Two years ago, when Liu Ying was about to graduate from university, Shen Youxia's career was in full swing, leading EAST to become the leading hotel chain in China. A few days before Liuying's graduation ceremony, Shen Youxia had to go to other places to attend a few days of impromptu meetings because of some legal matters. When he finally finished his work and rushed to the graduation ceremony, he learned from Hotaru's counselor that Hotaru didn't go to the graduation ceremony at all.

No one knows where Liuying went, her student career has always been a day school, even when she was in college, she applied to the school because of the special situation to live in school, she had almost no friends at school, and her mobile phone couldn't get through, Shen Youxia was also a little dazed for a while. It wasn't until he remembered that Liuying might not be comfortable resting at home, so he hurried home again, but the house was empty, and even Mother Lin went back to her hometown to visit relatives. He looked around in Liuying's room and saw the post-it note she had put on the bedside, which only read: Brother, I went to Africa for two years, I will take care of myself, please be okay too, don't worry.

Liuying would always discuss anything with Shen Youxia, but this time, without warning. She didn't contact him until she was far away from the solid yellow earth beneath her feet, and when he asked her she answered him evasively, she didn't want to tell him where she was in Africa, she didn't want him to go to her, she didn't want to tell him everything that happened around her for two years, he didn't even know who was around her, he was in a blank space for her two years. For the first time in more than two decades, he didn't know what had gone wrong.

The atmosphere in the car was a little delicate, and Shen Youxia neatly parked the car aside, turned on the emergency lights, and silently waited for Liuying's answer. He only had one reason, whatever that reason was, and he could accept it without principle, as if nothing had happened.

"Reason?Why didn't you go to Africa alone without consulting with me?" Shen Youxia said bluntly.

Liuying was stunned for a moment, she avoided these topics along the way and pretended to be relaxed, but Shen Youxia seemed to have changed a lot, two years ago, his temperament was not so calm, and asking so directly made Liuying a little at a loss, so she could only say perfunctorily: "I have always had the idea of volunteering, and I was afraid that you would not agree before I secretly left." ”

Shen Youxia stared at Liuying, and said after a while: "You're not good at lying, but I accept it." So, what is it that keeps you from talking about your time in Africa?"

"You're so smart, you can guess where I am at the slightest clue, and once you know where I am, you'll be sure to try to get me back. She didn't lie.

Shen Youxia didn't speak, just re-grasped the steering wheel and stepped on the accelerator fiercely into the lane, Liuying lowered her head, the Shen Youxia in front of her didn't seem to be the Shen Youxia she was familiar with, if it was two years ago, Liuying didn't have to think about it to know what he would say, he would definitely be unable to hold back the anger in his heart and tell her" Liuying, you are different from others, Africa is a strange environment for you, and the members of the volunteers who aid Africa are also strangers to you, you can't live in that environment, let alone two years, two days can't ......", and at the end of the day, she will definitely propose a lot of unequal treaties to her, this is the normal Shen Youxia, the Shen Youxia who can't wait to protect her too much.

What happened to Shen Youxia in front of him? Did the two years smooth out the edges and corners of his body?

"Brother, you seem to ...... It's a little different. Hotaru whispered.

Shen Youxia's hand holding the steering wheel tightened and returned to its previous appearance, and said with a light smile: "Is it? Maybe the mall has been mixed for a long time, and the ink is dark nearby." Besides, your brother is almost thirty years old, how can he still be as hot as before, isn't it good now?"

"Very good......" Retinu replied, she silently said in her heart, anything is fine, but suddenly she felt a distance.

"You can do it as you like. Shen Youxia paused and said, "Dr. Chen has always been worried about you, it is good to have time to call him and report that he is safe, after all, he has been treating you very well for so many years." ”

"Good. Liuying replied.

Dr. Tan is a psychiatrist and the attending physician of Liuying.

Since the age of three, Liuying has gradually been able to speak a few words, and in addition, she especially likes to be alone, cannot fit in, and cannot communicate with children of the same age in an appropriate way in Guiye Hospital, so she has been diagnosed as an autistic patient by doctors since she was a child. The main manifestation of Liu's illness is that she has serious deficiencies in interpersonal communication and self-emotion, which makes it difficult for her to integrate into group life, and another manifestation of her illness is her weak concept of time, which is very easy to confuse between one point in time and another point in time, which causes her to have a disconnected memory, interlaced memories, and will forget some things that have been around for a long time and forget some people who have appeared two or three times. Both of these conditions have accompanied her into adulthood, and although her symptoms have lessened as she grows up, she still lacks the skills to actively interact with others, and even sometimes has difficulty understanding the behavior and emotions of others. Dr Chan said that if this continued, she would not be able to enter into a marriage, which meant that the family she longed for was out of reach.

Because of this, Shen Youxia has been carefully protecting her since she was a child, but Liuying's student days are also thanks to Shen Youxia, Liuying's original face is beautiful and her fair-skinned personality is cold, which has attracted a large number of hormonal suitors, but the young Liuying is afraid of these sudden confessions or inexplicable contacts, all of which were blocked back by Shen Youxia, and Shen Youxia became Liuying's boyfriend in other people's mouths, and even Xia Midou was kept in the dark. Shen Youxia's caution made Liu Ying feel lucky, but at the same time, she also felt a kind of depression like a fish in her throat.

Whenever Liuying wanted to change herself and make herself more integrated into the crowd, Shen Youxia would remind her that she was not a normal person, she was a sick existence. Over time, Liu Hotaru wants to break free, to break free from such a state of life that has always begun, and she wants to experience the feeling of being alive. All this ironically erupted on the occasion of graduating from college, she watched her classmates yearn for the future, everyone had a beautiful smile on their faces, and she was the only one who felt extremely heavy and felt that she was living in a haze. She wanted to leave Shen Youxia's protective circle, and the situation in Nairobi at the volunteer information meeting made her have mixed feelings, so she quietly applied to go to Nairobi to help the slums, all because she wanted to be a human being, a living person, a person who can experience all kinds of things in the world.

The street scene outside the window became more and more familiar, and the two of them didn't say anything all the way.

As soon as she got home, she curled up on the sofa with her head resting on her arms and her arms resting on the armrests of the sofa, not wanting to move. She looked at her room, where the sheets, quilt covers, and dressers were brand new, and the rest were still the same as when she left, even the pile of architectural modeling materials that had been piled up on the desk lay there silently. The photo of her and Shen Youxia hanging on the wall seems to be a little slanted, it should be that Lin Ma didn't notice it when she was cleaning, and the angle at which she was sitting on the sofa at the moment happened to be the position of Shen Youxia's line of sight in the photo...... The background of the photo is the high school graduation ceremony, how many years has it been? Liuying carefully recalled, six years, and now it has been six years since I graduated from high school.

In addition to her and Shen Youxia, there is only one Lin Ma who takes care of their daily life in this family, Xu is unable to have children, and has no children and no daughters in her life, Lin Ma treats Liuying and Shen Youxia very well, just like her own children. The Shen family's parents did not live with them, when she was in the third year of junior high school, Shen Youxia moved out with her, he didn't tell her the reason, she didn't ask, Shen Youxia has always had his reasons for doing things, and she has always supported him silently. Anyway, Liuying doesn't like the Shen family very much, they always look at her with the eyes of a monster, which makes her feel worried.

I don't know how long it took for Shen Youxia to knock softly at the door, and called out softly as always: "Liuying, go down to eat." ”

Liu Hotaru came back to her senses at this time, she got up from the sofa but didn't go to open the door, just replied to the door: "Brother, I ate on the plane, you can eat." ”

"If you're tired, I'll bring it for you?" Shen Youxia said.

"No, I want to rest. ”

"Oh well. After a pause, Shen Youxia's voice sounded outside the door again, "Liuying, my brother is not in a good mood today, if you say anything that hurts you, don't care too much, you just make me make a fuss, we will all be fine in the future, okay?"

Before she could answer, she heard Shen Youxia's footsteps leaving, and she curled up again, only then did she weakly answer the word "good". She knew that Shen Youxia was worried about her, she knew that she even felt that she couldn't pay off what she owed Shen Youxia in this life, but she was also extremely conflicted, struggling painfully between the life of her closest relatives and flesh and blood.

Liuying didn't know what was going on with her body, and she was extremely tired when she relaxed, probably because she hadn't had a good rest in the past two years, so she simply turned off the chandelier and lay on the sofa.

The mobile phone screen lit up in the room with a night light on, and Liu Ying picked it up from the table next to the sofa and looked at it, it was a WeChat message, from "Jianghuo".

"How's it going?"

Liu Ying only knows that his WeChat nickname is "Jiang Huo", and she doesn't know anything about this person, but maybe it is because "Jiang Huo" is a stranger across a mobile phone screen from her that she has become the person who has been in contact with her the most in the past two years.