Ah Heng had thought of countless scenarios of meeting close relatives for the first time, whether it would be getting emotional, tears, or all sorts of feelings. Like her adoptive mother when watching Huangmei opera [1], feeling very touched. Perhaps it would also feel very awkward and unaccustomed, having to be very careful around them. Due to the distance in time, unfamiliarity would arise.
I have thought of each of the scenarios, but none of them actually happened. This reality is real because it rejected all assumptions.
"Si Wan, what happened to you?" The dignified old man swept his eyes slowly from Ah Heng to the teenage boy who was soaked in water.
"Grandfather, Yan Xi and I were just playing around. We were not careful..." Si Wan did not mind, he was smiling.
The old man nodded slightly, and then he looked back at Ah Heng.
Ah Heng’s heart was beating very fast, it felt like time seemed to stop at this moment. The old man, known as "grandfather," looked at her, leaving her nowhere to hide.
"What was your name before?"
"Yun, Heng." Ah Heng grew up in the south, although she learned how to speak Mandarin, but she was not fluent. Therefore, she stuttered, speaking one word at a time.
"According to the seniority of Si Wan, when your mother had you, I gave you a name called Si Er, but this name is now occupied by someone else. You should just use your original name, from now on you will be called Wen Heng." The old man pondered for a while, looking at his granddaughter before opening his mouth to speak.
Occupied? Ah Heng was a little confused. Her eyes unconsciously look at Si Wan, and finally stop at his hands. The teenage boy’s finger gaps were so swollen that the veins could be seen very clearly, and the water drops on the cuff slide down along the back of his hand.
"Aunt Zhang, take Wen Heng to her room." The old man told the middle-aged woman standing on the side, and then looked at Si Wan, "Go clean up. You are old enough, still being like this. "
The depth of love is a responsibility.
When Ah Heng walked up the curved wooden stairs with Aunt Zhang, she thought of the old man's way of teaching Si Wan. That sentence flashed through her mind.
When she was very young, her adoptive father told her that family relationship can not be calculated by addition or subtraction. Even if you expect no return from the efforts you made, there is no such thing as none, and fussing over minor matters would not exist.
Since there is no love, so it will be indifference?
The teacher in the small town have taught the contrast of this as well.
"We are here." Aunt Zhang went to the corner of the second floor and opened the bedroom door.
"Thank you." Ah Heng’s gentle voice was accompanied with the strange tone of Mandarin.
Aunt Zhang’s expression was unnatural. She looked at Ah Heng for a while, finally sighed before turning around to leave.
Ah Heng dragged the suitcase into the bedroom, but she was suddenly confused.
Full of warm blue colour, delicate and warm design, everywhere reveals the breath of life. Exquisite blue shell wind chime, a soft big bed that could fit four of her, revealing the warm breath of bedding.
Has someone lived here before? It was as if she had broken into someone else's private space, Ah Heng felt very confused. She put down her suitcase and sat down on the swivel chair beside the glass round table.
As she looked down, she saw several delicate straw dolls on the round table. There was grandfather with white hair and beard, grandmother with curved eyebrows and a cross pendant, father in navy uniform with a cigarette, gentle mother with beautiful hair, and there was also a boy with raised eyebrows, big eyes and deep dimples. Is this....the whole Wen family?
Ah Heng looked at those dolls who had a charming innocence, her nervous mood was strangely relaxed. She reached out and caressed their silhouettes with her fingertips.
"Do not touch Er Er's things!"
Ah Heng was so scared that her hands were trembling. In a moment, the doll fell on the carpet. She turned and looked at the woman who suddenly appeared in front of her. She suddenly felt sad.
When she was a child, she knew that she and her father, mother and brother Yun Zai did not look alike. She asked her mother: "Mother, why don't I look like you?"
"Ah Heng, you look prettier this way." Mother looked at her lovingly and laughed, "Straight eyebrows brings a more elegant aura to a person than curved eyebrows."
Mother Yun has the classic curved eyebrows, the delicate beauty of Jiangnan[2] women; Ah Heng has straight eyebrows, delicate and gentle eyes, which look like some of the bright and clean landscapes.
The middle-aged woman in front of her happens to have those beautiful straight eyebrows.
Ah Heng stood up, her body was very stiff. Ah Heng kept on staring at her, looking at the woman go to her side, gently squat down to pick up the fallen doll, and then she stood up.
She didn't ask for her name, how old she was, whether she was doing well or not, or questions any mother would ask. She just looked at her with a glance. Her eyes were shining brightly at first, but then she coldly said: "Don't touch anything in this room."
Afterwards, she left.
Ah Heng looked at the woman's back, suddenly a deep feeling of inferiority slowly released from the bottom of her heart. Who is she? This child wanted to crush herself and become untouchable dust in the air.
Ignoring is more cruel than abandoning.
Mother, that gentle and soft word.
Ah Heng's mother.
Mother, mother.
Ah Heng was hugging her suitcase, crying out of shame.
It was expected by Ah Heng that at dinner that day, only the head of the family, her grandfather, was present. There was no father, mother, or even Wen Si Wan, who had seen her.
The old man asked her a lot of questions. Ah Heng was always nervous and incoherent until he wrinkled his eyebrows.
"I have already informed the school. You and Si Wan will go to school together tomorrow. If you have any questions, ask him."
In the early morning, Ah Heng met the secretary that had brought her to B city again.
Si Wan was sitting in the front passenger seat, Ah Heng was sitting in the rear seat on the same side as Si Wan.
Growing up, it was Ah Heng's first time coming to the northern area, so naturally it was a new experience for her. Tired crowds, strong and charming Beijing dialect, tall and neat buildings, surrounded by exquisite courtyard houses....The same city, different atmosphere, but it perfectly blends together.
"Si Wan, there is a traffic jam ahead." The gentle Secretary Li turned around looking at Si Wan while faintly smiling, with a tone of inquiry.
"We are very close to the school, Wen Heng and I should get off first, right Uncle Li?" Thinking and pondering, looking at the long line of cars that have been blocking the road for nearly 20 minutes, he politely smiled in response.
Ah Heng was carrying her schoolbag on her back, following Si Wan, not too far or close, just an arm's length distance.
A long time later, Ah Heng stood stiffly beside Si Wan, at an arm's length distance.
At first he didn't notice it, later he realized that Ah Heng only treat him like this out of the group of friends. Despite being a young gentleman, he couldn't help but feel gloomy.
"Girl, I am your brother, brother!" Si Wan put his hand gently on Ah Heng's head, while joking.
"I know." Ah Heng replied frankly.
It was because he is her brother that she clearly remembered that he didn't like her near him.
Cherishing someone cautiously, Si Wan will not understand, just as he does not understand why he would give up Ah Heng again and again.
Si Wan chose a pathway, walking through a narrow alley. Ah Heng lowered her head silently trying to remember the pathway, until they had reached to the end of the pathway, and saw the busy crowd.
The reason why fate is so powerful is that it can stand at the end of the journey to see the amazing encounters it had set for you along the way. Those encounters, although you may often praise them in your heart for being irreplaceable, their existence were just a natural occurrence looking back, as if a piece of the puzzle that is missing, eventually exists just to complete the puzzle.
This was the second time Ah Heng saw the person she liked. He was sitting on the street corner, in the middle of a group of old people, sipping the coarse porcelain bowl of soy milk.
The slender white fingers held onto the edge of the bowl, his black hair was so soft that it naturally hang down along the forehead, just covering the side of his face, showing only the tall and delicate nose bridge. She could clearly see every curly strand of his hair, the disordered thread beside the first button of his dark blue school uniform jacket, but his face was completely blank.
At that time, it was 7:58.
"Yan Xi, you're going to be late, hurry up!" Si Wan got used to it. He patted his shoulder, his long legs continuously moving forward.
Ah Heng silently looked at the teenage boy, who lazily raised his slender finger in the direction of Si Wan, without raising his head.
Yan Xi, this seemed like a girl's name.
Seeing that the teenage boy's hair was stained with soy milk, Ah Heng faintly smiled, gently taking out a white handkerchief from her pocket and then putting it quietly on the dusty wooden table before leaving.
The young man did not look up. At that time, he seemed to be indifferent to anyone who was a stranger to him.
Translator Notes: I was confused with the title of the chapter, but I am guessing tree branch might be a reference to a family tree (a chart that represents the relationships among a family). Each tree branch represent a relationship between two family members, so I am guessing in this context it might mean a certain family member was unwilling to let Ah Heng stay.
