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Withering Peach Blossoms
墨書 Inktalez
The sky was faintly tinged with gold, and the Twinkling Lights of Thousands of Homes below had dimmed. Sitting in X Tower Italian Restaurant, I felt a bit out of place. I adjusted my tie, hoping to make a good impression on the Publisher. If my book wasn't published soon, I wouldn't be able to make a living.
The restaurant played a soothing Waltz Melody, and the mist rising from the Central Waterfall made it feel like I was enveloped in a fairyland. The warm yellow light reflected off the golden walls, exuding luxury and opulence.
My tightly clasped hands were slightly sweaty, and feeling uncomfortable, I took a few deep breaths to ease my tension. However, once the air entered my lungs through my nasal passages, it felt even worse because this air did not belong to me.
After receiving a message from the Publisher that they would be a few minutes late, I looked around, peering into a world that felt foreign to me.
Suddenly, I noticed a pair of bright, wide eyes staring at me. A beautifully dressed girl walked up to me and said, "Teacher!"
My thoughts became chaotic; I didn't remember knowing someone from this different world.
"Teacher, I'm Taohua! I was one of your students when you taught in our area." After she said this, her expression turned forlorn as she murmured, "Well, no one ever cared about me anyway."
In an instant, a pure face flashed in my mind—her hair was messy, and although there was some dirt on her face, it was framed by her striking eyes.
She was one of my students from when I went to teach in the south after graduating from university; her name seemed to be Taohua.
She had told me that she was a Left-behind Child; her parents had gone out to work with her younger brother, so she lived with her grandparents.
I had once asked her, "Do you miss your parents?"
"No."
"What is your dream?"
"To work."
At that time, the teacher present shook their head upon hearing this response. But in that moment, I saw an expression in Taohua's eyes that belied her age.
"Why do you want to work, Taohua?" I gently took her somewhat frail hand and asked softly.
"My family only cares about my brother. He has several pieces of clothing already, but I don't have even one," her voice trembled slightly.
"Sometimes when I touch that yellowed shirt, it feels rough against my skin. But they never said they would buy me new clothes. It was only by chance that I touched my brother's clothes that I realized clothes could be so soft—soft like the fur of the big fat cat next door..." She spoke faster as tears welled up in her eyes, as if a gust of wind could make them fall.
I touched her face and slowly tidied her messy hair. "Taohua, you can also have dreams of becoming a scientist or a writer."
Taohua suddenly pushed my hand away and firmly said, "I just want to go out and work so I can buy myself a very soft piece of clothing..."
"Are you really that little girl who wanted to go out and work back then?" I asked uncertainly because I couldn't connect the beautifully coiffed woman before me with the messy-haired Taohua from my memories.
She smiled; that smile mirrored what I remembered and overlapped with my recollection. In that moment, I truly believed she was Taohua.
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