Siheyuan: Hang Jia Dongxu, smash Banggeng to death!

The villa's door was ajar.

When Lin Tian pushed the door open, his shoe soles paused on the threshold, making a very soft sound.

The living room was quiet.

Tangtang was drawing on the coffee table, with a few colored pencils scattered around her. On the drawing paper were crooked houses with a smoking chimney on the roof.

Two little figures stood at the door, one with braids and the other with short hair.

Hearing footsteps, she looked up, her pen hovering in mid-air, like a bird perched on a branch, unsure of which way to fly.

Tangtang blinked, then blinked again, as if waking from a dream, and looked again and again at the figure standing in the doorway.

Then she threw down her pen, slid off the chair, ran barefoot across the living room floor, and threw herself into Lin Tian's arms.

Her head bumped against his chest with a dull thud, and her small hands gripped Lin Tian's clothes tightly.

"Brother..."

Tangtang's voice was tinged with a wet, aggrieved tone, "Where did you go...? Why didn't you take Tangtang with you? Tangtang misses you so much..."

She buried her face in Lin Tian's chest, her shoulders trembling, and tears quickly soaked Lin Tian's chest.

Lin Tian knelt down on one knee, gently placing one hand on the back of her head, his palm touching the thin layer of wispy hair.

She comforted him tenderly, saying, "Your brother went to school, to a school far away. Look, he's back now, isn't he?"

Tangtang lifted her face slightly off his chest, revealing a pair of wet eyes with tears clinging to her eyelashes.

"Why didn't you tell Tangtang? Tangtang thought you didn't want me anymore..."

"It's my brother's fault."

Lin Tian reached out and wiped away her tears, his fingertips gently tracing the faint tear stain on her cheekbone.

"Next time I go out, I'll definitely tell Tangtang first."

Lin Tian then took out an orange fruit candy wrapped in clear cellophane from his pocket and placed it in her palm. "Here, this is a token of my respect for Tangtang."

Tangtang looked down at the candy, tears still clinging to her eyelashes, but the corners of her mouth were already slightly curved upwards.

She sniffed and clutched the candy tightly: "My buddy is the best. Remember to take me with you next time. Pinky promise, never to change."

JoJo heard the commotion and came down from the second floor. When she saw Lin Tian return, the corners of her mouth slowly curved into a smile.

"Xiao Tian, ​​when did you get back?"

"Just got back."

Lin Tian put Tangtang on the sofa and sat down himself. "Sister Jojo, you know, I took in some of Hung Hing's underlings and brought them back to the mainland."

JoJo didn't press for details, simply nodding: "How's it going on the mainland?"

"It's much better than before; people's lives are gradually getting better."

JoJo hummed in agreement and didn't ask any more questions.

She reached out and wiped away the remaining tear stains on Tangtang's face, her movements practiced and natural, as if she had done it countless times.

Zhang Shiyu peeked halfway out of the kitchen doorway, her apron covered in flour. When she saw the scene in the living room, she paused for a moment, then laughed.

She untied her apron, wiped her hands, and came out. "Lin Tian, ​​you're back."

Lin Tian looked up at her, and she looked back at him.

That glance was so short, as if it were just a blink of an eye, yet it was as if a long, unspoken thought had been silently conveyed in that instant.

He nodded to her, and she nodded back, then they both looked away at the same time.

Everything was left unsaid.

Regardless of the woman's motives, he was able to control her.

Tangtang leaned against Lin Tian, ​​her little mouth chattering incessantly, as if she wanted to pour out all the words she had accumulated over this period of time:

"When you weren't here, Jojo took me to the park to feed the pigeons. Those pigeons were so fat, and when they flew up, they fluttered like handfuls of gray fans."

When she got excited, she even made a flying gesture with her two little hands, her fingers spread out.

"Sister Shiyu taught me how to draw, look..."

She jumped off the sofa, ran to the coffee table, picked up the drawing paper, and held it up in front of Lin Tian. "This is a house, this is a chimney, this is Sister Jojo, this is Sister Shiyu, this is Tangtang, and this is Guoguo."

Lin Tian took the drawing paper. The house on the paper was crooked and distorted, the smoke coming out of the chimney looked like a tangled mess, and four little people were standing at the door.

Tangtang looked down at it, grinned shyly, and said, "Brother, is my drawing really ugly?"

"Not ugly, very pretty."

"Really?"

"real."

"Very good!"

Tangtang happily and carefully placed the drawing paper back on the coffee table, her movements much gentler than before.

Guoguo praised her for drawing very well.

The sound of water boiling could be heard from the kitchen, bubbling and gurgling.

"Oh no, the water's boiling!"

Zhang Shiyu turned and went back to the kitchen, leaving behind the words, "Lin Tian, ​​you must be hungry. I'll go cook. You two chat first."

Tangtang murmured, "Brother, Sister Shiyu is so good to me. She makes so many delicious things: French fries, fried chicken, popcorn, braised duck neck, potato chips..."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, isn't Sister Shiyu amazing, bro?"

"That's right, she's pretty amazing."

If I remember correctly, these snacks weren't something we could have had in 1961.

People of later generations?

Or a time traveler?

What is the purpose of getting close to one's siblings?

Lin Tianyi instantly understood why he felt something was off about this woman.

However, judging from her ingratiating manner, she didn't seem like she wanted to harm her own siblings.

Dinner consisted of a few simple dishes: a plate of stir-fried bok choy, a bowl of braised pork, a pot of tomato and egg soup, and a plate of neatly sliced ​​braised beef.

The steam from the porridge rose gently, and the aroma of the dishes slowly spread in the warm yellow light.

It looks very appetizing.

Tangtang sat between Lin Tian and JoJo, holding chopsticks in her hand, and put a piece of braised pork into her mouth.

With bulging cheeks, he chewed for a while before swallowing: "Brother, is the food at home as good as what we eat here?"

Lin Tian thought for a moment: "No."

"Will that guy leave again?"

Tangtang picked up another piece of meat and placed it in Lin Tian's bowl, as if completing a solemn handover ceremony.

Lin Tian looked down at the piece of meat in the bowl, paused for a moment, and said, "I'm not leaving."

Tangtang grinned, revealing a gap in her teeth that looked like a shallow crescent moon under the light.

She's growing teeth.

JoJo sat down next to her and added a spoonful of egg drop soup to Tangtang's bowl: "Eat slowly, don't choke."

Zhang Shiyu sat opposite, sipping her soup with her head down, a faint smile playing on her lips.

After dinner, Tangtang dragged Lin Tian to the balcony to look at the moon.

The balcony wasn't big, but it had a few potted green ivy plants on it. Their leaves swayed gently in the night breeze, as if they were whispering to each other.

She pointed to the crescent moon on the horizon, her eyes sparkling: "Look, buddy, doesn't the moon look like a pancake that's been bitten off?"

Lin Tian looked in the direction she was pointing, and sure enough, the moon was missing a corner, with a faint silvery-white halo around the edge.

"It looks like it. But even though it was bitten, it's still round and will grow back in a few days."

Tangtang tilted her head and thought for a moment, as if she was seriously pondering the meaning of the sentence.

Guoguo also said that her parents have become stars in the sky, watching over them all the time.

……