Chapter 8

Jiang Huaixu’s figure paused.

He instinctively raised his hand to wipe away the tears on my face.

But that hand quickly stopped in mid-air.

“If you’re not going back to Hai City, where else can you go? Why are you still saying things to upset me?”

“An Qin, if you keep this up, I really won’t let you return to Hai City.”

I stood quietly in place.

Before he left with Lin Xiran, he didn’t look at me again.

How could he know?

This was our last meeting.

After wiping away my tears, I asked around for a long time.

Finally, a construction worker told me that the trash and debris had been cleared to the dump.

The sky had already drawn down its dark curtain, and the dim streetlight flickered on and off with difficulty.

I used to be most afraid of such night roads, but today I ran very fast.

I was afraid that if I was any later, I wouldn’t be able to find my little dog.

I didn’t care about falling and scraping my knees, nor did I care about the filth of the dump dirtying my clothes.

Time became boundless and ethereal in the darkness.

When the first ray of dawn shone on this wasteland, I found that small, broken jar.

Kneeling on the ground, I wept uncontrollably.

No one knew that before I was twelve, I wasn’t worthy of being called by a name.

My dad called me a wretched girl, and those thugs called me trash.

Later, I escaped my father’s control and gave both myself and my little dog new names.

I was called An Qin, and it was called Xiao An.

I just hoped we could both be safe and sound, have enough to eat, and sleep well.

Later, working under the table at a restaurant for five yuan an hour, the future seemed to show a glimmer of light.

I began to be greedy.

Greedy for a family.

Jiang Huaixu would gently pat my shoulder when I woke from nightmares, would shield me when thugs caused trouble.

So I followed him back to Hai City, naively believing we had become each other’s family.

But after all these years of twists and turns, I realized I had gained nothing.

No university as I had hoped, no family as in my dreams.

Only a small tuft of dogtail grass in the dirty soil, swaying and catching my falling tears.

Jiang’s Mother’s message came just in time-

[It’s time.]

[An Qin, you should go.]