She is in the fog

Chen Quxin takes He Jingrui and He Jingqi out to play every weekend, and this week is no exception.

Therefore, when Mingmei, Wenwan and Li Xingyu rushed to He Xi's house, there was no one else in the house except He Xi.

"Please sit wherever you like." He Xi asked them to sit down, and then poured each of them a glass of warm water. "Have you had breakfast?"

Mingmei answered first: "Of course we did, because you only said you would treat us to lunch."

He Xi pursed her lips shyly, "Breakfast is fine too."

Wen Wan was impatient, and after she finished drinking the water, she hurriedly asked, "Where are your things? Haven't you packed them yet?"

"I'm almost done packing. I'll just put some of the miscellaneous items in the box later."

"So what are you waiting for? Take action!"
"Aren't you going to take a break?"

"What are you resting for? Get moving!" Wen Wan stood up, raised her right arm high, and walked towards the bedroom. "Are your things in your room?"

"Correct."
"Which room is yours?"

"The one on the innermost right, wait a moment, I'll open the door." He Xi brought the three people to his room.

Mingmei took a look at the interior decoration. Others' styles were princess style, Chinese style, European style... He Xi's was completely clean-handed. There was a desk, chair, bed, yoga mat, and a folding clothes rack. Apart from that, there was nothing else. It looked like an old cadre's room.

She walked closer to the desk, and a photo album on the desk caught her attention.

"He Xi, can I take a look at this photo album?" Although he was very curious, he still had to ask the owner's consent first.

He Xi smiled: "Sure, take a look."

Mingmei then turned to the first page, and what came into her sight was a beautiful lady with an elegant temperament, holding a two-year-old child in her arms. The child should be He Xi.
"Is this your mother? She's so beautiful." Mingmei exclaimed sincerely.

He Xi nodded and said, "The photos here are basically of me and my mother."
Mingmei turned to the second page. The photo still showed the mother holding little He Xi, but he looked a little older than the first one.

Mingmei looked at the photo album with great interest until she was almost done with it.
However, when she turned another page, her hand suddenly stopped in mid-air and her pupils suddenly dilated.

In the photo, a little girl is wearing exaggerated makeup, a silver sequined performance dress, and a lifelike silver swallowtail butterfly hairpin on her head. She is facing the camera with a beautiful smile.

"He Xi!" Ming Mei shouted hurriedly, "Who is she? Is it you?"

He Xi glanced at the photo, nodded and said, "Yes, it's me. If I remember correctly, this photo was taken by my mother when I went to Qinglin City to participate in the provincial children's talent competition in elementary school."

"Are you going to Qinglin No. 1 Primary School to participate in the competition?"

He Xi nodded: "How do you know?"

"I guessed. Because Qinglin No. 1 Primary School likes to host all kinds of competitions."
Mingmei moved to He Xi's side, pointed at the silver swallowtail butterfly hairpin she was wearing in the photo, and asked with feigned curiosity, "This hairpin is pretty, but I feel like this kind of hairpin should come in pairs, right? Why are you only wearing one?"

"Indeed, there are two, but I gave one of them away."
He Xi opened her suitcase and took out a pencil case. She opened the pencil case and took out the silver swallowtail butterfly hairpin in the photo. She handed it to Ming Mei and said, "At that time, I participated in a competition and played Schumann's Butterfly. My mother bought me a pair of butterfly hairpins to wear on my head as decoration. After the competition, I met a crying little girl, so I took one off and gave it to her. The other one was kept in the pencil case and has not been touched all these years. If you like it, I'll give it to you."

"Wow, thank you so much, I love it."
Mingmei took the silver swallowtail butterfly hairpin calmly, but her heart was already surging with excitement.

Although it was almost certain, Mingmei still wanted to confirm it and continued to ask: "He Xi, have you changed your name?"

He Xi was puzzled: "No."

"Do you have a nickname or something?"

He Xi blushed and stammered, "Yangyang, my classmates all called me that when I was little, but as I grew older, they called me that less often."

Yangyang!
It's really her!
It was her!

Mingmei's breathing almost stopped and her heart couldn't calm down for a long time.

When she got home in the evening, Mingmei sat at her desk and took out the butterfly hairpin He Xi gave her today from her schoolbag, and then took out another butterfly hairpin from the drawer. Under the desk lamp, two silver hollow swallowtail butterflies shone brightly, and they were obviously a pair.

The two of them preserved it well, and eight years have passed, and the butterfly hairpin is still as bright as new, without any trace of rust. She stared at the silver in front of her, and her thoughts suddenly flew back to eight years ago.

Mingmei had excellent grades in elementary school, but she hated going to school.

Mingmei has excellent bone structure and has been very beautiful since she was a child. She is always the most eye-catching one among a group of children. Even passers-by can't help but praise her when they see her face.

But such a beautiful little girl is a victim of school bullying.

Mingmei's deskmate was called Su Xiaoguo, who enjoyed bullying her by secretly tearing up her homework or throwing away her eraser, and secretly sprinkling glue and chalk dust on her stool.

Monday, May 2004, 5, light rain.

Mingmei saw with her own eyes that Su Xiaoguo used a knife to cut the silkworms that she had raised with great effort into two halves.
Out of revenge, she deliberately made several mistakes in Su Xiaoguo's homework that day.

Wednesday, November 2004, 6, sunny.

The provincial children's talent competition was held at Mingmei's elementary school. There was singing and dancing in the auditorium. After Mingmei finished her performance and received some snacks, she excitedly planned to go to the playground to play, but was blocked by Su Xiaoguo and his gang who were coming towards her.

The leader, Su Xiaoguo, snatched away Mingmei's snacks and trapped Mingmei in the corner.

Afterwards, Su Xiaoguo took out his homework book and asked angrily, "Why did you deliberately make mistakes on my homework?"

"Who told you to touch my silkworms?"

Seeing Mingmei so confident, Su Xiaoguo was very angry and walked up to her and pushed her hard. Mingmei lost her balance and her head hit the wall with a dull sound.

She felt a little pain, and reached out her hand to touch the back of her head with grievance, her eyes filled with tears.

In response, Su Xiaoguo laughed even more happily: "You cry, you are already a tabby cat, and once you cry you become a big tabby cat!"

Mingmei's dance today was a kitten, so the makeup artist made them look like cats, vivid and lifelike. She was very satisfied with her cat makeup, so she held back her tears. Unexpectedly, Su Xiaoguo was still not satisfied, and pulled the two balls on Mingmei's head apart, and then stretched out his hand to pinch Mingmei's arm and turned it hard a few times. Mingmei pushed her away in pain, then covered the painful area and squatted on the ground.

Su Xiaoguo was about to step forward when a clear voice rang out not far away: "What are you doing?"

Mingmei raised her head and saw a beautiful figure wearing a silver sequined performance dress.

Su Xiaoguo was very unhappy: "Who are you?"

"Who do you care who I am? I'm not from your school anyway! Your school is hosting the competition, so of course you should show your best side to others. Is bullying classmates the style of your school? If you don't leave, I'll tell the teacher!"

Seeing this, the girl next to her said hurriedly, "Xiao Guo, let's go. She's from another school, there's no need to mess with her."

Su Xiaoguo thought about it for a moment and didn't want to make a big deal out of it, so he glared at Mingmei and said, "You're lucky today!" Then he walked away cursing.

The silver figure approached Mingmei, and seeing that she was still squatting on the ground, he wanted to help her up.
Unexpectedly, Mingmei ignored her and ran away, leaving the silver figure standing there in confusion.

After leaving everyone's sight, Mingmei looked at her arm, which had been pinched purple.

Then she walked to the flower bed and sat down. She turned her head to look at the sun that was about to set, and thought of the tragic death of the silkworms. Her eyes were filled with endless reverie.

"It would be great if the silkworms were still here." Mingmei murmured.

"It must hurt a lot."
Suddenly a familiar voice rang in her ears. Mingmei turned around and saw that it was the girl in the silver performance skirt.

Mingmei didn't say anything, so she sat down next to Mingmei and said with a frown, "You don't have to be so stubborn. If you want to cry, just cry. I won't laugh at you."

Mingmei turned her head to look at her, only to see two small silver butterflies on her head, like two small horns, and her face was heavily made up. Her eyes were even more beautiful against the silver gold powder. Her eyes seemed to be able to bewitch people. Listening to her words, Mingmei's eyes felt inexplicably sore and her nose twitched, and she was ready to cry.

At first she cried very restrainedly, but gradually, she cried louder and louder, until her cries resounded through the sky, and the heaven and earth seemed to shake.

Mingmei had never cried so sadly before. When she had almost finished crying, the girl gently asked, "Can you tell me what happened to you?"

"They...they killed my silkworms."

The girl thought about it, then reached out and took off a butterfly hairpin from the top of her head, and put it in Mingmei's hand: "This is for you."

Mingmei was puzzled, so the girl said, "Do you know? When the silkworm grows up, it will be locked in a cocoon by the bad guys. It's pitch black inside the cocoon and you can't see anything, but the silkworm didn't give up. It pushed and pushed desperately, and finally broke the cocoon. The silkworm saw the light and transformed into a flying butterfly. Just think of this as your silkworm. As long as you want, it will always be with you, and it will never disappear."

Mingmei lowered her eyes and looked at the butterfly hairpin in her hand, as if thinking about something. After a while, she raised her eyes and asked, "What's your name?"

"My name is……"

Before the girl said her name, a high-pitched voice sounded not far away.
"Yang Yang! Yang Yang!"

I saw a girl in a ballet costume running towards here, who seemed to be her companion.

"You can call me Yangyang." She said to Mingmei, "They all call me that."

Yangyang? What a lovely name, Mingmei thought.

Soon, Yangyang's companion ran in front of the two of them. She was out of breath and sat next to Yangyang naturally. She held Yangyang's hand and said after she had rested enough: "Yangyang! Hurry up, hurry up, gather and get on the bus. You are the only one missing! The teacher is waiting for us."

"Wait a moment." Yangyang asked his companion to wait, then turned to Mingmei and said, "I'm leaving now. Don't be unhappy. After the silkworm turns into a butterfly, it will see the light."

"Yeah." Mingmei clenched the butterfly hairpin in her hand and nodded vigorously.

Yangyang stood up, and her companion stood up as well. They held hands and ran towards their school base. Halfway through, Yangyang suddenly stopped, turned around and waved to Mingmei: "Goodbye!"

"Goodbye!" Mingmei also waved to Yangyang.

After watching Yangyang and her companions leave, Mingmei discovered that there was a pen where Yangyang had sat before. Mingmei picked up the pen and saw that it was completely black, with a small "×" engraved on the right side of the pen cap clip.

Later, she asked around for a long time, but still didn't know which school Yangyang was from. She couldn't even meet her, let alone return the pen to her.

It was not until today, when she saw the photo in He Xi's photo album, the face with heavy makeup and the silver swallowtail butterfly hairpin in her memory, that she realized that He Xi was Yang Yang.

I didn't expect she had changed so much, she didn't recognize her at all.
The Yangyang wearing a silver sequined dress, the Yangyang with beautiful makeup, the Yangyang who gave her a silver swallowtail butterfly hairpin, the Yangyang who told her to "break out of the cocoon and become a butterfly", the Yangyang who said "goodbye" to her...

He Xi is that Yang Yang.
Yangyang is He Xi.

Mingmei knew that the silkworm would not break out of its cocoon and become a butterfly, but only a moth. But so what, from then on, she fell in love with butterflies and always wore butterfly hairpins of different styles on her hair.
Even though the silkworm will not emerge from its cocoon as a butterfly, Mingmei has already emerged from its cocoon as a butterfly.

But now she suddenly had an impulse, an inexplicable impulse.
I want to be a fearless moth and fly towards the fire in her heart.

After thinking about it, Mingmei put the two butterfly hairpins back into the drawer, and took out the pen with an "×" engraved on it and which was slightly damaged.

She used to think that the "×" above meant a cross, representing right and wrong.
Now she finally understood that it was not an "×" but the letter "X", the first pinyin letter of He Xi's "Xi".

Mingmei stroked the dent on the pen cap, feeling a little regretful. If it weren't for Su Xiaoguo's mischief, it would have been intact.

Forget it, even regenerating the air pen cap won’t restore it to its original state.

I should find a suitable time to return the pen and explain to He Xi.

When is the best time? Mingmei held her chin up, looking as if she was thinking.

I don’t know when is the best time, but—

Not now anyway.

Mingmei smiled, then carefully put the pen and two butterfly hairpins back into the drawer, and finally turned off the desk lamp.

(End of this chapter)