"...Don't worry about those little details," Ruan Qiuping said while brushing the dust and leaves off himself.
After standing up, Little Yu Huan glanced at the villa behind them, then turned to look at Ruan Qiuping and said, "Ruan Qiuping, let's run farther away, a bit further from here."
"Why are you calling me Ruan Qiuping again! So disrespectful!"
When there's trouble it's 'Brother Qiuping', but otherwise just 'Ruan Qiuping'? Do kids these days change their tune so quickly?!
"Don't you like me calling you by your name?"
"No, I don't."
"Then what should I call you?"
"I think it's fine if you call me 'brother'."
Now that Ji Shen doesn't call him brother anymore, when else will he have the chance to hear Ji Shen call him that?!
"But your sister already calls you brother, and I don't want to use the same name as her," Little Yu Huan said as he walked forward. "Rather than calling you brother, I might as well call you Ping Ping, or Qiu Qiu, or Ruan Ruan..."
Little Yu Huan paused mid-step, turned his head to look at Ruan Qiuping, his eyes brightening: "Ruan Ruan sounds nice, I'll call you Ruan Ruan!"
Ruan Qiuping narrowed his eyes and said ominously, "Are you asking for a beating?"
"Ruan Ruan, Ruan Ruan, Ruan Ruan!" Little Yu Huan shouted a few times, then ran off laughing.
Ruan Qiuping chased after him, and just as he was about to catch up, Little Yu Huan suddenly reached out and tightly grasped Ruan Qiuping's hand.
Little Yu Huan was still running, running very fast. His eyes slowly closed and then opened again. He seemed to be looking ahead, but didn't know exactly what he was looking at. He appeared somewhat lost, yet also somewhat expectant, like a bird that had just flown out of its cage, not knowing where to fly, but happy to be out of the cage nonetheless.
Ruan Qiuping turned his head, not saying anything more, just gripping Little Yu Huan's hand tightly as they ran forward together.
After turning a corner, a bus stop appeared ahead.
A light blue bus was parked next to the stop, seemingly about to leave.
Little Yu Huan sped up again, pulling Ruan Qiuping onto the bus just before the doors closed.
Ruan Qiuping looked up at the unfamiliar place name on the bus window and asked, panting, "...Where are we going?"
Little Yu Huan's cheeks were flushed red from running. He caught his breath for a few seconds, then also looked up at the sign on the bus window and shook his head: "I... I don't know either."
They both simultaneously reached out to wipe the sweat that had run down their cheeks, then they looked at each other and suddenly burst out laughing together.
"The fare can be paid by coins, card, or scanning a code. It's 2.5 yuan per person, 5 yuan for two," the driver reminded them.
Wait a second...
Ruan Qiuping felt his pockets, remembering that he had spent all his money earlier.
Just then, Little Yu Huan took out a thick wallet from his pocket, full of checks and various banknotes.
Ruan Qiuping had never seen so much money: "...Why does a little kid like you carry so much money around?"
If he remembered correctly, Little Yu Huan was originally supposed to attend a banquet, right? Could it be that the theme of human banquets was throwing money around?
"Because I didn't know when you would come," Little Yu Huan said, taking out a banknote. "I just brought enough money so that no matter where you appeared, I could go play with you."
"What kind of play requires this much money?" Ruan Qiuping sat down in an empty seat.
"There are many places we could go play," Little Yu Huan said after paying the fare and sitting down next to Ruan Qiuping. "When you weren't here, I thought of many plans. I wanted to go to the seaside with you to collect seashells, to watch the sunset on a mountain with you, to watch movies with you, and to have big meals with you. I have so many things I want to do with you."
"But now we're not collecting seashells or watching the sunset. We're just sitting on a bus that's going who knows where, and we don't know where we'll get off."
"But this is good too," Little Yu Huan opened the bus window a small crack, letting in the winter wind that brought incredibly fresh air. The sun had already begun to set, but the western sky was dyed a gentle blue-purple color.
Little Yu Huan and Ruan Qiuping looked at this beautiful sky together, and he said, "I think this is even better than going to the seaside or the mountains. Going anywhere with you, doing anything with you is great."
Little Yu Huan closed the window and turned to look at Ruan Qiuping, his eyes as clear as if they reflected light: "Ruan Ruan, you should still be able to stay here for about 29 hours. 29 hours is a long time, we can do so many things. We even have a whole day and most of the night tomorrow... Let's calculate, it's 7 PM now, we can sleep at 10 PM, then wake up early tomorrow, just in time to see the sunrise. Ruan Ruan, have you heard about the sunrise at Flying Well Bridge..."
"Um, Little Yu Huan..." Ruan Qiuping interrupted him, scratching his head as he said, "There aren't 29 hours left."
Little Yu Huan blinked, asking with some confusion: "What?"
"I actually arrived this morning, but I saw you go to sleep in the cabin, so I didn't disturb you. So now, to be precise..." Ruan Qiuping looked down at his watch and said, "There are 20 hours and 10 minutes left."
Little Yu Huan was stunned, saying blankly: "So... so that means... we don't have a whole day tomorrow, nor most of the night... you'll be leaving at 3:10 PM tomorrow."
Ruan Qiuping nodded.
"You... you... why didn't you call me when you arrived?" Little Yu Huan's eyes reddened.
Ruan Qiuping was taken aback, he hadn't expected Little Yu Huan to react so strongly, so he could only say, "I heard you were very tired, and since you were sleeping, I didn't want to disturb you. Besides, it wasn't that long, just a little over eight hours..."
"It's not just a little over eight hours, it's eight hours and fifty minutes. Rounded up, that's nine hours. Rounded up again, it's ten hours. You only appear for 30 hours a year, yet you're telling me that losing nearly a third of that time is nothing..." Little Yu Huan's voice got quieter and quieter, his tone carrying a hint of hoarseness, as if he was very upset. "And I wasn't sleeping the whole time, if you had just called me, I would have come out..."
As he spoke, Little Yu Huan stopped talking and just turned his head to look out at the darkening sky.
Ruan Qiuping sighed, turned his head to look at Little Yu Huan, and suddenly, as if seeing something, he widened his eyes and asked in shock: "Little Yu Huan, are you crying?!"
"...No, I'm not." Little Yu Huan wiped his tears, speaking in a muffled voice.
Ruan Qiuping reached out with both hands to turn Little Yu Huan's face towards him, and Little Yu Huan's tears fell onto Ruan Qiuping's palms.
Ruan Qiuping suddenly became a bit flustered, quickly reaching out to wipe Little Yu Huan's tears: "Don't cry, why are you crying? I'm sorry, I'm sorry, okay..."
Little Yu Huan moved Ruan Qiuping's hand away, his voice low and hoarse: "It's not because of you, it's me. I just regret... I shouldn't have slept. If I hadn't gone to the cabin this morning, I wouldn't have..."
As he spoke, his tears started falling again uncontrollably.
"City Picture Night Street, we've arrived. Passengers getting off, please exit through the rear door."
Ruan Qiuping heard the announcement inside the bus and instinctively looked up. Through the window, he saw a brightly lit, bustling night market not far away. It seemed to have an amusement park, street games, clothing stalls, and food vendors. It looked very lively.
To divert Little Yu Huan's attention, Ruan Qiuping suddenly pulled him up from his seat and said, "This place looks pretty fun, let's go play."
After getting off the bus, Little Yu Huan still hadn't shaken off his sad mood and continued to look dispirited.
Ruan Qiuping crouched down, pinched Little Yu Huan's cheeks gently, and said very softly: "Little Yu Huan, don't you want to make the most of our time together?"
Little Yu Huan nodded.
"But you've been upset for ten minutes now. If we had used these ten minutes to play, we could have ridden the pirate ship twice. So, isn't this a waste of time?"
Ruan Qiuping blinked, his eyes still red-rimmed and his eyelashes still damp. But at this moment, he wiped his eyes again, and as his hand came down, the corners of his lips curved up slightly. His voice was still a bit hoarse, but his eyes gradually became clear and determined.
"Ruan... you're right, I can't keep being sad and wasting time. Let's go ride the pirate ship."
Pi... pirate ship?
Ruan Qiuping looked at the swaying ship and suddenly felt a bit dizzy.
As soon as the pirate ship started moving, Ruan Qiuping's entire body tensed up—he usually had problems just riding a swing, what if his bad luck affected the whole ride and something went wrong?
Ruan Qiuping gripped the handlebar in front of him tightly with both hands, but as he held on, he felt the bar start to shake. Screams erupted all around him, and Ruan Qiuping's heart trembled.
Heavens, if something went wrong, that would be... one, two, three, four, five, six, seven... a total of thirty-seven lives at stake!
After the pirate ship stopped, Ruan Qiuping's chest still felt tight.
This pirate ship turned out to be even more turbulent and thrilling than flying on a sword. Back in the day, when he first started practicing sword flight, he fell straight off a hillside. He ended up hanging upside down from a tree branch, but even that wasn't as nerve-wracking as this.
"Ruan..." Little Yu Huan suddenly called out to him.
Ruan Qiuping looked down and realized he had been holding Little Yu Huan's hand the entire time, gripping it so tightly that it had turned pale.
Ruan Qiuping thought for a moment, but still couldn't remember when he had grabbed Little Yu Huan's hand.
Perhaps it was when he noticed the handlebar starting to shake.
Seeming to realize that Ruan Qiuping didn't enjoy such thrilling rides, Little Yu Huan took him on several gentler attractions, like the merry-go-round, bumper cars, and the Ferris wheel. But Ruan Qiuping didn't like the Ferris wheel much either, apparently afraid they might fall from the sky.
Hearing this reason, Little Yu Huan couldn't help but laugh: "Why do you always think of the worst?"
Ruan Qiuping said softly: "Unlucky people always have to anticipate the worst outcome."
Little Yu Huan reached out to hold Ruan Qiuping's hand and suddenly asked: "...Do you feel sad? Because of your bad luck... because you always encounter bad things."
Ruan Qiuping thought for a moment, then said: "At first, I did feel sad, but... let me give you an example. Say my daily life is constantly swinging on swings. When I fall off the first swing, I'll be very sad. When I fall off the second swing, I'll still be very sad... But after I've fallen off 100 swings, all 100 times, I won't be so sad anymore. So when I swing for the 101st time and manage to swing well, without failing or falling, I'll be very happy. That's why I rarely get upset about failed swings now, but I rejoice for successful ones."
"Do you understand?" Ruan Qiuping gently swung Little Yu Huan's hand as he held it.
"I understand," Little Yu Huan looked up at Ruan Qiuping and suddenly said very seriously, "But I don't want Ruan to be happy just because he swung successfully once out of 101 times. I want to make a swing with the best materials, then install a safety belt, so you'll never fall off again."
Ruan Qiuping was stunned for a moment, then suddenly smiled: "It seems you didn't understand after all. The swing I mentioned isn't really a swing, it's a metaphor... Never mind, I guess children can't understand such profound rhetorical devices."
"I did understand," Little Yu Huan mumbled softly.
Ruan Qiuping looked up at their surroundings.
Because it was winter, night fell early. The streets were gradually emptying, and some of the less popular rides and stalls were already packing up to leave.
"Let's go find a place to sleep," Ruan Qiuping said to Little Yu Huan. "It's already 9:30, it's bedtime for children."
"Are you tired?" Little Yu Huan asked.
Ruan Qiuping shook his head: "Not tired."
Little Yu Huan said excitedly: "I'm not tired either. When we were on the pirate ship earlier, I thought of an idea—let's not sleep tonight and make up for those eight hours and fifty minutes, okay?"
Ruan Qiuping: ...
Young master, so you've been dwelling on those eight-plus hours all this time?!