Summer, 2002
Linzi,
By Daming Lake,
An orphanage.
Today, another child was taken in by a kind couple, just like the children who had been adopted before him.
The child looked back at the familiar orphanage, then resolutely took the two adults' hands and followed his adoptive parents toward a new family—and a new hope.
Every child in the orphanage dreamed of having a mom and dad of their own. This little boy's dream had come true, making him the envy of all the other children.
The children who hadn't been chosen could only watch the boy leave, their eyes full of longing.
Yet among the crowd, there were only two children whose eyes showed no envy at all.
"Why didn't you go with them?"
Xia He's naturally pink hair suited her as perfectly as her beguiling constitution.
She still had her schoolbag on and wore a simple braid that matched her hair. Standing obediently beside Wang Yue, she asked him the same question once again.
In truth, Xia He was asking what many of the children wanted to know.
The couple who had come to adopt a child had also taken a liking to Wang Yue when he returned from school. But he had firmly turned them down, just as he had every other couple who had come to adopt a child over the past few years.
Wang Yue glanced at Xia He, feeling deeply moved. Of course, he had done this for her.
Xia He looked exactly like Wang Ying from Young Zeng, except for her hair.
If he were staying just for Wang Ying, Wang Yue might have only come by to visit as often as he could. That would have been enough to keep in touch.
But Xia He had been born with a beguiling constitution.