It was a narrow and dimly lit corridor.
The walls were very old.
The air was thick with a mixture of high temperature and the dampness that seeped through after the rain.
Yang Siguang stepped on the stairs, climbing up one step at a time.
The blood-red sunset filtered through the ventilation window in the stairwell, dyeing the stairs in front of him a terrifying red.
He could feel his small heart racing rapidly in his chest, and he was filled with both fear and anxiety. His legs felt as though they were filled with lead, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t move. Yet, if he paused for even a moment, he could hear a sharp female voice from downstairs, coldly cursing at him.
“Yang Siguang, what are you dawdling for—”
“Useless thing, I told you to do such a small thing, and you’re still mumbling and dawdling. Be careful, when you get home, I’ll break your legs.”
“Go, hurry up and call your useless father back!”
“See that vixen? Go ask her how she can be so shameless, how she can even want a dirty man like your father!”
“Go tell her, if it itches down there, use a steel wool to scrub it, stop thinking about stealing other people’s husbands—”
…
Then came another round of even sharper and fiercer curses.
Yang Siguang could feel the tears uncontrollably welling up in his eyes.
A voice deep inside him kept screaming—he didn’t want to go at all—he really didn’t want to!
But because of the woman downstairs, he didn’t dare stop.
He couldn’t help but look down and glance at the shadow she left on the stairs. It looked so large and twisted, like a terrifying monster.
Yang Siguang shuddered in fear.
When he looked up again, he realized he was already standing, sobbing, in front of a weathered, broken door.
The door was unusually tall, and he had to tilt his head to clearly see the door number.
That sense of despairing fear surged up again in his heart. He gritted his teeth and carefully knocked on the door.
…
“Creek—”
After a long while, the door slowly opened from the inside.
Yang Siguang’s heart was beating so fast it felt like it might jump out of his throat, but in the next moment, he saw a small, emaciated child cautiously peeking out from behind the door.
The child was so thin that his cheeks had sunken in, making his eyes appear unusually large.
The golden-brown irises made Yang Siguang unconsciously think of a stray cat in the wild, so thin that only its eyes were left.
At that moment, those eyes were filled with fear and terror, but when they met Yang Siguang’s gaze, the fear and timidity gradually faded away.
“Si, Sisi!”
A flash of joy appeared on the child’s dirt-streaked face.
However, the boy was clearly very good at reading the room. He quickly noticed Yang Siguang’s strange expression, and his eyes dimmed again.
“Are you… are you looking for Uncle Yang?”
He asked in a very soft voice.
Yang Siguang timidly nodded.
Then, he gathered his courage and tried to shout “Dad” into the pitch-black room. However, before he could speak, the child quickly stretched out his hand to cover Yang Siguang’s mouth.
“Shh—shh—no, don’t shout!”
The child’s hand trembled slightly.
“They’ll be out in a little while,” the boy said in a hoarse voice, “If you shout now, Uncle Yang will come out and beat you again.”
Yang Siguang didn’t say anything.
The child’s gaze fixed on his face, and after a moment, Yang Siguang noticed the boy’s eyes were subtly reddening.
“…Did Aunt hit you?”
Yang Siguang nodded.
He couldn’t control his soft sobs of helplessness and grievance.
“I… I didn’t want to come. My dad will hit me; I didn’t want to come at all, but if I didn’t, my mom said she’d break my legs, said I was useless and couldn’t bring dad back, and said I was turning my elbow outward… Woo… Woo woo woo…”
The more he spoke, the more aggrieved he became, and tears flowed uncontrollably.
He even habitually lowered his voice, so his crying was silent and soundless.
The child tightly grabbed Yang Siguang’s hand.
“Don’t, don’t cry, Sisi, don’t cry.”
He clumsily said.
“My mom hit me today too; it hurt so much,” he paused and added, “But stomach aches are good too; when your stomach hurts, you don’t feel hungry.”
At this moment, Yang Siguang finally stopped sobbing. He sniffed, looking at the child in front of him, who seemed like nothing but bones. He sniffed again.
The child was too young, too young to even know that the heavy feeling in his chest was worry. He could only dig through his pockets, struggling to finally pull out a few milk candies that were almost melted and place them in the child’s palm.
“Here, this is for you.”
Yang Siguang’s voice was as soft as a mosquito’s buzz.
“I specially brought it for you… Next time, if you’re really hungry, eat this. I saw on an advertisement that one milk candy equals three cups of milk. If you eat this, you won’t be hungry.”
The golden-brown cat-like eyes instantly lit up with brilliant light.
Not long ago, the two had been crying, but this one milk candy instantly made them both happy again.
“Thank you, Sisi! Sisi, you’re so nice!”
“Mm. It’s really delicious!”
…
The two children unknowingly kept holding hands, slowly leaning against the door as they sat down.
In the room, faint sounds of ambiguous moans and water splashing could be heard, while the sky outside gradually darkened.
The room had no lights on.
Shadows spread along the stairs, step by step, like the fear they had forced themselves to forget.
Suddenly, Yang Siguang felt a light touch on his slightly swollen cheek from where his mother had slapped him.
He turned his head and saw the boy leaning on his shoulder.
“What’s wrong?”
He asked.
“If only…” Then he heard the child speak softly, “If only I could become really strong.”
“Yeah, if you became really strong, you could eat lots and lots of milk candies—”
Yang Siguang sighed deeply and said in a solemn tone.
But the child shook his head forcefully, raised his hand, and once again stroked Yang Siguang’s cheek.
For some reason, this time his hand felt even colder, as if it belonged to a corpse that had been dead for a long time.
“When I become strong, I can protect Sisi.”
The child’s voice gradually shifted from a tender, weak tone to a dark, hoarse one.
“I want… to protect Sisi…”
The shadows had completely enveloped them at some point.
Yang Siguang stared blankly at the child in front of him, and finally remembered.
Ah, this wasn’t a nightmare.
This was… a memory.
Many years ago, there really was an afternoon.
At that time, Li Chen, who ate irregularly, had once seriously told him…
*
[I just %￥#@… want to (*&%￥… protect… you…]
