Wild Creatures

Chapter 116

It's easier to let his grandmother read the letters and decide which ones for now, Wei Ying can read. Unfortunately, the book has to be taken apart in order to successfully laminate and preserve each precious piece of it, and Wei Ying insists on doing the same to the cover, front and back.

That's when they discover a four digit number written on the inside cover, in the corner: 1997.

Wei Ying takes a picture of it, even though it's easy to remember.

"Is that a date? Or something else?" He murmurs to himself, as Baoshan Sanren passes him the first of the letters. "It's my birth year."

Baoshan Sanren nods absent-mindedly, motioning towards the page in his hand.

Wei Ying sighs and focuses on what he's supposed to be reading.

YingYing,

I'm making a solid decision not to be sad anymore, at least in these pages. I don't want you to be grieving, or always being sad when you think of me.

We're gonna be happy!

Wei Ying sniffs, quickly blinking back tears because he knows how hard it must have been for his mother to write even that much down. He is sitting down at his grandmother's desk, while she's standing next to him, her arm already around his shoulders. She gives him a squeeze and returns to her task.

Wei Ying turns back to the letter:

YingYing, you're only five so you might forget this, but today, your father brought home a present for you. It's a bamboo flute and while you clearly love it, I think it's the worst idea he's ever had! My head hurts and I'm either going to break that thing in half or burn it!

But how can I, when you look so happy making that racket?

Seeing you with it however, it has given me an idea. And reminded me of a forgotten dream... so maybe this was the way it's supposed to happen.

We're going to visit my friend today. She has two little boys who might like to play with you, because the younger one seems to be around your age. They're both sweet boys, though she says that her youngest is a little too serious? But I think, one look at your lovely smile and they will fall in love with you immediately!

Wei Ying gasped, looking around for Lan Zhan, who was already making his way towards him from the sofa.

"Lan Zhan! She's definitely writing about you and XiChen-Ge!" Wei Ying makes grabby hands at him. He gets up, pushes Lan Zhan down to sit on his chair and then plonks himself down in Lan Zhan's lap. "There! This is so much better!" He declares, and smiles when Lan Zhan wraps his arms around him, to stop him falling off.

Wei Ying settles himself so he's leaning against Lan Zhan, trusting him to keep them both balanced and upright. Then they continue reading.

Today, your father and I had a scare. I swear he was supposed to be watching you, and he thought I was keeping an eye on you, but you were nowhere to be seen. And then, we heard you playing. We followed the music (??!!) outside, to the back garden, and discovered that since the door was locked, you had crawled out of the cat flap, and when we found you, you were playing a concert for your audience, which turned out to be a nest of spiders.

To their credit, they were listening quite avidly. (There's no way to prove the spiders were deaf...just saying!)

The last time you went missing, you had dug under the fence with our neighbour after watching their cat do it, and when we found you, you were covered in soil and playing with their four bunnies.

I hope you never lose your sense of adventure,

Mama.

Wei Ying thinks about those days.