At this moment, the angel was the boy before her.
Watching the boy sprint away, Bai Qingxia braced one hand against the refrigerator and raised her right leg, leaving her white-socked foot dangling forlornly in midair.
She looked utterly bewildered, at a complete loss.
Fatty Wang, who was chopping meat, coughed and scratched his head awkwardly. "Our young boss... has always been pretty enthusiastic about helping people. Hahaha."
Bai Qingxia: "..."
She distinctly felt that Lu Yuanqiu had done it on purpose.
Afraid Bai Qingxia would chase after him, Lu Yuanqiu dashed out of the supermarket with her shoe, letting out strange cries. His father, sitting beside the checkout counter, stared in astonishment.
At the supermarket entrance, he pulled the shoe open under the light and peered inside. His smile immediately froze.
Damn... the size had worn away ages ago!
Of course. She must have bought these shoes a long time ago. It would be stranger if the printed size were still legible.
Lu Yuanqiu returned to the checkout counter looking like a boy who had lost all his dreams. Expressionless, he leaned against the corner and picked up a hair dryer to dry the shoe.
When he turned his head, he found his father staring at him.
"Can you tell what size this shoe is?" Lu Yuanqiu asked casually.
Lu Tian glanced at it. "Under forty."
"No kidding."
Once the shoe was dry, Lu Yuanqiu took it back to the fresh meat section.
Bai Qingxia was sitting on a stool with her back against the refrigerator. Fatty Wang had evidently been kind enough to get it for her.
When she saw Lu Yuanqiu return, she hurriedly stood up.
"It's dry now! Really sorry about that. I accidentally got your shoe wet."
"...It's fine."
Bai Qingxia gave him a puzzled look, then slowly sat down again and reached for the shoe. But Lu Yuanqiu didn't hand it over.
"Wait a second..."
Staring at her white-socked foot with a deep frown, Lu Yuanqiu said with an air of mystery, "That foot of yours... tsk. It's something special."
A customer asked Fatty Wang to chop some meat, but he ignored them. The scene over here had captured all his attention. He was very curious about what the young boss was up to.
Bai Qingxia immediately tucked her foot behind her other calf and watched him warily. "What are you trying to do?"
Lu Yuanqiu clicked his tongue twice. "To tell you the truth, I've been learning palm reading lately. I figure reading feet should work the same way."
"You're trying to take my sock off again!" Bai Qingxia protested, embarrassed and annoyed.
"Again?" Fatty Wang keenly picked up on that word. The young boss really knew how to have fun. He watched with amusement.
"Chop the meat, you fat bastard!"
The customer lost their temper and slapped the counter.
"Ah, coming, coming," Fatty Wang said.
Lu Yuanqiu crouched down and set the shoe aside. "I can read it without taking anything off."
He forcibly pulled Bai Qingxia's foot in front of him and began measuring the sole with his thumb and index finger.
Flustered and mortified, she tried to pull her foot back, but Lu Yuanqiu's arms were strong and muscular. For the first time, she discovered what it felt like to have even her leg overpowered by someone's arm.
Once he finished measuring, Lu Yuanqiu returned her shoe and strode away, leaving her with one last remark:
"Done. You're destined to bring your husband good fortune. Count yourself lucky."
"You're so childish!"
Her earlobes burning red, Bai Qingxia glared at his retreating back, then lowered her head and put her shoe on in a huff.
Back at home.
Not wanting to forget the measurement, Lu Yuanqiu dropped his schoolbag and hurried into his little sister's room.
The little girl was sitting cross-legged on her bed reading a comic. Startled by someone coming in, she hurriedly hid it, then relaxed when she realized it was her brother.
"What?"
Her tone was displeased.
Lu Yuanqiu rushed over. "What size are your feet?"
"Thirty-five."
Lu Yidong was still wondering why her brother would ask such a question when she suddenly screamed, finding herself upside down on the bed.
Holding one of her legs in one hand, Lu Yuanqiu brought his sister's soft, pale sole up in front of his eyes and started measuring it with his fingers.
"Ah!! Ah!!! Lu Yuanqiu, you pervert! Pervert! Huge pervert! Foot-fetish freak!! Dad, save me! Dad!!!"
Suddenly, there was a noise at the doorway. Lu Yuanqiu turned and found Lu Tian charging in with a clothes hanger.
"Lu Yuanqiu, are you that desperate?! She's your sister!"
Lu Tian roared.
Upside down on the bed, Lu Yidong looked pitifully at her father with her inverted little face. "Dad, save me~"
Without a change in expression, Lu Yuanqiu murmured to himself, "A little bigger. Her shoe size should be thirty-six."
With that, he dropped Lu Yidong's foot and calmly walked out of her room, muttering under his breath as though absorbed in his own world. Lu Tian watched him in utter bewilderment.
"Dad~ My brother's a pervert."
Lu Yidong sat on the bed with her legs folded out to either side, looking aggrievedly at her father.
Lu Tian's expression was stern. "Don't worry. I'll beat him to death later!"
In the living room.
"What? You're planning to give her leather shoes as a present?"
Lu Tian looked at his son in surprise. Remembering Lu Yuanqiu's strange behavior earlier that day, he suddenly understood why.
"That's right, Dad," Lu Yuanqiu said seriously. "Help me out the night after tomorrow."
"With what?"
September nineteenth. Clear skies.
Perhaps because it had been sunny all day, stars now glittered in the night sky outside the classroom windows, peaceful and dreamlike.
Bai Qingxia gazed at them in a daze, imagining two angels suddenly appearing in the night sky and smiling at her.
One was her mother. The other was her older brother.
After staring dreamily at the sky for a long time, Bai Qingxia withdrew her gaze. She lowered her head and slowly wrote seven Chinese characters on her scrap paper.
"Happy birthday, Bai Qingxia."
Looking at those seven characters, sharp yet elegant, Bai Qingxia pressed her lips into a smile and gently blew across the paper, as though a candle stood upon it. But soon, with a sigh, her smile slowly faded.
Bai Qingxia sat in a daze for several seconds. Coming back to herself, she quickly used her black pen to cross out the seven characters, blotting them out.
She turned toward the empty seat beside her. Lu Yuanqiu had skipped evening study again.
The girl took a deep breath, lowered her head, and continued working on the homework assigned that day.
At her usual time, she packed her schoolbag and left the classroom. Her classmates had grown used to her leaving at this hour. It was a privilege granted by their homeroom teacher, who played favorites.
The night wind blew cold as she walked alone along the road.
Bai Qingxia raised a hand and wiped the corners of her eyes.
She had spent her last birthday in a hospital.
The memory had already grown hazy.
All she remembered was her mother sitting on the bed in blue-and-white striped hospital clothes, all her hair gone.
The woman's face was haggard, her body skeletal, and her complexion sickly, but her eyes still held tenderness as she looked at her five-year-old daughter. Clapping gently, she said in a sweet, clear voice, "Xiaxia, happy birthday~"
Her handsome ten-year-old brother came over carrying a small cake and set it on the table. Their father had just gotten off work and hadn't even had time to change out of his work clothes. His hair was full of dirt, but that didn't stop him from gently placing candles on the cake and lighting them.
With a hand covered in adhesive bandages, the man rubbed his daughter's head.
"Make a wish, Xiaxia."
"I wish... I wish Mommy's hair would grow back tomorrow!"
Her young, childish voice rang out.
The five-year-old girl leaned her little body against the bedside, standing adorably on tiptoe. She tilted her head up toward her mother and smiled innocently.
The haggard woman froze. Upon hearing those words, she instantly began to cry.
Tears filled her eyes, and her pale lips parted slightly. Stroking her daughter's head with a look of aching reluctance, she choked out, "Silly girl, you mustn't say your wish out loud. If you do, it won't come true..."
Bai Qingxia walked alone through the night.
She pressed her palms together and silently made a wish to the stars above, a wish only she could hear.
Because her mother had told her that wishes must not be spoken aloud. If they were, they wouldn't come true.
And indeed, her wish had not come true.
Her mother's hair had never grown back.
By the time Bai Qingxia bought her mother a wig with the New Year's gift money she had saved, her mother had closed her eyes. Bai Qingxia still put the wig on her, because she knew her mother loved looking pretty.
The light turned green. Bai Qingxia crossed Wangjiang East Road and headed toward the Four Seasons Fresh Supermarket.
But the moment she looked up at the supermarket entrance, she froze.
It was as though she had entered a parallel world. The entire supermarket was pitch-black, yet its doors stood wide open.
Bai Qingxia quickened her pace and ran toward the entrance. She set her schoolbag on the checkout counter and called hesitantly into the store.
"Is anyone here? Is anyone here?!"
Her voice echoed through the empty supermarket.
The store was completely dark, but strangely, a bright white light kept swaying behind one of the shelves.
"Who's there?"
Bai Qingxia called loudly.
She took a few steps inside in the dark. Suddenly, the supermarket doors slammed shut behind her with a bang.
Bai Qingxia hurriedly turned around, staring at the sight before her in panic.
As she panted, the bright white light began swaying more widely in the darkness, emerging from behind the shelves like an angel in the night.
At the same time, a familiar, lovely singing voice rang out-
"Happy birthday to you~"
Lu Yuanqiu, who was afraid of the dark, slowly stepped out from behind the shelves with two large flashlights strapped to his body, looking rather peculiar.
He held a large, two-tiered cake in his hands.
The candle flames flickered over the cake, illuminating the gentle smile on Lu Yuanqiu's face.
Other voices gradually joined the birthday song.
Behind Lu Yuanqiu stood Fatty Wang, who chopped meat in the fresh meat section, Aunt Li, who weighed produce in the vegetable section, and Sister Song, who weighed snacks in the snack section.
Lu Tian, who had been responsible for secretly closing the doors, appeared at the supermarket entrance.
Like everyone else, he smiled and clapped, joining the uncles and aunties working the evening shift in a slightly out-of-sync rendition of the birthday song.
"Happy birthday to you~"
"Happy birthday to you~"
"Happy birthday to you!"
The song ended.
Lu Yuanqiu stopped and looked across the distance at the girl standing by the supermarket entrance.
"Happy seventeenth birthday, Bai Qingxia."
Lu Yuanqiu tilted his head slightly, his face full of smiles.
Bai Qingxia stared blankly at the boy smiling at her.
Her tears flowed uncontrollably, spilling from the corners of her eyes and down her cheeks.
At that moment, it seemed an angel had taken tangible form: the boy before her.
The seventeen-year-old girl silently told herself:
So wishes really do have to be made in your heart to come true.
.sp
I love this book and sincerely want to finish writing it, so please keep reading. Starting on the fourteenth, there will be three updates a day!