The seed of memories that had been hidden in her heart for many years suddenly began to sprout, and those childhood scenes in the depths of her mind surfaced in front of Dorothy's eyes.

Among them, the most tugging for Dorothy's heartstrings is the boy who likes to climb the tree to read, and his thin back has always been carefully kept by Dorothy in the softest place in her heart.

A remote fishing village in the Josephic Empire is backed by a mountain forest and faces the turquoise sea.

On the edge of the fishing village there is an open grove, and a small wooden two-story building is built here, and there is a large banyan tree in the backyard of the house, which is refreshing and quiet with the sea breeze blowing the leaves.

"Brother, can you come down and play with me?" Little Dorothy held a colorful leather ball and looked up at the little boy who was lying on a branch reading a book.

The boy ignored Dorothy, who was full of hope under the tree, and even showed a hint of disgust on his face, the boy picked two leaves and blocked his ears, and continued to flip through the album in his hand, on which were photocopies of various world-famous paintings that have been handed down to this day, and the boy looked very seriously, and the warm sunlight sprinkled on his young face through the forest gap.

"Brother, why don't you ignore me..."Little Dorothy put the colored ball on the ground, and she rolled up her sleeves and prepared to climb the tree.

"Don't come up!" the boy's voice was a little cold, "Who's your brother?!

Little Dorothy was so frightened that she quickly let go of her hand, and then her eyes began to redden, and she looked at the boy aggrievedly, her teeth clenched into her lower lip, and she almost cried.

"Annoying!" the boy rolled over and turned to his side at little Dorothy on the ground.

And a middle-aged man in the corner of the courtyard who was chopping wood obviously heard the boy's words, his eyebrows furrowed tightly, he took off the animal skin vest on his body, and the man walked towards the big tree.

"What are you talking about, Kasa!" the man's strong chest rose and fell slightly.

Little Dorothy looked at the middle-aged man with some fear, she picked up the ball on the ground and ran behind the tree, revealing only half of her small face.

The boy also ignored the middle-aged man.

"Kasa!" the man was visibly annoyed.

"Is there something wrong?" the boy impatiently plucked the leaves that were tucked into his ears.

"To answer my question, why would you say that to Dorothy!"

"Isn't what I'm telling the truth?" the boy stared at the man with red eyes, "She's not my sister in the first place, I don't have a sister, my mother is dead, and the two people you brought home have nothing to do with me!"

In the kitchen on the second floor, a middle-aged woman wearing an apron was stunned when she heard the little boy's words, and the half-washed dish in her hand fell into the sink and shattered a corner.

"Do you know what you're talking about?!" the man's temples were also exposed, "I love your mother too, but she passed away and will never come back, you are still young and can't lack maternal love, I love little Dorothy and her mother, but I love you too!"

"There is only one mother, and no one can replace me!"

Kasa glanced at Dorothy who was hiding under the tree with some resentment, and then he climbed down from the tree and walked straight to the back door of the courtyard.

"Where are you going?" the man stood in front of Kasa.

"You can't take care of it. Kasa clutched the album tightly in his hand.

There was a crisp "pop", and a large calloused hand slapped on Kasa's face, and a layer of red appeared on his skin.

The woman who had been watching from the back door of the house saw this scene and hurriedly pushed open the wooden door and ran over, and she stopped the middle-aged man by her side.

"Andy, don't do that. The woman's face was full of apologies, but more of a deep sadness.

"Hela, don't worry about it!" the man pushed the woman away, still looking at Kasa, who was still bowing her head, "Apologize to your mother and sister for what you just said!"

Kasa's long bangs obscured his eyes, and at the same time, his two small hands with some strength clenched unconsciously.

"I'm sorry. ”

There was a slight cry in Kasa's voice, and you could see his tears falling to the ground, but he just stubbornly didn't look back, and didn't try to wipe the tears from his face.

Tucked the album in his clothes, the skinny little boy walked out of the yard without looking back.

"Where are you going, Kasa?" asked Hela worriedly, but Kasa didn't answer, and he disappeared from sight as if he had lost his soul.

In the meantime, Hela wanted to stop the runaway Kasa, but Andy stopped him, until he saw his son disappear into the distance, Andy, as a father, his face was full of vicissitudes for a moment, he hesitated for a while, and finally chased him out, following the direction that Kasa left.

Little Dorothy watched everything that happened in the yard with her eyes wide open, and all she could remember afterwards was that her mother hugged her and cried for a long time.

Dorothy was ignorant at the time, she didn't have much of an impression of her biological father, and she had lived with her for as long as she could remember, but he was very distant from her and her mother, and she later learned from her mother that she was not related to Kasa.

It wasn't until another incident happened that Dorothy's heart changed for the first time about this withdrawn boy.

I remember that it was an early spring evening, Dorothy was alone on his way home from school at Fishing Village Elementary School, and when he passed by a remote path, several male classmates who were also wearing student uniforms blocked his way, and they were a few bad students who usually liked to bully others in school.

Dorothy tried to avoid them, but it was getting late and the path was lined with deep woods, so Dorothy didn't dare to take the risk, so she walked over and begged them not to come for her.

"Stop!" one of the boys stopped Dorothy, "didn't you see us?"

Dorothy was scared and ducked to the side, trying to get around them as quickly as possible, but the boys became interested and deliberately surrounded the helpless Dorothy, laughing one after another.

"You... What do you want to do?" Dorothy clasped nervously in her hands.

"I heard that your family is very rich, so our eldest brother took us to collect some protection money. A tall little boy said.

"I don't have any money," Dorothy looked flustered, "Tomorrow... Can I give it to you tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow?" the so-called "big brother" in the mouth of the other children walked over, he was a tall and fat boy, "tomorrow is the weekend, school is not in class, you are stupid for me?!"

"Big brother, tomorrow is Tuesday, today is Monday, and we've only had a day of class..."One of the little boys reminded in a whisper.

"Go get out of the way! I said that on purpose, what do you know?" "Big brother" threw the empty schoolbag to his "little brother", "If you can't pay the protection money today, don't think about going back!"

Dorothy was almost in tears, how she wished that someone would pass by this path, but she was disappointed that there was no one at the end of the path.

"Don't come here, my brother will pass by in a moment, and if he sees you, he will definitely come and chase you away!"

"Is it just your 'dumb' brother who doesn't say a word at school? so many of us are still afraid of him?" "Big brother" had a disdainful look on his face, "If you refuse to pay the protection money, then we will have to search your body." ”

"Don't!" Dorothy cried out in frustration.

One of the young boys ripped off Dorothy's bag and began to flip it uncontrollably.

Behind a large tree in the woods, Kasasa watched several young boys bullying Dorothy, and instead of immediately rushing out to protect Dorothy, he quietly walked away with his school bag on his back.

The distant shadow of Kasa was reflected in the fiery sunset, and Dorothy happened to see the boy's ruthless back in the midst of the palpitations.

Later, Dorothy was violently pushed to the ground by one of the boys and fainted, and later, when she opened her eyes, she found that it was already dawn, and she was lying in a hospital bed with her anxious mother sitting next to the bed.

"Mom. Dorothy called softly.

"Dorothy, my darling, thank goodness you're finally awake. Hela caressed Dorothy's haggard little face with a distressed expression.

"Mom, why did I get to the hospital?" Dorothy felt her head still a little dizzy, "Where's Daddy?"

"Your father, he—" Hela grabbed Dorothy's hand, and stopped talking.

"Did something bad happen..."

"Your dad went with him to apologize to the classmates who bullied you. ”

"What?" Dorothy thought she had misheard, "Mom, what happened during the time I was unconscious?"

"Yesterday afternoon, Kasa used a paintbrush to hurt all the male classmates who bullied you, and one of them, a tall and fat boy, was stabbed in the eye and has not woken up yet. ”

Despite Hela's tactful description, Dorothy could imagine what the boy with the paintbrush had been through in the face of a molestation from his peers after she had been knocked unconscious.

Dorothy could think that the "brother" who was usually cold to her did not abandon him, he did not leave the grove independently, but took a paintbrush and heroically blocked him, even if he was punched and kicked, he did not let the bad boys continue to hurt him.

Since then, Kasa, who had excellent grades, was expelled from school for injuring his classmates, and his parents lost a lot of money because of this incident, and their originally rich life gradually became miserable, and his father slowly contracted the problem of alcoholism, and every time he came home drunk, he had to beat and scold Kasa.

And the withdrawn little boy still liked to be alone, because one of the fingers of his right hand was so badly injured in the fight that he could no longer draw, so the boy locked himself in the house all day long, and no one knew what he was doing in the house.

Later, Dorothy sees in her window that all of the works that Kasa had won in a drawing contest had been burned by her drunken father, and only one survived, and Kasa gave it to Dorothy a few years later.

The painting depicts the scene that Kasa saw from the big banyan tree in the backyard, with leisurely sails, high-flying white gulls, sparkling waves and rows of coconut trees, and the name of this painting is "Freedom".