Searching for Treasures in the Clouds

The two old people held Yu Ru and cried for a long time until their tears dried up and they could not cry anymore.

"Grandpa, grandma, everything is fine now, calm down and stop crying, what if you hurt your eyes?" Wen Nachuan held a tissue in each hand and wiped the tears of Shi Yanchun and Wen Zhuomo. Yun Jixing stood between them with a wet handkerchief and silently wiped the faces of the two elderly people.

The old lady didn't respond, only Yu Ru was in her eyes. Shi Yanchun held her hand tightly, and Wen Zhuomo held her sleeve tightly.

Yu Ru looked at them and found that their eyes were wet as soon as they saw her face, and they were still very emotional. After all, they were old, and it was not good to be too emotional, so she took the initiative to leave temporarily. Although the two elders were reluctant, they also felt that they were too out of control and could not calm down, so they let her go.

After she left, Wen Zhuomo and Shi Yanchun hung their heads and fell into silence.

"Zhuo Mo, Zhuo Mo." Yun Zhonghe reached out and patted Wen Zhuo Mo's shoulder. "You and Yanchun, are you...reuniting with Xiaoru after a long time? Then stay for a few days. Xiaoru will live here during this period."

Wen Zhuomo sighed, "Okay, okay, Zhonghe, Ningzhai, we'll bother you then. It's been almost a year since I last saw Xiaoru, and I really want to spend more time with her."

After saying that, he turned to look at Shi Yanchun, "Xiaochun, what do you think?"

"Yes, yes." Shi Yanchun nodded repeatedly, wiping the tears from the corners of his eyes with one hand.

Then there was another long silence.

After an unknown amount of time, Wen Zhuomo raised his head, looked at Yun Jixing and asked, "Xiao Yuan, is your fiancée Xiao Ru?"

"Yes, Grandpa Wen, we will get married next year."

"Next year, so soon..." Wen Zhuomo looked worried, lowered his eyes, and whispered, "Xiaoru is actually getting married. In my mind, she is still a skinny little girl, but now she is getting married. I didn't even dare to think about what her marriage would be like, and who she would marry. More than a decade has passed in the blink of an eye."

"Yes, time flies." Shi Yanchun sighed. She stretched out her hands and formed a circle, as if gesturing the size of an object, and continued to talk to herself: "When Xiaoru was nine or ten years old, she was still very small and thin, much smaller than her peers, like a five or six-year-old child. I could hold two of her at once. At that time, I was worried that she would not grow tall or big, but I didn't expect that she would become tall now, and I have to look up to her. Good, very good..."

"Zhuo Mo, Yanchun, you have known Xiaoru for so long? Why did you cry when you saw her?" Situ Ningzhai asked. At the same time, he took the handkerchief from Yun Jixing's hand and continued to wipe Shi Yanchun's face. "Oh, you cried like this. Look, your eyes are swollen."

"It's a long story. Anyway, we have known Xiaoru for a long time. She was only nine years old at that time." Shi Yanchun replied with a sob.

Wen Zhuomo reached into the secret pocket of his coat and pulled out a photo, which he placed on the table. The photo was a group photo of three people, with himself, Shi Yanchun, and a little girl being held by them on either side.

The little girl was wrapped up tightly from head to toe, and was dressed in chubby clothes, with only her small face exposed. Her facial features were large and delicate, just like a carefully carved doll. The only flaw was that she had a scar that took up half of her face. But even so, it was hard to hide her exquisiteness and cuteness.

This little face is basically the same as Yu Ru's, and the expression is exactly the same. There is a hint of sinisterness in her firmness, and melancholy in her indifference, as if there is an inextricable sadness lingering around her.

Yun Zhonghe took the photo and took a look, and gasped: "Why does this child look so much like Xiaoru? Could this be Xiaoru?"

Wen Nachuan quietly looked at the photo held in Yun Zhonghe's hand, and was somewhat surprised that his grandfather actually carried the photo with him, and the person in the photo was not a family member, but an outsider. Thinking of this, he felt a strange feeling in his heart, but he did not show it on his face, and just stayed quietly aside to watch the situation.

Wen Zhuomo nodded, "It was a case that brought me together. Xiaoru is a very precocious child. Although she is still young, she is very smart and knows everything. She is also very smart, so smart that it is incredible. You should know that her family conditions are not very good. Her parents are ordinary workers. I wanted to take her in as my apprentice. So during her winter and summer vacations, I asked someone to bring her home and let her learn painting from me and go to the private school with Xiaochuan."

"In fact, I can't help her much. It's mainly because she strives for success. She knew what she wanted from a young age, and she was able to take action to achieve it. She was very hardworking. You don't know, this child is really hard on herself. No one supervises her. She gets up at five o'clock and does nothing but study. Later, Xiaochun and I found out that she did this. We were afraid that she would not grow taller due to lack of sleep, so we forced her to change it to seven o'clock. But she still gets up early and always wakes up after six o'clock."

"Xiaochun and I often tell her not to be reserved here and just treat it as our own home. The child nodded on the surface, but she was still reserved. When I think of how cautious she was when she was a child, I still want to cry."

Speaking of this, Wen Zhuomo paused for a long time and his eyes became moist again.

"One day, the private school teacher called me and said that she didn't go to class and asked me if I wanted to take a leave. I thought, this is bad, how could I not know that this child wanted to take a leave? But she is not at home now, where could she go? Xiaochun and I hurried out to look for her. We searched everywhere near her home but couldn't find her. This made us very anxious. Fortunately, an acquaintance saw her and told us that she was in a commercial building in the city center. Then we found her."

"When Xiaochun and I went over, we saw her sitting on the steps in front of the commercial building, communicating with strangers using pen and paper. We were confused at the time and didn't know what she was doing. She was so studious, why would she skip classes and talk to strangers here? She was the most afraid of strangers. Xiaochun and I were so curious that we hid not far away and observed her. After watching for a while, we realized that this child was drawing a portrait for someone."

"Xiaochun and I just watched there. Xiaoru stayed there until the sun was about to set in the afternoon. We also watched there for a long time. We didn't go to call her until we saw her packing up to leave. When we went over, it was incredible. She had earned two bags of money in less than one day from morning to afternoon. The bags were that big."

Wen Zhuomo stretched out his hands to indicate the length, "It's like this, this long, this wide. It's full of money, a lot of it is in large amounts, mostly 100 yuan, and many are in bundles. There are all kinds of money, including RMB, USD, Euro, and GBP. I estimate that the money in these two bags should add up to tens of thousands. We were all shocked, how did he make so much money? After asking, we found out that this kid is smart. He specifically picked those who wore jewelry and big watches and painted while looking at the rich people. Those people not only gave money, but also gave tips, and the tips were huge stacks."

"I think those people were so happy because Xiaoru was so cute that they gave her all the cash in their wallets. Xiaoru also said that many bosses wanted to touch her head and shake her hand, but she came up with a trick. If someone wanted to interact with her, there was a different price. She made a lot of money this way. This girl has seen the world. She has seen some bosses squander hundreds of thousands of dollars in one night, so she dared to ask for hundreds of dollars for interaction."