the Wen family's door for two days and one night;
With a furrowed brow, Siwan finally said only one sentence—Aheng, that's enough. Mom doesn't want to see you right now. Then she tightly closed the door.
Si'er looked at her with pity in her eyes, as if she were seeing a kitten or a puppy on the verge of death.
She said, "I told you, don't be delusional. Family, Yanxi, friendship—don't be delusional about any of them in this filthy garden."
I told you.
What fell from her hands was Z University's admission notice.
The wind whips up the snow, a furious and endless blast that buries the past, swirling in the sky along with mournful music.
In the wind, the distant sounds were reduced to thin syllables, reaching her ears intermittently.
Wen's mother put her arm around the couple standing in the back row and said, "Anguo, you don't need to worry. Xiaoxi has a girlfriend. She's a good girl. I brought her to see you today. She's no worse than our Aheng. Don't worry."
The couple consisted of a black-haired boy in a brown coat, holding an umbrella, and a petite girl standing beside him, clinging tightly to his coat in a playful and dependent manner.
The girl teased, "Yan hope, your ex-father-in-law has already acknowledged me. In this life, you can only marry me, you know?"
Yan hope.
Words... Hope.
Ah Heng thought, "This name sounds really nice."
When they were little, she would often frown and point at everyone around her, saying, "Hey, let me tell you, Yan hope is so annoying, really, so annoying."
She has a treasure in her hands and can't help but show it off to the world, but she's also afraid that others will covet it and turn into a little bit of accusation.
Actually, Yan hope is really good.
She lowered her head, sniffed, and tears welled up in her eyes.
Turning around, intending to leave, I inadvertently stepped into a tree hole, startling a flock of crows nesting in the dry branches. They flew around the tree in the snow, a dark mass of them.
Afraid of attracting attention, Ah Heng shrank back, but fortunately, the tree hole was big enough.
"Is anyone there?" It was Si'er's voice.
The sound of approaching footsteps.
Ah Heng's lips were dry, his pupils were constricted, and he stared intently outside.
A pair of brown leather boots drew closer.
Too close.
She could even see the wrinkles in the denim fabric at the knee.
Finally, it stopped.
She buried her face in the darkness, covering her nose with her hand and suppressing her breathing.
But then they heard the breathing of the newcomer.
He was breathing heavily in the snow.
He stared intently at the tree hole, his fists clenched tightly.
"Is Yan hope a person?" Si'er asked the person.
He completely covered the tree hole, turned his back to block Si'er's view, and spoke calmly with a blank expression.
It's hard to see clearly, but it should be a wild rabbit's burrow.
Oh, really? I love bunnies the most. Bunnies are so cute.
Suspicious, Si'er stepped forward to get a better look.
Through the dim light, Ah Heng saw that the boy's coat looked very warm.
He moved away, crossed his arms, raised an eyebrow, and thought, "Maybe it's a weasel. Weasels are quite cute too."
Si'er's expression changed. She glanced at the scene from afar, but it was all dark and she couldn't see anything clearly. She turned around and walked away.
The faint, sweet scent of milk lingers around my nose; the familiar and comforting feeling of being able to reach out and embrace it.
Ah Heng felt a tightness in her chest.
You must not move, absolutely... you must not move.
He held the umbrella handle, stood quietly, and stared at the tree hole for a long, long time, as if in a daze, even his big eyes softened.
Finally, he silently put down the umbrella in his hand, then took off his leather gloves, bent down, and gently placed them at the entrance of the tree hole.
Turning around, I see solitary footprints, continuing onward.
A tree, a flower, beneath the Bodhi tree, we brushed past each other, and truly, I didn't recognize you.
In the distance, the petite girl threw a snowball at him, her face beaming with joy.
Yanxi, I never knew you were so kind to animals. I like you more and more, what am I going to do?
what to do.
Yan hope wiped the snow off his face, lowered his head, and spoke indifferently.
Then let's just like it.
*******************************Divider line****************************
When Aheng returned to H City, Gu Feibai picked her up at the airport.
He looked at her, his expression still calm as usual, but his eyes and brows had turned several degrees colder.
He asked where he had been.
Ah Heng thought for a moment. He spent the first six days reading in the hotel and the last day visiting a grave. It was a rather dull experience, so he simply summarized it.
I just wandered around.
Gu Feibai noticed the umbrella beside her and asked casually, "Is the snow in Beijing heavy?"
Ah Heng nodded gently and hummed in agreement.
He squinted; it didn't look like your stuff. You've always disliked pink.
Ah Heng chuckled, "It was left behind by a kind-hearted person who loves wildlife, and I just happened to pick it up."
Gu Feibai smiled faintly. "Who knows if other people's things have germs? How can you just pick them up? Throw them away."
Ah Heng stood there, stunned.
He said, "I can buy thousands or tens of thousands of them. I'll give you one every day for 365 days. This one will just be thrown in the trash can, how about that?"
Ah Heng frowned, listening to Gu Feibai's words, which seemed to carry a hint of provocation.
What, you can't bear to throw it away?
Gu Feibai gave her a cold glance.
Ah Heng handed him the umbrella, smiled faintly, and said, "Throw it away. Do with it however you like."