Even if the whole world forgets you, someone will find you.
Qiao Lu didn't care if he was too rude. He grabbed Shen Tianyou by the collar and asked for the exact address of Li Zi's home. Shen Tianyou didn't tell him any useful information in the end. It was Qiao Lu who found the location of Li Zi's home from Shen Li's circle of friends. Ironically, when Shen's mother saw Qiao Lu's phone, she realized that it was not that she couldn't see Shen Li's circle of friends, but that she was "blocked" by Shen Li.
Qiao Lu got in a taxi and showed the location on his phone to the driver, asking him to find the place. He sat in the car, tapping his fingers on his knees. The driver saw Qiao Lu's nervousness and comforted him that he would make it in time. Looking at the kind face in the rearview mirror, Qiao Lu's expression eased a little and nodded. Qiao Lu knew very well how it felt to be ignored by his loved ones, and he also hoped that he would make it in time.
He hoped that the words he said to scare Shen's mother were just scares, and that the girl would not run away from home on impulse because of her parents' favoritism, which would bring her with it the tragic consequences she would never want to accept.
There was no response to the text messages, phone calls, and WeChat messages. Qiao Lu had no choice but to dial the number he got from the squad leader downstairs of Li Zi's house.
Fifteen minutes later, Shen Li came down with a tuft of hair sticking up, yawning. She was wearing furry slippers, cropped pants that revealed her white ankles, and home clothes, as if she had just woken up.
Shen Li rubbed her eyes and asked impatiently, "What for?"
Qiao Lu, who was carrying a heavy heart, thought he was carrying a beam of light to dispel the coldness of the child in the dark night. However, when he arrived, he found that the child was rolling in the warm quilt. There was even a cup of hot cocoa on the bedside. He was very comfortable! Qiao Lu was embarrassed all of a sudden. What should he say?
After waiting for a long time without getting a reply, Shen Li glared at him: "Are you pretending to be a wooden stake? What are you doing here? You called me down and I'm standing here like this. Hey, it's time for me to take medicine. If you're okay, I'll leave..."
Qiao Lu rolled his eyes, grabbed her and asked, "Take medicine? Are you sick?"
Shen Li, who had taken off all her disguises, didn't want to continue acting and said to him, "What else? Why take medicine if you're not sick?"
The roles of the two people were reversed, and Qiao Lu asked in a gentle voice: "Were you sick on Saturday night? Did you miss school because you were sick?"
"What's it to you? Why do you care so much?"
Qiao Lu bit his lip, hesitating whether to apologize. Shen Li became even more impatient: "Why do boys bite their lips? It's like I'm bullying you."
Qiao Lu was stunned for a few seconds, and suddenly realized that even if Shen Li did not feel sorry for herself as he expected, he still owed Shen Li an apology: "I'm sorry, I know you care about the Monkey King, but I was so angry when I heard it, that's why I said that. You are very good to the Monkey King, it's me..."
"Don't call him 'Monkey King'. That's your 'Pudding'. Take it back. You don't want someone with bad intentions to help you raise a monkey."
Qiao Lu didn't expect that she didn't even want the little monkey, and couldn't help but say: "You are not as heartless as you said. I saw the little monkey's utensils and snacks on the balcony. In fact, you are not such a cold person."
"Qiao Lu, don't say that!" Shen Li folded her arms and interrupted him, "Don't give me some pitiful 'personality', and don't feel sorry for me or misunderstand me. What you heard that night was right, and what you said was right. I just wanted the little monkey to torment my brother. I just left my sick brother at home to play by myself. That's the kind of person I am!"
Shen Li's eyes were burning with anger. What right did he have to make such a conclusion about himself? Shen Li was not that kind of person. If Shen Li was that kind of person, what qualifications did he have to say?
"I know you're not that kind of person. You didn't abandon your brother, he admitted it, Shen Tianyou himself admitted that he framed you." Qiao Lu looked at her gently, his eyes full of tolerance, tolerance for her, and tolerance for the child hiding on the roof, "It's my fault, I believed his one-sided story. When I was a child, I had a high fever of 39℃. My second brother, the one who 'hunted' us last time, thought I was lying to him... That's why I was so angry about you abandoning your brother."
Ridiculous "sense of substitution", the reason for being misunderstood is actually like this. Shen Li shook her head, she didn't think that if someone said sorry, she should accept it with tears of gratitude!
But Qiao Lu didn't care whether she was listening or not, and continued to speak earnestly: "I was wrong, I misunderstood you."
"I'm sorry for making you feel wronged."
Shen Li's eyes widened, mocking and unbelievable. She turned to look at him, but her eyes slowly turned red. She didn't lack teaching, she didn't lack perfunctory apologies, what she lacked was a sincere heart, a "I'm sorry, you've been wronged".
Those indefensible grievances, those burdens imposed on her by "you are my sister", became a blockade wall, slowly sealing her soft heart inside the wall. Bit by bit, like cement pouring, she was given a cold, selfish, and indifferent shell. Don't ask her why she is like this, because only in this way can her heart not be hurt.
But now there were eyes as clear as a spring, looking at her calmly. From his eyes, she seemed to see her former self.
Can I trust the person in front of me?
"What's the point of your apology? You are only representing yourself. You are not the only one who is sorry to Ali!" Li Zi took a paper cup and medicine and went downstairs to find Shen Li to take medicine.
Shen Li swallowed the capsule-shaped medicine, holding a cup of water and listening to Li Zi helping her to teach people a lesson. Li Zi stood in front of Shen Li as a guardian and said, "Qiao Lu, right? I believe you also understand what happened in her family. If you just want to make up for something, then you can leave. The rest has nothing to do with you."
Qiao Lu hurriedly said: "Aunt is looking for you too!"
Li Zi laughed: "Her mother didn't even save my phone number, how can I find her?" Li Zi's phone rang just after she finished speaking. She held the phone and smiled at Shen Li, "It seems that your father still saved my number."
Li Zi started lying to Shen's father as soon as he got on the phone, but Shen's father insisted that Shen Li was at Li Zi's house and that he must come. Li Zi hung up the phone and spread his hands and said, "Shen Li, go out and hide first."
Qiao Lu didn't understand and said, "They are all here to look for you, why don't you go home?"
Li Zi pushed the two of them out and said, "Do you know why Shen Tianyou lives a better life than Shen Li? Because he won't give up! He will back down if you give him a way out. That's not being easy to talk to, that's being easy to compromise!"
After watching Qiao Lu and Shen Li leave, Li Zi turned around and shouted at a tree: "Come out, do you still need me to treat you?"
The tree didn't move.
Li Zi was convinced and said, "You said you sneaked into my house, it would be a shame if you didn't come out to chat, Shen Tianyou?"
Shen Tianyou slowly walked out from behind the tree with a shy look on his face, and was far less domineering than he was in front of Shen Li.
"What do you want to do by coming to my house ?" Li Zi asked, crossing her arms. "You've forced your sister to run away from home. What else do you want to do?"
Shen Tianyou answered stubbornly: "I didn't..."
"Come on, you can make your sister's whole family in turmoil with just one sentence, why are you pretending to be pitiful now!"
Li Zi didn't buy into his weak and stubborn attitude. Li Zi had an older brother, and they had a bitter relationship. The two siblings had been fighting each other for many years. She had framed her brother, and her brother had also tricked her. Li Zi's parents were very sharp-eyed, and they had never seen such a one-sided situation like Shen Li's family in all these years, so she was particularly angry about the attitude of Shen's father and mother.
Shen Tianyou defended himself: "I called her but no one answered. I was really in so much pain that I almost died!"
"So you told your parents that Shen Li left you to go out and play?" Li Zi almost pointed at his nose and scolded him, "Shen Tianyou, have a conscience! Yes, she didn't answer your call right away, but do you dare to say that it's not because you always play 'wolf' and scare us? Also, when your sister received the call and knew that you were in the hospital, she panicked and rolled down the escalator in a hurry. Even so, she got up and ran to the hospital... What did she owe you?"
Shen Tianyou's eyes were filled with disbelief: "Ah? How could she roll down the escalator?"
Li Zi laughed instead of getting angry: "Yes! No! Shen Li didn't fall down from the escalator on the first floor of Wangfujing Building. I lied to you!"
"She is so unlucky to have a brother like you!" Li Zi looked at the indifferent Shen Tianyou, smiled lightly, stopped talking to Shen Tianyou, walked around him and went straight upstairs.
A Hokkaido ice cream was handed to her. Shen Li hesitated for two seconds, but still took it: "This is your apology."
Qiao Lu smiled faintly: "Thank you for not holding a grudge." The next second, he snatched the ice cream.
"What are you doing?"
Qiao Lu said seriously: "Don't forget, you are taking medicine. You can't eat ice when you have a cold."
Shen Li was furious: "Who told you I have a cold? Can't I take medicine for a sore mouth?"
Qiao Lu wanted to give it back to her, but the ice cream had already fallen to the ground, with only the cone skin left: "I'll buy you another one?"
Shen Li waved her hands helplessly and staggered forward: "Forget it."
"What's wrong with your leg?" Qiao Lu realized something was wrong when he saw Shen Li limping.
"I just sprained my ankle."
Qiao Lu stared at Shen Li, his mind automatically imagining the scene of her running and falling to the ground: perhaps in a corner with no one around, she bumped into the curb and fell down unexpectedly, she lay on the ground, crying unabashedly...
"Hey, don't make any associations. It's not that bad. I just fell down."
Shen Li interrupted his imaginary scene, stared at him with a half-smile, and said, "Have you experienced something similar that makes it so easy to empathize and feel so strongly about it?"
Qiao Lu didn't hear her sarcasm, his eyes became deeper and deeper: "Unlike you, I am the youngest child in the family, but I am not the most favored child."
"how come?"
"Not good enough, do you believe it?" Qiao Lu had a sneer on his face. This was probably the day when he had the most expression. "My two brothers are both very good. My dad wants me to be on par with them in everything, but he is too lazy to do anything for me."
"It's really ridiculous, isn't it?" Qiao Lu leaned on the railing, which was several meters higher than the road. The wind still carried the smell of car exhaust. "I said I wanted to be a veterinarian, and he said I was childish. Everyone in the family scolded me, just like what you saw that day."
Shen Li suddenly asked: "Qiao Er?"
"Qiao Er? That's the nickname you gave him?" Qiao Lu thought about this name again, and it reminded him of "Xiong Er" in Boonie Bears. He grinned and said, "Yes, it's Qiao Er."
"Aren't Qiao Da and Qiao Er asked to do something just because they are older brothers?" Just like Shen Li, she is the older sister, so she has the obligation to clean up Shen Tianyou's mess.
Qiao Lu answered simply, "No." He smiled with all his white teeth, "When I had a high fever, my second brother was the only one at home. I told him that I was feeling sick and uncomfortable, but he told me not to lie and told me to go play. Later he complained that I was hindering him."
Shen Li asked blankly: "Then your parents..."
"They told me not to disturb my brother if I had nothing to do."
Shen Li was quiet for two seconds, then said, "Stop laughing, you look so ugly when you laugh."
If a smile is not genuine, it will look stiff. If you can't smile, why force yourself to smile?
Qiao Lu finally laughed: "I know."
Shen Li laughed to herself, and in the face of Qiao Lu's incomprehensible gaze, she answered: "Look, we are both the weaker party in the sibling relationship. If Shen Tianyou is your brother's younger brother, who do you think will suffer?"
"If Shen Tianyou was the one being sued, he would definitely not give in. Qiao Er would not be able to review, and he would have no peace all day long."
Qiao Lu immediately imagined Qiao Zishun being stared at stubbornly by Shen Tianyou, unable to move or speak, and would suffer no matter what, and he couldn't help laughing.
Now that she had gotten rid of the negative emotions of sadness and grief, Shen Li didn't plan to go back to the past. She asked, "Last time you said that the Monkey King was abused and then escaped. That's not the end of the story! Who abused the Monkey King?"
"Ah!" Qiao Lu suddenly shouted, interrupting Shen Li's words, with an annoyed look on his face, "I only remembered to come to find you, and forgot to bring the little monkey out!"
"Do you really want to take the little monkey away?" Shen Li asked, and then nodded in agreement, "That's right, I don't live at home now, and it will definitely not be taken care of if it stays at home."
Qiao Lu wondered why Shen Li looked like she wasn't going home, but he was more worried about the little monkey: "It's not because of this, it's because Shen Tianyou threatened me with the little monkey."
As Shen Tianyou's sister, Shen Li knew exactly what kind of character her brother was: "What did Shen Tianyou say?"
Qiao Lu still had Shen Tianyou's threat in his heart, and was worried that Shen Tianyou would let the cat out of the bag. He didn't know whether he should tell Shen Li about the origin of the little monkey. In order to let Shen Li help him raise the little monkey without any burden, he didn't dare to tell her that the little monkey escaped from the zoo.
It was a black-hearted zoo that abused small animals and wanted to let the injured monkey continue to perform. Qiao Lu was distressed at the time and somehow sneaked into the zoo. The little monkey had already escaped from the place where it was locked up. Qiao Lu covered its way out of the zoo and finally took it home secretly.
As time went by, the little monkey was no longer the same as it was at the zoo, but what if Shen Li minded this? Or if she accidentally let it slip and more people knew about it, what would she do?
Qiao Lu was vague, and when he finally spoke out the truth, he realized that he had unconsciously concealed the truth: "It's just those things, in fact, they are just childish tricks, and they just have no place to vent their anger."
Shen Li sighed, "That's what he would do." She raised her hand and patted Qiao Lu's shoulder, "But don't worry, I will take the little monkey out after things are settled in a while. But you have to think about where to keep it."
Qiao Lu nodded in agreement at the time, completely unaware that Shen Li's "it's settled" meant moving out of the Shen family.
Shen Li wanted to move out of her home. This idea was initially inspired by Qiao Lu. After discussing it with Li Zi, she got Li Zi's support. When Li Zi's brother came home on the weekend, he actually agreed with it.
Brother Li Zi said to her: "Far away, the smell is bad. Go home once in a while, and your parents will treat you better."
Li Zi advised: "Your whole mood is not right when you stay at home . If you continue like this, how are you going to take the exam and study?"
Shen Li thought about it for a long time. When she stayed at home, she couldn't help but compete with Shen Tianyou and fight for his favor in front of her parents. She couldn't help but go against him even though she knew her parents would favor him... She shouldn't continue like this. Just like she would not give up painting, she could not give up on herself anymore.
Then move out.
What does she owe you?
She was so anxious that she rolled down the escalator, but she still got up and ran to the hospital...
Shen Tianyou was in a daze, wandering the streets for two or three hours before he got to his home. His hair, which he always combed back, drooped down, and his pale face made him look listless. When he walked to the door of his house and saw the steps of the small garden, Shen Li's hateful look that day appeared in his mind.
Shen Li hated him, and he was clearly aware of this. He admitted that he sometimes found Shen Li annoying, but it was far from the point of hatred. Shen Li hated him. Was she petty, or had he really done something wrong?
Shen Tianyou sighed, took the key and opened the door. There were two pairs of shoes lying on the carpet, as if they were kicked down randomly. Shen's father and mother had returned. Shen Tianyou shouted inside: "I'm back."
He turned around to change his shoes, and three seconds later he found that no one was paying attention to him. Usually, Shen's mother would have been concerned about him and nagging him, but today she didn't respond at all. Shen Tianyou walked into the living room and found that Shen's father was leaning against the sofa smoking, and Shen's mother was staring at the coffee table in a trance.
Shen's mother, a capable woman, now looked like an unkempt middle-aged woman in the alley, with curly hair draped over her shoulders, rough and messy. She stared at the coffee table with lifeless eyes, her lips twitched from dryness to chappedness, unable to utter a complete sentence. Shen's father also looked like a middle-aged man, with a lowered hairline and slightly bald hair. His hand holding a cigarette was placed on the edge of the sofa, and there were pieces of cigarette ash on the ground.
What's going on here?
Shen Tianyou hesitated: "Mom..."
"Oh, Tianyou is back." Shen's mother looked up as if she had just seen her son, and said belatedly, "Is it this late? Mom forgot to cook. "
"Mom, what's wrong with you? Didn't you go to look for Shen Li? Why is she..."
Having lived for most of her life, the confusion she had in her twenties reappeared in her eyes. Shen's mother asked, "Tianyou, was mom very bad to your sister? Did mom really do something wrong?"
Father Shen put out his cigarette and sternly yelled at Mother Shen: "Why are you telling this to the child?"
Mother Shen broke down emotionally, tears welling up in her eyes. She patted her chest and said, "Who should I tell? I have been a mother for more than ten years, but my daughter says she hates me. Lili hates me, hates me..."
Father Shen embraced Mother Shen in his arms, motioned Shen Tianyou to go into the room, and patted Mother Shen's back soothingly. He sighed and said, "It's impossible for a child to get angry for no reason. We have really neglected Lili over the years."
"I don't even have her friend's phone number... She even blocked me on WeChat Moments, and I still thought I was an open-minded mother. I really..."
The door closed behind Shen Tianyou, and the words of guilt became blurred behind him, but the self-blaming faces of his parents remained in front of him. Over the past decade, he had been accustomed to giving orders to Shen Li like a leader, but now he was told that he was wrong, and that the whole family was wrong. What kind of life had Shen Li been living for so long?
Shen Tianyou was lying on the bed with his arms behind his head. When he touched the small toy at hand, he realized that it was the little doll he prepared for the "Monkey King", although the "Monkey King" had never slept with him once.
What was Shen Li's expression when he snatched the "Monkey King" away? She had to give it up, and she was obviously unwilling but had no choice? And the figurines he smashed, the snacks he dug out... Speaking of it, it seems that opposing Shen Li is something he has been doing since he was born. Shen Li hates him, so how could he not be jealous of Shen Li?
Thinking of the figurines, Shen Tianyou got out of bed and went to Shen Li's room. A bed, a bookcase, a wardrobe, and a desk. Shen Li's room was so simple. There were no occasional awards hung on the wall like his, nor posters of basketball stars. She locked all the important items in the glass cabinet on top of the bookcase. The clay figurines that he smashed into pieces were placed on a white plate, where they stayed when they were intact.
If Shen Tianyou were asked to describe Shen Li again, he could only come up with one word: broken.
The little monkey lay sadly on Shen Li's bed, and did not react at all to Shen Tianyou's arrival. Shen Tianyou sat beside Shen Li's bed and stroked the little monkey's head: "Have you been missing her all the time?"
"Tianyou, the takeaway is here, come out and eat!"
Father Shen put the takeaway on the dining table, and Mother Shen called him, "Come out to eat soon. After dinner, heat up the Chinese medicine and drink it. Last time, your sister gave you..."
Mother Shen shut up halfway through her words. Who went to get the Chinese medicine? Shen Li. There were traces of Shen Li everywhere in this house, but there were no vivid, happy memories of Shen Li.
What does she owe you? Shen Tianyou knew that Shen Li owed no one.
The three of them ate without saying a word. In the past, the three of them talked and laughed, and Shen Li ate alone in silence. Now without Shen Li, they couldn't talk and laugh.
The rain suddenly started to fall, hitting the ground outside with a crackling sound, making the three people in the room even more silent. Shen Tianyou found that one of his parents was looking at the window in silence, while the other was holding chopsticks but not picking up anything. Did his parents feel guilty like him?
"Sister," Shen Tianyou said. These two words woke up the two distracted adults. He cleared his throat and continued, "When will sister come back?"
"Wait a few days. Li Zi's parents said to let her take it easy." Let them think about it. Father Shen didn't say this. When he learned that his daughter wanted to move out of the house, he was so shocked that he couldn't say anything. He opened his mouth halfway, and his surprised look made people laugh.
He initially thought that it was just Shen Li's angry words, but the other party said: "Let Shen Li take it easy, and you should go home and think about it. Don't rush to agree or refuse immediately. Some things may not be resolved immediately."
What is the correct answer? Why would his mature and sensible eldest daughter make such a request?
Father Shen didn't know. The wind blew in, and he went to close the door to the small garden. The moment he closed the door, he saw the world outside the small garden. The rain hit the lawn silently. He thought, there was something there that he had forgotten.
what is it then?
Perhaps it was the time when Shen Li suddenly grew up quietly.