My single sentence plunged them both into complete silence.

“Yes…” Siwei Jie said. “Even if we can build something similar, Hero’s daily workload will be just as heavy.”

“I don’t mind.” I told them. “Big brother, big sister, I don’t mind at all.”

“But your body…” Siwei Jie looked at me and suddenly froze. “Ah, Hero!”

I was startled and reached up to touch my face—I was having a nosebleed again.

Ever since there were more and more ‘Fragrance holders’ in the family, I smelled more and more scents, and my nose would bleed all day long.

Seeing this, Siwei Jie hurriedly came over and reached out to touch my nose: “Hero… it’s okay, it doesn’t hurt, it doesn’t hurt. It’ll be better in a moment.”

She would say this every time, with a very pleasant scent of “healing” on her.

If only my mother could be half as good as Siwei Jie… how wonderful that would be.

I remember when I was in first grade, I saw other children’s parents coming to pick them up after school. One child fell down, and his mother came forward to comfort him for a long time.

So after I got home, I imitated him and “accidentally” fell down in the living room. Mom didn’t come over to help me up—she just kept laughing at me for being foolish from the side.

I also laughed foolishly along with her while lying on the ground. So I stood up and fell down again, then stood up after falling.

I wanted to make Mom laugh.

I really hoped Mom could come over and say to me, “It doesn’t hurt, it doesn’t hurt. It’ll be better in a moment.”

But I made my knees and palms hurt badly from falling, and Mom just kept laughing at me for being an idiot.

They wanted to help me, but I wanted to help them. We were caught in a whirlpool of pulling at each other.

That day, after returning to the real world after school, Xu Jiahua, who had been standing as punishment all day, picked up his backpack and walked out of the classroom. I didn’t go home but followed him instead.

My mom and dad wouldn’t talk to me, but I really had too many questions I wanted to ask someone.

“Zheng Yingxiong, what are you doing?” Xu Jiahua draped his school uniform over his shoulder and turned back to ask. “You’re not going home after school?”

“Xu Jiahua, I want to ask you a few questions.”

“Ask questions?” Xu Jiahua stopped and turned back to look at me. “Ask me?”

“Mm.”

He scratched his head, emitting a scent of confusion, then held out his hand: “One question costs ten cents.”

After hearing this, I didn’t hesitate. I took out the cold one-yuan coin from my pocket and handed it to him.

I didn’t eat lunch at noon today. After all, I was already used to going hungry. If I didn’t use this saved one yuan now, there wouldn’t be any other opportunity to use it.

“Huh? This much?!” He held the coin and froze for a moment. “Damn… what are you doing?”

“I’ll give it all to you. I have many questions I want to ask.”

Not only did I have many questions to ask, I also wanted to say sorry to Xu Jiahua.

“Then, then wait…” He looked at the coin in the center of his palm, then grabbed my wrist. “Zheng Yingxiong! Come with me!”

I followed him as he ran across two streets and came to the front of a small store.

“Grandma!” Xu Jiahua called out happily.

Within a few seconds, a very elderly grandma poked her head out from inside. The moment she saw Xu Jiahua, the wrinkles on her face relaxed a bit. She laughed in a gentle voice: “Ah Hua, buying fifty-cent vegetable buns again? Those two buns have been kept warm for you—they’ve been ready for a while…”

“No! No, no!” Xu Jiahua hurriedly waved his hands. “Grandma, don’t talk nonsense! When have I ever bought two vegetable buns for fifty cents…”

“Huh…?” Grandma froze. “What’s wrong with you…?”

“Ahem! I…” Xu Jiahua cleared his throat loudly. “Grandma! I have a friend visiting today, and I want to treat him to drinks!”

“Drinks…?” Grandma blinked somewhat suspiciously. “Ah Hua, how do you suddenly have money?”

“Aiya!” Xu Jiahua’s voice got quiet again. “Grandma! Don’t worry about it! Just give me the drinks!”

“Then… do you want sugar water?” Grandma pointed at the wrinkled plastic bottles to the side. “Ten cents per bottle.”

“Sugar… how can sugar water work?” Xu Jiahua kept clutching the coin in his hand hesitantly. After a few seconds, he turned to look at the delicate little glass bottles to the side. “Grandma! I want that! I want cola!”

“Cola…?” Grandma was startled. “Ah Hua! Cola is fifty cents per bottle! You usually eat…”

“Aiya, never mind!”

Xu Jiahua hurriedly handed over his coin, exchanged it for two glass bottles of Coca-Cola from Grandma’s hands, then pulled me away at a run.

From far away, I could still hear Grandma shouting from behind: “Ah Hua, remember to return the bottles!”

“I know, Grandma!”

We sat on the bridge abutment, cradling the pitch-black water in our hands, neither of us daring to drink.

This bottle of black water fizzed in my hand, and my heart also fizzed. I seemed to be no different from the black water in the bottle—after leaving the bottle, I would fall into someone else’s belly.

“Holy cow… Coca-Cola…” Xu Jiahua held the glass bottle up to his eyes and stared at it carefully. “So strange, and it has little bubbles…”

I didn’t listen to what he said. I was just calculating in my mind how I should speak up.

Although I had countless questions to ask, that sentence still had to be said first…

“I’m sor—”

“I’m sorry, Zheng Yingxiong.” Xu Jiahua said while staring at the glass bottle.

“Huh…?”

“I mean about asking you for money all the time. You saw it just now…” Xu Jiahua touched his head embarrassedly, then showed a particularly nice smile. “There’s no one at my home, and at night my stomach growls with hunger. If I didn’t have your fifty cents every day, I couldn’t even afford vegetable buns. Thank you for treating me to meals these past two weeks.”

After hearing him finish this sentence, I felt his scent became even more pleasant than before.

Although my life stopped at eight years old, I had spent five years in that “prison.”

I was no longer a child.

These few years of experience told me that before trying to communicate with others, I must pay attention to the scent on them.

Everyone in this world has a complex scent, but I only fear two types of scents—one is the extremely foul scent like Wan Bobo’s, and the other is the almost undetectable scent like the other family members’.

But the scent on Xu Jiahua had always been pleasant.

Now I had also learned how to understand a person—I didn’t need to see whether they had done something bad or not.

“Xu Jiahua, you can tell me the truth.” I asked with my head tilted. “Why do you have to say it’s ‘collecting protection fees’?”

“Aiya… that way seems more like a big brother.” Xu Jiahua smiled embarrassedly. “But I’ve already recognized your character—from now on, I won’t treat you as a little brother anymore!”

The two of us sat by the river on a sweltering summer evening, watching adults fly past on bicycles, listening to the cicadas sing.

“Xu Jiahua, I don’t want to be a little brother. Can I be your friend for one day?” I asked.

“Be friends for ‘one day’?” He blinked. “What kind of question is that? We can be friends from now on!”