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nTranslator: Yuzu

n“Brother, I may not be able to come out to play with you anymore.” The little boy was wearing a large hospital gown, which covered his small body. His little face was so pale, his neck so white that you could even see his veins, but despite this, he tried to smile and pretended to be cheerful. Still, he couldn’t hide the hint of loss in his eyes.

nThe boy stared into his eyes, didn’t say a word, and sat down on the stool. He put his hand on the other boy’s head and stroked his hair.

nBut it was impossible to ignore the fact that the back of his hand was full of needle marks. What was even more frightening was that the little finger of the boy’s right hand was broken! And it was obviously a fresh wound!

nThe boy’s eyes met the other’s; he narrowed his eyes, not knowing what he was thinking. Still, the little boy could feel the boy’s body visibly stiffen after he said his words. His breathing even stopped for a brief second, then became a little quicker.

nThe boy, who had always been silent, looked at him seriously and softly asked with a low voice, “Why?”

nThe little boy’s eyes dodged, avoiding the boy’s gaze. Then, he scratched his head and lowered it to look at the ground, not daring to meet the boy’s eye, “That, I’m sick, aren’t I? I’ll be in quarantine for treatment, and then if I’m well, I’ll just be discharged.”

nAfter the little boy had spoken, the other boy didn’t talk. The little boy had gotten used to his silence, his heart was sad, and his eyes filled with tears.

nHe didn’t dare and couldn’t tell him the real reason.

nThe boy nodded his head, and his eyes went around the little boy’s back, looking at the big tree outside the window. Through the glass, he could clearly see that the branches and leaves of the tree had yellowed and even started to wilt.

nThe boy narrowed his eyes, his expression somewhat shifting. He raised his head and suddenly said to the little boy, “Autumn is coming.”

nThe little boy was confused.

nI don’t like autumn.

n–

nXiao Chen stared at the tree outside the window and looked to be in a trance for a moment before he suddenly reacted after being pushed by Zhou Ming beside him.

nXiao Chen returned to his senses and pointed at the tree outside the window, “Isn’t it summer now? Why is that tree all withered?”

nZhou Ming followed his gaze and casually said, “Who knows? They say it’s the school’s wishing tree. See the red ribbons hanging on the tree? It’s all hung by students, and the tree has been in the school for a long time, I think.”

nXiao Chen nodded.

nZhou Ming narrowed his eyes and was not sure of what he saw. Suddenly, he went up to pick up Xiao Chen’s collar. Xiao Chen was shocked and started to break free of his hand, but he was also teased twice.

n“Damn, Xiao Chen, you even got a tattoo! I didn’t see it before! The pattern is pretty unique.” Zhou Ming smiled mischievously and touched him twice at the location of his shoulder blades. Xiao Chen mercilessly knocked him straight down with his hand, and with a low voice, he said, “Don’t touch.”

nZhou Ming chuckled, feeling good, and wanted to touch a couple more times, but before he could put it into practice, and he didn’t know how he suddenly felt a shiver for no reason. His heart started to panic as if something had taken control of his body. There was an unreal feeling of being suspended in the air. His hand that was stretched out in mid-air was stuck there.

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nAt this time, Xiao Chen was still touching the back of his neck innocently and was in deep thought.

nHe actually couldn’t remember when he got this tattoo, as if he had it from the time he lost his memory.

nAnd he didn’t have any memories from before he was ten.

nBut he had a gut feeling that he must have met someone important to him before he was ten years old.

nNot only that, this tattoo was just like the pendant he had always hung around his neck. Even if he didn’t have a deep memory, he knew that it was incredibly precious to him.

nThinking of this, Xiao Chen subconsciously clutched the pendant.

nIt was as important as his life. No one could touch it!

n“You’re back?” Low and gloomy, someone was talking.

nXiao Chen became a little stiff, and his lips began to turn pale.

nHe heard the voice again.

nZhou Ming finally calmed down and covered his heart, gasping for breath as if he had been dreaming. He was now panicking at the sight of Xiao Chen’s face; he stammered, “Xiao, Xiao Chen, I’m going to use the bathroom first. You don’t need to worry about me, you can go first.”

nBefore Xiao Chen could reply, Zhou Ming hurriedly ran away.

nXiao Chen pursed his lips and shook his head, and the voice disappeared.

nHis gaze couldn’t help but drop onto the large, yellow tree outside the window.

nThis tree was strange; it felt out of place in the world when it stood there. Even though its trunk was withered and yellow, it had a robust and sturdy feel to it. It was incredibly strange when it was accompanied by other large green trees.

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n“Can you hear the trees?” The boy sat in his chair, looking out through the window at the big trees, and suddenly spoke out.

n“Can trees talk too?” The little boy was confused.

nThe boy’s expression remained the same, the corners of his mouth slightly upturned, but for some reason, there was a sense of irony to it, “Of course.”

n“What would it say?” The little boy was confused.

nThe boy didn’t answer, just stroked the other’s hair, smiled, and said softly, “Maybe one day, you’ll be able to hear.”

n–

nXiao Chen covered his head as some more incomplete and trivial images flashed through his head. He saw two boys.

nVery familiar.

nXiao Chen felt like he had a headache.

nBut before Xiao Chen could think about it, his eyes were drawn to something else. He noticed that it was Li Da’s ex-girlfriend, which Zhou Ming mentioned yesterday, appeared downstairs.

nOf course, there was no way that Xiao Chen noticed her without reason.

nThe girl’s state looked a bit strange.

nThis was Xiao Chen’s first impression.

nXiao Chen, who was now standing on the library’s second floor by the window, was a bit confused and stood up, leaning against the window to watch the person’s strange behavior.

nThe girl looked even uglier than yesterday’s state. Her hair was unkempt and even a little oily. She was still wearing the same school uniform, and from a great distance, he could see that her face was a bit waxy, giving him the illusion that she had aged more than ten years overnight.

nNo, maybe it wasn’t an illusion.

nXiao Chen fixed his eyes.

nAround the girl, anyone who passed by her couldn’t help but look at her with an expression that contained a bit of horror and even disgust that couldn’t be concealed.

nThe girl lowered her head down. Compared to yesterday’s state, she seemed to be more cowering, even subconsciously covering her face, as if she didn’t want to be seen.

nThere weren’t many people on this side of the library, and few people passed by. After the girl was sure that everyone was gone, she looked around with wide eyes before withdrawing her gaze.

nNext, Xiao Chen saw a scene that made him baffled.

nThis girl was just like a spider. She used both her hands and legs together, her limbs attached to the tree trunk, and then gently climbed up. The whole process was swift and quick, the total time did not add up to more than half a minute, and then her entire body was blocked by the withered tree branches.

nXiao Chen concentrated on the scene in front of him, his Adam’s apple moved, and he did not know how long it took before the girl jumped down from the trunk.

nBut once again, Xiao Chen’s eyes widened.

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nFor whatever reason, the girl’s originally waxy and yellow face became fair again. Even the condition was many times better than what he saw yesterday.

nThere was a vivid image of returning from being an older woman to being a young girl.

nThe girl quickly fled the scene, not even noticing that someone was standing at the second-floor window staring at her the whole time.

nXiao Chen was horrified and covered his nose and mouth, his body becoming stiff.

n“What’s the matter? The whole day has been soul-crushing!” Zhou Ming recovered as he happily played with his game console. He looked at Xiao Chen’s face with his peripheral view.

nXiao Chen came back to his senses. He thought about the girl he saw today and hesitantly asked, “That ex-girlfriend of Da Zi we saw yesterday, what’s her name?”

nZhou Ming’s hand holding the game console shook and almost fell to the ground. He did not have time to care about the “game over” words on the screen. He looked at Xiao Chen, “Wait a minute! You don’t have a crush on her, do you?”

nNot waiting for Xiao Chen’s answer, Zhou Ming continued, “I can tell you, I’m not going to say anything like friend’s wife can’t be bullied, this kind of bull**. I promise I won’t say a word if you look at Da Zi’s other ex-girlfriends, but I’m telling you! Just her! Absolutely not!”

nXiao Chen tried to open his mouth to explain, but Zhou Ming continued like a bazooka, “You were concentrating on preparing for the 8th Grade English Exam during that time, so you didn’t know! But the whole school pretty much knows about it! Didn’t she break up with Da Zi? And then knelt in front of Da Zi and begged to be reunited. That’s not all. You have no idea what kind of drama followed!”

nZhou Ming swallowed, “She set up a relationship with Da Zi to keep him, and even got pregnant, thinking that Li Da wouldn’t abandon her! This girl is too stupid! The whole school knows about the incident! Her parents even made a scene at school! They dragged her by her hair and took her to have an abortion.”

nXiao Chen blinked and frowned.

nHe was aware that Li Da was very unscrupulous. Their relationship was just so-so, there wasn’t much interaction between them. Still, they were roommates and had feelings for each other, after all. And in the whole school, he was also the one who had the best relationship with Zhou Ming. Of course, this might be related to Zhou Ming’s grinning personality.

nZhou Ming sighed, “But I heard that this girl’s grades are very good, and she’s going to be admitted to graduate school. Otherwise, she would have been expelled after this big thing happened. This is all because the school is reluctant to let go of such a good seedling.”

nXiao Chen nodded his head in understanding.

nWhen Zhou Ming saw him looking calm, he couldn’t help but frown, “I’ve said so much, do you understand? You mustn’t touch this girl!”

nXiao Chen glanced at him, “I don’t like her.”

nZhou Ming stared at Xiao Chen for two seconds. There was no doubt about it, and he let out a sigh of relief, “You should have said so! Then why did you ask her name for? I’ll have to think about it! Wait a minute, let me think of her name. Oh! Yes, yes, yes! Her name is Wang Jingyi!”

nXiao Chen nodded and didn’t speak again.

n——If there really was a shop in this world where you could pawn anything, what would you pawn? And what would you want?

n——Remember, here, you can only pawn, not redeem.

n——Unless, of course, you’re willing to use something new to pawn back what you already have.

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