Xiao Yuchen walked down the street for hours, and by the time she noticed, it was already completely dark. Before she knew it, she seemed to have walked through the streets of the whole city, but she didn't feel tired at all, or she didn't dare to feel tired, because she didn't know where she wanted to go or where to stop.

At dusk she passed by the house where she had lived with her aunt and uncle, and stood downstairs watching the light in the window come on, a little girl running down the stairs happily cheering for a big dinner in the evening, and young parents walking behind her with happy faces, arm in arm.

Then she walked down the street where she had looked at the gift shop so many times from the window, still with the familiar décor, except that the place where the pink rabbit had once been placed had been replaced by a pale yellow ceramic piglet.

She pressed her forehead lightly against the cold glass, watching the mist she breathed slowly drown her reflection, remembering how lonely and pitiful she had once stared at the rabbit, but now, even the rabbit was no longer here.

She walked into the small park nearby, and the children running on the withered yellow grass had already changed their unfamiliar faces, and although she had not been here for four years, she could still walk to a familiar place with her eyes closed, but now there were only wild grasses withered in late autumn.

The place that was once important, the person who was once the most important, has all disappeared.

Month, was what you said true at that time?

I forced myself so hard to be strong, and finally one day, I had the strength to protect the people who mattered. But why have all these important people abandoned me?

For four years, she has been disgusted with herself who used to be weak and incompetent, but now she is better than four years ago, the same loneliness, the same misery, the same homelessness.

At least she was so weak that she could only cry, and there was a place to hide.

*

Xiao Yuchen didn't know whether to thank her extraordinary memory ability for the streets, the park she accidentally found when she was looking for Ye Lingchuan last time, she easily found it again, although this place called Nanjiao Park was really far away from the city.

Luckily, the snail house was still in place.

"I'm back." She squatted down in front of the snail house and gently stroked its weathered shell, her eyes reddening. It is as if when a child who has been away from home for many years returns and sees the old faces of his relatives, his heart is full of sadness and guilt.

The peeling paint of the iron sheet has a biting cold in the late autumn night, but for Xiao Yuchen, this is the only place that has given her warmth.

She had been so scared, so resistant to coming back to this place, but when she stroked it again, she only felt nostalgic.