The voice sounded familiar, and this familiarity seemed to come from recent experiences.
Xiaolan put the photo in the other pocket, patted the remaining debris on her head and ran towards the door.
If I remember correctly...
"Creak..." Xiaolan opened the door that was already somewhat stuck, and saw that standing outside was indeed the aunt downstairs whom she was about to visit.
The aunt had a gentle and expectant smile, holding a large steaming bowl in her hand. The moment she saw Xiaolan, she looked obviously frightened.
"Xiaolan! It's really Xiaolan!"
The aunt was stunned for a moment, then she held the bowl in one hand and led Xiaolan into the house with the other hand.
With a low cry, the aunt put the bowl on the ground. Only then did Xiaolan see clearly that the hot noodles in the bowl were alluring and there was a poached egg.
"Aunt……"
Xiaolan was a little surprised. This aunt's attitude was completely different from when she saw her yesterday.
Just as she was thinking about it, she had already pulled Xiaolan into her arms, crying uncontrollably and wiping away the dirt on Xiaolan's face.
"This..." Xiaolan's eyes widened. Isn't the person in front of her the same aunt who looked at her with strange eyes yesterday?
"I heard from my sister yesterday that you were back. I didn't believe it at first..."
The woman stopped crying, but she was still sobbing, "Xiaolan, where have you been...has my forest come back with you?"
Xiaolan couldn't react for a moment, there was too much content in these words.
elder sister? So this aunt is indeed not the one I met yesterday. Although she looks similar, her temperament does seem to be different.
And Lin Zi, who is Lin Zi?
"Auntie, I'm sorry..." Xiaolan looked at the tearful woman at a loss. The woman's tearful eyes were full of concern, "I am alone now, and... I don't know what happened. , I don’t seem to remember anything.”
The light in the woman's eyes dimmed, and her expectation turned into doubt and disbelief.
"But...but Lin Zi went to find you..."
Xiaolan twisted her shoulders uneasily, and the woman saw the confusion in her eyes.
"Xiaolan, have you even forgotten Linzi? Xiaolin, have you forgotten everything?"——————————————————
Xiaolin and Xiaolan grew up together.
The Cheng family and the Liao family were neighbors when they were in Fengwu. The Cheng family's mother was called Lin Si, and the Liao family's mother's name was Chu Sisi. The two of them have been close partners since they met.
In the autumn, the two people formed two happy families; in the spring of a few years, the two happy families were blessed with two lovely babies.
The child of the Cheng family is called Cheng Lin, and the child of the Liao family is called Liao Yilan.
The two children are each other's closest friends.
Xiaolin is shy but stubborn, and Xiaolan is simple and brave. The two children accompany each other, holding hands wherever they go, and they look like they are not afraid of anything.
Childhood is beautiful but short-lived, and the innocent days are fleeting. However, the relationship between the two people has not cracked due to the passage of time. On the contrary, it has become deeper and more inseparable.
But Fengwu is too poor. As families move out of Fengwu, the mountains of Fengwu, the trees of Fengwu, and the beauty of Fengwu can no longer be the reason to stay here. The Cheng family and the Liao family still do not want to separate. They moved to the prosperous Yangjiang together. That year, Xiaolin and Xiaolan were 12 years old.
At that time, Xiaolan was still a happy child.
After moving to a new home, the two families were still neighbors on the upper and lower floors. Everything had a new beginning until...
————————————————————
The woman's words stopped abruptly, and she raised her eyes to look at Xiaolan hesitantly.
When Xiaolan listened to her past, she felt as if she was listening to someone else's story.
"what happened?"
She asked anxiously while remembering her real name in her mind.
She felt that the real secret might gradually emerge from now on.
Aunt Lin opened her mouth, and a deep sigh suddenly floated out.
"Until Lily's death, everything changed..."
My head buzzed.
Yi Lan, Cheng Lin, Lily... names flooded into Xiao Lan's memory like crazy, making her breathless.
"Lily is... Lily is dead... Lily..."
Memory seemed to become a door that would be slammed shut when it was about to open. After hearing Lily's name, Xiaolan finally had the feeling of touching the real past, and finally saw a glimmer of light behind the door.
But then, the thing behind the door slammed the door decisively, and the glimmer of light disappeared.
"Xiaolan, do you still remember Lily?" Aunt Lin saw Xiaolan's strange behavior and asked quickly, "Xiaolan, please tell Auntie the truth, who killed Lily?"
But Xiaolan's memories ended here.
There were only flashback fragments of that moment in my mind, a mess, the girl's scream, the narrow toilet, the fainted fat boy, and the dull and loud sound of objects falling high to the ground.
The headache was quickly overcome by Xiaolan. Without the physical pain, everything seemed to have become someone else's story again.
Only then did Xiaolan remember the photo in her pocket, and quickly took it out and showed it to Aunt Lin in her palm.
"Auntie, this is Xiaolin, right."
Aunt Lin covered her mouth and did not reach out to take the incomplete photo. Her body trembled slightly and she stared at the photo for a while. Aunt Lin closed her eyes in pain, but her big tears rolled down uncontrollably.
Xiaolan was silent and looked down at the shy boy in the photo. In her ears was Aunt Lin's cry that finally couldn't be suppressed. Under the sunlight, Aunt Lin's shadow curled up into a ball. Xiaolan didn't understand anything, but she felt heartbroken. Speechless.
Xiaolin, who was seven or eight years old, was thin, but the boy who fainted in the dream was actually a fat boy.
That's not Xiaolin.
The one who died was not the bad boy who bullied me, but Lily.
Although there is no image of Lily in his mind and no real memory of Lily, Xiaolan knows that Lily is a kind child and his friend.
Either others lied to Uncle Song, or Uncle Song lied to me.
___________________
The bathroom was filled with warm mist.
"Wow..."
Xiaolan turned the shower head, and the hot water poured down was like mist, gently covering Xiaolan's body.
Lowering her head to rinse away the foam, Xiaolan finally got rid of the beggar-like image that had accompanied her for a long time.
This is Aunt Lin's home.
The long-term restraint of feelings caused Aunt Lin to collapse. The two of them chose to take a break before telling the most painful part.
Xiaolan turned off the water, walked to the mirror with wet slippers, and wiped away the fog on the mirror with her hands.
My own pale and childish face appeared in front of me.
After waking up, he didn't even look at himself, Xiaolan thought with some surprise.
Reminiscent of Uncle Song's words, I am indeed thirteen or fourteen years old.
However, I am indeed the protagonist of what happened five years ago. In that case, I should be eighteen years old.
Xiaolan looked at the baby fat on her face and thought to herself that maybe wandering would make people unable to grow up.
When you open the bathroom door, a burst of aroma hits your face.
Aunt Lin cooked new noodles for Xiaolan. Xiaolan didn't seem to feel hungry when she didn't smell the food, but after smelling the aroma, Xiaolan's appetite was also attracted.
"Eat noodles first, Auntie will tell you while you eat."
Xiaolan walked over obediently, her short shoulder-length hair still dripping with drops of water. Xiaolan put the towel on her shoulders, and the drops of water gradually soaked it.
"When you two were twelve years old, we just moved here. The school you went to was Yangjiang No. 3 Middle School not far from here. When you first arrived, everything was fine. You were assigned to different classes. , but the relationship is still very good, and soon you made a new friend, Lily."
Xiaolan nodded and took a sip of noodles.
Although I thought it was a bit weird to eat noodles while listening to this past incident, I still wanted to finish it as soon as possible.
"Lily is such a good boy. She is beautiful and generous. When you three play together, she is so happy every day. Although Lily is a girl, she is upright and righteous, otherwise she would not be able to..."
Aunt Lin choked, stopped to take a deep breath, sighed and shook her head.
Xiaolan finished eating the noodles, pushed the bowl aside, leaned over and took Aunt Lin's hand.
"Aunt……"
Aunt Lin nodded and patted the back of Xiaolan's hand.
"But when you were thirteen, starting from the summer, you suddenly told Sisi that there was a ghost in the attic of your home. Xiaolan, you have been very courageous since you were a child, and you are not a child who likes to lie. Sisi is worried You were suffering from hysteria, so I asked you what the ghost looked like and what he had done to you. At that time, I was very dissatisfied with Sisi following your words, but in the end, you were all right. At this time, we both began to suspect that it was It’s not like there are any bad people, or rather, there is really a ghost.”
