Light leaked through the cracks in the wooden window, slanting across the straw mat. Fine dust drifted up and down within the beams.
Lin Fan weakly pushed himself into a sitting position.
The little boy's eyes were almost too bright, their black and white clearly defined. Whenever he smiled, the corners of his eyes curved into two little crescents, and two shallow dimples appeared on his cheeks.
He looked at Lin Fan and asked, "Big Brother, why did you stop talking?"
"Did you run into a question that's hard to answer, so you don't feel like talking? My dad says that when grown-ups don't like to talk, they're usually thinking about something."
Lin Fan was momentarily at a loss for words. This child was only seven or eight, yet he spoke like a little adult. Beneath his innocence was a seriousness that made it impossible to brush him off.
"Oh, right, right! Big Brother, what's your name?"
The little boy suddenly sat up straight, as if he had recalled something extremely important, and said to himself, "My name is Lin Xiaoshi—little as in little, and shi as in stone! My dad said my mom gave me that name, hoping that when I grew up, I'd be as solid and strong as a stone."
"Oh, right, Big Brother, have you ever seen stones? The round, smooth ones by the river that the water has washed over. My dad says those are the strongest—the current can't even wear them down."
As he spoke, he started grinning foolishly first, revealing a row of tiny white baby teeth. His laughter was wonderfully clear.
Looking at that utterly unguarded smile, the taut string in Lin Fan's heart loosened without him realizing it.
He recalled the sky filled with blood before he lost consciousness, the sensation