Siheyuan, integrating everything, cultivating the city

Li Xiangqian frowned, with an inexplicable feeling in his heart. His daughter did not leave any special clues when she left, not even the backpack she usually took with her. Did she really just go out to play? However, the weather today was not good, and the wind in the woods was getting more biting. He had a strong premonition that things were not that simple.

After walking for a while, he finally stopped and lowered his head in silence. The air was filled with the smell of damp earth, and there was silence all around, even the chirping of insects in the distance had disappeared. Suddenly, he realized that he had forgotten something.

"Wait a minute," Li Xiangqian said softly to Song Wen, "I have to go back and take a look."

Song Wen was stunned for a moment, not understanding why Li Xiangqian suddenly changed his mind. She hesitated: "Didn't you say..."

"There are some things I didn't see clearly." Li Xiangqian didn't explain any more and turned to walk towards home.

When he got home, it was completely dark, and the light around him was getting dimmer and dimmer, with only a faint light coming from the window. Li Qianqian pushed open the door, and the room was still as quiet as before, as if nothing had changed. Although he was anxious, he suddenly had an inexplicable feeling, as if he had lost some kind of connection.

He took off his shoes and walked into the kitchen, just in time to see the potatoes on the table. Those potatoes should have been placed in the storage room, but they were randomly piled on the table. Li Xiangqian frowned slightly, he didn't notice these just now, but now, he saw their appearance, he couldn't help but be shocked.

The potatoes have sprouted.

The sprouts were white, tender and hard, like tiny tentacles growing in the dark, extending outward as if they were about to drill out of the potato skin. Li Xiangqian's eyes were involuntarily focused on them, and a certain uneasiness in his heart became stronger. He reached out to touch the sprouts, and when his fingers touched them, they felt slightly cool and hard.

"This is not right..." He whispered, with a strange feeling in his heart. He didn't know why, but the sight of the potatoes sprouting reminded him of many unpleasant memories. Sprouting potatoes always indicate a kind of decay, a kind of vitality, but this kind of life does not necessarily represent vitality.

He turned to look at the other items on the table, his eyes flashing with hesitation. The kitchen was still quiet, with only his own breathing echoing in the empty room. He looked back at the plate of sprouted potatoes, and the uneasiness in his eyes gradually became obvious.

"What does this mean?" Li Xiangqian asked himself silently in his heart, and suddenly felt that everything was distorted by some invisible force. His daughter's disappearance, Song Wen's concealment, and the plate of sprouted potatoes all seemed to point to a less clear clue. His heartbeat accelerated, and he realized that he had been drawn into a complicated vortex, and the more he tried to figure out the truth, the more he felt that he was getting further and further away from the truth.

He walked to the living room again, looking at every corner of the room until his eyes stopped at the window. He stood in front of the window, squinting his eyes slightly, looking at the dark woods, which were still quiet, as if nothing had happened.

"Who is behind all this?" An unshakable thought rose in Li Xiangqian's mind. Perhaps, their lives were no longer simple, and perhaps, all the changes had quietly occurred in places he had not noticed.

He clenched his fists, turned and walked towards the door, intending to continue looking for his daughter. But at this moment, his eyes suddenly caught the kitten on the bed, which was sitting on the windowsill, staring outside, as if it had foreseen something.

"Don't you think something is wrong too?" Li Xiangqian looked at the cat and had a strange association in his mind, as if it was also silently waiting for something.

The wind outside was getting stronger, blowing the curtains in the wind, like a silent reminder. Li Xiangqian took a deep breath, and his inner anxiety could no longer be suppressed. He knew that all these mysteries would only become more complicated as time went by, and he could only move forward step by step to meet the truth that was about to be unveiled.

Li Xiangqian's fingers tightly grasped the door handle. After hesitating for a moment, he finally opened the door and walked into the cold air outside. It was completely dark, and the beams of light cast by the street lamps seemed a little thin under the night sky, illuminating the wet road surface and reflecting tiny spots of light. He did not immediately walk towards the woods, but walked towards the small shop in the town. He had an inexplicable urge in his heart to buy something. Perhaps, he wanted to find something to soothe the anxiety that could not be dispelled.

His steps became heavier and heavier, and every step seemed to warn him. The air was cold, and the figures around him gradually disappeared. Only a few people hurriedly passed by on the street at night. Li Xiangqian was in no mood to pay attention to these things. His thoughts had long been trapped by an indescribable emotion, and everything in front of him became blurred.

When he walked into the store, the heat and dim lights in the store startled him. The warm feeling seemed to temporarily dispel the haze in his heart. He looked around and his eyes stayed on the shelves. Several familiar products made him a little confused. He realized that he didn't really want to buy anything, but just wanted to kill some time and calm himself down.

He didn't decide what to buy immediately until he noticed a box of cookies. The packaging of the cookies was a little old. He often ate them when he was a child. They were sweet but not greasy, and the crispy taste always made people want to eat a few more. Looking at the box of cookies, he suddenly felt nostalgic. He remembered that when he was a child, whenever something unhappy happened at home, his mother would buy him a box of cookies to comfort him for those little mood swings. Although so many years have passed and many things are no longer so simple, at this moment, he actually wanted to go back to that time, back to the carefree days.

Li Xiangqian hesitated for a while, but finally picked up the box of biscuits and walked to the cashier with an almost mechanical movement. He stared at the box of biscuits, but there was no special thought in his mind, only a deep sense of fatigue, as if he was suffocated by the trivialities that kept accumulating in his life.

"These cookies are good. I liked them when I was a child." The cashier was a young girl. She smiled when she saw Li Xiangqian holding the box of cookies.

Li Xiangqian smiled faintly. Although he didn't say much, he still responded to her: "Hmm, it tastes quite familiar."

The cashier took the biscuit and scanned the barcode skillfully. "These things are becoming less and less common nowadays. Everyone eats healthy food."