Strange Cards

Chapter 426 Xiaoya

"destiny."

"Is it really impossible to defeat?"

Chun turned her head and glanced at Shigure, revealing a smile in the bright moonlight.

"I don't know, I'm not the boss."

"I don't have his ability to control fate; all I have is the ability to manipulate smoke."

"I am an orphan adopted by the eldest brother. The only thing I want to do in this life is to stay by his side and help him fulfill his great wish."

"Moreover, even a powerful leader who can control fate has things he cannot do."

"There are just too many of these kinds of things."

"We don't have the power to travel back in time. There's only one way to make your future self feel like you can travel through time."

"That means cherishing the present moment before it happens."

"Go in and take a look; maybe it will help you clear your head."

Shi Yu paused for a moment, looking at the rusty iron door, and gently opened the rusted chain.

Shi Yu pushed open the door, looked at the overgrown yard, and stepped inside.

Shi Yu looked at the swing that had long since rotted and fallen to the ground, and at the slide that had become dilapidated from being exposed to the wind and sun. He lit a cigarette, took a puff, and then sighed deeply.

"In such a hurry."

Time really flies.

Looking at the world around her that had witnessed countless changes, Shi Yu noticed the issue of age for the first time.

Shiyu slowly calculated and realized that she was already over twenty years old, no longer the little kid who had just entered the hunter's ranks when she was only twenty.

Yu Yan, who used to be the youngest member of the Hunters besides herself, is almost thirty, and Da Niu might even be thirty years old.

Qi Wu is getting old, approaching fifty.

If Liu An were still alive, she would be approaching forty by now.

After Shigure became a demon, he could no longer feel the passage of time. For him, the years were just water flowing through his fingers, so insignificant to an undead being.

Shi Yu casually waved out a few balls of flame as a light source before opening the door to the orphanage room.

The thick dust was disturbed by Shigure pushing open the door, and the dust that came towards Shigure seemed to be expressing its dissatisfaction with Shigure, as if blaming Shigure for disturbing their peace.

Shi Yu looked at the dilapidated bookshelves, the dusty children's books, and the chairs that were already rotten beyond recognition. Her thoughtful expression seemed to suggest that she was pondering something.

As Chun looked at the dilapidated orphanage, her thoughts drifted back to her childhood.

Shi Yu looked at a familiar book in the corner, and after opening it, she saw several crooked drawings in pencil on the first page.

There were even gray fingerprints next to the patterns, as if the person who left these patterns and fingerprints had crossed time and space to tell Shiyu about the past.

This is a doodle that Shigure made casually when he was a child. I never thought I would see it again after so many years.

Looking at the orphanage where she had spent two years, Shiyu left a few new doodles and fingerprints before stuffing the books back in, letting them continue their journey through time.

Until one day, someone will see this book and the graffiti on it again, and leave their own mark once more.

Chun pushed open a creaking door and looked inside at the small wooden bed that was rotten beyond recognition.

"Little Gray Fur".

"Is this where you used to live?"

Shi Yu walked over, looked at the name pasted on the headboard, and nodded.

"That's right."

"This used to be where the children in the orphanage slept."

"A room can fit about a dozen beds, enough for many children to sleep together."

Shi Yu looked at the blurred name on the headboard, unable to remember who the bed belonged to.

But Shigure still remembered her bed, so she slowly walked around the room, passing through one room and arriving at another.

Another room also contained small wooden beds for sleeping, but there were far fewer of them compared to the previous room.

Shi Yu came to a corner where there were two small wooden beds pushed together.

On the two beds in the corner, the name of one of the beds was blurry, but the character "时" could still be vaguely seen.

As the only person with the surname Shi in the entire welfare home, and even in the entire Nanhai City, the former owner of this bed was undoubtedly Shi Yu.

The name on the other bed was so blurred that it was impossible to make out. On the two-character name that was still faintly visible, only the tooth radical remained.

Shiyu squatted down, seemingly lost in thought.

Chun made a swing out of smoke and sat on it, gently rocking back and forth.

After waiting for a while, Tsubaki looked at Shigure, who was half-squatting on the ground, and casually tossed a piece of candy into her mouth.

"What's wrong? Are you looking at this bed you used to sleep in reminding you of something?"

Shiyu nodded, threw away the extinguished cigarette butt, and lit another one.

"I've almost forgotten who the other bed belonged to. I just went through my memory and I only remember that it was a girl named Xiaoya."

"I remember that Xiaoya was very afraid of the dark at night. Since our beds were next to each other, she would sometimes insist on pulling my bed over to sleep with her."

"Sometimes she would even sleep in my bed. When we were little, she was one of my few playmates."

"But after the orphanage was disbanded for some reason, I haven't seen her since."

"I wonder how she's doing now."

Shigure continued talking to himself, completely unaware that Tsubaki's cheeks were already flushed red with embarrassment.

Fortunately, Chun was quick-witted and extinguished the fire used for lighting beforehand, thus hiding her embarrassing appearance well in the darkness.

After a while, Chun forced herself to calm down and coughed.

"Alright, don't dwell on the past."

"What, you still remember your childhood sweetheart?"

Shi Yu scratched his head and shook his head.

"no."

"I remember that girl was very arrogant when she was little. She was so proud and timid. She was afraid of the dark but insisted that she wasn't afraid. She would secretly cry in the middle of the night and hide under the covers, sobbing softly."

"Later on, she said she was afraid I was afraid of the dark, so she pulled my bed down and slept with me. Sometimes she would even crawl into my bed, saying she was afraid I would be scared to sleep alone."

"It's one thing for him to be afraid of the dark, but his mouth is harder than diamonds. At night, he clung to my hand and wouldn't let go no matter what."

Hearing Shiyu's merciless scolding, Chun buried her face in her clothes in embarrassment, with wisps of white smoke rising from her head.

Suddenly, Shigure noticed a strange bulge under a mattress. Upon opening it, she discovered a photograph that had long been eroded by time.