Chapter 2

It was very late, long after the evening news had finished, when Fiyue was escorted back to the orphanage by the gatekeeper. Watching Fiyue reluctantly enter the building, the gatekeeper couldn't help but sigh.

She was well aware of Fiyue's situation at the orphanage. The gatekeeper, who felt sympathy for the boy, had even considered adopting him. However, with her monthly salary of 800 yuan, she could barely support herself, let alone provide for a child's education. She had thought about talking to the director, but the elderly director, who was already somewhat deaf, had no energy to manage the children.

Recently, fewer and fewer people were donating to the orphanage. The government subsidies were barely enough to keep the children alive. Fortunately, primary school tuition and miscellaneous fees had been waived, otherwise, even attending school would have been a luxury for the children. In such circumstances, how could the director afford to hire workers to educate the children?

Sighing, the kind-hearted gatekeeper could only silently pray for the poor child's safety and future.

Fiyue limped up to the second floor, his leg injuries causing him to break out in a cold sweat. He could only move slowly, inch by inch, toward his room.

At that moment, the hallway light suddenly turned on, and his eyes, accustomed to the darkness, reflexively closed from the sudden brightness. Fiyue felt a small, thin body gently hug him, accompanied by the sound of a little girl sobbing.

"Brother!"

"Qinyue." Fiyue opened his eyes and saw his sister's tear-streaked face, like a little kitten. Her disheveled hair, which had never been combed, stuck out in all directions, just like her chaotic emotions.

Qinyue was wearing a dark blue dress. The director had made it from a large piece of canvas a few years ago. Although it was sturdy, it had worn out over the years and needed mending in several places. The elderly director could no longer sew for the children, so Qinyue, who had never touched a needle, had clumsily sewn a few stitches. It was ugly but still wearable.

"Brother, where have you been? I was so worried." Qinyue turned her head away so her brother wouldn't see her red, tear-streaked eyes, but her hand tightly clutched a corner of Fiyue's shirt.

"Brother is useless," Fiyue's voice was dejected. "I couldn't get your candy back intact. It ended up like this." He extended his hand, revealing colorful pieces of lollipop and the bruises on his exposed arm.

"Brother!" Qinyue's tears, which she had just managed to stop, started flowing again. She gently touched the bruises on her brother's arm, as if the same wounds had been inflicted on her heart.

Brother, I will remember this arm for the rest of my life, do you know that? Qinyue thought, and her tears fell onto his arm.

Fiyue and his sister Qinyue were orphans at the Brightness Orphanage. According to Grandma Director, they were found in a pavilion at the orphanage's entrance on February 29, 2004. It shouldn't have rained that day, but Grandma said there was a sudden, intense storm with thunder. The storm came and went quickly, cleansing the sky in less than ten minutes. Apart from the two siblings in the pavilion, nothing else was left behind. Grandma assumed they had been abandoned by irresponsible parents and brought them in to live, and they had been there for six years.

At the orphanage, children were always given surnames by randomly pointing at a character in the Book of Surnames. The two siblings, in unison, pointed to the character "Chu," so both of them were named "Chu Fiyue" and "Chu Qinyue."

Six years passed, and Grandma started sending the children to school. Since Fiyue and Qinyue were the youngest, when they started school, Grandma proudly considered all her children to be educated, or perhaps soon-to-be educated. Regardless, during a lunch one day, she gave each child a piece of paper to test their learning, asking them to write their surnames.

The result was a complete failure for everyone except Fiyue and Qinyue, as no one else knew how to write the surname "Chu." The other children had surnames like Zhao, Sun, Li, Zhou, Wu, Zheng, and Wang, which were all easy to write, with none exceeding ten strokes. The surname "Chu" had thirteen strokes, and no one could write it.

Since then, the two siblings were isolated by the other children, who never included them in their games, avoided them during meals and school, and generally shunned them. A month later, the local bully, Qiao Jindi, started causing trouble for them. He would create problems whenever he could, making life very difficult for the Chu siblings.

Over time, the two poor children, unable to change their environment, began to adapt to it. They started sticking together, always being inseparable. They did everything together—eating, going to school, playing, and even sleeping. Their room became like a mini orphanage within the orphanage, with no one ever visiting. Fortunately, at six years old, no one would say anything, but if they were older, their behavior might have been considered rebellious.

They often left early and returned late, not to misbehave, but to avoid Qiao Jindi and his gang. After Qiao Jindi was expelled for stealing money from a teacher, the group became a major problem for the orphanage, causing the elderly director great distress, but she could do nothing about it and could only cry in her room.

The Chu siblings usually went to the back of a nearby park, where there was a recycling station. The station wasn't a garbage dump; it was a place where used and broken items were neatly sorted and sent to their respective destinations, such as repair shops or smelters.

The Chu siblings had a good relationship with the childless owner of the recycling station and his wife, as well as the gatekeeper of the neighborhood committee, who had even saved Fiyue once. The gatekeeper often talked about this incident, and even years later, she still referred to the children as "little rascals."

On July 23, 2011, a memorable day, the Chu siblings found a harp at the recycling station, a rare item in China.

That day, the Chu siblings were fixing a kite with a broken main strut at the recycling station. Fiyue replaced the plastic rod with a willow branch he had broken off a tree, finally allowing the broken-winged eagle to soar again. After fixing the kite, Fiyue caught his breath, and his adorable sister carefully wiped the sweat from his face with her clean handkerchief. The seven-year-old girl already knew about cleanliness, as her handkerchief smelled of laundry detergent.

"Here," Fiyue handed the kite to his sister and picked up a fishing reel with a spool of thread. He bit off a piece and tied one end to the ring on the kite's chest. He handed the other end to his sister and nodded, and the little girl ran into the bright sunlight.

"Fly!" The little girl called out excitedly, running. The kite soared higher and higher, lifting the corners of her mouth.

Perhaps it was a case of joy turning to sorrow. Qinyue let out a startled cry and fell to the ground, and the kite followed, nose-diving.

Fiyue, panicked, dropped the reel and rushed to help his sister. Fortunately, she was unharmed, just frightened, and clung to her brother.

Fiyue, angry, found the culprit that had frightened his sister. It was a stick with many nylon strings stretched across it, the exposed part resembling a bow. Relieved that his sister had tripped over the stick rather than getting caught in the strings, Fiyue pulled it out, revealing a wooden bow with many strings.

Qinyue, drawn by curiosity, ran out of her brother's arms, tilting her head and poking the strange bow with twenty-five strings. Oh, it was twenty-four, as one string was already broken.

"What is this?" the thought crossed both siblings' minds.

The mischievous Qinyue, unable to figure out how the bow worked, became impatient and forcefully pulled a large number of strings with her right hand.

"Ding dong..." The strange bow emitted a clear, flowing sound.

"Ah!" Qinyue cried out, covering her right hand with her left, clearly in pain from the force she had used.

"Little fool," Fiyue laughed, pulling her right hand, which was already red. "You used too much force."

"Brother," Qinyue called out, her voice filled with委屈 (grievance). "It hurts."

Fiyue opened his mouth and gently sucked on his sister's slightly red finger, just like a baby nursing.

"O(∩_∩)O Haha~" From a young age, whenever Fiyue sucked on her sore spots, Qinyue would temporarily forget the pain, and her frowning face would instantly turn sunny.

A breeze blew, lifting the kite. The old eagle "thumped" onto the strings of the strange bow and, with the help of the elasticity, flew up again.

Amidst the clear, spring-like music, the two siblings leaned against each other, and the smiling eagle blessed its two young masters before flying away on the warm summer breeze.

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