Opening her eyes again, Lin You tasted the rich scent of flowers mixed with the smell of blood in her mouth.
In order to make her sleep longer, Xiao Xiao gave her many drugs extracted from Xiaohong. When she woke up this time, the injuries on her body were not healed, but it was much better than when she was almost crippled before.
Lin You touched her shoulder and neck, and with the ability of self-healing, the bite marks there had healed and disappeared.
Looking around, the fire had already burned out. In the dark tree hole, knowing that no one would answer, Lin You still raised her voice and shouted: "Xiao Xiao—"
Her voice echoed alone in the empty giant tree.
"..."
With her right hand still unable to exert strength, Lin You stood up with her left hand holding onto the nearby tree wall, and when she touched something near her feet, it made a weak chirping sound.
It is Jinbao.
It has become the size that can be held in one hand, and the wound has been bandaged. Lin You carefully put it in her pocket, picked up the weapon beside her and walked out of the tree hole. The outside was white, she was caught by the bright light, and raised her hand to cover her eyes.
The branches were moved, and the fine snow fell from the branches.
Lin You heard the sound of birds flapping their wings, she got used to the strong light outside, Xiaoqing and Xiaobai landed in front of her wrapped in the cold wind, worry could be seen in their dark eyes.
"Gah—"
"quack-"
They called softly.
Lin You opened her mouth, but didn't know what to say.
She had a sense of unreality that couldn't be lifted, as if she was out of tune with the whole world, and in the end she just waved at them wordlessly and walked down the tangled roots.
The two birds did not follow.
The wind stopped and the snow stopped. On a cold winter day, Lin You trudged through the deep snow, as if everything was still except herself.
She thought of Xiao Xiao's snow-colored long hair. Under the sun, it is more beautiful and purer white than real snow, and it is not as cold as winter snow, but just slightly cool. spring water.
Heavy snow will cover up many marks.
But if you look carefully, you can also find traces of the two zombie kings fighting. Lin You followed this trail until the clues were completely disconnected and she couldn't find the next direction.
She stood in the world covered in silver, calmly dazed.
Where are you going
do not know.
Under the bright sunlight, a second voice appeared in the sky, breaking the silence at the moment: "Sister Yuzu!"
Lin You bluntly raised her head, and Bai Guo folded her black wings and landed, throwing herself into her arms.
She couldn't stand upright, and fell straight backwards in the snow. Bai Guo raised her face with an "ah" and her eyes were red: "I finally found you. Sister Yuzu hasn't come back for a long time. Did you beat 'Nian' away?"
"..."
The little girl's body was icy cold, and her face was flushed from the cold. She didn't care if she didn't get Lin You's answer. She looked around and asked in confusion, "Where's the shrimp?"
There was pure doubt in her golden pupils.
But this gaze seemed to have restored Lin You's sense of pain at this moment.
The splitting pain involved Qiang Ren's injury, her fingers twitched, she curled up suddenly, opened her mouth but couldn't say a word, only panting in pain.
Bai Guo panicked and called her name.
Lin You couldn't hear her voice, and couldn't see the scene in front of her clearly. She clenched her teeth tightly, and warm tears came out, dripping on the snow, melting small dents.
… it hurts.
The pain in his chest was like someone had cut out a part of his heart.
"She..." Lin You pulled Bai Guo's arm, even her lips were bloodless and pale, every word she uttered seemed to be cut by a knife's edge, "Ms. Xiao Xiao, she... went away."
"Eh? Sister Yuzu...?"
—Trust me and wait for me to come back.
The last words left seemed to be still echoing in my ears.
"Yes... that's right." Lin You twitched the corners of her lips and forced a smile on Bai Guo, "Trust her and wait for her to come back. So... let's go back first."
"Yeah, um..." Bai Guo looked at her and responded with nana.
Lin You tried to smile again, and this time it seemed to be successful, and Bai Guo's expression showed a little more peace of mind.
Lin You wanted to pick her up and walk away, but when she bent down, she realized that her body was overwhelmed, so she could only hold her hand and let her fly by her side.
They walked halfway back and met Zhaocai who was wandering outside without thinking. Lin You put the ginkgo fruit on its back. When I walked home slowly, the sky was covered with sunset clouds.
This is already the second day after New Year's Eve.
It turned out that it was only the second day.
After a simple dinner, Ginkgo, who was tired from looking for someone, went back to her room to sleep.
After Lin You finished washing the dishes, she walked past the jingling wind chimes in the corridor. The fire in the living room was burning quietly, but there was no one in the familiar scene.
She stood at the door for a while.
In the bedroom, Bai Guo and Zhao Cai were fast asleep.
There was Xiao Xiao's diary on the desk, and Lin You turned to the last page. After they made the calendar, Xiao Xiao's diary also had a date. On December 31, 2000, the last line she wrote was:
'Next year, I will also watch the New Year with Yuzu. '
Lin You picked up the pen and wrote on the back: January 2, 2001...
How is the day? No matter what it was, she was unwilling to recall and record it, so she could only scribble down a sentence in the end.
2 Jan 01
s.
Lin You imitated Xiao Xiao and started to write a diary.
3 Jan 01
s.
4 Jan 01
s.
…
January 20, 01
Today Guoguo asked about you again.
When are you coming back
January 21, 01
You are really noisy when you are not making money.
When are you coming back
…
March 14, 01
I don't know anything about farming.
If you don't come back, your precious crops will be planted to death by me.
March 15, 01
The raccoons are at it again.
It seems a little disappointed that it didn't see you.
Even it is thinking of you, when will you come back
March 16, 01
The tree is blooming again. Xiaohong also woke up today, she was so happy after giving her the New Year's crystal nucleus, I really can't control her at all.
Are you still not coming back
…
April 7, 01
Jin Bao's injury finally healed. You haven't come back yet.
…
14 May 01
really miss you.
Come back soon, Xiao Xiao.
May 15, 01
s.
16 May 01
s.
…
28 Jul 01
I took Guoguo to S City for a family trip. You are not here this year, and the road is full of aggressive mutant creatures. But fortunately, although it is very troublesome, it is still within the range that can be solved.
The most troublesome thing is to recruit money, Xiaoqing and Xiaobai's cubs are also very uneasy...
When are you coming back to take care of them
Speaking of which, there are mutant creatures that will attack me near my house. They are still by my side, but occasionally I feel, are you really gone
If it weren't for Guoguo, I would definitely not be able to persist until this point. Did you also consider this, so you feel relieved to let me stay
But Xiao Xiao, a ship that sinks at any time cannot bear the lives of others. Because Xiao Xiao is a trustworthy person, I believe that you will fulfill your promise, so you waited until now.
However, I often feel very tired. What should I do if I can't support the day when you come back
Come back to me quickly.
…
The tide on the beach surged gently, and Lin You put down her pen on the beach at night.
The sun and the moon turn, winter goes and spring comes.
After they returned home from S City, in the third spring in this yard, the trees were dotted with white flowers again, and Xiaohong woke up from hibernation.
Lin You carried the watering can to water the potted plants in the yard left by Xiao Xiao.
She doesn't know how to take care of plants, and her memory is not good. She can't take care of every pot like Xiao Xiao, so she can only water casually. Fortunately, the vitality of these potted plants is quite tenacious, and only a few pots have been raised to death this year.
The wind chime under the eaves twitched lightly.
Bai Guo flew in from the yard and threw a bag of bamboo shoots on the ground. His body was covered with mud, but his eyes were bright, and he circled around Lin You.
"Sister Yuzu, sister Yuzu—"
The little girl was getting more and more skinny by Zhaocai and Xiaohong. Lin You looked at her helplessly: "What are you doing?"
Bai Guo showed her the bamboo leaves in her hand: "Sister Yuzu~ Let's blow it again, like last time."
Lin You was so entangled by her that she took it over and blew it a few times, but the tune couldn't be tuned, but Bai Guo was very happy to hear it, and followed her example to play, but couldn't make a sound.
"I can't learn..." Bai Guo pouted, and said, "Sister Yuzu is so amazing."
Lin You said, "Mr. Xiao Xiao is the one who blows this best."
After a year, she calmly mentioned this name, even though there was a dull pain in her heart, there was no trace on her face anymore.
Bai Guo didn't notice her complicated mood, she sat on the porch shaking her calf: "When will Xia Xia come back?"
As soon as she finished speaking, there were three soft "dong dong dong" sounds from the closed courtyard door. The watering can in Lin You's hand shook and poured three times more water on the potted plants in front of her.
Bai Guo blinked and laughed, "Shrimp!"
Her first reaction was to flap her wings and fly towards the door, but Lin You held the pot and stopped motionless. She stopped halfway and looked around blankly between Lin You and the courtyard door.
"... Sister Yuzu?"
Lin You turned around slowly.
Probably because no one opened the door, after a while, someone outside knocked a second time, tapping on the door three times, standard and polite.
As if the old things were repeating itself, Lin You remembered that spring night two years ago.
She laughed unknowingly, shed tears unknowingly, wiped the tears off her face, ran to the gate of the courtyard and opened the door—
Outside the door was a tall and thin woman, holding a white five-petal flower with deep red calyx in her hand. She was wearing a white coat over her shirt and sweatpants, her long snow-colored hair was scattered over her shoulders, and the lower half of her face was covered by a mask. Under her snow-white eyelashes, there were clear ice-blue eyes.
Those eyes were slightly bent, and then she took off the mask, revealing a beautiful and soft face.
She said, "Can I stay?"
"… of course."
Lin You rushed forward and hugged that person tightly, feeling the familiar cool body temperature enveloping her, only then did she confirm that this was not a dream, she raised her face and showed a bright smile with tears in her eyes:
"Welcome back, Xiao Xiao."