The hobby of collecting hairpins was similar to picking up that little girl's things.
He knew the little girl would chase after him and watch him whenever she had the chance, but he didn't dare have any interaction with her because he didn't know if, once his mother found out he was playing with her, it would be her or him who would be "torn apart." If it were him, he wouldn't be afraid, but sometimes he had dreams where the dog that was beaten to death lay there on the ground, blood flowing, and it was her instead...
How could he dare to pay her any attention?
He only secretly and intentionally left behind some things for her to pick up, just as he would pick up her things as well.
Was it also stemming from the rebellious thrill at the time?
That was all it could be.
But who could have foreseen that twenty years later, she would appear before him again, with that genuine smile of an old friend reuniting, calling him "Xiao Xu."
