After midnight

Once again stepping into the new city, Lingyi stretched his body. At this moment, he was flying in the night sky with thousands of lights flickering on the hanging window. Lingyi sniffed and found that the air in the new city was filled with the smell of freedom. But he didn't need freedom. Lingyi squinted his eyes and looked down through the glass.

Where would Wu Si and Qi Qi hide? Close to or far from the Son of God? The Son of God, thinking of An Yan, Ling Yi pressed his fingers one by one to make a sound. One day they would meet formally. The hanging window quickly turned around the Xindu Building and left in a cloud of dust.

"Two days have passed and no information has been found?" Song Yu asked.

"No, according to the data, only Wu Si showed up during the water maze incident in mid-November. Qi Qi seemed to have disappeared from the face of the earth the moment he entered Xindu."

"What about May Fourth?"

"We couldn't find him after the water maze incident."

"Impossible, they must have hidden themselves. How could there be no news? Let's keep looking."

"It's not that there is no news, it's just that it hasn't entered our intelligence network." Lingyi corrected him.

"What do you mean?" Song Yu understood. He was extremely angry. How could they survive as ordinary people and become something meaningless and worthless?

Facing Song Yu's questioning, Lingyi remained silent. At the beginning, Wusi disappeared in the water curtain. Only a few people could identify and catch up with him. Wusi took advantage of the chaos and quickly blended into the lively crowd of Xindu and disappeared completely. This was different from Eleven, Three Two and Six Nine. They were meticulous and wanted to completely disappear from everyone's sight from the beginning, so they chose the water maze square in Xindu as the stage.

If this was reported to Song Yu, he would probably be even more annoyed.

"Write them a letter. Lingyi, I want to see if they will reply."

“What if they don’t reply?”

"Then write more."

"Yes, I understand."

In early December, Qiqi received a letter from Lingyi. The letter contained only one sentence, brief but powerful.

"where are you?"

The six strong and domineering words hit Qiqi's lifeline directly, giving her an unusual sense of oppression, as if Lingyi already knew where she was. Now it was night, she tossed and turned, and finally decided not to reply. Xindu's answer was too vague, and she didn't want to reply to other wrong answers.

She was not afraid of Lingyi or Song Yu behind him. Her true helplessness and fear were right in front of her.

The next morning, long before Xiao Su and Su Ziling got up, Qi Qi handed the letter to An Yan.

After reading it, An Yan turned on the kitchen stove and set the letter on fire. When the sharp six words were burned out, An Yan shook it gently and threw the remaining letter into the trash can. He continued to pick vegetables and cook, and the half-broken letter was then covered by rotten leaves.

"An Yan?" Qi Qi never knew what An Yan was thinking.

"Just do this next time you receive a letter like this."

"An Yan..." Qi Qi was a little moved.

"Okay, you can get out now. I'm cooking."

Seeing that Qiqi was so moved that she wanted to rush over, An Yan immediately spoke out to stop her, so Qiqi walked out regretfully.

Although she didn't know what An Yan was thinking, it was enough for her that An Yan could do this. Qi Qi returned to the living room and sat on the sofa. He knew that in two minutes, Su Zi Ling would come out rubbing his eyes, and in three minutes, the first earth-shaking sound in the house would be heard at the door of Xiao Su's room on the third floor.

As Song Yu expected, no one responded to his first letter, whether it was Wu Si or Qi Qi. When Ling Yi was about to write a second letter to these two people, Song Yu stopped him. "I changed my mind. Betrayal can be confirmed once and for all. Write to San Er and Liu Jiu."

Zero looked at the content of the letter, which was exactly the same as the previous one, and wrote the code of the letter as the other two people. Soon, within five minutes, the reply letters from Three-Two and Six-Nine came. The content of their reply letters was the same, only two words: Nanzhuang.

"Nanzhuang? That's quite a long way." Song Yu said with a smile.

"where is it?"

"South of Los Angeles."

Nanzhuang is a small town further south of Luocheng, where there is peace and tranquility and flowers bloom all year round. The river passing through Nanzhuang is called Nanhe River, which is one of the few branches of Luohe River. This branch finally converges into the famous Nanshan Lake.

"Lingyi, let's go together." Song Yu crumpled up the flat letter paper.

"Master, this way..."

"Let them be proud for a while."

San'er and Liujiu each received a letter as soon as they arrived at the border of Nanzhuang, and they immediately became nervous.

"It's Lingyi. He asked me where I was." Liujiu quickly opened the letter and said as he read it.

"Me too."

"Do you want to reply to him?"

"of course."

"What's the matter?"

"Just reply as you should."

Seeing San Er write down the words "Nan Zhuang", Liu Jiu also hurriedly followed suit. Ling Yi was the only one among them who chose to follow Song Yu, so both of them knew the meaning behind this letter.

"What does Song Yu want us for? Is it Eleven?"

"I don't know. If water comes, we can stop it. If soldiers come, we can block them with earth. Let's hurry on. There are still things to do."

Liujiu knew exactly what Saner meant by "there is still work to do". Because they had found every town similar to Nanzhuang in this way. Liujiu didn't expect that Saner was so serious when he said that he wanted to go to the south. Saner wanted to find his biological parents, so they went to all the towns that overlapped with his memory. Nanzhuang was not the last one, but it was unknown whether it would be the last one.

Liujiu looked at Saner's back and then chased after him. He was not a heartless person.

"Are we still going to ask every household like before? Why don't we go to the local government this time?"

"You still think you're not special enough?"

"Our identities may not be discovered."

Because of Liujiu's words, Saner stopped and glared at him fiercely. Liujiu was a little scared and said with a wry smile: "Okay, I get it. I'll do whatever you say."

San Er was as afraid of being discovered as he was of losing his life. Why? Liu Jiu thought carelessly as he looked at the green all over the mountains. Because of Ling Yi's letter, they sped up and arrived at Nanzhuang around two o'clock in the afternoon.

After receiving the probationary salary, Xiaowu became a formal employee of the bar. But he still worked as hard as before, without saying anything or asking for anything. Bai Ming saw him after working for a while and asked, "Xiaowu, tomorrow is the weekend, do you want to rest?"

Wu Si shook his head and continued to work. He collected the cups left by the guests and wiped the table.

"Okay then. I have to go out for something. Xu Xing will come over in a while. He gets off work early today."

"Okay." Wu Si nodded.

"Thank you for your hard work." Bai Ming said, put on his coat and walked out. I was so curious. Xiao Wu just got his salary and it was the weekend soon. Did he really not need a rest? Was there no one to meet up with? Bai Ming thought about it while walking and finally decided to give up thinking.

"Brother Bai Ming!"

"Ajiu? Why are you here?" Bai Ming heard someone calling him and quickly squeezed through the crowd to walk towards Ajiu.

"Hey, I'm out shopping with Brother An Yan and the others. Where are you going, Brother Bai Ming?"

"I was just planning to go home." Bai Ming looked around and saw An Yan buying clothes in the nearest fashion store. As they were talking, An Yan had already paid and came out with a paper bag, followed by Su Ziling and a little girl of about seven or eight years old. Bai Ming looked at her and knew she was Xiao Su.

"An Yan, Su Ziling, what a coincidence. Since you are here at Xishui International for shopping, why don't you go to the bar on the sixth floor where I opened a bar and have a seat. I have something to do and need to leave first, but I will be there soon."

"No, I have a child with me." An Yan said.

"Okay, then you must come over some other time when you are free. I'm leaving first."

"Ah."

"An Yan, have you really been to the 'Black and White' bar?" Su Zi asked, remembering what Xu Xing had said.

"Yes, I have been there. What's the matter? I didn't know why I went there at that time."

"You've been there twice, right? And once again after you came back from Qingdao?"

"You remember it very clearly." An Yan did not directly answer Su Ziling's question this time, but pushed Jiu and Xiao Su forward. "Don't listen to so much, kids. Let's go. The temperature is going to drop. I have to buy you another down jacket."

"An Yan." Su Ziling said, "Come with me to the Black and White Bar again."

An Yan looked at him. Su Ziling's expression was very determined, as if he was talking about something very important.

"Okay." Faced with Su Ziling like this, An Yan could only nod and say okay.

"Look, there are delicious food ahead." Hearing An Yan's promise, Su Ziling felt relieved, so he also followed An Yan's example and urged Ajiu and Xiao Su to move forward.

"Okay, I got it, Brother Ling." Xiao Su helplessly pulled Ajiu and ran forward.

Seeing that Ajiu's entire arm was held in Xiao Su's arms and he couldn't break free, Su Ziling couldn't help laughing.

In fact, since Qiqi moved in, Su Ziling has not been living a peaceful life every day. This uneasiness is not because of Qiqi, but some very subtle emotions that even Su Ziling himself cannot understand. This emotion is easy to forget, but also easy to be triggered.

For example, when he ran into Bai Ming here today, when the "Black and White" bar was mentioned again, this uneasiness was immediately magnified countless times. An Yan's reaction further confirmed that. After returning from Qingdao, Su Ziling probably knew the reason why An Yan went there, which was nothing more than An Yan abandoned him and Xiao Su.

But what happened that night several years ago?

He wanted to go to the 'Black and White' bar with An Yan again.

After An Yan agreed, this sensitive emotion disappeared again. He watched Xiao Su and A Jiu quarreling, and watched An Yan walking quietly beside them. Su Ziling felt that this was good. Because he knew that no matter what happened in the future, they would have such moments again.

"Xiao Su, Ajiu, there are delicious food ahead, let's go." Su Ziling chased after him in two steps.

At about nine o'clock that evening, they came out of Xishui International and walked slowly eastward to the water maze square. The slightly lower building behind the left side of Xindu Building was the dormitory where Jiu lived. They planned to walk through the water maze square to send Jiu back and then take the hanging window home.

Halfway through the journey, Su Ziling, who had just walked to the bottom of the water maze, suddenly had a wonderful idea.

"Xiao Su, the water maze square seems a little quiet today. Do you want to show off and have a rain of flower petals?"

"Petal rain, Xiao Su?" Ajiu looked at Xiao Su, his eyes full of surprise.

Xiao Su didn't want to be so ostentatious, but when she caught Ajiu's gaze, she became eager to try.

"Ajiu, you better watch out."

Xiao Su spread out her five fingers, and in an instant, white, pink and red petals fell from the sky.

"Are they cherry blossoms, peach blossoms, and pear blossoms?" Su Ziling exclaimed.

"Beautiful, right?" Xiao Su said proudly.

"Xiao Su is so awesome, so handsome!" Jiu couldn't help but stretch out his hand to catch the dreamy flowers that belonged to spring.

An Yan's reaction was not as intense as Su Ziling and A Jiu's, but at this moment he also raised his head and smiled with a gentle look. The petals fell gracefully, piling up more and more, and the crowd stopped one after another, cheering enthusiastically.

"It looks like it's snowing." Su Ziling glanced at An Yan with a smile.

"Want to see snow?" An Yan asked.

"Yeah, it's a pity that it's not snowing yet." Su Ziling hated the long winter. In his opinion, the only thing he could look forward to in winter was snow. He knew that An Yan also hated winter, but that was purely because An Yan was afraid of the cold.

Su Ziling raised his head and saw the petals falling in layers under the bright lights of the water maze. Several times, the petals accidentally brushed his face, allowing him to smell the fresh and cool fragrance.

Suddenly, Su Ziling saw something and his eyes widened. He saw that in the gradually dazzling rain of petals, there was actually fine white snow mixed in. The white snow hit his face, bringing a cold and wet feeling.

Su Ziling turned his head to look at An Yan again, and the corners of his mouth couldn't help but widen.

He knew that if An Yan wanted to do something, he would definitely be the best at it.

After Eleven's death, he keenly noticed the change in An Yan. An Yan was taking the initiative. But now, with the beautiful scenery in front of him, Su Ziling chose to indulge in the happiness in front of him. He narrowed his eyes and heard the cheers of passers-by.