Chapter 297
As soon as he finished speaking, Xiao Zhi’s smile froze in place when he realized that the little girl in front of him was not Rose. Upon seeing him, the little girl, scared by his panting and excited face, burst into tears on the spot.
“Waaah….” Her cry was loud, drawing the attention of many people. Xiao Zhi snapped out of his disappointment and hastened to wipe away her tears, saying, “Don’t cry, don’t cry. I’m not a bad person, little sister, don’t cry.”
As bystanders gathered around to watch, before Xiao Zhi could calm the little girl down, a man pushed through the crowd and grabbed Xiao Zhi by the collar, slapping him hard with a furious expression on his face.
The man’s strength was tremendous, and he sent Xiao Zhi, who had just finished his freshman year of high school, sprawling to the ground in a single blow.
“Where did this wild kid come from? How dare you bully my daughter in broad daylight!” He scooped up the little girl in his arms and stalked away.
The little girl reached into her pocket and pulled out a piece of candy, beaming with a heartwarming smile. “Have a candy, and your heart won’t be so bitter,” she said.NôvelDrama.Org holds this content.
At her words, a desolate wasteland seemed to open up in Xiao Zhi’s heart, and like a burst of shining stars, it illuminated all the hidden bumps and scars.
It wasn’t until he was older that Xiao Zhi understood why the little girl at the time was able to say those words. Perhaps she had been going through a lot of pain, and gentle people who had experienced that kind of discomfort were particularly good at caring for others.
At the time, Xiao Zhi didn’t understand any of this. He just felt a deep sense of sadness and didn’t know why.
As if by some strange happenstance, he cried his eyes out in front of a stranger, wiping his tears constantly with his sleeves.
The little girl crouched down and forced the candy into his mouth while he was panting for breath.
Xiao Zhi’s crying subsided slightly, and he looked at her with eyes filled with teardrops.
The little girl giggled, saying, “Isn’t it less bitter now?”
Xiao Zhi had no idea what flavor the candy in his mouth was, but he knew the smile on the little girl’s face was sweet.
“Um…” Xiao Zhi nodded with the candy still in his mouth.
The little girl looked at the abbreviation for the capital city written on Xiao Zhi’s school uniform and curiously asked, “You’re not from here, are you?”
Shaking his head with the candy still in his mouth, Xiao Zhi said, “No, I came here to attend classes for a week. My home is very far away.”
“Oh…” The little girl suddenly understood and smiled, “I could tell you were from a big city.”
Then she noticed Xiao Zhi was feeling better and bravely asked, “I heard you calling that girl Rose when I walked by earlier. Are you looking for someone?”
At her words, Xiao Zhi’s mood sank, and his youthful expression was overshadowed by a sorrow that didn’t suit his age. “I’m looking for my little sister. She has been missing for years, and that girl’s back looked a lot like my sister’s.”
“How did your sister go missing?”
“One day, she didn’t come home from school, and then we couldn’t find her.” Xiao Zhi lowered his head in sadness, and his thoughts about his sister grew more significant. “My parents miss her very much.”
“What about you? Do you miss her?”
“I…” Xiao Zhi looked a little dazed. “I didn’t spend much time with her at home before. I was always in the study room reading, and she loved to play.”
The little girl nodded in agreement. “That’s not right. As a brother, you should spend time with your sister. How can you both stay in the study room together?”
“If I find my sister, I will spend more time with her,” Xiao Zhi said seriously and earnestly.
The little girl smiled and raised the corners of her mouth. “Before you find your sister, I can be your sister.”
Hearing her words, Xiao Zhi stopped in his tracks, and his eyes sparkled as if the lights on the roadside were reflecting off of them, illuminating his handsome face. “Can you be my sister?”
“Yeah, let me practice being a good brother for you,” the little girl blinked her eyes like a bright star in the sky.
And so, the two children made a promise to become siblings. Xiao Zhi silently vowed to take good care of his sister this time.
However, the little girl never told him her name. She only mentioned that letter writing was popular in school now, and they continued to exchange letters even after he had returned to the capital.
In their letters, they addressed each other as siblings, and the little girl would write about various things happening at school.
Before, Xiao Zhi was only focused on studying, but now he felt like he had someone to share his days with. He looked forward to receiving the little girl’s letters every day, and he even praised her cuteness to Yan Jia.
He would also send small gifts to the little girl, but she would refuse anything too valuable. The only slightly precious item she accepted was a bracelet.
Yan Jia also urged him to introduce her to the girl who had made him so happy. Xiao Zhi refused at first, but one day he happily told Yan Jia that he was going to meet his sister, and everyone in the Xiao family could feel his excitement.
He even agreed to take Yan Jia with him, and Yan Jia was thrilled to finally meet this mysterious girl.
Until a few days before Xiao Zhi was supposed to meet the little girl in person, she suddenly stopped replying to his letters. The two of them had relied on their letters to maintain their relationship, and now with no other means of contact, they were completely out of touch.
Xiao Zhi went to the meeting place as planned and waited there for a whole day, but the little girl never showed up. He couldn’t figure out what had gone wrong, and despite writing more than ten letters after that day, there was no response.
He even went to the city where the little girl lived and searched for her in person, but he couldn’t find her anywhere. He asked some of her classmates, but they didn’t even know who he was talking about.
Thus, he lost his little sister again, and the impact on him was huge.
He couldn’t understand why the little girl had suddenly disappeared, and for over a year, Xiao Zhi continued to write to her, but there was never any response.
Suddenly, a male voice with a smile rang out, “Hello, these are all the letters that were confiscated from this class back then. There are quite a few, so you can take a look and see if you can find what you’re looking for.”
Xiao Zhi was abruptly pulled back from his memories and blinked, nodding to the teacher. “Okay, thank you. I’ll sit over there and look through them myself.”
“Sure thing.” The teacher brought out a cardboard box filled with letters, all of which had been confiscated that year.
It would take some time to find one or two letters written to the little girl from all of these. But for Xiao Zhi, it was the only way.