He had both the phone number and the address, but he just didn’t want to move, didn’t want to talk, didn’t want to do anything. He fished a cigarette out of his pocket and held it between his lips, filled with a deep, inexplicable, bewildered, desperate, and angry feeling at himself for suddenly ending up here.

Staring at the ice on the ground, angry as he fumbled in his pocket for a lighter, he huddled against the cold wind, curled up and lit his cigarette. Watching the smoke drift away in front of him, he let out a sigh.

If the homeroom teacher saw this, who knows what they’d say.

But it didn’t matter. He was already here, such a long distance away. Not just the homeroom teacher—even the people he’d lived with in the same house for over a decade might never see him again.

In this shabby little city’s shabby little school, probably no one would care whether he smoked or not.

He’d only smoked half the cigarette before Brian Carter started to feel too cold to bear it. He stood up, planning to hail a cab and find somewhere to eat first. He dragged his suitcase and had just taken a step when he felt something hit his ankle—hard, too, enough to make him wince in pain.

He frowned and turned around, seeing a skateboard behind him.

Before he could look up to see where the skateboard had come from, someone fell at his feet.

“You—” He reflexively reached out to help, but his hand stopped halfway.

A mess of hair hung down, cut unevenly as if chewed by a dog, some long, some short. The clothes were pretty dirty too… a beggar? A homeless kid? A scammer? A thief?

When the person looked up, he saw it was just a little girl, probably only in fifth or sixth grade. Her face was smeared with streaks of mud, but he could tell her skin was quite fair and her eyes were very big.

But before he could reach out to help, the little girl was yanked away by four or five other girls who had followed close behind. Someone even kicked her in the back, making her stumble and nearly fall again.

Brian Carter immediately understood what was going on. He hesitated for a moment, then turned and continued dragging his suitcase forward.

A burst of laughter from behind made him stop again.

When he was in a bad mood, he really didn’t like meddling in other people’s business. And right now, his mood was especially, extremely, particularly bad. But just now, the big-eyed girl’s dark, clear eyes made him turn his head back anyway.

“Hey!” he called out.

The girls all stopped. The one who seemed to be the ringleader shot him a sideways glance. “What do you want?”

Brian Carter dragged his suitcase over slowly, staring at the girl who was still clutching the big-eyed girl’s clothes. After two seconds of staring, that girl let go.

He pulled the big-eyed girl to his side and looked at the group. “It’s fine now, go on.”

“Who are you!” The ringleader sounded a bit timid, but still shouted in dissatisfaction.

“I’m the big brother with a knife,” Brian Carter looked at her, “I can give you a haircut just like hers in thirty seconds.”

“I’ll get my brother to come deal with you in a minute!” The ringleader clearly wasn’t used to this. She shrank back a little at his words, but still tried to sound tough.

“Then tell him to hurry up,” Brian Carter said, dragging his suitcase with one hand and holding the big-eyed girl with the other, “I’m so scared, I’ll run really fast.”

The girls walked away, but the big-eyed girl pulled her hand free.

“Are you okay?” Brian Carter asked.

The big-eyed girl shook her head, then walked back to the skateboard, stepped on it, and looked at him.

“Yours?” Brian Carter asked again.

The big-eyed girl nodded, gave a little push, and rolled the skateboard right up to him, stopping steadily, still looking at him.

“Then… go home,” Brian Carter nodded as well, pulling out his phone and thinking about calling a car as he walked.

After a while, he heard a sound behind him. Turning around, he saw the big-eyed girl still following him on her skateboard.

“What is it?” Brian Carter looked at her.

The big-eyed girl said nothing.

“Afraid they’ll come back?” Brian Carter asked, a bit helpless.

The big-eyed girl shook her head.

“No? Are you mute?” Brian Carter was starting to get a little annoyed.

The big-eyed girl shook her head again.

“Listen, I,” Brian Carter pointed at himself, “am in a really bad mood right now, really irritable. I won’t go easy on little girls, you know.”

The big-eyed girl didn’t move.

Brian Carter stared at her for a while. Seeing she had no intention of speaking, he suppressed his irritation and dragged his suitcase forward again.

The signal was bad at the moment, and he couldn’t get the ride-hailing app to open no matter how many times he tapped it. He plopped down on a stone post next to the bus stop and lit another cigarette.

The big-eyed girl was still on her skateboard, standing next to him.

“Do you still need something?” Brian Carter asked impatiently, starting to regret meddling and getting himself into this inexplicable trouble.

The big-eyed girl still didn’t speak, just gave a little push on her skateboard and slid over to the bus stop sign, tilting her face up and staring at it for a long time.

When she rolled back to Brian Carter on her skateboard, Brian Carter guessed the reason from her confused expression and sighed, “Are you lost? Can’t find your way home?”

The big-eyed girl nodded.

“Are you from around here?” Brian Carter asked.

She nodded.