When Li Yulian was about to get up and go upstairs, she found that Ai Xiang's eyes fell on the wall behind her, her mouth wide open and she looked very surprised, her eyes were full of confusion, and she stared at the white wall behind her in a motionless and stunned manner. Li Yulian also looked back, and there was only a magnified black-and-white photo on the wall, and nothing else.

Ai Xiang looked at Li Yulian and asked suspiciously, "Where did this photo come from?" Is it yours? Why do you have this photo too? Why is it hanging here? ”

Li Yulian looked at Ai Xiang and explained: "This is my family photo, I have already told you on the phone just now, I once had a special old relationship with this city." That's it! ”

This is a family portrait of a welfare home, and Ai Xiang has the same photo in his collection, but it is not enlarged, and the photo has been sandwiched in the diary given to him by Guo Ying's mother. Sitting in the middle is the dean Guo Ying's mother, in the photo, the five-year-old sits quietly next to Guo Ying's mother, staring at the front with two eyes, not knowing what attracted him in front of him.

Ai Xiang stared at Li Yulian's pure face as clean as the clear sky in the mountains, and searched hard in his mind, as if the vague impression was as distant as a flying kite, and as if the traces of the past life were as people said, the memory that had long faded and faded and became a blur and difficult to identify.

"You're Xiaolian? You are Xiaolian......" The fog in Ai Xiang's eyes was dissipating little by little, his eyes became clear again, and he muttered involuntarily in his mouth. The distant memory was finally activated by him, and Ai Xiang looked at Li Yulian in front of him steadily, feeling like a dream.

In Li Yulian's mind, the traces of the memory that were about to be annihilated by the years also woke up when she heard this call that seemed to be engraved in the depths of her soul, listening to this voice in the impression that I don't know how far away it was, Li Yulian's tears instantly flowed out of her eyes: "You are Brother Dragon Boat Festival." ”

Ai Xiang turned from doubt to surprise, and from the surprise he looked at Li Yulian again and again, wanting to confirm again whether this dream-like scene was an illusory dream or a real reproduction: "Xiaolian, you are Xiaolian, are you really Xiaolian?" Do you really remember me? ”

Li Yulian was already in tears: "Yes, it's me, I'm Xiaolian, it's really Xiaolian, Brother Dragon Boat Festival." She couldn't believe what she was seeing, it was like a dream.

She would never have thought that more than 30 years later, when she returned to this city with her dream of starting a business, which made her sad and haunted her dreams, she met the Dragon Boat Festival brother she missed the most in her dreams.

Ai Xiang finally remembered the distant and vague childhood, and the little girl who often had a runny nose. She was as lonely as he was, and no one wanted to play with her, calling her a snot jar, the ugliest and ugliest ugly duckling, and they either spat on her or robbed her of her things. She could only follow him silently, and he was the only one who didn't dislike her, and gave her what he was reluctant to eat.

He and she can still vividly remember the bloody steamed bun incident.

Once, Guo Ying's mother probably went to another place and was not in the welfare home for several days in a row. When he couldn't see Guo's mother, he wandered around the welfare home alone. She would sometimes follow him, like a shadow of his whereabouts, and like an inseparable tail.

At noon that day, while eating in the cafeteria, a fat boy several years older than them looked around slyly, at which time the caretaker had something to do, and only a few dozen children were eating at their respective tables. The fat boy stared at the steamed bun in her hand, and when she wasn't paying attention, he ran over and grabbed it. Then, while proudly nibbling on the steamed bun that originally belonged to her, she also looked at her and smiled.

She was so angry that she cried "wow", but a dozen children around her looked at her gloating and laughed, and a few children jumped and jumped on the side to make fun of her: "A snot is long and long, the snot jar cries and breaks the intestines, the white-flour steamed buns are sweet and fragrant, and the ugly duckling is toothless and tearful......" She could only sit helplessly on the ground and cry helplessly.

He stood up silently, left the table, walked towards the fat boy who was nibbling on the steamed buns, stared at the steamed buns snatched from the fat boy's hand and said, "Give it back to her!" ”

The fat boy glared at him: "No, don't pay it back!" ”

"Give it back to her!" He spoke again, raising his voice again.

The fat boy also raised his voice, trying to overpower him, and waved his fist and threatened: "If you don't pay it back, you won't pay it back, what can you do?" Do you want to get beaten? ”

He was completely enraged, his eyes widened, he bent down and lowered his head, like a fierce calf, and slammed forward into the fat boy, who suddenly lost his balance and fell to the ground on his back, and a stream of blood spurted out of his nostrils.

The fat boy lay on the ground and began to cry, the blood coming out of his nostrils frightened all the children who were present to witness it. The caretaker of the welfare home, who had just returned, saw this scary scene and hurriedly sent the fat boy to the hospital, where the doctor examined and told the administrator: "Luckily, no fracture problems were found, there was a slight concussion, and it will be fine if you take some medicine, and there will be no sequelae." ”

Ai Xiang was imprisoned in a small black room by the caretaker of the welfare home, but at a young age, he seemed fearless, anyway, he was used to being alone. For him, it is the same loneliness to have someone to be with, or no one to be with.

The next afternoon, Guo Ying's mother returned, and she didn't blame him after hearing about it. Guo Ying's mother asked Xiaolian to replenish another steamed bun in the canteen, and gave the fat boy one less steamed bun.

Guo's mother told the children: "If such a thing happens in the future, the person who snatched the things must not only apologize publicly, but also return the stolen things to others." If a child can't eat enough, you can talk to the administrator or tell me, but you must not steal someone else's things. ”

When he returned to the dormitory from the little dark room, she called him out: "Can I call you brother?" He nodded, and she shouted, "Brother." He nodded, "hmm".

She laughed, laughed, snot, and snot came out again, and he laughed, looking at her long snot and smiling. Since then, no child has dared to bully her ugly duckling. Because they all know that she has a brother who everyone is afraid of.

Ai Xiang looked at Li Yulian a little distracted, Li Yulian wiped the tears from her face and asked with a smile, "Do you want to find the shadow of that ugly duckling?" ”

He narrowed his eyes and said, "Well, I'm wondering where those two long snots go." ”

Li Yulian smiled with emotion and said: "I don't know when I lost it, and I still have that childhood time." ”

Ai Xiang fell into a long memory: "One day, you suddenly left. I found out that you were not there, and I thought you were sick, and you were not there for a few days in a row, so I went to ask Guo's mother, and Guo's mother said that you already have a new home. Where have you been all these years? By the way, I once dreamed that you went to a place where there was a big lake, and there were no mountains, no big mountains like Kitayama, but a big lake with no edge in sight. You're like an ugly duckling thrown into that endless lake. ”

Ai Xiang remembered the dream that often woke him up in terror, and continued to recall the unforgettable innocence and naivety: "You ugly duckling can only be alone, paddling desperately with two little feet in that big lake, and a flock of fierce wild ducks chasing after you. They have pecked all the feathers off your body, and you have become a bare, ugly duckling. I thought about going to help you, but I couldn't move at all, neither my hands nor my feet, and then you suddenly disappeared. ”

Li Yulian listened to Ai Xiang's narration, and was unconsciously infected by his worried emotions, and she seemed anxious and uneasy: "What happened later? Is the poor ugly duckling dead? ”

Ai Xiang looked at her and said with a smile: "Later, in the place where the ugly duckling disappeared, a beautiful white swan appeared. The two looked at each other and smiled.

Li Yulian recalled: "I remember being picked up one evening, and I still remember it clearly. Guo Ying's mother told me: 'The person who came to pick you up is your father, you must be well-behaved and obedient in the future.' I told Guo Ying's mother that I wanted to see Brother Dragon Boat Festival, and Guo Ying's mother said that I knew you wanted to say goodbye to the Dragon Boat Festival, but the Dragon Boat Festival had already slept. After that, I was taken into the mountains by my current adoptive father, and along the way, I asked this and that curiously, and my adoptive father patiently told me all kinds of strange things. I finally had a father and a mother, and they were very nice to me. ”

Li Yulian then talked about the impression in the depths of my memory: "After the curiosity passed, I felt a little unaccustomed, became sullen, and did not want to listen to anything they said to me, I just wanted to see you. I said to my father: 'I want to see Brother Dragon Boat Festival. They don't know that I have a Dragon Boat Brother, and they don't know who I am talking about. They just told me, "You have a new home, you're not there." I believed it, and I thought I'd go back to you when I grew up. They knew that I thought of you because I was lonely, and they were afraid that I would be lonely, so they took up another girl, who was three years younger than me. I'm so happy that someone finally called me sister. ”

Ai Xiang learned a lot about his childhood from Guo's mother: "You were taken away on the third day of our family portrait, and I read the diary that Guo Ying's mother later gave me, which was a diary she kept about life in the welfare home, and I learned about your adoption." Where did you get this picture? And why hang here? Will your adoptive parents accept your approach? Ai Xiang asked puzzled as he looked at the photo.

Li Yulian said with emotion: "I never knew that I was adopted, and those memories about the welfare home slowly blurred. If it weren't for my adoptive parents mentioning it again, I probably never remembered it again, after all, I was very young when I left the orphanage. Before I went to college, my adoptive father and adoptive mother took out this photo from their collection, and they told me who I was. And tell me that if you want to find your biological parents in the future, they agree, and hope that one day, I can find my biological parents. ”

(Next Notice: Chapter 149: The Raising of the Mountain)