"September 2, sunny.

Today is the first day of the new semester. After school, Xin Qi said to me: 'Can we go back to the dormitory and play checkers together? ’ I don’t want to go back, I want to go to the playground to play skipping rope with my classmates and ask him to wait for me. He only waited ten minutes before getting so angry that he dropped the pencil case. When I came back, I didn't talk to him, I didn't play chess with him, and he didn't want to apologize. After dinner he came to me again and gave me this diary. When I asked why, he said that people with poor memory should develop the habit of keeping a diary. I said why my memory was not good. He said that he made an appointment to get married when he grew up. He also said that I don't know the clock, not ten minutes, but fifty minutes. "

...

"March 1, sunny.

Xiaomei told me today that she was going home. Because the teacher said that her mother was found, and tomorrow the whole family will come to pick her up by train from far away places, including father, mother, brother, sister, grandfather and grandma. The teachers bought her new clothes and a new schoolbag. Xiaomei was very happy and kept talking on the way home. At night, I cried quietly, not knowing when I would see my mother. I asked Xin Qi if he wanted his mother, and he said no, his mother no longer wanted him, but he would help me find my mother when he grew up. I said I would find it myself when I grew up. He said that I must have been very busy at that time, and the Olympic swimming gold medal was still waiting for me to get it. It's better to leave the troublesome matter of finding your mother to him. "

...

"May 18, fog.

Xin Qi was punished by the teacher to stand today. Because Sun Hao and Fang Xiaokui from Class 6 pushed him in the playground, his glasses fell to the ground and broke. Xin Qi yelled at them, and by the time I found out, it was too late. In fact, Zhang Hao and the others had already slipped away. The person he was scolding was Teacher Chen, and the words were disgusting, and the teacher was furious. Alas, who made him look bad. Xin Qi said he saw only one figure. I asked him if he would recognize him if it was me. He said: 'I haven't seen your face until now, don't worry, I recognize your voice. ’

...

"October 27, rain.

Xin Qi was hospitalized, and the teacher asked me to take notes and go to the hospital to help him with tuition. I was a little afraid to go. I told the teacher that Xin Qi had a bad temper recently. He got angry when he saw my notes. He said that I didn’t understand in class, and the notes were messed up. He had to study by himself, and he had to teach me to do homework when he came back. The teacher said, this is the case. Xin Qi didn't want to study in the ward, so I played checkers with him. I lost after three hours, so I asked Xin Qi if he was bored. He said it was not boring, no one wanted to play with him, only me.

To tell the truth, the person who felt bored was me. "

...

"January 12, snow.

Someone deliberately spilled leftovers in my school bag today, and the workbooks and books were soiled. I know it must be Sun Ho who did the bad things. After class, I found that there were three pieces of chewing gum in my hair, and I couldn't pull it off. In the end, Xin Qi cut it off for me with scissors. Sun Hao has been bullying me recently, and Xin Qi said that he can only remember after beating him. The two fought fiercely on the playground, bleeding from their nose and arms, and were called to the principal's office. It was Teacher Ye who brought Xin Qi back and criticized him for 40 minutes along the way. In the evening, I saw Xin Qi's face turn blue, and asked him if he was in pain. He said that it hurt and asked me if I would like to kiss him, and it would not hurt if I kissed him. I said what's the matter, I kiss the puppy doll that Xiaomei gave me every day. I kissed him twice. "

...

"June 9th, sunny.

Xin Qi said, I only have one specialty better than him, and that is swimming. Today the school organizes swimming, and I plan to teach him. Unexpectedly, when he got into the swimming pool, Xin Qi refused to take off his shirt, so he had to wear that black T-shirt. The classmates were laughing at him. I said: ‘Xin Qi, I have never seen you like this. Boys only need to wear a pair of swimming trunks when swimming. ' He said no, he would rather not swim than take it off. I asked again: 'What about taking a shower? Are you wearing it too? ' He said yes, unless there was a single bathroom. I asked him how to make soap again? He said that the soap hit the clothes and washed the clothes by the way, killing two birds with one stone.

I have never seen such a shy boy. There was no one in the library at night, so I asked him again, and it turned out that he had a long scar on his chest. Xin Qi said that apart from doctors and nurses, he never let others touch him, nor did he want them to be seen. If I'm really curious, I can touch it. "

"Su Tian Diary"

After searching around the Internet, Min Hui found that there is indeed a "Yongquan Children's Welfare Institute" in a border city in the northeast. It's gone now. Due to changes in administrative divisions, institutional reforms, renovation of the old city, and several relocations, it was merged into another welfare home in the neighboring city—the Second Children’s Welfare Home in Longhui District, Haiyuan City. It takes 15 hours to get there by high-speed rail from Jiangzhou, and you have to change trains in Beijing in the middle.

She got on the train that afternoon.

I'm in a hurry, because today is July 6th, and it's only one day away from the meeting time that Xin Li Xin Qi agreed to meet.

On the train, Min Hui opened the diary and read it carefully again. The diary records the life of a girl named "Su Tian" from the age of seven to twenty-two. It looks like a thick book, but the content is not detailed. The first is that the length of the articles varies, on average, the number of words per article is about 200 words. The second is the irregularity of updates: the most intensive records occur between the ages of seven and twelve, but not every day. Twice a week is the most diligent state, and when I'm lazy, I don't write a word for three consecutive months. After the age of 12, the length of the article plummeted, and at most there were less than ten articles in a year, and there were even cases where it was completely blank for several consecutive years.

Min Hui discovered a strange phenomenon: this diary seems to be written for the boy named "Xin Qi", and almost every entry mentions him. After Xin Qi left, Su Tian lost his interest in writing.

After reading all the diaries, Min Hui came to the following inferences:

One, Su Tian is Li Chunmiao. Chuncao lived in Yongquan Children's Welfare Institute when she was a child, and Su Tian was her name in the orphanage. Xin Qi and Su Tian also lived in the orphanage in the same year.

Second, when Su Tian was 12 years old, Xin Qi was adopted and left the orphanage to go "far, far away". Three months later, Su Tian was taken back to his hometown by his mother, and the two lost contact since then.

3. Ten years later, on July 7th, Su Tian went to wait for Xin Qi as scheduled, but Xin Qi did not appear. She wrote the last diary entry:

"July 7th, sunny.

Xin Qi, I went to the bridge to wait for you. I waited from five in the morning until one in the middle of the night, but you didn't show up. All day, a horrible thought went through my head: Are you dead? Remember that Fang Xiaokui, he and Sun Hao used to be against us every day. The day after you left, he suddenly ran to me and told me to stop thinking about you. He heard the teacher's words: The doctor said it was difficult for you to live past the age of fifteen. Hope this isn't true. In any case, I will wait for another three years, and then please show up. Don't worry, I will not force you to marry me, I just want to know if you are all right. "

After reading this, Min Hui felt a little hopeless: neither Xin Qi's letter nor Su Tian's diary clearly stated where the meeting took place. Going through the diary only found two relevant pieces of information: A) This is where they had their first ice cream. B) Near a bridge.

At ten o'clock in the morning on July 7, the train arrived in Yongquan City.

Min Hui originally planned to go to the Longhui District Children's Welfare Institute, where she would find out if there were any teachers from the Yongquan City Welfare Institute still working. Maybe they knew where the children in the orphanage usually eat ice cream.

After a few phone calls on the train that went unanswered, it was too late. She had to get off the bus one stop earlier, put on the white T-shirt with the pattern printed on it, hold the enamel water cup with Xin Qi's name written on it, and stroll around the former site of the Yongquan Welfare Institute.

Children in orphanages don't go out easily. The place to eat ice cream should be near the orphanage. Yongquan city is not big, with only a handful of rivers and lakes. Before getting off the bus, she opened the map and searched carefully. There were three bridges near the former site of the welfare home, within a 20-minute walk. One of them is a road bridge, and ice cream is unlikely to be sold on or near it.

Min Hui waited for an hour on each of the other two bridges, but no one came to recognize her. She immediately called a car and asked the driver to take her to walk around all the bridges nearby.

She walked back and forth on each bridge and waited ten minutes on either side of the bridge, and at six o'clock in the evening the taxi driver told her that all the bridges in Yongquan had been covered.

At this moment, Min Hui's stomach was growling with hunger, but she didn't dare to slack off. After buying two sausages on the side of the road, took a taxi. She suddenly realized that the bridge Su Tian mentioned might not be on water, but might be on the road.

"Where?" the driver asked.

"Uncle, is there an overpass in this area?"

It turns out that crossing the street overpass is not the right answer either.

There is no map on the map, the driver can only look for it based on his own memory. Min Hui took the orphanage as the center, went from near to far, went to a total of six overpasses across the street, searched every overpass, but did not encounter Xin Qi. It was already one o'clock in the morning when we finished looking for the last overpass.

During this period, she had passed by the old site of the orphanage many times, which had long been razed to the ground and replaced by a department store. Even the primary and secondary schools nearby are gone. The driver said that this area belonged to the old urban area more than ten years ago. After nearly ten years of development and renovation, it has already been turned upside down and changed beyond recognition.

The day was so tiring that when she returned to the hotel, Min Hui slept without washing her feet.

When she woke up the next day, Min Hui suddenly thought: If she were Su Tian, ​​would she believe the promise of a twelve-year-old boy? Will you wait for him by the bridge in thirteen years?

And will this boy who went far away come back to fulfill his oath? Will you marry her, love her, and take care of her for the rest of your life?

When he knew that Su Tian was just a foot-washing girl, would he regret it?

Three years ago, Su Tian went to the appointment as scheduled, and did not wait for Xin Qi. Min Hui felt that this already showed that the boy's words were unreliable.

Didn't the doctor also say he didn't live to be fifteen years old?

This Xin Qi is probably already dead.