Chapter 71: Why? He thought.

There was only one employee in the café. The back kitchen was designed with clear glass, and while she couldn't hear anyone outside, she could see everything.

The store was closed today, and none of the other employees had to come in. She sat with the boys outside for half an hour, but finally she couldn't hold back, and walked out with a hot towel.

"Hello, do you need ......?"

The other party suddenly stood up, the girl was startled, subconsciously step back.

The boy's face was expressionless, and the coffee on his shirt had dried. He turned to leave, then turned again when he remembered something: "How much?"

The girl froze and busied herself with, "No, the lady paid for all of it ......"

Yu Fan looked up at the menu of the restaurant, took out the thirty dollars cash he brought out for dinner today from his pocket and put it on the table, turned around and left the cafe.

August is the most comfortable weather in the South City. Yu Fan walked on the street, but it was like being in a freezing cellar, and her posture was stiff.

He smelled his own coffee and thought of nothing in his head, except that when he came back to his senses, he was standing in the kitchenware section of the supermarket.

He swept his eyes over a few things, picked them out and took them to the front desk to check out. When he entered the payment code, because his fingers were too wooden, he made a mistake twice and almost got locked out.

The supermarket owner was about to get a bag to put the stuff in when the other guy just picked it up with one hand, turned around and pushed the door out.

Returning to the familiar old neighborhood, the neighbors who passed by saw the stains on his body and the things in his hand, and immediately hid far away. Only one person was still stupid enough to talk to him.

"Brother, are you out of school too?" The little girl sat on the steps, "Our school went on a fall field trip today, did you go too?"

Yu Fan opened the door with a lurch and turned his head to look at her in silence.

"But my mom and dad won't be back for a long time." The little girl put her hands on her face and saw what he was holding, "Are you going to cook today, brother?"

"Don't do it." Yu Fan said in a muffled voice.

She gave a long "Oh--", suddenly thought of something, got up and patted her little skirt and walked down, "Then brother, will you take me to eat? I can pay, I still have ...... left from my fall trip," she hesitated, "7 dollars."

Yu Fan glanced at his pants, which she had tugged at, and reached into his pocket to feel around before remembering that the cash had all gone to the coffee shop.

"No go." He said.

The little girl aggressively let go, "Ah ...... well. Brother, your clothes are dirty."

Yu Fan didn't say anything, he unlocked the door and entered the house, before closing the door he suddenly thought of something and pulled it open again.

"If you hear anything today, don't even come down. Or I'll cut your pigtails off."

The little girl was so frightened that she immediately covered her two handfuls of pigtails and said in a milky voice with round eyes, "Why did you cut--"

The door closed.

No one was home, Yu Fan threw her things on the table and turned into the bathroom to wash her face.

His cheeks, neck, and ears were all sticky, and his skin was already stained with the color of coffee. He looked up at the mirror and lifted his face to rub the dark yellow spots, and after a couple of rubs that didn't come off, he switched to scratching.

After a few minutes, he looked at a gouged out bloodstain on his neck and dropped his hand in silence.

He always thought that when he turned 18, when he graduated and left here, he would be free of Yu Kaiming for good.

But he forgets that some people have already escaped, and after all these years of escaping, are still deeply tormented by Yu Kaiming.

Yu Kaiming is brazen, always threatening people with a lose-lose situation and picking on their softest spots. It is true what he said, he is not afraid to wear shoes, he will get better if he is beaten, he will come out if he is sent to jail. People in this world have too much to worry about, and Yu Kaiming always gets his way.

It's like he's made himself into a human bomb so that no one can do anything about him.

But Yu Fan is different. When someone poked him in the soft spot with a knife, he would pull the knife out of his body and stab it back into that person.

He's more open-minded than the others.

When Yu Fan came out after washing his face, his clothes and hair were already wet. He took out the last remaining half a carton of cigarettes and sat on the balcony, and smoked them expressionlessly. He leaned loosely against the security net, looking up at the sky, and a certain question Chen Jingshen had given him at noon suddenly appeared in his mind.

How was it solved ...... why suddenly I don't remember.

He stared at the sun, his eyes going blind. He didn't blink furiously until his cell phone buzzed and vibrated.

Wang Luan: You fell in the toilet!

[Wang Luan: Why don't you go back to class?]

[Wang Luan: Visiting Qin to patrol the classroom, I lied to her that you went to the school nurse's office, she didn't suspect a thing, hahaha!

Wang Luan: Where are you?

Yu Fan stared at the screen for a moment before lifting his fingers to type.

[-: I still have candy in my drawer]

[Wang Luan: Huh?

[-: Take it and eat it]

He glanced at the time, Yu Kaiming had been very regular lately, and would definitely be home by ten o'clock at night to watch the game. There are still a few hours left.

Yu Fan sat up, crossed his legs and thought seriously. Doors and windows need to be locked tight, Yu Kaiming is so loud, we need to find something to put in our mouths, and ......

He suddenly remembered something and jumped off the balcony to his room.

He fished his keys out of his book bag, unlocked the underneath of his desk, and drew out the cupboard dumping all of its contents onto the floor. Bits and pieces were stacked on top of each other, the pink envelope lying inside, most noticeably.

Yu Fan only glanced at it and did not look at it again. He casually drew a black bag and stuffed the whole thing about Chen Jingshen into it.

Love letters, draft paper for exams, word book that has been densely packed and almost finished, Du Binquan dolls ......

None of this should be in this room. Nothing about Chen Jingshen belongs here.

Yu Fan was like he was cleaning up some scene, he didn't feel comfortable loading up everything he remembered, and without saying a word, he went through the entire room, afraid that he might have left something behind. In the end, he even lifted the bed sheet, knocked over the closet, and tore down all the certificates on the wall, checking the wall behind the certificates like a madman.

By the time he had gone through it all, the room was a mess.

Yu Fan's legs were stretched out casually, sitting on the ground together with the black bag. He suddenly wanted to smoke again, but the last half of the carton of cigarettes had already been smoked.

So he scratched his hair, not dying to look in the mess. Before today, Yu Fan did not even know that there were so many things in his room, his mother used to use a hairpin, his elementary school uniform, an eraser from an unknown era ...... and a photo album that had gotten dusty.

He'd been rummaging through things with so much movement that the album lay spread out on the floor.

He passed by the album and reached out to close the thing, his eyes sweeping to the first picture at the top of the dew.

A dozen or so children stood side by side, with "Summer Camp Group Photo" written at the top, and Yu Fan took a closer look at the red wall of Cheng'an Temple, which he had visited recently, because it was in the background.

The photo was taken after his fight with those little boys, he was isolated by the other kids along with the camp teachers, so he stood on the far left of the line, far away from the others.

Another isolated man stood on the steps above him.

Yu Fan had just won a fight and was looking at the camera with his head held high, making the crybaby in the back with his mouth deflated and tears streaming down his face look even more foolish.

He closed the album with a quick scan, tossed it into a drawer somewhere, and resumed rummaging around on the floor with his head down.

After a few seconds, Yu Fan suddenly felt something was wrong.

Half-heartedly, he turned back and stared at the album for a moment before reaching for it.

Yu Fan's fingers were stiff as he flipped through the albums, looking backward from page to page as if it were his first day of ownership. He saw his grandfather, Yu Kaiming, and his mother in the album. I don't know how long it took before he finally found the photo again.

The memories of summer camp were like a veil covered. All he remembered was that the crybaby's eyes were so small and skinny-looking that he couldn't see his eyes when he cried.

He stared at the tearful person in the photo for a long time before reaching for it. The album was so old that the film on which the photo was placed had already stuck tightly to the photo. Yu Fan reached out to pick at it, but the more he did so, the more anxious he became, and the more anxious he became, the more he couldn't get it out. Yu Fan sat in the room sweating as the cool, clear autumn breeze filtered in through the window.

The photo was pulled out, and Yu Fan stared at the familiar frown of the crying bag for a long, long time. Then shaking his fingers, he flipped to the back of the photo.

On the back was written everyone's name. He glanced at the word "Yu Fan" before wearily raising his eyes to the top.

"Chen Jingshen"

A few tears fell onto the photo unexpectedly. At this moment, Yu Fan's head seemed to have suddenly opened up, and the stickiness on his skin, the stinging pain on his neck, and the huge sense of suffocation in his chest all reached his limbs, and he couldn't make a sound from the pain.

He finally lost control, his fingers trembling violently, tears woefully kept falling down. Chen Jingshen's name had always been blurred, and he reached out to wipe the water stains from the photo, but he couldn't finish it.

A strong feeling of revulsion rushed up to his throat, Yu Fan put down the photos and rushed out of the room.

He fell to his knees in the restroom, unable to suppress his vomiting. He hadn't actually eaten anything at all, and every time he vomited he felt like he was going to vomit his stomach out, and he vomited until his face was covered in tears, and all his senses were left with nothing but bitterness.

Why? He thought.

Yu Fan actually seldom thought about this, but at this moment, he couldn't stop thinking about it, why? There are so many people in the world, why him? Why was he born? Why not take him away? Why does he never seem to go well?

I'm afraid Ji Lianyi thinks so too. Why? Why did her son have to meet someone like him?

Chen Jingshen Why did you meet him?

-

When Yu Kaiming returned home, his room was dark. He muttered, "Why don't you turn on the light?", turned around, went into his room, took two pieces of clothes and went into the bathroom.

When he came out again, he was startled by the scene before him.

The door of the house was unlocked, and the shoe cabinet was moved behind the door to block it. Yu Fan stood in front of the shoe cabinet without any expression, pale and cold.

"Yu Kaiming." Yu Fan said, "Are you going to come with me or die with me."