In the third month of advancing the Star River Bay project, Wand Group organized a client site visit. Wanting followed the team to Wand Group Tower.
68th floor. The moment the elevator doors opened, a faint, elusive sweet fragrance drifted into her nose. In the corner of the lobby were placed two pots of flowers, but that scent had nothing to do with the flowers. It seemed to drift over from somewhere farther away.
Wanting's footsteps paused. Her chest tightened. Not unpleasantly. It was that sensation of something trying desperately to push outward but not quite making it. She pressed her chest and caught up with the group.
The site visit lasted an afternoon. The project contact person from Wand Group was surnamed Zhou, around forty, with "Administrative Director" printed on her name card. Sister Zhou was very polite. She took them to see the conference rooms, the exhibition hall, and the employee cafeteria. Passing the end of the corridor, Wanting inadvertently saw an old photograph hanging on the wall nearby. Black and white, slightly yellowed. In the photo, a middle-aged man in a white lab coat stood in front of equipment in a laboratory. The caption read: 1992, Shen Zhengye PhD in the Chinese Academy of Sciences materials laboratory.
Shen Zhengye. Founder of Wand Group. PhD in materials science. Started a business after leaving the laboratory. Twenty years later, the richest man in the province.
Wanting took one look and walked on. After walking a few steps she turned back. Not because of Shen Zhengye, but because of the background in the photo. Outside the laboratory windows was a tree. Judging by the tree shape and leaves, it was an osmanthus tree.
She stared at that tree for a long time. That blurry image surfaced again. A small courtyard. A large tree. Under the tree, someone was laughing. And a cloth rabbit, pink-colored. She seemed to have held it before.
"Sister Su?"
Sister Zhou's voice pulled her back.
"Sorry, zoned out."
Wanting smiled and hurried to catch up with the group.
After the site visit, the team waited for their car on the first floor. Wanting went to the restroom. Coming out, she walked in the wrong direction. Pushed open a fire exit door. Not a stairwell. It was a corridor. At the end of the corridor was a door. On the door hung a brass plate: Chairman's Office.
The door was ajar.
She was just about to turn and leave when her peripheral vision caught something through the door gap. An entire wall of photographs. Not business photos or award group shots. It was a wall densely covered with photographs. Some in color, some black and white, some clipped from newspapers.
Right in the middle was a yellowed old photo: a four-year-old girl with two small braids, riding on a young man's neck, laughing until her eyes curved into crescents. Below the photo was pasted a handwritten note. The handwriting was very forceful:
Nian'nian. Daddy has been looking for you the whole time.
Wanting stood in the corridor, staring at that wall through the door gap.
Her heartbeat suddenly became very heavy. Thump thump, like someone was knocking.
Four years old. Small braids. Riding on someone's neck laughing. These things had no relation to her. Her name was Su Wanting. She grew up in Shiqiao Village. Her adoptive parents were Li Dashan and Wang Cuihua. She didn't know how long she stood in front of that door. Until a colleague called to hurry her:
"The car is here. Hurry down."
She turned and left. Walked very fast.
That night back in the rental, she couldn't sleep. Lay in bed staring at the ceiling. That faint, elusive sweet fragrance seemed to still be stuck in her nasal cavity. Four years old. At four years old, what was she doing? Shiqiao Village. Adoptive mother cooking in front of the stove. Adoptive father carrying a hoe coming back from the fields. She squatting in the courtyard playing with mud. No. Her earliest memory wasn't Shiqiao Village. Her earliest memory was a blurry one - a courtyard floating with osmanthus scent. Someone lifting her very high. She grabbed that person's hair, laughing until she couldn't catch her breath. And someone else calling out:
"Be careful. Don't let her fall."
Who was it? She couldn't remember. Could never remember.
Wanting rolled over and buried her face in the pillow. Outside the window, the old district at night was very quiet. That line of text on the photo wall kept turning around in her mind.
Nian'nian. Daddy has been looking for you the whole time.