Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Mid-Autumn Festival was almost here.

This was the first year I wouldn’t be spending it in W Town.

Uncle Xu and Aunt Xu had gone abroad on a business trip.

Brother Wu and the others were afraid Xu Ge and I would be bored, so all of them came over to the Xu Family home to liven things up.

“Little sis, how does it feel studying at S City No. 1 High School? Are you getting used to it?”

I pinched off a small piece of mooncake and sat on the sofa, nibbling at it bit by bit.

“It’s pretty good.”

Brother Wu curled his lip. “With Xu Ge being such a sister-con, he must take very good care of you at school, right?”

I thought of earlier that day, in the school hallway, when Xu Ge had walked past me coldly without even lifting his eyes.

My heart dimmed.

Still, I nodded hard. “Yeah!”

The moment I said yes, Xu Ge, who had been curled up on the sofa watching TV, glanced at me for some reason.

A faint unease stirred in me.

Had I said something wrong again?

Brother Wu went over and slapped Xu Ge hard on the shoulder, teasing him. “And you still won’t admit you’re a sister-con.”

“Get lost.” Xu Ge knocked Brother Wu’s hand away, rose from the sofa, and headed upstairs while lazily running a hand through the hair over his forehead.

“Come on. My room.”

There was only one thing they ever did when they went upstairs: play games.

I carried over a little stool and sat on the terrace to look at the moon.

When Aunt Su finished her work, she came up and watched it with me.

Her rough, thick palm stroked my hair, and she smiled warmly.

“Do you miss home here?”

“I do.”

I didn’t hide it from her.

“S City is nice. It’s prosperous. But I still like my W Town better.

“Here, I can’t eat osmanthus square cakes. I can’t eat my mutton noodles. I can’t eat my dried tofu.”

I counted them off on my fingers. “And I can’t see my Big Yellow Dog either.

“Before I came to S City, Big Yellow Dog was given to the old neighbor next door. My family had kept it for fourteen years. My mom found it in a snowdrift the year I was born. I wonder if it misses me.”

“You really are a child with deep feelings,” Aunt Su said. “But since you’ve come out here, you should put down roots in S City from now on. The Xu Family is here, and they can support you too.

“In any case, our young master will definitely settle in S City in the future. I was thinking that with the two of you together, you’d have someone to look out for each other.”

Xu Ge would stay in S City too?

I looked up at the silver-white disk of the moon in the sky and suddenly felt the road ahead grow clearer.

If Xu Ge was going to stay in S City, then I would try to stay too.