Brother! This is the adoption certificate. I don't want your sister-in-law!

Wu Mengmeng insisted on going to eat mala tang (a spicy hot pot dish).

After walking for almost half an hour and passing through several alleys, I finally found the shop at the corner of an old street.

The storefront was small, with a layer of grease on the plastic curtains, and the tables and chairs inside had uneven legs, but there were quite a few people.

She sat down and expertly took two menus, one for him and one for herself, without asking him anything, and checked off several items on her own.

When the dishes were served, Su Xiao took a bite and found the taste to be very ordinary. The broth was bland, and the chili peppers were just dry and spicy, without any complexity.

"Is this what you meant by trying to bankrupt my restaurant?"

"It's cheap here."

Wu Mengmeng stuffed a piece of frozen tofu into her mouth and mumbled, "The food street is ridiculously expensive. A bowl of noodles costs four yuan. Here, you can eat your fill for just a few yuan."

Su Xiao paused for a moment, then lowered her head and continued eating.

After finishing their meal, the two walked down the street.

The streetlights cast shadows that stretched out in varying lengths, and Wu Mengmeng walked beside them with her head down.

She stopped as she passed a small jewelry store.

"Could you buy me something?"

Su Xiao glanced at it and hesitated for a moment.

"Don't buy anything too expensive."

"What a fucking stingy person."

Wu Mengmeng cursed and pushed the door open to go inside.

She walked around the store, not looking at the sparkly hair clips or the hair ties with bows.

She only took a small black rubber band from the shelf in the far corner, the most ordinary kind, a rubber band wrapped with a layer of black thread.

She walked to the cashier and looked back at Su Xiao.

"Fifty cents."

The shopkeeper glanced at the rubber band, then at the man and woman standing at the door, and quoted a price without expression.

Su Xiao was stunned.

"Should we buy this one?"

Wu Mengmeng nodded and placed the hair tie on the counter. "This is very expensive, okay?"

Su Xiao was a little dumbfounded. "It's only 5 cents, can you get another one..."

"don't want!"

Wu Mengmeng's voice suddenly choked up, "But this is the only thing you've ever given me!"

Su Xiao fell silent instantly.

I went over, paid, and then took a black plastic bag from the counter to put the rubber bands in.

The boss watched his actions with undisguised contempt in his eyes.

Do you need a bag just to buy a 50-cent rubber band?

Su Xiao ignored him and walked out of the store with the bag in her hand.

Wu Mengmeng followed behind him, keeping her head down and not looking at him.

He turned around and handed the bag over, and Wu Mengmeng took the black plastic bag.

Then he stopped, turned around, and looked at her.

"Wu Mengmeng".

She looked up.

"I'm sorry about what happened before."

Su Xiao's voice wasn't loud, but it was steady. There was no evasion or unnecessary explanation. "Those things I said to you before were just me being irrational. From now on... let's not contact each other anymore."

Wu Mengmeng stood under the streetlight, clutching the black plastic bag in her hand.

She kept her head down, her pigtails hanging low.

Su Xiao thought she was going to scold him or hit him again, but she didn't.

Her shoulders trembled, and then, as if struck by something, she let out a scream that was tinged with tears.

"Do you remember?"

Her voice was so loud that people across the street turned around.

She was shouting, but every word she uttered was trembling.

"Who stayed up all night with you in the internet cafe! Who shared ten yuan with you for a week, eating instant noodles every day! And who went out to wash dishes to pay your medical bills when you were beaten bloody and had no money to go to the hospital!"

Su Xiao stood there, stunned.

"You heartless bastard!"

Large tears streamed down Wu Mengmeng's face. She didn't wipe them away, just stood there under the streetlight, sobbing uncontrollably. "You just said you didn't like me anymore, why? Why?!"

Su Xiao was speechless.

He stood there, looking at the girl in front of him whose makeup was ruined from crying, and a long-forgotten memory suddenly flooded his mind.

That was in a past life.

At that time, he was working in Nanjiang and would only come back to pay respects to his parents and sister during the Qingming Festival.

One evening, I was having dinner with a friend at a roadside food stall when I unexpectedly saw Wu Mengmeng. She must be working there.

She was clearing away the dishes, wearing an oil-stained apron. She had gained weight and her face was rounder; she was no longer the thin, energetic young woman she used to be.

She walked past him with her plate, glanced at him, then looked away without saying a word.

He thought she hadn't recognized him; after all, more than a decade had passed, and he had gone from a hoodlum to a lowly laborer—the changes were too great.

After finishing our meal, we prepared to leave.

As he walked to the entrance of the food stall, he suddenly heard someone call his name from behind.

Wu Mengmeng chased after him, stuffing a handful of candy into his hand while nagging, "You've lost so much weight. Don't drink so much alcohol; it's bad for your health."

That was the last time she ever saw him in her life.

As for what happened to her afterward, Su Xiao had no idea.

……

Raindrops suddenly hit Su Xiao's face, feeling cool.

Then the second, the third, fell down in dense clusters.

In the blink of an eye, both of their shoulders were wet.

Su Xiao came to her senses.

He saw Wu Mengmeng still standing there, rain streaming down her pigtails, washing away the tears on her eyelashes.

He quickly took the backpack off his back, unzipped it, and took out the umbrella that Su Wan Ning had left for him.

"Take it."

He opened the umbrella and handed it to Wu Mengmeng.

She didn't take it, so he clicked his tongue and shoved the umbrella handle into her hand.

"It's raining, let's go back quickly."

Wu Mengmeng held the umbrella, staring blankly as he stepped outside of it.

The rain instantly soaked his hair and streamed down his cheeks.

"And what about you?"

Her voice was mostly drowned out by the sound of the rain.

Su Xiao didn't hear it.

He stuffed his schoolbag under his clothes, bent over to protect it, and turned to run home.

The rain was heavy; it was so hard that I could barely open my eyes.

He ran a few steps and then looked back at her.

She was still standing under the streetlight, holding that sky-blue umbrella, watching him without moving.

He turned his head and kept running.

Wu Mengmeng suddenly sniffed, lowered her head, opened the black plastic bag, and froze.

Because inside, besides a small rubber band, there were also several red banknotes.

One, two, three...

Wu Mengmeng lost count of how many photos there were, because her vision was blurred, and she couldn't tell if it was rain or tears.

……

When Su Xiao got home, she was soaked to the bone. Her clothes were clinging to her body, and her shoes were half-filled with water, making a squelching sound as she stepped on the ground.

He didn't even bother to wipe the water off his face. The first thing he did was put his backpack on the table, unzip it, and unpack the phone, which was wrapped in a cardboard box, layer by layer.

The cardboard box was damp, but the phone was fine; the motherboard wasn't wet, and the battery compartment was dry.

He breathed a sigh of relief.

After taking a shower, he dried his hair, sat cross-legged on the bed, and picked up the Nokia phone his boss had given him.

After downloading QQ, he tried several different usernames and passwords.

The first one was wrong, the second one was wrong, but we finally made it onto the third one.

That was the account he registered in his past life, with the password 123456, so simple that even hackers wouldn't bother trying it.

Brother Su is a socialite.

That familiar name.

Su Xiao didn't even have time to express her feelings.

The moment I logged in, the notification sounds went off like crazy.

The phone kept vibrating in his hand, as if it had gone crazy.

The screen was filled with pop-ups, one after another, some from classmates, some from old friends, densely packed across several screens.

The one at the very top with the most views is a pinned chat box.

The profile picture is of a pink kitten, and the name is "Cute Tears".

Wu Mengmeng.

He stared at the profile picture for a few seconds, his thumb hovering over the confirm button.

I pressed it anyway.

Scroll down through the messages one by one.

2005.7.21

"Su Xiao, my dad hit me again. I miss you."

2005.9.13

"My classmates spread rumors about me and even threw things at me. I told the teacher, and the teacher said, 'Why are you tattling again?' I'm so tired. I wish you were at No. 5 Middle School, then you would definitely protect me."

2005.9.26

Why aren't you replying to me? Did I do something wrong?

2005.9.27

"I haven't seen you in so long, I miss you so much. Please talk to me."

2005.10.24

"I'll come see you in a few days! Let's be together!"

2005.10.28

"Why are you dating other girls at school? What did I do wrong? Talk to me, answer me!"

The last one was posted yesterday.

"Never mind. I wish you happiness. Perhaps it would have been better if I had said it sooner?"

"Su Xiao, I really like you so much, so much... so much..."