Yan Yan stood silently next to the painting called "Xia Shi," staring at it without blinking.
For a moment, the painting seemed to move—the summer wind blowing through the bluestone alley, leaves rustling, fallen flowers scattered in colorful array.
The air smelled of honeysuckle and watermelon, the scent of summer.
He pushed open the courtyard door and walked in.
The wind suddenly picked up around him, and the swing under the tree swayed gently.
The tree was big and thick.
When he was three years old, his mother said she would let him play at Xiaoxia's expense. But the little girl was no fun at all—soft and pudgy even in the middle of winter, her face deflating when pinched. He didn't want to play with her.
He ran around the big tree and said, "Ah Shi, come chase me."
Xiaoxia immediately went to chase him.
He slipped away halfway and went out to play with other little boys.
Xiaoxia kept babbling and shouting "Brother Xiaohuo." After running for a long time without seeing anyone, she stopped to look forward, then took a few steps back to look again, but still couldn't see him.
She scratched her head and thought about it, grinned again, and continued to call "Brother Xiaohuo" happily, running in circles around the big tree. She circled alone all afternoon, wondering why she couldn't catch up with Brother Xiaohuo.
When he was four years old, she pestered him to swing.
He said yes, then pushed her sky-high. She was so frightened she grabbed the rope and cried, "Brother Xiaohuo, don't push! I'll fall. Don't push!"
He asked with dissatisfaction, "Are you still going to pester me to play?"
"Don't play, woo woo..." Her wrinkled little face was full of tears and snot.
And he was later beaten by his father.
He went to school at five. Little Xia Shi in preschool followed him all day long shouting "Brother Xiaohuo." He intimidated her several times before she shut up in front of his classmates, preventing the name "Yan Xiaohuo"—which she'd called out in her illiteracy—from spreading.
But she still followed him happily all day long, her little hands grabbing the corner of his clothes. Wherever he went, she went. He was annoyed to death.
As soon as the students at school saw Xia Shi and Yan Yan together, they shouted mischievously, "Yan Yan's little tail, Yan Yan's little bride, Yan Yan's little tail, Yan Yan's little bride..."
One day after school, when the same thing happened, Little Yan Yan was so angry he shouted at Little Xia Shi behind him, "Don't follow me!"
Little Xia Shi grabbed the strap of her schoolbag, shrank timidly, and said softly, "Mom said I should follow you home from school. Also, Aunt Han also said you should take me home from school."
The elementary school students jeered even more vigorously. "Oh! Oh! Yan Yan and his little bride live together! Tie the knot! Tie the knot!"
His face turned red with anger. He pushed her down, spread his legs, and ran away.
Little Xia got up from the ground in a panic and chased after him, crying loudly, "I don't know the way home! Brother Xiaohuo, take me home! Woo woo, I don't know the way home. Mom! Brother Little Fire!"
But he ran home and left her far behind.
Yan Yan thought that if she hadn't been found that time and had been lost since then, maybe he wouldn't have remembered her for so long.
In the painting, it seemed as if wind blew the green leaves, rustling.
He glanced at the green loquat leaves, as if seeing many years ago when he was eight years old, standing under the tree pulling fruit, and Xia Shi with her pigtails jumping around him, hurriedly shouting, "Brother Xiaohuo, I want one too, I want one too!"
He picked the fruit and ran away. She chased barefoot in the bluestone alley, planted a somersault and swelled her forehead. She lay on the ground with tears in her eyes but held back, not daring to cry, afraid the adults would find out and beat him.
Thinking back to his childhood, he felt his childhood self had been too cruel to Xia Shi. He didn't understand what she liked about him. Later, when he asked her, she replied blankly, "Because you're the best to me."
Where was he better?
When Xiaoxia was three years old, the sun shone brightly at noon in summer. She shook Yan Yan's hand and said softly, "Brother Xiaohuo, I want to eat popsicles. But my mother won't let me eat them. Can you buy one for me?"
"Okay." Little Yan Yan took her little hand and walked slowly through alleys that were so long for a child.
Halfway through, Little Xia Shi said, "I heard your mother tell my mother that she wants me to marry you when I grow up. Brother Xiaohuo, what does it mean to marry you?"
"It means you move to our house to live. Oh, and kiss."
"Kiss?"
"Mm." Little Yan Yan stopped and took a bite on her soft face. "Like that."
"Oh." She rubbed her face, stood on tiptoe, and pecked him on the face again.
You nibble on me, I kiss you—two little dolls played enough, then held hands and slowly hit the road.
She had short legs. After walking for a while, she threw a tantrum on the ground and refused to move.
Little Yan Yan carried her on his back and walked like a turtle.
When Xiaoxia was four years old, she squatted on the ground playing in the mud.
Some naughty children came over and pulled her braids and grabbed her face. She was scared but didn't dare cry. Little Yan Yan rushed out and beat people violently. No one nearby dared bully Xia Shi again, but Yan Yan was beaten by his father, his buttocks swollen.
When Xiaoxia was five years old, he played in the countryside where the boys burned wildfires. She'd been afraid of fire since childhood. As a baby, she'd suffered through a fire that burned her twin sister Xia to death.
She shrank alone by the field ridge, crying loudly, not daring to move. Brother Xiaohuo ran over, covered her eyes, and carried her out of the burning reed marsh in his arms.
He carried her to the stream, washed her flower-stained face, washed her little hands, washed her belly, washed her little feet, and caught tadpoles and small fish for her to play with, making her happy and making her laugh.
They went to and from school together. Although he lost her once, afterward he always held her hand coming and going to school. When they saw something interesting on the road, they stopped together to look, and when finished, walked together again.
When they gradually grew up and became too embarrassed to hold hands, they walked one in front, one behind.
He was one grade higher. After elementary school, they weren't in the same school. Every day after school, he would inevitably sprint to the elementary school entrance to pick her up, while pretending he'd also just slowly arrived.
Middle school found them in the same school again.
When she'd just entered junior high, he spread word that she was under his protection—no one was allowed to upset her, or else he wouldn't be polite.
After Xia Shi heard this, her face blushing, she went to ask him.
He frowned, looking puzzled. "Did I say that? Hey, Xia family's Ah Shi, you wouldn't be trying to cling to me by deliberately saying this, would you?"
At that time, he was especially playful, always skipping classes. But no matter how far he ran, when the dismissal bell rang, he would appear at school on time. Teachers all said that for Yan Yan, the dismissal bell was his attendance bell.
On the way home, he walked ahead coolly and cockily. When he realized she hadn't made a sound for a long time, he'd nervously look back, afraid she'd gotten lost.
She would press her lips together and smile softly. "Brother Xiaohuo, I'm already so big, I won't get lost."
His face would redden as he huffed, "Tch, who's looking at you?"
Later, she became more and more beautiful, he became more and more handsome, and there were more and more boys looking to date Xia Shi, and girls looking for Xia Shi to back off.
The number of his fights also increased dramatically, most of them for her.
He never said he liked her, but he protected her more than anyone else.
He liked and excelled at bass, formed a band with his friends, and had his own circle. A girl joined their band with superb DJ skills, becoming a rare friend of the opposite sex for Yan Yan.
The band had an extraordinarily glorious time and was famous in Shenzhen. The friendship among the musicians was also extraordinary. But once, Yan Yan refused to celebrate and wanted to pick up Xia Shi from school. He'd missed appointments many times because he was busy, and he'd promised Xia Shi that day.
On weekdays, some people said the DJ girl liked Yan Yan, but he thought it was a joke and didn't care.
The girl, perhaps emboldened by something, said sourly, "Is she a princess? She needs someone to take her home after school—doesn't she have legs?"
Yan Yan frowned impatiently. "She is a princess, so what?!"
As the school flower of another school, the DJ girl released emotions she'd suppressed for a long time that day, pestering and stopping him from leaving, crying and making trouble. Musicians from the whole team tried to persuade them. The girl asked Yan Yan, "What's wrong with me? Where am I not as good as your little princess?"
Yan Yan threw out a sentence. "Too ugly, unappetizing."
That time, for various reasons, things escalated.
After that, the band broke up.
It was also that time—because of the injury she suffered—that he almost killed someone in a rage. It was she who threw herself into his arms to stop him, crying out in horror, "I'm fine! Brother Xiaohuo, don't be like this, don't be like this."
He held her crying and trembling against his shoulder and finally restrained himself, saying with blood-red eyes, "Anyone who dares to touch a hair on Xia Shi in the future, I want their life!"
He didn't know when it started. Time passed day by day, he grew taller day by day, and before he knew it, looking back, he'd already loved her to the core.
He couldn't stand seeing her bullied, couldn't stand seeing her shed tears. As long as she walked with him, head down, smiling, saying nothing, doing nothing—he was in a good mood.
Perhaps there was only one explanation: it was destined by fate.
He'd clearly determined to protect her for the rest of his life. He'd clearly sworn: Anyone who dares to touch a hair on Xia Shi in the future, I want their life!
But now, someone had dismantled his most beloved girl into pieces. The first year—missing. The second—bones and minced meat. In the third and fourth years—larger pieces of bone, organs and tissue...
But now, someone had made Xia Shi disappear from the world, and he didn't know whose life to take!
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