—"My parents died when I was in elementary school, because of a fire."
After Xu Xiangyang uttered those words, the atmosphere suddenly turned silent, and the sounds around them abruptly quieted. The laughter of others at the campsite and the noises from the burning bonfire seemed particularly muffled, as if they were in a world far removed from theirs.
The pupils of the two girls shone in the night. They simply watched the boy in front of them in silence, neither of them speaking a word.
Lin Xingjie and Zhu Qingyue both had an empathetic side. Likely due to their own complex family backgrounds, the girls found it easy to understand others' difficulties in these matters.
In fact, upon learning that Xu Xiangyang's guardian was Li Qinglian, and realizing that the siblings had never mentioned their parents, they had already begun to piece together the contours of the situation; and so, since Xu Xiangyang didn't seem inclined to talk about it, they didn't broach the subject.
