Xiao Xiao knew there had to be a reason for this.
"It was this old woman's idea."
The old man looked at the old woman.
"This old man agreed, too."
The old woman smiled.
"Actually, I'd thought about it a long time ago..."
"But it was only an idea. I wasn't very determined to make it happen."
"But when you came last time, didn't we have a picnic here?"
Xiao Xiao nodded.
Yes.
They had spread a picnic blanket beneath the Maple Tree.
They had eaten the Maple Leaf Crisps now covering the table.
"I thought, we couldn't have you sitting on the ground every time you came..."
"So I had someone make this set of stone tables and stools."
"You could sit on them whenever you visited."
The old woman's eyes narrowed.
Though she was smiling,
a sigh escaped her throat.
She gently rubbed the stone table.
"...Like I said just now..."
"I'd had this idea for a long time..."
"More than once, too."
"You know..."
The old woman looked at Xiao Xiao.
"How much that child Qingzhu loves this Maple Tree."
She knew the reason.
Love someone, love everything associated with them.
That Maple Tree had witnessed everything between the boy and that girl.
After the girl disappeared, the tree became the only thing the boy had left to hold on to.
"Even after he moved out, he still came back almost every week."
Sometimes she couldn't help wondering, rather pettily, whether the boy came to see them and visited the Maple Tree on the side, or came to see the Maple Tree and visited them on the side.
After all...
"That child always stands under the Maple Tree for a long time."
"...It breaks my heart to watch."
Remembering everything that had happened,