"These years, I've never dared to tell my uncle and aunt, that in fact, back then, I watched Miss Zhilan leave our courtyard, cross the road, her tiny figure gradually melting into the crowd until she was invisible. Back then, I was naively young, and Zhilan, only six, could understand what? Her parents were busy and had no time to accompany her. Lan Lin and I, who grew up with her as her brothers, might, in her eyes, have been even closer to her than her own parents. That's why she clung to Lan Lin and me. But I, annoyed by her clinginess which stripped me of the mood to play, did nothing as I watched her leave home without trying to bring her back."
Every time Lan Li reflected on the scene of that year, he felt an indescribable discomfort in his heart.
Then, he had never thought that six-year-old Gu Zhilan walking right past him would be the last time he would see Gu Zhilan in his life. From then on, Gu Zhilan suddenly disappeared from his world and never came back.
