Children have good recovery abilities. By breakfast time, Bei Yao was much better.

Zhao Zhilan had requested leave from the factory to take care of Bei Yao specifically. She worked at a garment factory, spending each day at a sewing machine making clothes. Her monthly salary was four hundred and thirty yuan, which was considered quite good treatment.

Breakfast was a bowl of thin porridge and a bowl of pickles. Only Bei Yao’s bowl had a plump white egg in it.

Footsteps sounded in the hallway going downstairs, then a woman’s shrill voice called from outside the door: “Zhao Zhilan!”

Zhao Zhilan called back loudly: “I’m not going to work today, I requested leave, you go ahead.”

The woman muttered: “Could have said so earlier.” Then she twisted her waist and left.

Bei Yao looked up at her mother, who indeed had a dark expression on her face.

That woman was called Zhao Xiu. She and Zhao Zhilan used to be from the same village. By coincidence, both women later married into C City and became neighbors, working at the garment factory. Two years later, they both got pregnant in the same year and both gave birth to daughters in August. People around them couldn’t help comparing Zhao Xiu and Zhao Zhilan.

Unfortunately, Zhao Zhilan couldn’t compare to Zhao Xiu in anything.

Zhao Zhilan’s husband, Bei Yao’s father, worked at a brick and tile factory—the work was arduous and the salary wasn’t high. Zhao Xiu’s husband was an elementary school math teacher, respected by others, and the work was respectable too.

This alone wouldn’t make Zhao Zhilan petty, but the main comparison was between their daughters.

The daughter Zhao Xiu gave birth to was called Fang Mingjun. She was half a month older than Bei Yao. Fang Mingjun was born delicate and adorable. Unlike the roundness of her peers, she was born refined and proper, like a little jade maiden. Everyone who saw her said this child would grow up beautiful!

In comparison, Bei Yao became the one who was crushed.

Four-year-old Bei Yao had round cheeks and very large eyes, but young Bei Yao ate a lot. With two little tufts on her head, her entire person was round, chubby, and adorably silly. Every time Zhao Xiu saw little Bei Yao, she would cover her mouth and laugh: “What has Yaoyao been eating? The flesh on her little hands is a full size bigger than my Minmin’s.”

Praising on the surface, mocking underneath. Because Zhao Zhilan was overweight, she was implying it was a hereditary problem.

Bei Yao saw her mother’s unhappy expression and gently sighed.

Her family’s financial situation had always been mediocre—there was no comparing when it came to luck. In her memory, Fang Mingjun’s family moved away during middle school, having bought a new house. Two years later that new house was demolished for redevelopment, so they were allocated two apartments. Fang Mingjun’s family got better and better, while Bei Yao’s family lent money to her uncle and remained poor.

Only in one aspect did the Bei family completely turn things around—

By their first year of high school, Fang Mingjun had grown up ugly, the “little jade maiden” becoming harsh-featured.

While Bei Yao, after her growth spurt, was like a tender leaf unfurling, developing breathtakingly beautiful and becoming the school beauty of C City No. 2 High School.

But Bei Yao had no way to comfort her mother. Saying things like “I’ll become very pretty later”—even if she said it, Zhao Zhilan would at most take it as childish nonsense. Last night, Bei Yao had thought hazily all night long. Rebirth was too mystical. She was grateful to have a chance to start over and possess everything again. Therefore, she planned to obediently be a four-year-old little girl, stay by her parents’ side to care for them in their old age. Even if she never married in this lifetime, she would never again harm her parents, making them suffer despair in middle age over her affairs.

She obediently finished her meal, and Zhao Zhilan wiped her mouth.

Bei Yao said in her baby voice: “Mommy, I want to go to kindergarten.”

Zhao Zhilan laughed: “Usually you won’t go out even when we push you to go. Today you’re sick and can skip.”

Bei Yao was sick, her voice soft and weak: “I want to go.” Her eyes were earnest and misty.

Zhao Zhilan’s heart softened. She touched her forehead: “Then go in the afternoon.”

Bei Yao remembered her father’s words from the morning—that Pei Chuan hadn’t been picked up all night—and felt somewhat uneasy. However, a four-year-old child’s arm couldn’t twist past a thigh, so she could only listen to Zhao Zhilan.

In the afternoon, Bei Yao was successfully sent to kindergarten.

Several Chinese toon trees were planted at the entrance to “Evergreen Kindergarten”—touching them would leave a stinky smell. Inside the yard, several plum blossom trees were planted, fragrant throughout winter. The kindergarten in 1996 had simple equipment, lacking facilities like slides.

There were only two seesaws made of wooden planks, sitting lonely in the yard.

Summer weather changed quickly. When the sun came out, the melted hail wetted the seesaws, making them temporarily unusable.

Teacher Xiao Zhao was organizing the children to play games.

Teacher Xiao Wu wouldn’t arrive until next week. Teacher Zhao alone was so busy her feet barely touched the ground.

When Zhao Zhilan placed Bei Yao’s soft little hand into Teacher Xiao Zhao’s hand, Bei Yao looked into the classroom. The children were playing Drop the Handkerchief. Everyone was clapping their hands and singing, except one person—

Pei Chuan turned his head sideways and met Bei Yao’s gaze.

His eyes were empty, containing nothing.

But in just a brief moment, he turned his head back and no longer looked at her.

Pei Chuan was also placed among the children. Because he had no legs, he was undoubtedly the most special child in the kindergarten. Teacher Xiao Zhao pitied him, the children feared and disliked him—such a contradictory existence, he seemed to have become a burden to the entire kindergarten.

Therefore, Pei Chuan was incompatible with everyone.

The children sang in their tender voices. Teacher Xiao Zhao smiled as she placed Bei Yao among the children. Bei Yao was directly across from Pei Chuan.

“Drop, oh drop, drop the handkerchief, gently drop it behind a little friend, everyone don’t tell him, quickly quickly catch him, quickly quickly catch him~”

The handkerchief fell behind Chen Hu. The chubby boy didn’t react. Only when the children all laughed looking at him did Chen Hu suddenly turn around, see the blue handkerchief behind him, and bounce up like a little meatball to catch someone. But the child in front had already returned to their own seat.

Chen Hu became the next person to drop the handkerchief, feeling dejected. He first sang a nursery rhyme the teacher taught as punishment, then continued the game.

The four and five-year-old children sitting in a circle clapped their hands: “Drop, oh drop, drop the handkerchief~”

Amidst the children’s tender singing, the chubby boy’s eyes rolled, looking toward Pei Chuan in his wheelchair. Bei Yao’s heart jumped. In her previous life, she hadn’t come to kindergarten this day, but from the next day onward, Pei Chuan never spoke again, even refusing to come to kindergarten, completely becoming a silent, taciturn boy.

So what had he experienced?

The song continued. The chubby Chen Hu dropped the handkerchief behind Pei Chuan. At this time, Teacher Xiao Zhao had taken a child with a stomachache to the bathroom.

The whole scene suddenly went quiet. Even as children, they sensitively knew that Pei Chuan had no legs—he couldn’t catch anyone.

Pei Chuan turned around and looked down to see the handkerchief behind him.

Chen Hu made a smug face at him. The children were amused by his comical appearance and giggled.

Little Pei Chuan bit his lip, one hand supporting the low wheelchair while struggling to bend down.

Chen Hu pointed at him laughing loudly.

Bei Yao’s heart beat fast. Don’t pick it up… don’t go pick it up…

The sound of cicadas chirped continuously from the summer Chinese toon trees.

Pei Chuan bit his lip hard and laboriously picked up the handkerchief. His eyes were dark and heavy, like a silent abyss.

Amidst all the children’s laughter, his thin arms began to exert force driving the wheelchair forward.

Unfortunately, his legs had just been severed this year at age five, and he wasn’t familiar with the wheelchair.

Each push of that wheelchair seemed like a snail crawling.

The children’s exclamations drove him forward. He looked at no one, the blue handkerchief draped over his incomplete legs, chasing Chen Hu ahead.

The cicada sounds came one after another.

Chen Hu deliberately ran very slowly, holding his belly laughing.

Pei Chuan pushed in the wrong direction.

He couldn’t control the wheelchair’s direction, nor did he know how to apply force properly.

In this summer at age five, he was like a trapped beast. Irritably and desperately driving the wheelchair in pursuit. Stubbornly refusing to admit defeat.

The naive children were all laughing at him.

He held back tears, wanting to catch hold of something. So he adjusted the wheelchair again and again.

Bei Yao stared at him with wide apricot eyes.

The older one grows, the more one forgets many things from childhood. In her memory, Pei Chuan was a disabled youth without legs, but that was all. Her life had no place for him. If he hadn’t become a “devil” and once expressionlessly protected her, perhaps even living life over again she wouldn’t pay him much attention.

He was the world’s devil, but he was Bei Yao’s benefactor.

He had treated her as his heart’s treasure, secretly cherishing her for a lifetime.

She realized she had to do something.

When Chen Hu came bouncing and jumping over, Bei Yao clumsily turned around and hugged Chen Hu’s legs.

Chen Hu cried out: “Bei Yao let go, what are you doing?” The chubby boy stamped his feet, trying to shake Bei Yao off.

The four-year-old girl’s body had no strength. The chubby boy was like a little bull, and when he anxiously charged about, Bei Yao could barely hold onto him.

Bei Yao blinked her eyes. Like a piece of sticky candy, she half-lay on the ground tightly hugging the chubby boy’s legs, not letting him go. No matter how strong the five-year-old chubby boy was, he couldn’t possibly run circles carrying “little sticky candy.”

The kindergarten immediately descended into chaos.

The summer of July was hot. Bei Yao wore bean-green cloth shorts, barely reaching her knees in length. Her exposed little legs were nearly rubbed red by the ground.

Children’s skin was tender. Her apricot eyes carried reckless sweetness, her whole person almost lying flat on the ground.

Because she still had a fever, Bei Yao’s baby voice was somewhat hoarse: “You’re not allowed to leave!”

Chen Hu couldn’t break free and was going crazy. Finally, he burst into tears with a “wah.”

Bei Yao was stunned.

She looked up blankly at the wailing chubby boy, then turned to look at Pei Chuan not far away. Why, why wasn’t he coming over to catch him?

What should she do—she’d made little Chen Hu cry?

Pei Chuan held the blue handkerchief and looked down at her. She happened to look up, a pair of apricot eyes especially brilliant in the summer sunlight, helpless and confused as she gazed up at him.

Chen Hu wailed loudly, his voice high-pitched like a plucked rooster, crying out snot bubbles.

Pei Chuan looked at her misty eyes and Chen Hu, whom she had trapped and who was now jumping in frustration.

He pressed his lips together, dropped the handkerchief on the ground, and without another glance at them, laboriously pushed his wheelchair to the doorway.

The handkerchief fell in front of Bei Yao. She was still lying there, maintaining the posture of trapping Chen Hu, not knowing whether to let go or not.

Chen Hu cried loudly. The younger children in the kindergarten also started crying. As soon as Teacher Xiao Zhao entered, she saw this scene and hurried forward to pick up little Bei Yao.

Pei Chuan had already reached the door.

From inside came the sound of Teacher Xiao Zhao coaxing the chubby boy.

He looked toward the doorway. It was already the second afternoon, and Dad and Mom still hadn’t come.

Behind him was complete chaos.

Pei Chuan never looked back once. Though he never spoke, he knew many things. For instance, the kindergarten’s acknowledged most popular children were Chen Hu and Fang Mingjun.

Because Chen Hu could be funny and would lead everyone in play, Fang Mingjun was pretty and dressed beautifully and exquisitely.

And also, that little girl who had just looked at him with bright shining eyes was the youngest girl in the kindergarten, sent to kindergarten only at the beginning of this month. She lived in the same residential complex as his family.

She loved to cry, was delicate, and got sick easily.

They all called her Yaoyao.