"Sunrise Rehabilitation Center."
As I looked at the sign, my heart filled with confusion. Why had she brought me here?
She parked the car, walked over, and took my hand.
Her hand was soft, and a strange feeling rose in my chest.
"Here to see Little Yin again?" A young nurse greeted Xu Qiuyan. Xu Qiuyan smiled and nodded. "Yes."
"You haven't been here for a while. Were you away on business?" the nurse asked again.
She nodded once more. "Mm, I've been quite busy lately."
I knew she had not been busy. Something had happened to her; hadn't she been confined in Second Provincial Hospital by Xie Yi and the others some time ago?
But I was even more curious about this Little Yin.
A person suddenly flashed through my mind—a child a few years younger than me. His name was Yin Wuyu. The year something happened at Little Ancestral Hall Entrance, he should have only been eight. If it was him, then he would be eighteen now, already a grown young man. But why was he living here, and how did Xu Qiuyan know he was here?
"Is it Yin Buyu?" I asked quietly.
Xu Qiuyan glanced at me, then nodded. "It's him."
I could not help asking again, "How did you find him?"
Xu Qiuyan did not answer. By then, we had arrived outside a room.
She pushed the door open and walked in. Then I saw a teenage boy of seventeen or eighteen. Hearing the sound, he looked over at us. When he saw Xu Qiuyan, an innocent smile appeared on his face. Yes, innocent was the only word I could use to describe it.
"Big Sister, Big Sister, hug Little Yin!"
Xu Qiuyan actually opened her arms and pulled him into a hug.
I felt a little uncomfortable. There was nothing between Xu Qiuyan and me, but seeing her hug another boy still made me feel jealous.
A few seconds later, she released Yin Wuyu and pointed at me. "Little Yin, do you still remember who he is?"
Hearing that, Yin Wuyu stared at me seriously. After a long while, he said uncertainly, "It's Big Brother, it's Big Brother!"
"Then do you remember what he's called?" Xu Qiuyan asked. Yin Wuyu scratched his head, his gaze full of confusion as he looked at me.
"Think carefully. If you get it right, Big Sister will give you candy."
At Xu Qiuyan's words, delight appeared on Yin Wuyu's face. "Really?"
Xu Qiuyan answered solemnly, "Of course it's true. When has Big Sister ever lied to you?"
I noticed something was wrong. Yin Wuyu's reaction was abnormal, as though something was wrong with his mind.
"Big Sister, Little Yin can't remember." His face was full of pain.
Xu Qiuyan stroked his head. "Don't rush. Think slowly. Didn't you remember Big Sister's name before? Be good, Little Yin. You can do it."
Only then did she look at me. "Little Yin's intelligence is still stuck at the age of eight. But all his memories of Little Ancestral Hall Entrance have vanished. Still, he remembers who I am, so I think he should be able to remember who you are too."
I was four years older than Yin Wuyu. Back then, he loved following me around. He would often do whatever I told him to do, a little follower who was very close to me. I just never expected him to become like this.
"How did you find him?" I was still hung up on that question. Other than the few people from Little Ancestral Hall Entrance I knew about, everyone else seemed to have vanished from the world—including my parents. Neither dead nor alive, there was no trace of them.
Little Ancestral Hall Entrance had turned into a pile of rubble overnight, like it had gone through an earthquake, except there had been no earthquake. It had happened so suddenly that no one should have been able to escape. Yet several of us really had escaped. But Yin Wuyu had not been among us, and I had assumed he had met with the same fate as everyone else.
"I dreamed that he was here by accident," Xu Qiuyan said.
My eyes widened, but I believed she was not lying. It sounded unbelievable, but I had experienced something like it before. Hadn't Xu Qiuyan and I first met again after the disaster in a dream? And it had felt so real.
I wondered who had been guiding that dream. Her, or me?
Perhaps it had been her. Otherwise, why had I not dreamed of Yin Wuyu? He had been my little follower, someone so close to me.
Seeing Yin Wuyu like this made me feel bitter. I no longer minded the hug Xu Qiuyan had given him. Wasn't he still that eight-year-old child from ten years ago? Why should I compete with a child?
Yin Wuyu was still staring at me, constantly sucking on his fingers.
That was his signature habit. He had two distinctive traits back then: he especially loved sucking his fingers, and there was always a string of snot hanging from his nose.
I smiled at him.
His eyes lit up, as if he had remembered something. "Boss, B-Brother Xiaobai!"
A strange light appeared on Xu Qiuyan's face as well. She had been right—this kid had remembered me.
I walked over and patted his head too. "You remembered Brother Xiaobai?"
He nodded vigorously. "Brother Xiaobai, you promised to buy Little Yin bubbles."
A scene flashed through my mind. I was blowing bubbles while he ran after them with a smile on his face. Back then, something that simple had been enough to make us happy for an entire afternoon.
Suddenly, my throat tightened. I wanted to say something, but no words came out.
Xu Qiuyan said, "Don't worry. Brother Xiaobai will definitely keep his promise. Next time we come, he'll bring the bubbles. Big Sister will make sure of it."
"Okay!" He clapped his hands, excited and thrilled.
"How did he become like this?" I asked softly.
Xu Qiuyan shook her head. She said she did not know either. She visited Yin Wuyu often in hopes of awakening that part of his memory. But it was not just Yin Wuyu who had lost memories; even we ourselves had no idea where ours had gone.
"Who else did you dream about?" I asked again.
She rolled her eyes at me. "Do you really think I'm some immortal who can find everyone on an entire street just by having a dream? I only dreamed of him. Actually, I really hoped I could dream of my mom. I wonder how she's been all these years."
I did not say anything else. I thought of my father and mother too.
But her mood suddenly brightened again. "No matter what, seeing him at least confirms one thing for me—they should all still be alive. We just don't know where they are for now."
Something suddenly occurred to me, and I frowned. "Xie Yi said that Bureau Five, Section Nine had also been secretly searching for the people from Little Ancestral Hall Entrance all these years. Why hadn't they found him?"
"I don't know about that," Xu Qiuyan said. "But I haven't told them about him yet."
"Oh, right. Before, they suspected there was something wrong with you." After hesitating, I still said it, pointing at my head.
She looked at me with a serious expression. "That's right. Before I met you, I suddenly forgot many things. It wasn't until you suddenly appeared before me that day that those things became clear again. Maybe it really was as that Xie guy said—I was indeed in a deranged state during that time. I found injuries on my body, but I had no idea where they came from. That Xie guy told me that when I was first brought there, I had severe violent tendencies and had even hurt myself. But I couldn't remember any of it. Even now, thinking back on it makes me scared. Xiaobai, if you hadn't appeared that day, would I have stayed like that forever?"
I did not know. I had not even figured out what had happened to me.
So all I could offer was a bitter smile.
We did not stay at the rehabilitation center for long before leaving.
On the way back, I asked whether she had inquired about who had sent him to the rehabilitation center. She said she had. The hospital said a middle-aged man in his forties had brought him in two months ago and paid three years of fees in one lump sum. After that, the man could no longer be contacted.
But the hospital did not think much of it. They had already received three years' worth of fees, after all. Any problems would be matters for three years later.
The name the man had left in the hospital records was fake, and so was his ID.
In truth, I was full of curiosity about Xu Qiuyan as well. What had she experienced over the past ten years? Why had she appeared at the scene of Li Sen's suicide jump? And why had she said that she and I were the same kind of people, that we each had our own "good friends"?
But I never asked, because I did not think the time was right. Asking so many questions the moment we met again would have been awkward.
Before you continue