Seeing Lu Xiaoxiao's stunned expression at the words "They've been gone for a long time," Du Cixin felt as though an icy hand had clenched around her heart, filling her with an ache she could not put into words.
The weight of memories buried for more than a decade surged back into her mind like floodwaters bursting through a dam.
She did not explain further right away. Instead, she turned slightly and looked out the window at the old locust tree flourishing in the courtyard. In an instant, her thoughts seemed to carry her decades into the past, back to that alley bustling with everyday life.
Lu Xiaoxiao's father was named Xie Huaisha, and her mother was Cheng Miyun. Du Cixin had not merely known them; they had grown up together.
They were true childhood friends. Their families lived in the same lively alley, and as children, they had run wild together, caught fish, and climbed trees, spending their carefree childhood inseparable from one another.
Xie Huaisha had been clever and mischievous, the leader of the children. Cheng Miyun had been lively and restless too, always brimming with wild ideas. Du Cixin, meanwhile, had usually been the "steady" one trailing behind them, smoothing things over after they caused trouble and handing them water after they ran themselves ragged.
Du Cixin had realized very early that there was a fundamental difference between herself and Huaisha and Miyun.
She longed for stability and liked staying close to familiar people and things, like a tree putting down roots. But Huaisha and Miyun seemed born with a yearning for distant places and a curiosity about the unknown etched into their bones, like two birds longing to soar. Even from the beginning, the understanding between them had seemed to go beyond ordinary companionship.
It was