Chapter 77 They...didn't even have time to see the person they missed most.

Today, Xiang Dongyan is wearing a red dress, which is vibrant and energetic, and she looks full of vitality.

But when she talked about her eldest son, her eyes seemed to glisten with tears.

Qiao Qiao's heart began to ache dully again.

She remembered the older brother who had been with her for two months in her past life, a gentle older brother who was like the sun.

Qiao Qiao reached out and grasped the hand that was still handing her chocolate.

She wanted to say something, but the turmoil in her heart made her throat dry and choked, and she couldn't say anything.

Feeling the soft, warm touch on the back of her hand, Xiang Dongyan looked at the owner of the small hand and a bright smile appeared on her face.

I asked her, "Little darling, are you also curious about why boys are called 'Sui Sui' (岁岁) as nicknames?"

“I know,” Qiao Qiao said, looking at her.

"Because of peace and safety every year," Qiao Qiao replied.

As soon as Qiao Qiao was brought back to the Shen family, she was immediately moved into the small villa.

Actually, the Shen family did not explicitly forbid her from coming and going at first. However, she was too young at the time and was unfamiliar with the place, so she almost never left the courtyard of the villa.

She met her older brother, Pei Yiyang and Pei Suisui, half a month after moving into the villa.

Because she missed her father, her grandmother, and everyone in the Qiao family... with nowhere to confide in, she often sat on the balcony of the small villa in a daze.

Once, while I was wiping away tears, I suddenly heard a loud rumbling sound.

She looked in the direction of the sound and saw a small airplane flying onto her balcony from somewhere.

A small basket was hanging on the wing of the small airplane.

In the small basket was a flowerpot no bigger than her palm, filled with beautiful, bright orange flowers.

She didn't recognize the flower at the time, but she thought it was very pretty. The words on the pink note hanging on the flower were even prettier: "For you."

In the following days, Qiao Qiao received several more potted plants delivered by the small plane.

They were all the same variety as the first flowers I gave them, just different colors—some were red, some were yellow, some were purple… but no matter the color, they were all exceptionally beautiful.

Later, Qiao Qiao learned that the flower had a very special name: sunflower.

It's called a sunflower because it only opens during the day and closes at night.

Moreover, it is extremely resilient and can survive by simply inserting cuttings into the ground.

However, when Qiao Qiao arrived at the Shen family, it was already October, and the sunflowers were long past their blooming season. These flowers were cultivated by her older brother in the greenhouse and given to her.

When I received the third pot of flowers from my older brother, he also brought along stacks of photos that he had placed inside the small flower basket.

The photos capture a variety of beautiful flowers and green plants, and even through the lens of the photographs, each one is brimming with vibrant life.

Kyoto in November is already a bit cold, and the temperature drops to zero at night.

The greenery in Qiao Qiao's little villa was almost completely bare. Seeing so many beautiful flowers and plants suddenly eased her homesickness considerably.

And so, with this little airplane, Qiao Qiao made her first big friend in Kyoto.

They exchanged names, and she learned his name was Pei Suisui.

When she first learned of this name, she thought it was an older sister, and when she replied to 'her' letter, she addressed her as "older sister".

I later found out that it wasn't an older sister, but an older brother.

The older brother said that his family wanted him to live a long and peaceful life, like the legendary Tai Sui, so they named him Pei Sui Sui.

At that time, Qiao Qiao didn't quite understand what it meant to live a long life.

She was simply delighted to have a friend, even though this friend was more than ten years older than her. She chattered away every day, having endless things to say to him.

Each time, they could fill the little note with writing.

The older friend is also very gentle. He answers all her strange questions very seriously, and his letters back to her are often very long.

They would also send her various small gifts in a toy airplane.

Sometimes it's a piece of chocolate, sometimes it's a pot of his newly cultivated little flower, sometimes it's a small toy...

The older brother also told her that he had taken those little toys from a package Rick was sending to his younger brother.

It was at this time that Qiao Qiao learned that her older brother, like herself, had left his family.

We got to know each other better later.

When the Shen family wasn't around, her older brother would come over to keep her company, chat with her, and cheer her up.

Once, she missed her family so much that she wanted to cry.

The older brother patted her head and comforted her.

"Qiaoqiao, it's okay, there will be opportunities."

"You will grow up safely, and when you grow up safely, you can go back to find the people you miss."

Qiao Qiao still remembers the way he looked when he said those words; it was a tenderness that went deep into her bones.

Qiao Qiao felt that when he comforted her, it was more like he was comforting himself.

I asked him, "Does your older brother also have someone he misses?"

She remembers.

He didn't answer her at first.

After a long pause, he uttered a single word, as if sighing: "Yes."

Qiao Qiao felt even more confused.

Because she felt he wasn't like her; he was already so old, unlike her who was too young and lacked autonomy. Since he missed her, why didn't he go find the person he missed?

But he told her, "Because they want me here, here, so I can live well."

He could never quite fully understand what Qiao Qiao was saying to him back then.

until--

January 24, 1989.

She saw from afar that a large number of people had arrived at the small villa next door. They were all dressed in black and had white towels tied around their hands. Soon they came out carrying something.

That concludes the discussion.

The little plane never flew over to her area again, and the lights in that little house never came on again at night.

She asked the nanny who was taking care of her, and that's when she found out that her older brother... had died.

That was the first time she mustered up the courage to step out of the courtyard of the little house.

She heard from the nanny that her older brother was having his final farewell ceremony at the largest funeral home in Kyoto, and the Shen family had also gone. She also wanted to go and see him one last time.

However, the nanny refused to call the Shen family for her, and she didn't know their phone number either.

I could only sneak out when the nanny was doing her work.

But she didn't know the way.

She got lost.

She never got to see her older brother Sui Sui, nor did she have time to see him off.

The night she was brought back by the Shen family, she was greeted with an angry slap from Madam Shen.

That evening, feeling wronged and lost, she picked up the phone for the first time and called her father.

Then came her father's death.

In the very end.

My older brother is dead.

My father is dead.

Milk died too.

She died too.

In the end, none of them... had the chance to see the person they missed most.