"……Um."
"That guy who wanders around town all day is you, right?"
"Ah."
"...Ah, I really don't know what to say to you."
The boss held his forehead with a headache. After getting this answer, many questions were solved... If the homeless man in the town was the man in front of him, it meant that he had returned when Xilin grew into a girl.
But... maybe because of his guilty conscience, or because of fear, he did not recognize Xilin directly, but just watched from afar...
What an irresponsible father - the boss frowned, but in the end could only sigh helplessly.
"I understand you, but... that doesn't mean I agree with you, understand? For what that kid went through, I'm going to beat you up anyway."
"If... this will make you feel better..."
"Forget it, that's not what we should do now."
The boss waved his hand to stop him from speaking.
"It's better to say that you didn't hide it from us and went to see the child directly... Humph, you have a conscience."
"……sorry."
"Okay, stop talking nonsense... Let's go and meet the child together."
"But your wife..."
"Ha, don't think that she cursed so harshly, but that was just because she was angry... In the end, she softened a little, didn't she?"
"Can……"
"Alright, alright, stop talking. You already know where the kid lives, so you can go there by yourself, so... I'm just following you to make sure you don't hurt the kid."
"……Thanks."
"Don't thank me, just go now, or you will be in trouble if my wife changes her mind later."
The boss quickly dragged the man out of the backyard and walked towards Xilin's house.
"……snort."
Inside the house, the proprietress looked at the two people leaving, snorted with some displeasure, and then lowered the curtains to block the scenery outside the window. She simply adopted the policy of "out of sight, out of mind"... She took another sip of the hot cocoa in her hand, relying on the sweetness to suppress the irritability in her heart.
"That's all the conscience you have... Humph, you stinky man."
She got up and prepared dinner... If nothing unexpected happened, they should have a small family dinner tonight. Well... she might as well make something delicious, just for the child.
only……
"……Um?"
However, when the two men reached the edge of the town, where Xilin lived, they found that the door had been opened.
This is obviously not normal, because at this time, Xilin should still be catching up on sleep and the door should be locked!
So...something happened!
The two reacted immediately, running forward almost at the same time, knocking open the half-open door, and rushing into the inner room.
Then, a man with strange clothes, a ferocious face and strange purple lines on his neck was seen pinching Xilin's neck, as if he wanted to kill her.
“You (expletive) stay away from my daughter!”
The man went up and gave a flying kick, but to everyone's surprise, the strange man didn't move at all, but the man himself was knocked to the ground by the recoil.
However, this action also attracted the man's attention. He quickly turned over, grabbed Xilin's neck roughly and threw her towards the two men. The boss was so scared that he quickly withdrew his move to beat him and hurriedly caught Xilin who was thrown to him.
But the huge impact still knocked him against the wall. The severe pain stimulated his nerves, but he could not care less. He hurriedly checked the condition of Xilin in his arms. He could hear her violent coughing. After confirming that she was not unconscious, he felt relieved.
Looking up, he found that the man had already wrestled with the weird guy. The boss didn't bother to answer Xilin's question "Is he my father?" and quickly took her to the living room to keep her away from the dangerous guy. Then he dragged a chair and rushed back with a thermos filled with hot water, poured the hot water on the weird guy's head, and then seized the opportunity to pick up the chair and hit the man, trying to knock him down.
But these had no effect on the strange guy. Instead, they further angered him. He reached out to grab the boss. The boss was not careful and his nails scratched five bloody marks on his arm. If it weren't for the man's help, the boss would probably have suffered a few more wounds.
"Let's go! Let's go first! Take Xilin with you first! There's something wrong with this guy! Let's go find someone to help!"
The man seized the opportunity and shouted immediately, trying his best to fight against the extremely violent guy with inexplicable strength, dragging him away from the door as much as possible, away from the boss, away from Xilin, and away from... his daughter.
"But you..."
"Let's go! Take Xilin away first! And then call the police!"
"Okay! I'll be right back!"
The boss also realized that now was not the time to be pretentious, and immediately turned around, picked up Xilin, who had cautiously peeked into the living room and witnessed everything, and wrapped her in a cotton coat and carried her out. Before leaving, Xilin and he also heard a crisp sound of glass breaking.
The boss didn't care about the noise coming from the house. He could only wade through the snow on the ground as quickly as possible and approach the center of the town, shouting all the way, hoping that someone around could hear him and come to help.
"........."
Xilin was looking at her home which was getting farther and farther away, and was slightly dazed.
A few minutes later, people who heard the cry for help rushed over. Even the proprietress hurried to the boss and took over the somewhat bewildered Xilin. Then the boss quickly led everyone back to the house and after some effort barely subdued the strange man.
only……
"Hey, hey... brother, are you okay... Don't scare me, don't die..."
The boss supported the man while speaking nervously. He wanted to touch the glass that was stuck in the man's chest, but because he didn't know how to deal with it, his hand kept reaching out and retracting, appearing extremely flustered.
"You finally came back, and you haven't officially met Xilin yet. You better not die... You better not die!"
"It's okay... I'm... okay."
The man took the cloth handed to him by others and used it to block the warm blood that kept flowing out of his neck. His face turned pale and he responded weakly - the wound on his neck was bitten by that weird guy. That guy was very strong, like a zombie, and almost bit him to death with one bite.
"Xilin...are you okay?"
"It's okay, it's okay... The child is okay, you protected him... You did a good job this time..."
"That's good... That's... good..."
"Stop talking! Blood! The blood is gushing out again! Where's the doctor?! Hasn't he come yet?!"
"it's okay no problem……"
The man's eyelids drooped slightly, and then forced themselves up again.
"Help, please, help... help..."
His voice was faint, as weak as a candle flame that would disappear at any time but was unwilling to go out.
"Giving that...to Sirin...is what that...that [Bard] promised to...bring...a gift...for Sirin."
"Come to think of it, I have to... thank him, otherwise... I would have no excuse... to come back to see her..."
"What nonsense are you talking about? What excuse do you have for coming back to see your daughter?!"
"Is... is that so? That's good... That's good..."
"Don't close your eyes, don't close your eyes! Wake up! Didn't you say you would deliver that thing to Xilin personally? Don't sleep! Hang in there, the doctor will be here soon..."
"It's okay... don't be afraid... Xilin... don't be afraid... Dad is back... don't be afraid..."
My eyelids are drooping, I can't stop them, my head is lowering, I can't resist, my thoughts are becoming dull, my vision is becoming blurry, and my perception of my surroundings is becoming weaker and weaker.
In the dim light, I could see the gorgeous purple hair and the dazzling golden eyes coming into my sight.
There was a hint of confusion and timidity on her lovely face, but more of it was sadness and expectation.
She looked at herself and called out that name softly and slowly.
"……dad?"
He heard it, that voice that both Xilin and himself had been waiting for and expecting for a long time.
So he raised his head, and even though his vision was blurred, he still smiled in the direction where the voice came from and responded softly.
"…Yeah, Dad…is here."
Chapter 5542: The Third Song, Gifting Promise ()
"Aunt, that... is that dad?"
"Ah."
"Is that so...Did Dad...leave again?"
"...Well, I went to a place farther than before."
"Then... will Dad... turn into a star and look at me and Xilin with Mom?"
"Yes, they are...always watching you, kid."
"But, Auntie..."
Xilin slowly turned her head and looked at the proprietress who had taken care of her for a long time.
"Why is Xilin so... sad?"
"The tears...can't stop..."
"I've clearly seen Dad, and he just came home once before. I could have waited for Mom to come back with Dad...but why...Xilin is still so sad..."
"........."
The proprietress opened her mouth but couldn't say anything. Her originally irritable and irritable personality now seemed helpless and calm. She could only reach out and gently touch Xilin's head, straighten her gorgeous purple hair, and wipe away her tears, hoping to give Xilin some comfort.
"…I'm sorry, aunt, for making you worry."
After a while, Xilin wiped her tears and smiled to the boss's wife to show that she was fine.
"I...I'm going to go back first. It would be bad if Mom comes back tonight...If Mom comes back tonight, that would be great. I can tell her that Dad is back, and Mom will definitely be very happy!"
"Wait a minute, kid, don't..."
"Goodbye, Auntie. See you tomorrow night."
Before the boss lady could stop her, Xilin ran away quickly. The boss lady didn't dare to chase her out. She could only sigh and go back to take care of her husband...
There was no way. Ever since that incident, her husband fell ill. No one knew what was wrong with that weird guy, but her husband and other injured people all suffered from a strange disease. A strange purple line began to spread from the wound, and the emotions of the injured themselves began to become easily agitated and irritable.
From then on, she had to run the entire restaurant by herself, and also had to take care of her husband... She didn't have much energy to take care of Xilin. It would be better to say that now, thanks to Xilin's help, her pressure is much less.
Although her son said he could take them to the town to treat the strange disease, she and her husband refused.
On the one hand, she felt that there was no need to add burden to her family because of this strange disease. She heard from others that this disease was very strange and there was no treatment, and the only way to treat it was to stay in the hospital for a long time... That would be too expensive. Since she would just be in the hospital to rest anyway, she and her husband thought it would be better to stay at home and save some money.
On the other hand, if they stayed here, they could still take care of Xilin. The child finally got to see her father, but this first meeting turned out to be the last... Even if they lied to the child, she also felt that... Xilin probably already knew the truth of the matter.
As a result, Xilin might also realize that her mother's affairs...
"……Ugh."
What a poor child - the proprietress sighed and could only sigh like this in her heart, feeling helpless and sad.
…………
………………
"........."
Returning to the renovated home, Xilin silently closed the door, locked it, walked straight forward, and lit the fireplace with skillful but somewhat dull movements. She looked at the slowly burning fire, hesitated for a while, then stood up and walked towards the room.
But when she put her hand on the door handle, she felt as if she had been electrocuted and subconsciously shrank back, as if she was afraid of something... But in the end, she still put her hand on it and pushed the door open.
Everything in the house returned to its original state, and everything was the same as Xilin remembered, but she just couldn't be happy. Even the tears that she had barely held back before welled up again and lingered in her eyes.
She moved her body bit by bit and changed into home clothes in front of the closet. However, when she was taking off her clothes, the pain in her neck made her pause. She could only endure the strange feeling and quickly changed her clothes. Then she raised her hand and gently touched the extremely light purple lines that had appeared on her neck at some point.
Well, yes. I don't know if it was because Xilin was strangled by that weird guy that she also contracted that strange disease, but the marks were not as obvious as those of others... Plus, Xilin didn't want to make her aunt worry, so when she went to the restaurant to help recently, she deliberately changed into high-necked clothes to cover up the marks on her neck.
"........."
She turned her head silently and looked at the photo frame placed beside the bed... It was a photo of her and her mother. Even though it had been broken once before, it was now replaced with a new frame, making everything look the same as before, without any change.
But Xilin knew that this was not the case...
She walked forward, gently stroked the carefully preserved photo, then held it in her arms, and carried it to the living room along with the bedding her mother left for her.
I found a chair, moved it to the window, wrapped myself in the quilt left by my mother, poured a cup of hot water and placed it on the windowsill, hugged the photo left by my mother, and slowly sat down.
"........."
It was a bit cold... The fireplace had been lit, she had wrapped herself in the quilt left by her mother as usual, and she had drunk the warm water as usual, but Xilin still felt a bit cold.
