Re-engraving the Spring - Chapter 20
“The kidnappers took me away thinking I was Yanchen.”
Thinking that Lu Ming was angry, Chi Qiu put down the dishes and chopsticks tremblingly. He was speechless and did not know how to answer it. He imagined that if he was Lu Ming and found out that his partner and others had ‘unspeakable’ secrets, and tried to lie to make things clear, he would be jealous and sulky.
Chi Qiu was full of sadness, completely lost the mood of eating noodles: “Lu Ming, you have misunderstood.”
“Misunderstood?” Lu Ming did not understand, what misunderstanding?
Only to see Chi Qiu pursed his lips and became serious: “There is something, I never had the opportunity to talk to you, and you never asked me.”
Seeing this, Lu Ming straightened up.
He knew that when Chi Qiu was nervous, his hands would squeeze and clasp together.
Lu Ming seemed to have known this habit a long time ago, but when did he exactly know, Lu Ming couldn’t recall. Maybe it was in the spring when they met ten years ago, or maybe it was at the moment when he just returned home and met Chi Qiu again.
But he felt that what he could not remember must not be important.
The clock on the wall was ticking, Lu Ming raised his eyes and saw Chi Qiu’s beautiful eyes gently ‘watching’ him. Along with that, Chi Qiu’s soft lips also fell into his eyes.
Chi Qiu said, “Ning ge is nice to me because I helped Yanchen when I was a kid. I got my right eye blinded at that time.” After saying that, he smiled bitterly, “It was a kidnapping case.”
Lu Ming moved his fingertips and closed his hand. Then, he listened to Chi Qiu without moving a muscle.
“The kidnappers…took me away as Yanchen.”
Chi Qiu gulped and confessed to Lu Ming, but he didn’t know that Lu Ming had already known about it.
Before Lu Ming returned to China, he investigated everything about Chi Qiu.
He knew everything about Chi Qiu’s life from childhood to adulthood, including the accident when Chi Qiu was eleven years old——
…
Fourteen years ago.
Chi Qiu had just turned 11 years old and was in the fifth grade at Xingxi Experimental Primary School.
His half-sister Chi Xia was three years younger than him. She was in the same class as Ji Yanchen and was in the second grade of Xingxi Experimental Primary School. That year, Chi Xia was at a lively and naughty age, always clamoring to go to the playground to play.
Chi Lanyan was often busy with company affairs and rarely took care of the brother and sister at home. Therefore, most of the tasks of taking the children out were done by Chi Qiu’s stepfather, Lin Yuming.
Lin Yuming was a man with a relatively silent personality. He was Chi Lanyan’s former senior at the university, and now stayed in the school as a teacher.
His character was reserved and introverted. Except for Chi Xia and Chi Lanyan, he was often unsmiling, making Chi Qiu a little afraid of him.
However, Lin Yuming did not treat Chi Qiu badly. Maybe it was just because this was not his own child, and he was old-fashioned and he didn’t know how to approach him, so he kept a proper distance.
Occasionally, he would follow Chi Lanyan’s wishes and take the initiative to give Chi Qiu tutoring, helping him to overcome the subjects he was not good at, so that Chi Qiu’s grades in the grade always remained in the top three.
Chi Lanyan’s original intention was to let the two get closer, but she didn’t expect it to be self-defeating. In Chi Qiu’s heart, gradually, he regarded Lin Yuming as a strict teacher, not a ‘father’.
Young children would always have a fear of teachers, not to mention the teachers who lived together.
For this reason, every time Lin Yuming took Chi Qiu and Chi Xia out to play, Chi Qiu would often seem restrained. But in order not to worry about the busy Chi Lanyan, Chi Qiu would rarely refuse.
After all, at that time, Chi Xia was still very fond of Chi Qiu and would often show off to her classmates that she had a brother who studied well and was good looking.
Her tablemate Ji Yanchen was very unconvinced. Speaking about brother, Ji Yanchen felt that his brother was the best and most handsome.
The two argued, and when Chi Xia got angry, she brought Ji Yanchen home, dragging Ji Yanchen, who was a head taller than herself, to see her proud brother.
The little girl, with her double ponytail, puffed up and pointed at Chi Qiu, yelling at Ji Yanchen: “See, my brother is the best looking! My mother has said that the child stars on TV are not as good-looking as my brother! I’ll show you the certificate and trophy from my brother’s study in a while~”
Ji Yanchen hummed and glanced at Chi Qiu who was blindfolded. His attention was instantly attracted to his clear eyes.
In the sun, the front yard of the villa was filled with green grass, and a hint of apricot blossoms was blowing in the wind. Chi Qiu was wearing off-white home clothes, and the whole spring fell into his eyes.
“Hello, I’m Xiao Xia’s brother, Chi Qiu, welcome to our home.”
“Hel, hello! I’m Chi Xia’s tablemate, my name is Ji Yanchen! I’m about as tall as you are, I’m not going to call you gege…”
Chi Qiu couldn’t help laughing, with crooked eyes and shards of light.
He said, “But I didn’t ask you to call me gege ah?”
Ji Yanchen giggled and scratched his head, embarrassed by Chi Qiu’s nice voice.
Compared to his brother Ji Feining, who took care of himself in everything, Chi Xia’s brother looked like apricot blossoms on the branches and when a gust of wind passed, he smiled.
So lovely.
Ji Yanchen smiled along with him: “You don’t look like a brother at all.” In his simple mind, there was no such gentle and good-natured brother in the world?
After two visits, Ji Yanchen began to come to Chi’s house frequently to do homework, using this reason to find Chi Qiu.
Since the two families had business dealings, Chi Lanyan and Ji Feining did not do much to stop them. Especially Ji Feining, after learning that Ji Yanchen’s grades started to improve, he also encouraged Ji Yanchen to play more often at Chi’s house.
The three children of similar age soon became good friends who could talk about everything. Even when Chi’s family went to the playground, Ji Yanchen was cheeky and insisted on going with them.
And the accident happened in this playground.
On this day, the sky was gloomy.
There were very few visitors in the amusement park. A heavy rain approached, and the children followed Lin Yuming into a coffee shop waiting for the driver to arrive.
Lin Yuming ordered a cup of coffee and gave them each a glass of sweet milk.
The three children were not interested in the bitter coffee smell in the store. After drinking the milk, they lay down one by one at the window, watching the dense dark clouds in the sky.
Chi Xia pouted and walked up to Lin Yuming. She was not in a good mood. She rubbed her eyes and threw a tantrum: “Dad, I want to eat ice cream.”
Lin Yuming held Chi Xia in his arms and glanced at the time on his watch: “Your mother bought chocolate flavored ice cream yesterday and put it in the fridge. Let’s go home and eat it.”
Chi Xia’s mood was as dark as the sky, she aggrievedly said: “I want to eat now! We agreed to take me to play today, how come it’s still raining…Dad, I want to cry so much.”
Lin Yuming, who had always spoiled his daughter, was helpless. When he was just about to get up, he saw Chi Qiu squatting with Ji Yanchen in the corner of the coffee shop to watch the cat.
He did not feel comfortable letting the three children wait for himself in this coffee shop.
Therefore, he asked Chi Qiu, who was already in the fifth grade: “Go out and turn right and keep walking, there is a kiosk. You go and buy three ice creams.” He didn’t realize that he was speaking in the exact same tone as he usually did with his students.
Chi Qiu looked at the weather outside and was hesitant.
Lin Yuming, however, had long treated him as an adult and rightfully handed Chi Qiu an umbrella: “It doesn’t take five minutes to go over there, I have to watch your sister and Yanchen.”
“I…” Chi Qiu turned his head, glanced at the gloomy sky, and blinked before hesitating to speak.
If it was Chi Lanyan, she would not have let Chi Qiu go buy ice cream in this weather.
Lin Yuming asked, “Can you do me this favor?”
“En.” Ji Qiu pursed his lips, there was no way to refuse. He obediently took the umbrella and hurriedly ran out of the coffee shop.
Unexpectedly, Ji Yanchen, not knowing which of his tendons was twitching, suddenly ran out happily. Lin Yuming hurriedly shouted to stop him, but it was too late; Ji Yanchen was like a monkey who was moving, no shadow could be seen.
…
The rain was getting heavier and heavier, and the piano music playing in the coffee shop blended with the noisy sound of the rain.
Chi Xia waited for the ice cream and yawned.
After a full ten minutes, a gust of wind blew in. Sharp raindrops slammed into the glass window, fierce as thunder, breaking the warmth of the coffee shop under warm light.
Lin Yuming calculated the time and realized that something was wrong. He looked back at the dense raindrops with fear. He got up and borrowed an umbrella from the shopkeeper and walked to the door holding Chi Xia’s hand and glanced at the heavy rain before turning back.
He asked the shopkeeper if he could help him look after the child for a while.
The shopkeeper was reluctant at first. After all, it was not easy to look after children. In case something happened, he couldn’t explain it clearly. Fortunately, Lin Yuming was sincere, and after repeated requests, the shopkeeper reluctantly agreed.
This time, another five or six minutes was delayed.
Lin Yuming opened the door and held up the umbrella. He just took a step when he heard Ji Yanchen’s faint cry.
Unlike in the past, Ji Yanchen, the naughty ghost, seemed to wilt, and his whole body was shaking. He stood in the rain, the rain beads washed the tears from his face, mixed with light blood, flowing onto the dark ground.
Chi Qiu did not return with him.
