"Li Zhi..." Although Yan Qiu tried his best to restrain himself, a faint mist rose before Yan Qiu's eyes, "Have you been to Qian'an?"

"No." Li Zhi said, raised his hand and wiped the end of his eyes with his thumb, and explained: "I just drew a picture based on your 'hometown', and then sent someone to refine the drawing."

"I want you to take me there yourself one day."

"Okay." Yan Qiu smiled at him, then looked at the walnut tree not far away.

"When the walnut tree blooms, we will go back together."

Yan Qiu stayed in that Chinese-style villa until very late.

Li Zhi said that he knew that he didn't like the Li family's villa, so he chose it again.

He also deliberately restored the "hometown" one by one, hoping that he can find a sense of belonging here.

Yan Qiu thought, in fact, God has always been fair.

Perhaps the reason why he was so miserable in his last life and experienced all the misfortunes in the world is because he will meet Li Zhi in this life.

The lack of family affection and love, God used Li Zhi to make up for him.

Therefore, he still has no reason not to cherish it.

After they came out of the villa, Li Zhi sent him downstairs.

Yan Qiu got out of the car and waved goodbye to him, "Then I'll leave first."

"Well, go to bed earlier." Li Zhi looked at him and replied.

"You also go to bed earlier, don't stay up late."

"Okay." Li Zhi assured.

After saying goodbye, Yan Qiu was about to close the car door when Li Zhi suddenly added, "See you tomorrow."

Yan Qiu was taken aback when he heard the words, tried hard to suppress the corners of his lips that were about to raise, and replied, "See you tomorrow."

After the two said their goodbyes, Yan Qiu watched his car completely disappear from sight before turning around and walking upstairs.

Although the matter between Mrs. Fu and Qin Mu in the morning was a little sad, but because of Li Zhi, Yan Qiu still felt that today was more fun.

So until he got into the elevator, the smile on his face didn't fade away.

However, this happiness did not last long.

The elevator door opened, and as soon as Yan Qiu got out, he saw a figure standing in front of his house.

He stomped his feet, and the voice-activated lights above his head turned on.

The person at the door probably stood in the dark for too long, and felt uncomfortable for a while, his eyes narrowed in discomfort.

It turned out to be Lu Ruan.

She was much older than the last time we met, wearing a black windbreaker, and wearing makeup as usual, but no matter how delicate her face was, she couldn't hide the tiredness on her face.

When Yan Qiu saw her, the smile on his face fell instantly.

Lu Ruan also saw the change in his expression, the smile on his face was a bit awkward, but he still walked forward and said flatteringly, "Xiaoqiu, you're back."

"How do you know this place?" Yan Qiu asked seriously, ignoring the intimacy deliberately revealed in her words.

Even his grandfather doesn't know his current address, why did Lu Ruan find this place?

Hearing this, Lu Ruan's expression became even more embarrassed, his eyes averted a little, as if he wanted to avoid this topic.

So he raised the things in his hands and said to him: "Today is your birthday, this is mom... I made the cake myself, would you like to have a bite?"

As Lu Ruan said, she wanted to come over and hand him the cake in her hand.

However, Yan Qiu didn't answer, and just asked again: "How did you know this place?"

Looking at his expression, Lu Ruan knew that there was no way to hide it, so she quickly apologized, "I'm sorry, I hired a private detective."

"You!" Yan Qiu looked at her in disbelief.

Seeing this, Lu Ruan quickly explained: "I don't want to, I just want to see you, I really can't help it, Xiaoqiu, don't be angry, today is your birthday, I just want to celebrate your birthday."

As Lu Ruan said, she subconsciously reached out to shake his hand, but Yan Qiu dodged it before touching it.

"I don't need it, you get out of here." Yan Qiu took out his mobile phone, "Otherwise I will call the police and let the police handle this matter."

Lu Ruan didn't seem to expect him to be so unfeeling, looked at him helplessly and said, "I just want to see you, today is your birthday, I have no other intentions, I just want to see you."

Yan Qiu looked at her coldly, seeing that she had no intention of leaving at all, he lowered his head and started calling 110.

As soon as he pressed a 1, his finger was held down by Lu Ruan who suddenly rushed over.

Yan Qiu just wanted to get rid of her, but Lu Ruan suddenly said to him: "I went to Qian'an."

These two words successfully stunned Yan Qiu for a moment, and stopped his movements.

He lowered his eyes and looked at Lu Ruan with some puzzlement, "What do you want to do?"

Lu Ruan seemed to be trying to force a smile in front of him, but before his lips could be raised, tears fell down first.

"I was looking through photos at home some time ago, and I found Shen Ze, Shuang Chi, without you alone, and then I remembered that you have been back for so long, and I don't even have a photo of you, but then I remembered, I don’t have more than your photo.”

Lu Ruan said, sobbing softly.

"I didn't grow up with you, I didn't hug you, I didn't get along with you well, and I didn't make up for you after you came back. I don't know how you grew up these years? What kind of life did you live?What kind of experience have you had? I don’t know your height, your wishes, your troubles, or what you like to eat.”

"That's when I realized that I was so dereliction of duty."

"So I went to Qian'an, I want to visit the place where you lived for the past twenty years, and I want to know more about you..."

When Lu Ruan said this, she couldn't control her tears any longer, and they fell down in big drops, "Then I realized that my Xiaoqiu, it turns out that these years have been so difficult."

She saw with her own eyes the room where Yan Qiu grew up in Qian'an, and pieced together the trajectory of Yan Qiu's life in the first twenty years from the mouths of her neighbors.

When Fu Shuangchi had just been picked up from the old house and she was desperately trying to make amends to him because of her guilt, Yan Qiu had almost just been picked up from the countryside.

However, what he waited for was not the guilt and pity of his parents, but the abuse of being angered.

While Fu Shuangchi was sitting in the luxuriously decorated piano room, playing millions of pianos, her child, who was not as tall as the chopping board, had to step on a stool to learn to cook. Hot water was poured on her arms, leaving marks that could not be erased for life.

When Fu Shuangchi faced the table full of delicacies, picky eaters lost his temper and refused to eat. His children were cut off from meals for various reasons. When they were in need of nutrition, they could only eat steamed buns to satisfy their hunger.

So why did she hesitate because she was worried about Fu Shuangchi's psychological imbalance when discussing whether to take Yan Qiu back?

So when the information about Yan Qiu was sent to her, why didn't she even take a second look?

So why did he blindly favor Fu Shuangchi even though he knew that Yan Qiu was the one owed the most?

"Yes... Mom, I'm sorry." It took Lu Ruan a long time to say this title, and she knew how unworthy she was of being Yan Qiu's mother.

"Really sorry."

Lu Ruan tightly held the cake in his hand with one hand, and covered his chest with the other, crying so hard that he couldn't help it.

"I saw that diary..." Lu Ruan said word by word with difficulty.

The basement-like small and damp room that Yan Qiu used to live in is now full of sundries.

Lu Ruan searched inside for a long time before finally finding something related to Yan Qiu.

It was a diary that Yan Qiu kept when he was a child.

He himself probably forgot about it, and he didn't take it with him when he left, so he just left it in a corner of the room.

The words on it were crooked and immature, but Yan Qiu wrote every stroke very seriously.

"On September 14, 2011, the weather was fine. Yesterday Li Siren suddenly gave me a piece of candy when he was in class. Although I don't know why he doesn't hate me anymore, I was very happy and kept it in my hand until I went to bed at night.At that time, the sugar had been covered with heat, and I carefully opened the sugar for fear of melting, but there was a stone inside."

"On October 13, 2011, it was raining. Today is my brother's birthday. My mother cooked a table of dishes and a cake. My brother walked up to me with the cake and asked me if I wanted to eat it. I want to eat it.But he didn't give it to me, he just ate it in front of my face."

"November 11, 2011, it rained again, today is my birthday, my mother didn't make a cake, she hugged my brother and scolded me, said it was difficult to give birth to me, she was in pain, said my birthday was unlucky, saidIt was me who put the family in this situation, she scolded for a long time, and then asked me to cook. While cooking, I was thinking, if only I could make a cake, I could make one for myself, and for my little oneHei also makes one, Xiao Hei is a stray dog, and no one should celebrate his birthday, but I still want to eat the cake made by my mother, I really want to eat it.”

Some tears fell on the dusty diary, blurring patches of dirty water.

At this moment, Lu Ruan seemed to have finally realized the blood relationship between him and Yan Qiu.

She didn't care about the dust and dirt on the diary, and put the dilapidated diary into her bosom.

Every word she saw just now evolved into specific pictures before her eyes, and then turned into a knife, piercing into her heart one by one.

Lu Ruan was in so much pain that he could hardly breathe.

"I saw that diary." Lu Ruan said again.

"You wrote it when you were very young. You said you wanted to eat the cake made by your mother. I made it myself." Lu Ruan said, lifting the cake in his hand and handing it to him.

"I'm not asking you to forgive me, I can't forgive myself, I just, I just..."

Guilt, remorse, and pain twisted into ropes in her heart at some point, strangling her throat, limbs, and heart.

It made her speechless, made her lose the courage to walk over, made her heartbroken, and made her breathless.

"I just hope you can take a bite."

"Cake?" Yan Qiu seemed to have finally remembered something, smiled suddenly, and reached out to her.

Lu Ruan looked at his fingers stretched towards her, with great surprise in his eyes, and quickly handed the cake with trembling fingers.

However, just as Yan Qiu took it, he let go of it.

With a "snap", the cake fell to the ground, and the voice-activated light that had just been turned off turned on again, illuminating Lu Ruan, who was as pale as paper, and the cake that was lumped together on the ground.

"I've forgotten it a long time ago." Yan Qiu glanced at the cake on the ground, and said to Lu Ruan with no expression on his face.

"Don't mess with these things I no longer need. Are you compensating me or comforting yourself?"

After Yan Qiu finished speaking, he passed her and took out the key, opened the door and walked in.

The door was closed again and again, as if a guillotine had fallen, cutting off the last connection between them.

Lu Ruan stayed in place for a long time, and then, as if all the bones in her body had been taken out, she slid down the door behind her little by little.

She stared straight at the cake that was not far away and could no longer see its true colors, and suddenly realized something, and took out her mobile phone from her pocket.

11:58.

In two minutes, Yan Qiu's birthday will pass.

So she quickly opened the cake, took out colored candles and inserted them one by one, and lit the candles with a match.

The sensor light above the head has gone out.

In the darkness, the candlelight in front of him was particularly dazzling.

Lu Ruan didn't dare to speak out, just clapped her hands gently and sang the birthday song.

"Happy birthday to you!"

"Happy birthday to you!"

"Happy birthday to you!"

"I wish Xiaoqiu... happy birthday!"

Lu Ruan didn't blow out the candles, but watched them burn out bit by bit.

When the last candle was extinguished, the entire corridor was plunged into bottomless darkness.

Lu Ruan's mind was in a mess, and after a while she remembered what Fu Jianting said to herself, "He will never forgive us again".

After a while, he thought of Yan Qiu's first day back at Fu's house.

I went to see him with dessert, the words he said to himself.

"Some concerns come too late, and there is no need to come again."

The author has something to say: