I Waited for You for Fifteen Years - Chapter 2

I woke up and found myself still lying on the small bed in my room. It was already dark. Peering through the crack in the door, I saw that no lights were on in the house; aside from me, there was still no one home.

Who exactly was that fairy sister in my dream? Why did she say those things to me and send me back?

The internet says that ordinary dreams are forgotten completely upon waking. Yet, the image of that fairy sister’s face only became clearer and clearer in my mind.

I’ve heard it said that a dream you cannot forget is something that happened in a past life. But I… I must have encountered a bug in the cycle of reincarnation.

After that, I never dreamt of that sister again, and my days went on normally. Not long after I finally became familiar with this body, school started.

My aunt and uncle sent me back to my original home. It was an apartment complex located in the city center. Although the complex was a bit old, the location was excellent. It was only a five-minute walk to school, two steps away from a shopping mall, and another two steps from a snack street. I was already fantasizing about my beautiful future life.

The apartment wasn’t large, just two rooms. My parents’ room had a small balcony where they grew some hardy plants, though most of them had already died; it seemed no one had lived here for quite a while.

A photo of a family of three hung on the living room wall. In the photo, Wen Ling appeared to be an elementary school student, wearing a blue and white school uniform and a red scarf while giving a salute. Behind her, her father was in a military uniform and her mother was in a police uniform. The family looked so upright and disciplined that I felt like marching and singing a military anthem just looking at them.

In the glass cabinet next to the photo, rows of medals and honorary certificates were displayed—there were even bullet casings! It was the first time I had ever seen such rare things.

After a full tour, overall, I really liked this place.

The fridge was completely empty, without even a bottle of water. To avoid starving to death, it seemed I had to go out.

I navigated to the nearest supermarket, grabbed a small trolley, and headed out. The complex was quite crowded in the evening, but it was mostly elderly aunts and uncles; there were almost no young people to be seen, perhaps because it wasn’t the weekend yet.

“Oh, Xiao Ling is back! Going grocery shopping?” An auntie walked toward me and greeted me warmly.

Even though I didn’t recognize her, based on her friendly tone, Wen Ling definitely knew her. I had to maintain a friendly attitude: “Yes, school is starting soon, so I had to come back. There’s no food at home, so I’m getting some groceries.”

The auntie nodded. “I see. Be careful on the road.”

“Mm, goodbye, Auntie!” Fearing I might slip up if I spoke too much, I hurried away.

“This child, she’s changed…”

Fortunately, the supermarket was close to home. I didn’t run into any more acquaintances on the way, so nothing else went wrong, and I arrived at the supermarket smoothly.

I picked out some food for the coming days and some daily necessities. Of course, before leaving, I didn’t forget to grab my favorite mango bento cake.

After buying my things, I walked down the street eating an ice cream and pulling my trolley, only to find a row of food stalls had appeared ahead. Naturally, I couldn’t just walk past them as if nothing were happening.

Barbecue, fried noodles, oysters, shaved ice I took them all, packed them up to take home, and finally had my late-night snack sorted.

Just as I entered the hallway, a pile of large woven bags and wooden boards blocked my path. Someone must be moving in. There were so many things that they filled the hallway, making it impossible even to reach the elevator button.

My hands were full, and if I touched their things and broke something, it would be hard to explain. For a moment, I didn’t know how to get in.

After finally squeezing in a bit, I noticed a girl standing by the elevator door. Beside her was a large woven bag. Her cheeks were flushed red, and her clothes were soaked with sweat. She must be the new neighbor moving in.

“Hey sister, could you help me move these things a bit?” I called out to her, trying to get her help.

the girl didn’t ignore me; she didn’t even turn her head. She just stood there blankly waiting for the elevator as if she couldn’t hear a thing.

Wait, how could this person be so rude?! Blocking the way and acting like nothing was wrong!

“Sister waiting for the elevator in front, move your things.” I raised my voice and called out again.

Still no reaction.

A surge of nameless anger flared up in my heart. I picked up a loofah sponge next to me and threw it at her.

The sponge hit her back with precision, and she finally reacted, turning around to look at me. Her expression was so innocent it felt as if I were intentionally bullying her.

Wait, she looked a bit familiar. Whatever, it wasn’t important.

“The things. They’re blocking me.” With a dark face, I pointed at the mountain of luggage in front of me.

As if realizing for the first time, the girl’s face immediately filled with apology. She jogged over to move the items in front of me, clearing a path.

Then, she caught my attention and showed me a series of hand signs.

Although I couldn’t see clearly what she was gesturing, at least I realized she couldn’t hear.

Heavens, I’m such a jerk.

She kept apologizing profusely. I hurried to stop her, waving my hands to indicate it was fine, and then rushed into the elevator that had just arrived.

As it turned out, she followed me into the elevator too.

I wished I could find a hole to crawl into right then.

I felt like the air was filled with “awkwardness atoms.” Just thinking about what I had just done made me feel utterly ashamed; I almost felt like I should just kneel down and kowtow to her.

She lived right below me. When the elevator opened, she dragged her things out. Her parents were standing in the hallway waiting for her, and seeing me, they gave me a friendly greeting.

I wanted to die even more.

Back home, while eating my fried noodles, I thought back to what happened. Why was I so impulsive? If I had thought for just two more seconds, I wouldn’t have failed to realize it. Luckily, I had thrown a loofah sponge; if it had been something hard that hurt her, my guilt would be even greater.

In the end, I still felt uneasy, so I took my grilled oysters and went downstairs.

When the elevator door opened, she happened to be standing at her front door. I plucked up my courage, stepped forward, and handed the grilled oysters to her.

She looked bewildered, looking at the oysters and then at me, her eyes full of confusion. I quickly took out my phone and typed for her to see.

“I’m sorry for hitting you earlier. You’re not hurt, are you? These oysters are from the night market I just bought; they’re for you.”

After reading the text, she started gesturing in sign language again. I still couldn’t understand, so I tried to hand her the phone to type.

She paused, took the phone, and typed for me: “It’s okay, my things were blocking you first. You don’t need to say sorry. I don’t eat oysters, please take them back.”

After reading that string of text, it became even more awkward.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know. In that case, I’ll head out first.”

She nodded and gave me a sweet smile.

I didn’t have time to think much; holding the oysters, I didn’t even wait for the elevator but turned and dashed into the stairwell.

Why did I think of giving oysters as an apology? Help, thinking about it now, I really am an idiot.

Going back down with something else now would seem too intentional, but I still felt bad, and I didn’t want to eat the oysters anymore.

That night, I tossed and turned, unable to sleep. Eventually, I just opened my phone and started learning sign language.

Early the next morning, I appeared at her door with two dark circles under my eyes.

She was a bit surprised to see me. I hurried to use my clumsy sign language to say: “Sorry about last night. I want to be friends with you. My name is Wen Ling.”

Seeing me use sign language, she was very surprised and happy, and she immediately started gesturing excitedly.

My skills were poor and I couldn’t understand much, but her expression told me she was very happy.

Finally, through a difficult combination of text and sign language, I learned her name.

She said her name was Zhang Youning, 17 years old, and she had moved here with her parents not long ago.

Midway through our chat, her mother came out.

Her mother recognized me, greeted me warmly, and translated Zhang Youning’s sign language for me.

Then, I was brought into their home.

Mrs. Zhang poured me a glass of water. Seeing me staring at the piles of luggage on the floor, she said apologetically, “These were just moved in yesterday and we haven’t had time to tidy up. Please don’t mind.”

I quickly waved my hands. “Of course I don’t mind. I’m just curious how long it will take to organize all this.”

“That’s nothing,” Mrs. Zhang laughed. “The cleaning company people are coming this afternoon. It’ll be organized very quickly.”

I nodded and didn’t say anything else.

Suddenly, someone tapped my shoulder. I turned around to see Zhang Youning holding a bag of Little Bear cookies.

She stuffed the cookies into my hand and pointed to her mouth, presumably telling me to eat them.

I thanked her in sign language. She was very happy and took my hand to show me something.

She pulled me all the way to the balcony and pointed to a small box under the sink. I leaned in to look; it was a black and white little rabbit.

My eyes lit up instantly. I wanted to reach out and pet it, but Zhang Youning stopped me. I thought she wouldn’t let me touch it, but instead, she picked up the rabbit and let me hold it.

The rabbit’s fur was soft and very comfortable. Perhaps because it was wary of strangers, it was a bit scared and huddled in my arms, shivering slightly.

Although this rabbit looked cute at first glance, the moment I saw its face, the cuteness vanished instantly.

They say black and white animals are either handsome or ugly; this one was the ugly kind.

Not only did it have two huge dark circles around its eyes, but it also had two classic “eight-character” mustaches and an ultra-short, straight fringe.

That face… I found it very difficult to look at.

But to make Zhang Youning happy, I could only grit my teeth and say it was beautiful.

Zhang Youning told me it had a name: Village Girl.

Sure enough, the name was very distinctive.

How could such a beautiful and cute girl keep such an eccentric-looking pet?

Since Village Girl was too timid and kept shivering, I was afraid of scaring it to death, so I put it back in its nest.

But that wasn’t all. Zhang Youning then showed me her other pet a snake.

Thank you, I want to go home.

The moment that pinkish-white little thing crawled onto my arm, I truly almost fainted.

I used to know that snakes are cold-blooded animals and their skin is icy cold, but when an actual icy cold snake crawled onto me and flicked its long tongue out to greet me, I really felt like I should just transmigrate back early.

Zhang Youning said it was acting spoiled with me.

Thanks, so cute.

It also had a resounding name: Long Aotian.

So, Long Aotian, can you get off my arm now?

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