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“Zhuang Zi’ang, are you feeling unwell? Why are you bleeding from your nose again?”
Su Yudie asked innocently as she followed behind him.
After cleaning himself up, Zhuang Zi’ang turned around and said, “If you button up your shirt, I probably won’t have a nosebleed.”
Su Yudie looked down at her chest, recalling the angle at which he had just viewed her, and her cheeks instantly flushed bright red.
“Pervert! I’m not talking to you anymore!”
“Xiao Butterfly, I’m really sorry! I didn’t mean to,” Zhuang Zi’ang quickly apologized.
Of course, Su Yudie wasn’t truly angry, but she had to pretend to maintain her modesty.
She buttoned her shirt up tightly and sat on the sofa, becoming a bit sullen.
Zhuang Zi’ang opened the bag on the table, and a delightful aroma wafted out.
This little foodie had bought quite a lot of delicious food.
He picked up a sauced meat bun, took a bite, and exclaimed exaggeratedly, “Wow, this bun is so good!”
Su Yudie glanced over, swallowed hard, then huffed and turned her head away.
Zhuang Zi’ang held up a bun to her mouth, teasing, “If you don’t eat it, I’ll finish it all!”
“How dare you!” Su Yudie turned back and took a bite out of the bun, nearly biting his fingers off.
Next, he took out a bowl of lean meat porridge from the bag, scooped up a spoonful, blew on it, and offered it to Xiao Butterfly’s mouth. “Ah!”
Su Yudie obediently opened her mouth, accepting his feeding.
No foodie can resist the temptation of delicious food.
Zhuang Zi’ang smiled, “Now that’s more like it!”
He enjoyed the pleasure of feeding Xiao Butterfly.
After a few spoonfuls, Su Yudie felt a bit shy and took the bowl to eat herself.
Zhuang Zi’ang had to start on his own portion as well.
The earlier awkwardness quickly dissipated.
“By the way, last night I ran into that old con man you mentioned; he was setting up a fortune-telling stall on the overpass,” Zhuang Zi’ang casually remarked.
“What did he say to you?” Su Yudie’s expression suddenly turned tense.
“He just spouted a bunch of nonsense that I barely understood, and I ended up getting scammed into buying a bowl of beef noodles,” Zhuang Zi’ang laughed.
Upon hearing this, Su Yudie let out a small sigh of relief.
Zhuang Zi’ang continued, “Actually, I wanted to learn a song from him — it’s the one that played the first time I met you, but I don’t know where it came from.”
Su Yudie looked puzzled. “Really? I didn’t hear it.”
“Didn’t you? I remember just a little bit of the beginning; let me play it for you.”
Zhuang Zi’ang picked up a bamboo flute and played the prelude to “Dream Butterfly.”
Having not practiced in a long time, he hit a few wrong notes, and it didn’t sound very pleasant.
Su Yudie giggled, “That sounded great, but maybe you shouldn’t play it again.”
That was a popular internet meme, akin to an insult.
Zhuang Zi’ang couldn’t help but feel disheartened by the critique of his flute playing.
“What? I thought this tune had some connection to you!” he said as he put down the bamboo flute in disappointment.
Su Yudie turned her head away, and after a moment, she looked back.
Her beautiful, expressive eyes had a slight redness to them.
“Stay away from that old con man. Don’t believe anything he says; otherwise, you might end up getting cheated out of your pants,” she warned.
Zhuang Zi’ang nodded earnestly. “Okay, I’ll listen to you.”
After finishing breakfast, the two of them headed out to catch the bus.
The morning sun warmed the earth.
Xiao Butterfly’s deep blue pleated skirt looked stunning, reminiscent of the sea.
To get to Nanhua Village from the city, they needed to transfer three times.
Along the way, Su Yudie kept sharing corny jokes with Zhuang Zi’ang.
Some of the jokes were so awkward that the people sitting nearby couldn’t help but squirm in their seats.
After a while, when she got tired, she rested her head on Zhuang Zi’ang’s shoulder and took a short nap.
Zhuang Zi’ang inhaled the faint fragrance of the girl’s hair, a smile creeping onto his lips.
A gentle breeze tousled a few stray strands of hair, brushing against his face and sending shivers down his spine.
It also stirred the heart of the young boy.
During their last transfer, they arrived in a small town.
Zhuang Zi’ang bought a large stash of nutritional supplements to bring as gifts for his grandparents.
Only then did Xiao Butterfly react, asking, “Aren’t we going out to play? Where exactly are we going?”
Zhuang Zi’ang smiled and replied, “To my home.”
Xiao Butterfly blushed shyly.
Meeting the parents was such an embarrassing thing!
Once she learned that there were only two kind elderly people at his home, she felt a bit more at ease and insisted on using her own money to buy some small gifts for them.
Nanhua Village was a beautiful and tranquil little village, where most villagers shared the surname Zhuang. Perhaps the village was named to commemorate the South China Real Person from over two thousand years ago.
A small stream wound through the entrance of the village, its water flowing gently and crystal clear.
The mountains were adorned with blooming red azaleas.
Groups of butterflies danced gracefully among the flowers.
From the forest came the distinctive calls of the cuckoo.
The scene was reminiscent of the famous lines in “Jinse”:
“Zhuang Zhou dreamed of butterflies in the morning, and the Emperor Wang entrusted his spring heart to the cuckoo.”
Su Yudie stepped onto the stone bridge at the village entrance, where the quietly flowing stream below revealed clear swimming fish.
The sea-like hem of her skirt billowed in the breeze.
She excitedly shouted, “Big dummy, this place is so beautiful!”
Zhuang Zi’ang smiled at her, recalling a famous saying:
“I wish to become a stone bridge, enduring five hundred years of wind, five hundred years of rain, and five hundred years of sunshine, just to see this girl walk across.”
Crossing the stone bridge, they saw the homes of the villagers, with thin wisps of smoke rising from chimneys.
In one courtyard of a simple house, his grandfather, Zhuang Jianguo, leaned on his cane, eagerly looking out.
Zhuang Zi’ang’s grandmother, Lin Suzhen, was the epitome of a rural woman; she wasn’t highly educated but was hardworking, kind, and frugal.
Names like Jianguo and Suzhen had a characteristic of their time.
“Grandpa!” Zhuang Zi’ang waved from a distance.
“Zi’ang!” Zhuang Jianguo responded excitedly as he came forward.
The reunion of grandfather and grandson brought tears to their eyes.
Despite Su Yudie usually being carefree and talkative, she felt a bit shy upon meeting Zhuang Zi’ang’s grandfather.
Zhuang Zi’ang introduced her, saying, “Grandpa, let me introduce you to—”
“No need to introduce; this is Xiao Butterfly!” Zhuang Jianguo said with a hearty laugh.
Seeing Xiao Butterfly, his wrinkles seemed to smooth out with joy.
“How do you know me, Grandpa?” Su Yudie asked curiously.
“I saw your picture on Zi’ang’s phone,” Zhuang Jianguo replied, his eyes filled with happiness.
Although his eyesight wasn’t great, he had seen a blurry figure of Xiao Butterfly in the surveillance video last time.
But now that his grandson brought back a beautiful girl, he could guess who she was — the girl his grandson had been thinking about.
Knowing that Zhuang Zi’ang was coming back, Lin Suzhen had been busy in the kitchen early that morning.
Hearing voices outside, she hurried out, joyfully exclaiming, “Zi’ang, Grandma missed you so much!”
Zhuang Zi’ang rushed forward and hugged his grandmother tightly. “Grandma, I missed you too.”
Lin Suzhen, having learned from Zhuang Jianguo about the many troubles her grandson had faced, felt a deep pang of sorrow.
At that moment, she lovingly stroked his back, tears streaming down her cheeks uncontrollably.
Su Yudie then handed the small gifts she had bought to Zhuang Jianguo.
“You shouldn’t have bought anything,” he said happily.
The two elders never suspected that Zhuang Zi’ang’s return this time was to say his final goodbyes.
In a little over two months, they would be forever separated.
Large tears slipped from the corners of Zhuang Zi’ang’s eyes, silently falling onto Lin Suzhen’s clothing.