Mom was also confused, only managing to find a photo from several years ago. The person looked delicate and pretty, but even as a child, there was a rebellious look in their eyes.

The reason for making up a story about a cousin was because the barrage of comments was full of people just talking nonsense. If he admitted there was no blood relation, these people could get his account banned instantly.

The airport broadcast chimed, and the voice announcement began.

Brian Clark yawned, "Finally landed."

*

"Ladies and gentlemen, we will be soon landing at DDLLD International airport."

As the announcement sounded, people in the cabin couldn't wait to lift their window shades. The intense sunlight poured in, and the exhaustion from over ten hours of flying surged up all at once, only to be quickly dispelled by the clear skies of home.

A boy sitting in the last row by the aisle was still dozing on his backpack, his long legs curled up in the cramped space, his flattened shoulders gently rising and falling with his breath. Among all the chatting passengers, he was so quiet that he seemed out of place, a faint sense of loneliness outlining his presence.

The moment the plane landed, he suddenly woke up. His slender fingers tugged down the collar of his sweater, leaned his head back against the seat, and came to.

The light outside cast a band of brightness across his face, shadows and highlights interlacing, his features and contours bearing the unique softness and clarity of youth.

After a moment, he opened his eyes, stood up, took his instrument case from the overhead bin, slung a black camera bag onto his backpack strap, gathered everything onto his right shoulder, and quickly weaved through the passengers stretching their legs in the packed cabin.

The flight was delayed by two hours. Laura Bennett was unlucky—his phone, which he'd used for over three years, suddenly went black not long ago, then got stuck in a loop of turning on and off. After fiddling with it for hours, it was completely dead and wouldn't charge.

He didn't check any luggage, quickly broke away from the crowd, was the first through customs, and appeared alone in the arrivals area.

Laura Bennett didn't know the person picking him up, and hadn't memorized their phone number.

The corridor was packed with people. His gaze quickly swept over the unfamiliar faces, trying to find a sign with “Laura Bennett” or “Lan Xie” written on it.

Unfortunately, there wasn't one.

James Bennett only finally accepted that his son was really coming back to China when he arrived at Heathrow. The Xie family had been rooted in the UK for over a decade, and there were no relatives left here. After searching through the contacts, the person they managed to ask to pick him up was his mom's childhood friend, Helen Carter. Everything felt unreliable.

After a half-minute of staring at the crowd of people waiting, Laura Bennett pulled his sweater collar up again in defeat, lowered his eyes, and quickly walked away, planning to find a place to borrow a computer and try to rescue his phone.

There seemed to be a Chinese poem that could describe his mood at this moment. How did it go again...

Ten years apart, life and death are both uncertain.

He couldn't remember the next line.

Oh well, a wanderer returns home with a cold heart.

That works.

He could feel his Chinese language skills rapidly awakening as he set foot on this land.

*

The convenience store owner craned her neck behind the counter, staring at Laura Bennett's phone. The other end of the data cable was plugged into her computer, but no matter what they tried, the phone wouldn't turn on, and the computer couldn't read the device.

"It's bricked, no hope," she sighed.

Laura Bennett stared at the black screen for a few more seconds, unplugged the cable, and quietly said, "Thank you."

He automatically stepped aside to let the person behind him pay.

"Just milk tea, I can't decide."

"No idea what flavor you'd like."

"It's my first time meeting you too, I don't know."

The person next to him spoke with a casual tone, but their voice had a cool, pleasant quality. Laura Bennett instinctively turned his head, only to see a phone, and then the face behind the screen.

That boy glanced up at Laura Bennett nonchalantly, his wrist tilting slightly with the movement.

Laura Bennett quickly stepped aside.

The other person, sensing the situation, turned the screen away and covered it with his clothes, softly muttering an apology as he took his milk tea and brushed past.

Laura Bennett was frowning, about to put his phone back in his pocket, when suddenly a quick, forceful tug yanked him sideways—a hook, dragging him half a step to the right before he could react. After regaining his balance, he looked up in confusion, only to see that the whirlwind of a guy had his camera bag dangling from his backpack, striding out the door.

Laura Bennett: "Hey—"

Abruptly cut off.

He was stuck.

What should he call out?

Friend, sir, boy—none of them seemed right.

In the UK, you could just shout "mate." What's the Chinese for "mate"?

My little buddy?

Such a small language detail, yet it could completely trip up someone whose language system was scrambled.

Laura Bennett was taken abroad before he was three. Under James Bennett's insistence, he was raised speaking English, and his previously developed Chinese was almost completely wiped out. Only his grandfather, who stayed in London for a while each year, would speak Chinese with him. Three years ago, his grandfather passed away, and that connection was severed too.

If you had to define it, his Chinese was barely at a first-grade level, maybe even worse. Though his daily spoken Chinese sounded fine, his word choices were often off, leading to surprising mistakes. He could easily lose track of a conversation, and his reading and writing skills were basically nonexistent.

That person had already reached the door, speaking rapidly into his phone, "I'm pulling out the pickup sign, heading down now."

Then he locked his phone, stuffed it in his pocket, swung his backpack forward, and with a loud smack, the hooked camera bag hit the floor.

"......"

Laura Bennett silently followed after.