Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

  When Shao Xi read Fang Yu’s words, he felt helpless. Although she said that she wanted to keep in touch and be good friends, this good friend was too guileless.

  “What if I’m a bad person?” Despite saying that, Shao Xi quickly poured out the contents of the envelope. In the end, he really found a photo carefully wrapped in a newspaper.

  It was a small photo only the size of his palm. Although it was colored, it was strangely so. Nonetheless, one could still see the person on it clearly.

  The person depicted was very young. He stood with his hands on his waist and was wearing a sailor’s striped shirt that appeared too big on him. At a glance, it was obvious that he had borrowed it for the purpose of taking a photo. Perhaps it was because he was nervous, but his gaze was a little strange and his canine teeth were revealed. Shao Xi couldn’t tell if he was looking askance or was actually cross-eyed. In any case, he looked a little funny. This was completely different from what Shao Xi had imagined.

  Shao Xi couldn’t help but laugh at first glance. However, when he thought about the fact that the person in the photo was no longer around and had passed away at such a young age, he suddenly felt terrible.

  He was just an ordinary person. He didn’t have three heads or six arms. In fact, he didn’t even have a powerful physique. Instead, he was a little thin. In a crowd, he looked like a fish swimming into the sea, completely inconspicuous.

  How had he mustered up the courage? Did he ever regret it?

  No one could give Shao Xi an answer because this person was already dead.

  Shao Xi looked at the photo for a long time and didn’t move. When he came back to his senses and was just about to continue reading the letter, he felt that something was amiss. When he turned around, he was startled.

  “Dad, when did you come in?”

  “Just now.” Shao Qihai’s gaze landed on the photo, and he hesitated before speaking. “Why is there a photo too? Little Xi, remember to store the things you receive properly and not leave them lying around.”

  He wanted to read the letter, but he couldn’t very well ask for it directly. He didn’t dare make it too obvious, afraid that Shao Xi would notice. Unfortunately, Shao Xi was blocking the letter.

  “I won’t leave it lying around. I’ve been storing it well.”

  \r \r \r

  “That’s good. There are quite a lot of letters. Do you want me to help you sort them out?”

  Shao Xi could tell at a glance what Shao Qihai wanted to do, but he hesitated for a moment and refused. “I’ll do it myself.”

  He decided not to show this letter to his father. He would be sad if he read it.

  Shao Qihai glanced at him and dilly-dallied for a while before going out. Shao Xi carefully put the photo away. After some thought, he clipped it to the back of the photo album at home and then continued reading Fang Yu’s letter.

  Fang Yu was also about to take the final exam. She said that she was afraid of exams and feared that she might not do well.

  Shao Xi sighed and replied to her, “My results in class are always top-notch. I even skipped a grade. Even if you don’t skip a grade, you should study hard and learn from me.”

  Shao Xi and Shao Dong were in the same class, so he couldn’t always be first. He would either tie for first place with Shao Dong or be second. Therefore, he didn’t say that he was always the first in class.

  “Fang Yu, I received your photo. I’ll keep it for you for the time being, but you’re not allowed to casually send photos to people anymore. Some people are very wicked. What if they scribble on it or tear it?

  “Also, when you write the number ‘3’, try not to let it lie on its stomach and make it stand up. It’s obvious that you don’t write often. I’ll start for you. Send the paper back for me to check it when you’re done.”

  For some reason, Shao Xi suddenly felt like he had a younger brother. One who kept making him worry.

  He found his exercise book, tore off a page, wrote the first number ‘3’, and left the rest of the space empty as homework.

  Previously, when Xiao Wu had to learn how to write, he had encountered a similar problem with writing the number ‘3’.

  This was only the beginning. When he learned other words, as he wrote, they slowly became unrecognizable. The words looked like they were swaying, as if they had been injected with soul.

  Xiao Wu still had this problem, but his number ‘3’ didn’t lie down anymore.

  Shao Xi shook his head and teased like a little adult, but he didn’t know that when he’d first started learning how to write, he had been even worse than Xiao Wu. Back when he had started learning to write, his words had begun to develop into hieroglyphic?writing1. When he wrote the word ‘person’, it really looked like a person standing up.

  At the time, he’d had some wonderful ideas, and his thoughts had been very active. It had taken Shao Dong a lot of time to get him to write properly. His old workbook was still kept somewhere.

  It had only been a few years since he’d overcome those bad habits, but when he taught Xiao Wu and Fang Yu now, it was as if he had forgotten his old habits.

  Shao Xi was worried, but he didn’t know that it was actually very impressive that Fang Yu could write letters at such a young age, spell so many words, and even check the dictionary herself. She already far surpassed her peers.

  Shao Xi replied and packed the letter, but he couldn’t fall asleep that night. Fang Yu’s father kept popping up in his mind.

  He had an impulse to write something about him, but when he got up and started writing, he realized that he didn’t know what to write.

  This was because his understanding of Fang Yu’s father was really limited. Or rather, he didn’t even know him at all. Forget about what kind of person he was, what he had done, and what his personality was like. He didn’t even know his name.

  Shao Xi didn’t write a word and fell asleep again. He didn’t force himself. He was still too young, and his pen strength was limited. Although he was very excited, it wasn’t suitable for him to move the pen, and he didn’t dare move it casually.

  Although he knew this, he still wanted to write. This was the first time he had such an impulse. When he thought of Fang Yu and Fang Yu’s father, he wanted to write something.

  Shao Xi tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep. He couldn’t keep asking Fang Yu questions either… Eh? At the thought of this, Shao Xi’s eyes lit up. He didn’t know Fang Yu’s father, but he knew Fang Yu.

  He didn’t know how to write about Fang Yu’s father, but he could write about Fang Yu. This way, he wouldn’t have to worry about his pen strength being limited. After all, Fang Yu was still young.

  Shao Xi hid under the blanket and bit the flashlight as he made the first stroke. He mainly wrote about Fang Yu, but that was not all. There was also his own shadow in the words, as well as the shadows of many people.

  What Shao Qihai had done previously was actually a little different from what Fang Yu’s father had done, but there were similarities. This also applied to others.

  In the quiet night, Shao Xi hid under the blanket and started writing seriously.

  As Shao Dong fell asleep, he felt a light piercing his eyes. When he got up, he saw that it was the light coming from Shao Xi’s blanket.

  He lifted the blanket and saw the flashlight rolled under Shao Xi’s blanket. There was also Shao Xi, who was sleeping soundly on the bed. Because he was sleeping so soundly and he was lying on his stomach, Shao Xi’s saliva was flowing out of his mouth and onto the notebook under his head.

  Helplessly, Shao Dong got up and turned Shao Xi over before taking the notebook and putting it aside, waiting for the saliva to dry by itself.

  As he switched off the flashlight, he glanced at the contents of the notebook and casually took a look. However, he paused.

  When Shao Dong was about to fall asleep again, he saw that the carefree Shao Xi had even kicked the blanket aside. He helplessly covered him with the blanket. “Look at you. I don’t know how you wrote this…”

  The next day, Shao Xi saw the saliva on the notebook and refused to admit that it was saliva. “Brother, don’t think you can slander me just because I fell asleep. This isn’t saliva. These are tears. The tears I shed last night.”

  Shao Dong: “Yes, yes, that’s your tears. Your tears flowed out of the corners of your mouth.”

  “Big Brother, you’re bullying me!”