The next afternoon, Guan Qing's grandmother appeared at the door of Tianbei's groceries again, this time she was alone. I didn't ask her why, and she didn't explain, as if she had agreed in advance. She silently walked over to the chair and sat down, and I poured her a glass of warm water as I had done yesterday, and neither she nor I was sure whether our guesses were accurate or not, and we didn't dare to tell the truth directly. We sat facing each other for several minutes.

In the end, it was the old lady who spoke first.

"Xiao Ke, do you usually do anything else here besides selling groceries?"

"Ghostwriting, writing letters for guests in need, and sometimes helping people deliver things. ”

"So, do you have a lot of guests?"

"Quite a lot, with a wide variety of guests from all over the world, most of them were interesting. ”

"But not many people know that you have ghostwriting services. "The old lady's problem is getting deeper and deeper.

"Indeed, because most people are literate, and because communication and transportation are so convenient now, they can see each other immediately, and there is generally no need to write letters. "I think it's almost okay to stop playing pantomime," but most of our guests, most of whom don't have these qualifications. ”

"What do you mean?" the old lady's hand began to tremble again.

"Most of them are illiterate, and for various reasons it is difficult to meet the people they want, and although they live in the same world as us, their world is completely different. "I opened the drawer and looked for the letter I had written months ago.

"Where... Different?" the old lady began to tremble.

"They live longer and are more affectionate. I saw the familiar envelope, "Grandma, you shouldn't have come here today just to chat with me, right?"

“......”

"So, let's all be more direct?" Seeing that the old lady didn't mean to refuse, I slowly spoke, "The old man you talked about, maybe I can help you find it here." ”

The old lady's eyes turned red instantly, "You can see it too, right?" ”

I didn't deny it.

"When Xiaoqing gave me that tea bowl, I felt that something was different, it was not something that humans could make. The old lady took a deep breath and calmed her mood, "That's why I want him to bring me to you." ”

People who can see youkai are very sensitive to the breath of youkai, and can instantly sense from the items of youkai that this is not a human thing, especially for people with strong demonic power.

"So the first time you came to the store, you didn't mean to pay back at all. I asked.

"Well, I just wanted to check how I feel, but you should understand that it doesn't hurt to be cautious for people like us. The old lady looked tired in her words.

"So, what did you feel when you came?" My hands began to tremble, I really didn't think about meeting someone like myself, I still thought that I was an old man, I had too many questions to ask, too many things to say, but I didn't know where to start.

"It's full of feelings that I miss. The old lady smiled slightly, "Not only is it an old man's nostalgia for the old store, but it also evokes the guilt that I have hidden in my heart for many years." ”

"Tell me about your old man. I stood up and poured myself a glass of water, hoping to calm my heartbeat.

"It's funny, I don't know its name, although we hit it off at first sight. She pinned her hair behind her ears like a little girl, "I knew it wasn't human the first time I saw it, but strangely, I wasn't scared at all." ”

"What does it look like?" My heart was beating faster and faster, and I couldn't stand myself.

"It," the old lady clenched her glass slightly, her eyes full of smiles, "it's just as tall as a cup, but it looks like a human being, and it wears a face towel, it's such a strange thing." ”

I didn't interrupt her.

"The first time I saw it was in my grandfather's wheat field, I just quarreled with my little friend that afternoon, and I was in a very bad mood, so I went to my grandfather's wheat field to relax, and saw it lost, we were very close to each other, it was very humorous, and very knowledgeable, it felt like opening the door to the colorful world for me, and since then, every summer vacation has become an expectation. At this, the old lady's smile disappeared.

"Then why did you cut off contact?" I asked knowingly.

"Later, in the year I graduated, my grandfather died, and before I could tell him, my parents took me abroad for ten years. She sighed, "Ten years later, I insisted on returning to China, and my parents couldn't persuade me to agree, and I returned to my grandfather's wheat field, but for several years, I never saw its shadow again." The old lady smiled helplessly, "I guess it blames me for saying goodbye, or has forgotten me." It's nice to be able to tell you this, but if I told someone about this kind of thing, everyone would probably think I was a strange person. ”

"Then after that, you didn't ask anything else... Youkai?", I asked for myself, and I wanted to find the answer that I could see youkai.

But the old lady shook her head, "I tried hard to find out its whereabouts from other youkai, but unfortunately, I never saw it again, and only occasionally heard some sounds. ”

"Oh... I'm a little disappointed.

I guess it was sensing my emotions, "You know, it's a blessing to be able to see them." She took my hand, and I could feel the traces of time engraved on those hands, but still warm and powerful, "Legend has it that only people with absolute purity in heart can see youkai, and Xiao Ke, even if it is a youkai, may become your closest family and friend." ”

If someone else had told me this, I might have felt irritated, but this old lady seems to have the magic to calm me down.

"Is that pendant in Guan Qing made in the shape of a rice bracelet?" Seeing her surprised and happy expression, I took out the envelope with the golden wheat field printed on it and handed it to her, "Look at it, your old friend left it for you." ”

Wrinkled hands hesitated, and finally opened the letter.

There was not a few words of the letter, but the old lady seemed to have read it for a century, and the letter paper covered her face, and I could not see her expression.

"So, it really hasn't forgotten about me and keeps looking for me. "Fold the letter carefully as if it were a treasure.

"Yes, but you missed each other, and at the time you just said, when you went to the wheat field to look for it, it also happened to come out to you. I thought about it for a moment, but then asked, "Would you like to see him?" ”

The old lady shook her head, "It's still not, since we haven't found each other for so long, it should be God's arrangement, I'm old and ugly now, it is estimated that I will leave this world in a few years, and its future will be much longer, I still don't want to make a fate that shouldn't continue." ”

"In that case, bring this letter back. "I think of Qingsu's words, indeed, some things are better than not knowing each other.

The old lady took out a neat handkerchief from her bosom, opened it carefully, and I saw a few yellow and shriveled rice grains.

"In exchange, I'll give you this. The old lady wrapped the rice kernels again, "It's not a valuable thing, but it's something I agreed with it, and now that I've seen this letter, I think I should be able to let go of the regrets I've been having, and it's enough to know that it hasn't forgotten me." The old lady pushed the handkerchief in front of me.

"Since it's an agreed thing, you should keep it well. I put the handkerchief back in the old lady's hand, "Fate is such a thing, which is broken when you say it, after so many years, aren't you still missing each other, even if you don't meet, it's good to keep a memory." ”

She didn't seem to expect me to do this, looking at the promised thing in her hand, she muttered: "It's been sixty years, five months and eighteen days, if I were still young, I must go to see it, but I'm old, and I'm so forgetful when I'm old, I don't necessarily forget these things at some point..."

The old lady kept saying thank you to me when she walked out of Tianbei groceries, and I never told her that compared to the original promise, this letter may become the beginning of another agreement, and the story of Qingsu and Chunshui should not be over.

After all, old age is more forgetful, but not forget lovesickness.