It was the fifth week of school, and the school buses full of children had departed, and the courtyard of St. Thomas's Church Primary School had suddenly become quiet and clean, and a few bits of golden yellow had appeared in the dense sycamore branches, some of which were still stubbornly clinging to the branches, but others had been blown to the ground by the wind, and fell to the dark green lawn, the sapphire pool, or the olive-brown basketball court; It had been raining for the past few days, and the hibiscus tree had bloomed, and this shrub could grow as tall as a sycamore, and the flowers looked like a ball of hair, with filaments sticking out from the pale yellow bottom, and the roots were transparent, and then from bottom to top, from light to deep, showing the color of potassium permanganate—that is, the beautiful transparent purple-red, which gathered in small and small branches to form a larger cluster, like colored clouds, Densely scattered around these pink clouds are plume-shaped leaves that resemble mimosas, which open around ten o'clock in the morning and close after seven o'clock in the evening.

The flowers of the hibiscus tree were fragrant, but not as sweet as osmanthus or locust flowers, nor as strong as roses, and it had the taste of herbal tea in Striff's nostrils - and in this scent, Kemira walked in.

She saw that Stryff was sitting in a seat in the classroom, which belonged to the child, and he had to bend his legs when he sit, and in front of him were two patchwork tables full of papers, and she approached to realize that they were the children's paintings.

All kinds of trees, many children painted houses, dogs, birds on the side of the trees...... Child, this child is most likely themselves, and children of this age love to draw themselves...... Some children draw themselves very tall, even taller than trees and houses.

"You may be seated, Kemira." "Sit, please," said Stryff, "would you like to see the painting with me for a while?" ”

Of course, there's nothing wrong with that, as Kemira, like Striff, sits in the child's chair with her knees pressed together and her two calves crossed over her toes against the ground. Her attention quickly shifted from the children's drawings to Striff, whose colleague and senior were not only looking at the children's work, but also drawing, using charcoal and a piece of paper fixed on a cork board, and he moved the charcoal very quickly, but very little, and from the direction of Kemira, he could barely make out that it was a densely foliage deciduous tree, possibly a camphor, but also an unbuilt cypress.

"Look at the kids," Strev said, "and let the kids see yours, too." He handed over a copy of the same pen and paper, and Kemira took it, and she poked the charcoal on the pale corn-yellow paper, and the evening breeze mixed with the scent of hibiscus flowers blew in through the open window and on her face, and the childish paperwork was blown with a rattle.

"I am the daughter of Kai Shengguo, his eldest daughter, the first child."

Stryff nodded, he didn't stop what he was doing, maybe not very polite, but at this time, a nonchalant attitude was far better than a focused gaze or attentive listening, although he did have a lot of interest.

"My mother is a descendant of Estonian immigrants, a model, and my birth was an accident, so my father and my mother had a short marriage of only about a year - for me, Kai Shengguo insisted that his daughter could not be an illegitimate daughter of unknown father, they had a very harsh treaty before they got married, and my mother received a large sum of money, but she could not have any contact with me - she could not talk to me, could not appear with me, could not even admit that she was my mother. I was taken away as soon as I was born and raised by Kai Shengguo's fiancée, who is also my stepmother, who is a good person. Even though I'm not her child, or more so, I'm a shame to her, but she's still nice to me—"

"Do you think she loves you?" Stryff asked abruptly.

Kemira hesitated: "I don't know," she said, "I don't know." ”

"What about you?" Stryff said, "Do you love her?" ”

This time the hesitation was a little longer, "yes," Kemira finally said, "I think so." ”

"Alright, let's go on," Stryff said gently, "let's talk casually, did you grow up in District Seven?" Before a certain moment comes, have you never thought that you are not a pure Chinese? ”

"Yes." "There was a time when I thought my stepmother was my real mother, but then my younger brother and sister were born, and they all had black hair and black eyes, and they had ivory skin, and I couldn't see the slightest resemblance to me in them," Kemira said. Around that time, when I went to school, my teacher told me that two Chinese would not have a child with white skin, flaxen hair, and green eyes, whether they prayed to the Bodhisattva or Jesus. ”

"Are you angry?"

"Yes." "I smashed all the mirrors in the house," Kemira said. I think I was doing very badly at that time, and Kai Shengguo scolded me so badly for it, I had a fever, and I couldn't go to school for a whole month, and in my sleep, I heard someone mention my birth mother, and they said, 'There is a kind of seed,'" she said in Chinese, "that is, I inherited the bad part of my birth mother's character." ”

There was some sympathy in Striff's eyes: "That's not the case, is it?" ”

"I worked hard for fifteen years to deny it." "I did better than anyone else, no matter what it was, grades, clothing, manners, poetry, calligraphy and painting...... But they still said, 'That foreigner raised it.'" ”

"There's no denying it," Striff said, "there's always something in the world that is hard to change." So what about after that? ”

"My original name is Kai Yongan," Kemira did not answer directly: "Kai family Yongzi, my sister is called Kai Yongle, and my younger brother is called Kai Yongping." She said, and then reexplained the three names in English.

"Your father still loves you very much." Striff said.

"Yes." "I don't want to see him sad, and more than that, I can't let go of it — a lot of things, and if I throw them away, I'd kill myself twenty years ago," Kemira said. ”

"But that doesn't stop you from making small changes."

Kemira smiled slyly, "Just for convenience, especially after entering the university, I don't want to explain over and over why I want to use a Chinese name." ”

"Your father and family have obviously tolerated your little tricks, so there must be something else," said Steve, "a 'good friend' who has made Mr. Kelkel Mori nostalgic to this day?" ”

"My boyfriend." Kemira candidly admitted: "My father hated him. ”

"Why?" "If it's because of race, I'm not Chinese either," Stryff said. But the Kay family didn't appear unwelcoming, or to be precise, for Stryff, their enthusiasm was beyond the ordinary.

Kemira shrugged her shoulders, she seemed to rarely do that, and her movements were stiff: "Actually, my father didn't want me to marry a Chinese." ”

Stryff gave him an inquiring look.

"Because of my appearance," said Kemira, "the heart of a person who is not of my race will be different." He thinks that a husband and his family with a similar appearance can make me happy. ”

Even if she was Chinese on the inside, Streiff thought, it was a difficult choice, and he wisely did not continue on the issue: "So you chose a boyfriend who is not Chinese?" He's black? ”

"No, he's a European from Polynesia, and like me, he has light hair and blue eyes."

"He's on drugs?"

"Absolutely not."

"Vulgar and ignorant?"

"He graduated from Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine, which is Ithaca's private research university, and I'm sure you've heard of it, a member of the prestigious Ivy League."

"He doesn't love you enough...... No, no, no," Stryff denied himself, "I believe you love each other deeply, so what's wrong?" ”

"He's a member of an animal protection society, and that association ...... Well, I guess he was a bit of a bit of a bit of a radical — anyway, I didn't expect things to turn out so badly at first — and I took him to meet my father, mother, and siblings. ”

"And they're hospitable." Streiff rubbed the tip of his chin with the tip of a charcoal pen wrapped in a small strip of cloth: "He splashed paint on the table? ”

"No," Kemira smiled weakly, "I don't know how he did it, he took a lot of pictures - a large part of them was my father, and then sent them to the newspaper, and my father's competitors took advantage of this, especially ...... Well, those that look cruel...... My father's vote plummeted as a result, and he almost lost completely. ”

"Oh." Striff said.

"My father was furious." "He ordered me to break up with that madman immediately," Kemira said. ”

"Ah," said Striff, "you don't, do you?" ”

"As you said earlier, we love each other deeply," Kemira said, "I don't want to be separated from him, but I'm not going to take him anywhere my father is, and the two of us will live our lives." ”

"But your father is not gullible unless you have a new love."

"He entrusted Madame Borough with finding a more suitable person for me." Kemira opened her hands: "That's you." ”

"So at the street party, you took me to appease your father's heart," said Steve, "and you took advantage of me." ”

"It's only temporary," said Kemira hurriedly, "I must make a gesture that satisfies them." ”

Striff covered the part below his nose with a cork: "Can parents still force their children to enter into a marriage contract?" ”

"No," Kemira said, "it's worse than that, he, I mean, my boyfriend, he's been missing for a long time, and my friends and I have been trying to find it, but nothing has been found." ”

"Well," Stryff said calmly, "so...... You're suspicious of your father. ”

(To be continued)