parfum

Chapitre 3

The two followed Amy all the way, walking for several blocks. Amy never stopped once she started walking, which made Chen Kai so tired that he could hardly move his legs.

"When will we get there? I should have just taken a taxi!" he wailed. Why did these two people walk so recklessly, as if he were the only one made of flesh and blood?

"We're here! We're here! Let's go in quickly, or we'll be late!" Amy exclaimed.

Chen Kai then looked up and carefully surveyed his surroundings. It seemed to be a university campus. Yes, there were maple trees on university campuses; how come he hadn't thought of that before?

"Let's go, Chen Kai!" Fei Xiao said, reaching out to pull him along. Only then did he feel his leaden legs finally relax a bit.

Stumbling and staggering in the dark, I finally arrived at the central garden of the school.

In the darkness of the night, the shadow of a tall maple tree appeared in the distance, strikingly similar to the one the old man remembered.

As he got closer, Chen Kai became increasingly nervous for some reason, his heart pounding in his chest. If it really was the person from that afternoon, then this would be the first time in his life he had ever seen a ghost.

Upon closer inspection, the three of them couldn't help but feel disappointed. The tall maple tree was completely different from what they had seen before. The thick trunk had been split in two by lightning at some point. Only the branches and leaves remained lush, but it had completely lost the breathtaking beauty it once possessed.

"Is this really the tree?" Chen Kai asked upon seeing it, as it was so different from what he remembered.

“Yes, that’s it!” Fei Xiao looked up at the treetop. “Forty years can change so many things, let alone a tree?”

"Sir, sir is really here!" Amy exclaimed, running over with a cheer.

"Huh? It's really here? What should we do? This is the first time I've ever seen a ghost!" Chen Kai's legs started to tremble.

"Don't be afraid, let's go take a look!" With that, Feixiao walked into the huge shadow cast by the tall maple tree.

Chen Kai had no choice but to bite the bullet and follow him.

"Sir, sir, come with me quickly! Otherwise it will be too late!" Amy cried, grabbing a man's arm.

"Who are you? Why are you calling me 'sir'?" The man turned around. He had a handsome face, a pale complexion, and a pair of striking black glasses. He was the man Chen Kai had met that afternoon.

"Wow, help!" Chen Kai yelled, terrified. All he wanted to do was run to a place with lights.

Before he could finish shouting, Fei Xiao raised her hand and slapped him on the head: "How can you be so embarrassing? If you're scared, grab my arm!"

Chen Kai obeyed, grabbing his arm as if it were a lifeline, his body trembling like wheat in the wind.

Seeing him like this, Feixiao had no choice but to shake her head with a smile.

"Sir, it's me, Amy! Have you forgotten me?" Amy was so anxious she was about to cry again. She thought that finding her husband's soul would be the end of the world, but she never expected that he had completely forgotten her and was unaware of her critical illness.

"Amy, don't rush!" Fei Xiao said, then asked the man, "What are you looking for here?"

"I... I'm looking for Xiaomin!" the man replied, bewildered.

"Who is Xiaomin?" Feixiao asked.

"Xiaomin is Xiaomin. We agreed to meet here, but why didn't she come? She didn't come!"

"She, she seems to have come~, and she left a note, have you forgotten?" Chen Kai said timidly.

"A note, right, it seems like that happened!" the man said excitedly. "Then she must have changed the meeting place. I didn't know!"

As he spoke, he went to rummage through the stones and rubble under the tree roots, but there was no note there.

"Sir, sir, please don't do this!" Amy said, hugging his waist. "If you do this, Amy will be very sad. You still have Amy!"

“Amy? That name sounds familiar!” The man suddenly seemed to remember something.

"Think about it again, are you really sure you didn't see that note? Where did Xiaomin go?" Feixiao said, raising a hand and pointing to his forehead.

"There's no time left. Reality can't be escaped forever!"

No one knows what method he used, but the man seemed to suddenly remember something, and he suddenly squatted down on the ground and wailed, "Xiaomin, Xiaomin married someone else."

Seeing his reaction, Chen Kai was no longer afraid. He released Fei Xiao's arm and said from the side, "Then hurry up and come with us. You still have Amy."

The man ignored him: "Just because she's the daughter of a rightist, she married someone else so as not to drag me down. I really want to see her one more time, even if it's just to see her before I die, that would be enough!"

"From now on, I will never learn to love again. All my love has been left under this maple tree forty years ago!"

As he spoke, he raised his head, revealing a face full of wrinkles and gray hair, exactly like the old man they had seen in the hospital. It seemed that in regaining his memories, he had also found his original face.

The old man stood up shakily, looked up at the maple tree, and thought how time flies. Forty years had not only buried his youth, but also turned his love into hatred for the world.

If water could flow backward, how he longed to step back along the ripples of time and hold her hand again. But the passage of time had made him lose sight of her. The girl with braids and the red leaves on the tree were now just a painting in his heart, impossible to find again in the cracks of time.

Two lines of tears streamed down the lines of his face. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but only let out a long sigh, a sigh of helplessness at the passing of time.

"Sir, sir, can we go now?" Amy said, throwing herself into his arms.

"Amy, my Amy! For so many years, I've been dwelling on the past and holding grudges, and I've been too harsh on you!" The old man said, hugging Amy and crying again. "If I could live my life again, I would never have done this!"

“No, sir is very good to Amy! That’s why Amy went to see him!” As she spoke, she stuck out her pink tongue and licked the old man’s face.

Chen Kai felt a chill run down his spine after looking at them for a while. Could these two be in a May-December romance?

Then Amy said, "Thank you all. My husband and I are leaving now. Goodbye. I hope you can visit him sometime!"

"Hey, your commission fee!" Fei Xiao called out.

"Is this all you want to say at a time like this?" Chen Kai's eyes had just been a little moist, and now he almost choked on his words.

“You can go to the old man’s to get it!” After saying that, Amy and the old man disappeared, and her giggles echoed in the night sky.

Three days later, Fei Xiao and Chen Kai figured the old man should have regained consciousness, so they bought some gifts and went to the hospital to visit him.

As soon as I entered the ward, the atmosphere was different from that day. The old man's wife was peeling an apple for him, looking very happy.

"Who are you visiting? You've come to the wrong room, haven't you?" the old woman asked.

"No, we're here to see Amy!"

"Amy? You've really come looking for Amy?" The old man's eyes welled with tears. He took a photograph from a drawer. "Amy, she's dead. She was in the car accident with me!"

"What?" Chen Kai couldn't believe his ears. The lively, beautiful, little Amy. The Amy with long curly hair, wearing a white dress, the Amy who seemed to jump out at him now—how could she be dead?

He reached out and took the photo. It showed an adorable white puppy with long, curly, snow-white fur and big, bright, dark eyes.

"This, this is Amy?" Chen Kai choked up, unable to speak.

“That’s right, this is Amy, my little white dog that I’ve raised for five years!” the old man said, bowing his head.

How much Amy in that photo resembled the little girl who suddenly appeared before him that day! This adorable little dog, even in death, didn't forget to seek her owner's soul back; her eyes must still be watching over her owner from heaven.

Chen Kai felt very sad. The old man continued, "If it weren't for this car accident, I wouldn't have learned how to love. But, but, Amy will never be by my side again!"

"No, no way!" Feixiao said, "Amy has never blamed you!"

Neither of them expected this outcome. After sitting for a while, they were about to leave. The old man had completely forgotten what he had experienced when his soul left his body, and he had nothing to say.

Just as I reached the door, I heard the old woman inside say, "Do you really like Amy? Do you have a dog at home?"

"No!" Chen Kai replied, thinking to himself: With Fei Xiao around, how can he keep a dog? Wouldn't that cause chaos in the world?

"It's like this, we can't keep a dog anymore after losing Amy, we're afraid it will make us sad. But, but what should we do with all the dog food we bought for Amy?"

"Huh, dog food? Food for a lifetime?" Chen Kai and Fei Xiao finally understood what the commission fee they had been working so hard for all day was.

"No, forget it!" Chen Kai hurriedly waved his hands.

"If you really want something, leave us Amy's photo!" Fei Xiao said, tucking the photo into her bosom. Then she pulled Chen Kai away.

The autumn breeze outside was cool and pleasant, and the sun was dazzling. Chen Kai was so blinded by the sunlight that he could not open his eyes. In the hazy light, he seemed to see a girl with long curly hair wearing a white dress standing on the street corner.

He blinked and disappeared again, leaving only a desolate street corner. Amy's laughter, Amy's bright eyes, Amy like a little princess, seemed to reappear before him.

"Let's go, Chen Kai!" Fei Xiao said, walking forward without a trace of sadness on her face. Chen Kai followed her, letting out a long sigh.

These fleeting years are endless and unpredictable.

Chapter Two: Gifts

As a child, Chen Kai was a mischievous boy. At that time, the supply of material goods was very scarce, and children could only get a few candies during the New Year. But those few simple candies made the childhood of countless children sweet.

"Mom, it's almost Chinese New Year, what gifts can I get?" His childish voice rang in his mother's ears.

At that time, Chen Kai's mother was a young housewife, and her clothes were only black and blue, which buried her beauty in that deep color.

"Little Kai, be good! Mom will definitely buy you lots of candy!" Chen Kai's mother said to him. It's only January, and the child is already looking forward to the New Year. What an adorable nature.

Upon hearing the promise, Chen Kai happily ran to the yard to play in the snow with the other children. He loved winter because whenever it snowed, it meant that candy would arrive with the auspicious snow.

When the children are bored, they like to climb trees to raid bird nests. In winter, the tree trunks are bare of leaves, and the bird nests are exposed to these mischievous children. Some of the nests are as big as washbasins, standing out prominently on the dry, gnarled branches, like a flag on the tree.

"Don't go and raid the bird's nest!" Chen Kai's mother often told him.

"Why?" In Chen Kai's eyes, it was just an interesting game and didn't mean anything.

"Because it's dangerous! What if you fall off the tree trunk?"

Chen Kai stared at his mother with wide, round eyes and asked, "What is danger?"

“It will fall off the tree!” Chen Kai’s mother said.

What happens if you fall from a tree?

Chen Kai's mother knew she was about to fall into a dangerous vicious cycle, so she had to change her approach: "If you take the bird eggs, the bird father and mother will be very sad!"

"Oh!" Chen Kai finally understood. "I won't take the bird eggs!"

"What a good boy!" His mother quickly took the opportunity to praise him.

"Could we take the nest with us? That way, the whole family can come over!"

Chen Kai's mother was at a loss for words. When she first gave birth to this son, she felt it was a blessing from God, but now it seemed to be the opposite.

However, Chen Kai never went up the tree to steal bird nests again.

On his way home from school, he would sometimes see large, dark bird nests in the trees, which seemed incredibly tempting to him. But he would just look at them and walk past. If he couldn't actually take the eggs, raiding the nests was just too foolish; a game without a prize was always boring.

Before he knew it, the Spring Festival was approaching, and the weather was getting colder and colder, but Chen Kai still hadn't seen the candy he was hoping for.

My father often goes to the city, but unlike before, he doesn't bring back many fun things. Instead, he's always worried.

"Mom! Where's my candy?" Chen Kai finally couldn't hold back any longer and tugged at his mother's clothes.

"Chen Kai!" his mother cried, "There probably won't be any candy this year!"

"Why?" Upon hearing this, Chen Kai felt that everything about the future had turned dark, simply because the candy he had been looking forward to for a year had disappeared.

“You wouldn’t understand even if I told you! Something happened to Grandpa!” His mother said, and then started crying again.

At this time, Chen Kai had no idea that his grandfather, a timber worker, had broken his ribs a couple of days ago when a felled tree felled him, with bone fragments piercing his internal organs. He was currently in the hospital receiving emergency treatment.

"If Grandpa has an accident, will I not get any more candy?" Chen Kai suddenly started crying, his voice hoarse. At his age, he didn't understand what "an accident" meant. In his eyes, those colorful, glass-bead-like candies were bigger than the sky.