“I’ll write a reply later and send it tomorrow.”
“Then they should be very happy.” Little Bei helped Shao Xi arrange the other envelopes. “Will there be more and more of these letters in the future? Will there be so many that we won’t be able to finish them all? Will there be no place to put them?”
“Let’s try our best to read as many as possible. If there’s really a lot, so much that there’s nowhere to put them, then I’ll build a new house or buy one. When the time comes, we’ll save them together.” Even if a letter was a scolding, just like his mother had said, it had been written for him. If he retorted, he would forget about it instead of throwing it around.
Little Bei’s eyes lit up. “Ah, that’s a good idea. I’ll do that in the future.”
Shao Qihai came in as they were chatting happily. “What are you talking about that’s making you so happy?”
“We’re replying to letters. Brother wants to reply to his readers’ letters.”
Shao Qihai looked down and saw the letter at the very top. His gaze suddenly froze as he abruptly picked it up.
“This address… Shao Xi, how did you manage to contact this person? Didn’t I tell you not to make any contact? Where did you get this address?”
Shao Xi was stunned when he saw Shao Qihai’s serious expression. He looked at the letter again. “Dad, what are you saying? What’s wrong? I’m just writing back to a reader who wrote to me.”
Shao Qihai paused. “It’s a letter from a reader?”
“That’s right. Didn’t I say just now that I wanted to read the letters written by my readers?” Shao Xi looked at Shao Qihai and took the envelope in his hand. “Dad, what did you mean by what you said just now? Why did you say that I can’t make any contact with this person?”
“Nothing, I saw wrong. It’s nothing.” Shao Qihai’s gaze was conflicted. After denying it, he left with a complicated gaze.
Shao Xi and Little Bei looked at each other, and their gazes turned to the envelope in their hands. “There’s something fishy about Daddy’s reaction.”
“Yeah, what do you think he meant?” Little Bei was puzzled.
Shao Xi frowned and shook his head. “I don’t know either…” At this point, Shao Xi suddenly paused, recalling what had happened.
He seemed to have guessed why Shao Qihai’s reaction had been so strange just now. Shao Xi looked at the tender words on the envelope, and his gaze became complicated too.
Little Bei was anxious. “What? Second Brother, you’ve recalled it. Tell me what happened.”
“No, I don’t remember anything.” Shao Xi casually threw the envelope aside. “It’s late. Go back and go to sleep. When your letters arrive, I’ll read them with you.”
Little Bei felt that Shao Xi was hiding something from her, but since he refused to tell her, she could only leave.
After Little Bei left, Shao Xi pounced on the bed and opened the letter that he had tossed aside previously. This was the second time they had corresponded. Previously, this reader had sent another letter, and Shao Xi had chosen to reply because this little reader had said that her father had left.
The young reader had said that she didn’t like her father because he was never at home. He would disappear every now and then and always hang out with the wrong crowd. Because of this, her mother cried a lot and had almost brought her away from her father.
However, before her mother could do it, her father had suddenly died. No one knew what had happened. When they’d received the news, they had seen his corpse.
Later on, while packing up her father’s belongings, they’d found two bank savings account books. One was for her mother, and the other was for her. He hadn’t left a single word behind, only enough money for them to live well. It was at least enough to provide for her until she grew up.
Later on, her mother had taken her and moved to an unfamiliar place. She wasn’t used to this place because the people there liked to put vinegar in their food, and she didn’t like the taste of vinegar.
This little reader had written all these things incoherently. When she didn’t know how to write certain words, she’d even used pinyin or drawings to replace it. She’d said that she had accidentally come across Shao Xi’s book and liked it very much, so she had written him a letter.
Due to the fact that there were also drawings and pinyin mixed in, and the words that the reader did know how to write were written in a very big font, the letter was very thick. Shao Xi was attracted by its thickness, but upon reading it, he found it too tiring and boring. After reading it for a while, he tossed it aside.
However, later on, Shao Xi kept thinking of this letter. Probably because he had also experienced his father’s sudden death, Shao Xi later found the letter again and read it patiently.
After reading it, he couldn’t help but reply to the reader with a letter of his own. He wrote down all the words that the reader had written in pinyin and indicated that she had to copy them ten times to learn them. He also told her to buy a dictionary and check out the words she didn’t know how to write. He told the reader not to write to him in pinyin anymore, for he was too tired after reading it. If she wrote in pinyin again, he wouldn’t reply.
Shao Xi didn’t know how to comfort the reader. He only said at the end, “You’re actually very lucky because you still have your mother. Don’t be afraid of being sad. It’s okay to be sad. It’ll pass soon.”
Back then, they hadn’t even had a mother. As for being sad, Shao Xi felt that one just had to get used to it.
He initially thought that the little reader wouldn’t write to him again after this. He didn’t expect her to reply. Because it was relatively special, he remembered the little reader’s name, Fang Yu, quite clearly.
He just hadn’t expected Shao Qihai to react like that when he saw the envelope and the address.
Shao Xi recalled the story of the nameless hero he had heard from Shao Qihai previously. He had wanted to become friends with the little boy Shao Qihai had transferred, but Shao Qihai had refused, saying that it was absolutely impossible.
Unexpectedly, here was this reader!
Upon thinking about the contents of the letter—that the father was no longer around, that the mother was moving, and so on—coupled with Shao Qihai’s performance, Shao Xi guessed that this might be the boy, and not a girl!
As Shao Xi carefully opened the letter, he muttered, “He refused to give me the address previously. Surprising, huh? Even though I didn’t have the address, in the end, the boy read my book and wrote to me! This must be… fate.”
Shao Xi shouted the words that came out of Mu Jingzhe’s mouth from time to time and started reading the letter. After taking a look, he nodded. “Mm, there’s no pinyin this time.” However, the font was still very big.
Fang Yu said that she was very happy to receive his reply. Also, she had written those words ten times, according to Shao Xi’s request, and learned them. She’d even asked her mother to help her buy a dictionary. The dictionary was really useful. She had also learned quite a few words with its help.
She had originally planned to send over the homework that she had written ten times, but because there was too much, her mother hadn’t let her.
Although she had no idea if it was because Shao Xi had asked her to write the words ten times, Fang Yu had written, “Brother Shao Xi, you’re like a teacher. You’re impressive.”
Shao Xi chuckled. “Yes, I’m very impressive. I’ll be Teacher Shao from now on.”
After saying that, Fang Yu repeated that vinegar was really sour and asked curiously, “Brother Shao Xi, after a person dies, do they really never come back or appear again?”
Fang Yu said that she actually didn’t know why Mommy was crying so hard after Daddy’s death. Clearly, Daddy was often not at home and when he did occasionally come home, his appearance would stir up some gossip. Mommy had even cried a few times because of this. This had led to her not liking Daddy anymore. But now that Daddy was dead, Mommy was so sad.
Clearly, her father had frequently not been at home back when he had been alive either.
“I think it doesn’t matter if Daddy is dead or not. Either way, he doesn’t come home.”
Therefore, at first, when she had said that her father had died and would never come back, Fang Yu had felt like it was nothing. She didn’t know why her mother was crying so much. Everyone even said that Fang Yu was pitiful and asked her why she didn’t cry, but Fang Yu couldn’t cry at all.
