NOVPUBOn the other side. 𝘯𝑜𝘷𝘱𝘶𝘣.𝘤𝘰𝑚
Wu Lingyu had finished organizing her luggage and was about to head to the kitchen to help out as usual.
But when she pushed open the door, she found that Xia Xiaoxiao had already beaten her to it.
"Yu, let me help today. I want to learn how to cook too," Xia Xiaoxiao said, tilting her head as she stood between the two adults.
"Oh... okay." Wu Lingyu was momentarily stunned, but quickly nodded in acknowledgment and closed the door again.
[Why does Xiao Xiao suddenly want to cook?] Wu Lingyu shook her head, unable to understand as she recalled Xia Xiaoxiao’s usual behavior, and decided not to dwell on it.
There was no one in the living room. Xu Aiguo had taken the car for a wash and maintenance, and Xu Qingfan’s whereabouts were unknown.
"Brother Fan?" Wu Lingyu began by looking in Xu Qingfan’s room, but found it empty.
"Brother Fan, where are you?" Next, she checked the bathroom, the balcony, the master bedroom, still finding no one.
She stepped outside into the corridor and, looking down, finally spotted Xu Qingfan on the ground floor of the Lianhua Courtyard.
The girl didn’t dare to call out Xu Qingfan’s name loudly in the public area, worried that he might walk away again, so she quickly hurried downstairs.
When she reached the ground floor and saw that Xu Qingfan was still there, she let out a sigh of relief and quickly approached him, "Brother Fan, what are you doing here?"
Xu Qingfan had yet to speak, but when Wu Lingyu saw the motionless Dahuang on the ground, she knew what had happened. "Dahuang, it..."
"Ah~" Xu Qingfan sighed and stroked the dog’s head, "has gone to Dog Star."
"What?" Wu Lingyu’s mouth fell open in sorrow. Though she had never walked Dahuang, she couldn’t forget the scenes of Xu Qingfan teasing the dog when she came home from elementary school, precious memories that made up her childhood.
"It’s normal. It was born before me, and at seventeen or eighteen years old, that’s nearly a hundred in human years," Xu Qingfan said as he untied the leash that had been restraining Dahuang.
"Right." Worried about how Xu Qingfan was taking it, Wu Lingyu crouched down beside him.
"This silly dog must have known it was dying and wanted to hide outside, but it couldn’t get away because of the leash, so it just kept running in circles anxiously." Xu Qingfan spoke in a calm tone about the scene when he noticed something was wrong with Dahuang, "Even close to death, it still cared about these things. Couldn’t it have barked twice to say it wanted a chicken leg?"
"Brother Fan." Seeing Xu Qingfan’s eyes redden as he spoke, Wu Lingyu wrapped her arm around his to comfort him.
"It’s nothing, just feeling a bit sad thinking that I won’t be able to scare it anymore," he sniffled and stood up, by then a crowd of neighbors had already gathered.
"Dahuang is gone too."
"Living that long is already quite remarkable."
"Yeah, Xu kid, why are your eyes red? You’re the one who loved scaring the dog the most!"
"Hahaha, maybe he’s sad thinking he won’t be able to scare it anymore."
"Bullshit, just had some sand blown into my eye by the wind!" He looked up at the circle of familiar neighbors, noticing how fewer and fewer familiar faces were left.
"Ah, right, right, haha..."
Soon someone came with a burlap sack and a cardboard box to put Dahuang inside. Worried that someone would dig it up to eat, Uncle Li from the fifth floor secured the box onto his motorcycle and took along a shovel, preparing to dig a hole in the suburbs to bury the dog.
Xu Qingfan also decided to go; he went upstairs to get Lin Jing’s electric scooter keys, put on a helmet, and took Wu Lingyu along with him.
"Brother Fan, are you okay?" Wu Lingyu sat up straight on the electric scooter, her hands resting on it.
"Don’t worry, I just got a bit upset all of a sudden, but I’m fine now," Xu Qingfan replied with a bright voice.
"Mm," Wu Lingyu nodded seriously as she watched his retreating back.
"When I was little, the shop also had a yellow dog, but we sold it after Dad got sick."
"Really? I’ve hardly ever heard you talk about your childhood." The wind was so loud that Xu Qingfan had to shout to be heard.
"Because I was only four years old then, I can’t remember much, and I wouldn’t have remembered if not for today..." Wu Lingyu leaned her cheek against his back, so that her voice could be louder, not just carried by the air.
"And after meeting Brother Fan... and everyone, every day has been so happy that my mind has been filled with more recent things," she said very earnestly.
"Hold on tight to me, Uncle Li is driving too fast, we won’t be able to keep up at this speed."
"Mm!"
With Xu Qingfan’s consent, Wu Lingyu finally dared to wrap her arms around him.
Despite the whooshing of the evening wind, the girl couldn’t hear a thing at that moment; in her world, there were only their heartbeats.
After driving for seven or eight kilometers, Xu Qingfan stopped the vehicle on the sidewalk and got off.
"Uncle Li, is there anything I can help with?"
"You’re here too, great, you dig. I just got a call and have to deal with something," Uncle Li, seeing Xu Qingfan and Wu Lingyu, handed him a shovel and said.
"Sure, Uncle, drive safely and don’t run any red lights, okay?"
"Hmph, you little rascal." He waved his hand and turned to leave.
There was already a shallow pit about twenty to thirty centimeters deep in the ground; the southern red soil was quite loose and not hard to dig.
Xu Qingfan dug with the shovel for another twenty minutes or so, and soon a half-meter-deep hole appeared before them.
The snake-skin bag was made of polyethylene, which wouldn’t decompose even after ten years buried underground; he and Wu Lingyu together moved the still-warm Da Huang into the pit and then covered it with soil to bury it.
"This damn dog, still so heavy even in death," Xu Qingfan wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve and complained.
Wu Lingyu’s eyes widened in shock, unable to understand how Brother Fan, who had red eyes from crying just before, could have changed his tune so quickly.
In fact, it wasn’t hard to understand, just like when an elderly family member passes away—during the funeral, one might be overcome with grief and sob uncontrollably, but at the feast afterwards, laughter is sure to be plentiful.
Xu Qingfan picked three foxtail grasses from the roadside and planted them on the grave, addressing the mound, "Be on your way, if you miss home just come back, you’re smart enough to find the way, go on you silly dog, when you get there, try to eat less crap, silly dog."
"Pfft—" Wu Lingyu couldn’t help but burst out laughing, initially overwhelmed with sadness, but Brother Fan’s last words made it impossible for her to keep it in.
Xu Qingfan glared at the girl covering her mouth; after a brief standoff, they looked at each other and smiled.
"Brother Fan, thank you. Otherwise, my dad..."
Xu Qingfan reached out and pinched the young girl’s mouth, "Don’t say such inauspicious things, we’re family, let’s go home."
"Mm!"
The electric scooter gradually moved away, and Wu Lingyu took one last look back at the place where they had buried Da Huang, shouting, "Goodbye Da Huang, we’ll come to see you again next time!"
In everyone’s memory, there’s a dog named Da Huang. Later on, it became a little mound in the earth, with a blade of foxtail grass growing on it, and whenever you pass by, it would sway gently.
