The narrow streets were very lively with people coming and going. A kitten on the side of the road with a rope tied around its neck raised its head and called Li Zhenruo “meow meow” twice. Li Zhenruo squatted down and touched its head, watching it rubbing on his leg.
Li Zhenran stood beside Li Zhenruo and said to him, “Let’s go to the neighbourhood first.”
Li Zhenruo nodded, stood up and left slowly with Li Zhenran, in spite of the kitten’s cry to stay. This county was not big, and they didn’t know anyone, so they had nowhere to go. They were just strolling in a small unfamiliar city.
The thoughts in his head were too chaotic, and Li Zhenruo didn’t even try to sort them out. No matter what the truth was, he could only just accept it by now. He didn’t have a better choice.
Li Zhenran stretched out his hand to wrap his arms around Li Zhenruo’s waist and put his palm on the back waist for a long time. Even through the clothes, Li Zhenruo could still feel the temperature of Li Zhenran’s palm.
After a while, he turned to Li Zhenran and said, “I may lack love.”
Li Zhenran was stunned because of his inexplicable words, and smiled, “I’ll make it up to you.”
He never got tired of listening to sweet words. Li Zhenruo thought to himself, he was quite happy now, he had lost some things and gained some things. It was not easy to compare and measure each other, whether he was losing more or gaining more. He had no idea.
After they walked around for a while, they looked for a place to eat something. When it was almost dinner time in the afternoon, Li Zhenruo knocked on Luo Yunguang’s door again, and this time still no one answered.
They weren’t sure if there was anyone in their home. The store next door had closed, and the other one said they didn’t know when he would come back.
So they waited for a while. The rest of the store was closed when he came back, and the door of Luo Yunguang’s house was still closed. Li Zhenruo went over to knock on the door but got no response.
“No one’s there?” He felt a little strange, he stepped back and looked towards the two-story building inside the gate. He didn’t see a human figure, but he could vaguely see a faint light. He wasn’t sure if it was the reflection of a nearby street lamp or the light in the room.
Li Zhenruo made up his mind, and he said to Li Zhenran, “I want to go in and have a look.”
Li Zhenran glanced around and made sure that there was no anti-theft power grid around the iron gate, so he said to him, “Go ahead. Be careful.”
Li Zhenruo reached out and took off his jacket and handed it to Li Zhenran.
As a result, Li Zhenran just reached out to pick it up, when the coat left Li Zhenruo’s body and he disappeared out of thin air, leaving a cat hair fluttering in Li Zhenran’s palm.
Li Zhenruo smiled a little embarrassedly, although he knew it was meaningless, he still habitually rolled up his long sleeves, then hid in the dark and transformed into a cat form, and climbed up along the brick wall next to the iron gate.
Li Zhenran stood outside the door and saw Li Zhenruo’s forelegs climbing on the wall with his buttocks falling down and swaying for a while before he climbed up with difficulty and suddenly smiled.
It became easier for Li Zhenruo to climb over the courtyard wall. He trotted along the courtyard wall until he came to the vicinity of the building, and climbed the second-floor window on the pipe.
When he got close, Li Zhenruo heard the sound of someone walking inside. He was sure that there was someone in the room and climbed to the outside of the window of the room where he had just seen the lights. Li Zhenruo looked inside and saw the inside of the room. With the TV turned on, a married couple who were in their forties sat beside the bed, and the man among them was Luo Yunguang.
Luo Yunguang was at home, but he didn’t open the door for them.
Li Zhenruo didn’t have time to be angry, he turned around and climbed along the pipeline to the yard on the first floor, turned back into a human shape, walked over and unlocked the door of the big iron gate from the inside.
Li Zhenran was standing outside the door, looking at him in surprise, “Someone’s inside?”
Li Zhenruo nodded, “Yes.”
The people upstairs heard the noises, Luo Yunguang rushed to the window and shouted loudly, “Who is it?!”
Li Zhenran and Li Zhenruo stood there and looked up at the same time.
Luo Yunguang left the window at this time. They listened to the movement as if Luo Yunguang had come downstairs in a hurry.
Li Zhenruo and Li Zhenran looked at each other and waited quietly for him.
Luo Yunguang went down to the first floor and opened the security door from the inside while swearing fiercely, “Who are you people? Barging in and trying to steal something? I’m calling the police!”
He was holding a cell phone in his hand as if he had already pressed 110 and was ready to dial the number.
However, at this moment, Li Zhenran shouted first, “Uncle Luo, do you remember me? I’m Li Zhenran?”
Luo Yunguang was stunned for a moment. He stood by the door, frowned and looked in this direction, carefully looking at the slender and handsome young man under the street lamp, “Who do you say you are?”
Li Zhenran said, “I am Li Jianglin’s second son, Li Zhenran.”
Luo Yunguang put down his phone and walked towards them slowly until he approached Li Zhenran, looked at his face seriously and said, “Yes, you really are Zhenran.”
Li Zhenran smiled at him, “Uncle Luo, I haven’t seen you for many years.”
Luo Yunguang looked a little stunned, “Why are you here?”
Li Zhenran didn’t answer him directly, but reached out and pulled Li Zhenruo to his side, and said to Luo Yunguang, “Uncle Luo, do you remember? This is my brother, Zhenruo.”
Luo Yunguang’s expression suddenly became strange. He first walked to the wall and turned on the lights in the yard, looked at Li Zhenruo’s face through the lights, and then said, “He—isn’t he…”
Li Zhenruo didn’t know what Li Zhenran meant, but he still cooperated with Li Zhenran and said, “Uncle Luo, look at me carefully, you carried me when you were younger, did you not?”
When Luo Yunguang left, Li Zhenruo was still young. He could recognize Li Zhenran who had grown up, but he might not be able to recognize what Li Zhenruo would look like now. But if he really wanted to think about it, this Li Zhenruo looked too young now, and it didn’t match the age of Li Zhenruo himself.
But for Luo Yunguang, it wasn’t this that puzzled him. He just looked up at Li Zhenran, “I saw the news last year. Li Zhenruo is gone.”
Gone means dead.
Li Zhenran was exposed by him, and he was not embarrassed at all, but smiled and said, “It turns out that Uncle Luo has been following us all the time.”
Li Zhenruo’s case has been reported by the media, but he was not a star himself, and the response he could cause in society was limited. The case was not a serious case, so it had not attracted a lot of media attention.
Luo Yunguang could know that if it wasn’t for the fact that he still had contact with Li Jianglin, then he was very concerned about the movements of the Li family.
When he heard Li Zhenran say this, Luo Yunguang did not refute, but looked at Li Zhenruo and said, “Who is this little brother?”
Li Zhenran put his hand on Li Zhenruo’s shoulder and said to Luo Yunguang, “My friend’s younger brother. I’m joking with Uncle Luo, don’t be angry.”
Luo Yunguang then laughed a little, “How can I be angry. You still haven’t answered yet, why did you suddenly find your way here?”
As soon as he finished speaking, his wife’s voice came from the second-floor window, “Who is it? Do you want to call the police?”
Luo Yunguang replied, “Two nephews, don’t worry about it, it’s fine!”
Li Zhenran said to him, “Won’t Uncle Luo invite us in and sit down? It’s really not easy for me to come all the way here.”
When he heard this, Luo Yunguang seemed to have just reacted, and quickly said to them, “Look at my head, it’s useless when I’m too old. Come into the living room with me and sit for a while.”
Having said that, he led the way and asked Li Zhenran and Li Zhenruo to follow him inside.
Li Zhenruo slowed down and said softly to Li Zhenran, “His ears are fine, why hasn’t he opened the door for us?”
Li Zhenran said nothing and touched Li Zhenruo’s head.
Luo Yunguang was warm to them by this time, letting them sit down on the sofa and calling his wife down from the second floor to pour them tea.
The topic inevitably returned to Li Zhenran’s purpose for coming here, this time Li Zhenran no longer avoided it but said, “Uncle Luo, I accidentally learned something about more than 20 years ago, and I want to ask you about some old things.”
Luo Yunguang sat on the single sofa opposite them, frowning slightly, “What happened more than 20 years ago?”
Li Zhenran nodded, “You were my father’s closest brother at that time. I believe my father will not hide anything from you.”
Luo Yunguang picked up the cup, blew the tea leaves and shook his head with a smile, “What are you talking about, if I know, I will tell you.”
Li Zhenran said, “It’s something about my fourth brother Zhenruo.”
Luo Yunguang slowly put down the cup and glanced at Li Zhenran, “Zhenruo is gone.”
Li Zhenran nodded when he heard the words.
During this process, Li Zhenruo didn’t speak. He knew that he was a stranger to Luo Yunguang at present. If he asked a question rashly, not only would he not get an answer, but it would arouse the other party’s suspiciousness, so he kept listening to Li Zhenran quietly.
Luo Yunguang mentioned again that Li Zhenruo was dead. They all knew about it. Li Zhenran pretended not to understand what he meant and asked, “So what?”
Luo Yunguang said, “He’s not here anymore, what’s the point of pursuing the past?”
He said this, but it made Li Zhenran and Li Zhenruo convinced that he knew something.
Li Zhenran said, “Uncle Luo, the matter about the fourth child is not Dad’s son, did you know that?”
When he heard this question, Luo Yunguang didn’t answer immediately, but he didn’t show any surprise. He just stretched out his hand to pick up the teacup he had just put down and moved it to his lips to take another sip.
Li Zhenruo silently observed his expression. He saw Luo Yunguang’s eyes fixed on the teacup, he was obviously thinking about how to answer. Not only did he know this, but he probably didn’t plan to tell them the truth now, so he needed to delay for a while to consider what kind of answer to give them.
Luo Yunguang had been away from the Li family for so many years. It sounds like he had no information, but he had lived a good life in this place. Li Jianglin still treated him well and so until now, he still wanted to help Li Jianglin hide something, wasn’t that the case?
The author has something to say:
It’s a bit late again, but anyway
Notes:
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