The last time Wen Ran had come to a shopping mall was many years ago, when her mother was still alive.
At that time, her mother would hold her hand without letting go, carefully avoiding crowded areas when they encountered them. If people kept staring at her, her mother would also protect her by her side, blocking those strange gazes.
Before that, she had attended special schools where there were too many children as special as her, including many with severe autism who were much worse than her. Even the simplest things like eating and walking required someone to guide them.
Those things that were very simple for ordinary people, such as putting snacks in their mouths or responding to their parents’ calls, they all needed to learn and train through daily repetition over and over again to adapt.
After long-term intervention therapy, she had long looked no different from ordinary girls.
But sometimes, people could still discover her unusualness.
For example, she couldn’t make eye contact with people, couldn’t clearly answer strangers’ questions, couldn’t stay alone in places with many people, couldn’t bear sudden noises and impact sounds. All these things would put her sensitive nerves in an extremely tense state.
When nervous, her hands would unconsciously clench together, her body would tremble slightly, and she might even have emotional breakdowns.
According to research, excessive sensitivity to the environment was a phenomenon common among many autistic children. For highly sensitive autism patients, their reactions to the environment were even more intense. Once they couldn’t bear sudden environmental changes and certain unexpected situations, they would fall into extreme panic, unable to regulate their emotions normally, which would also make them feel more physical discomfort.
Autism had no known cause and couldn’t be cured, only intervened early. Wen Ran had known since very early on that she was different from others. At that time, she still had her mother by her side, who was always infinitely patient with her.
Now, she only had Aunt Zhu by her side.
Wen Ran couldn’t ride moving transportation for long periods, so Aunt Zhu took her to a nearby shopping mall that was only a twenty-minute walk away.
All along the way, Aunt Zhu carefully protected her. Fortunately, there weren’t many people today, so Wen Ran wasn’t too nervous.
When car horns were too harsh, Aunt Zhu would immediately cover her ears with earphones.
“Look around and take whatever you want to buy.”
This time, Wen Ran had come to buy pet supplies. She wanted to donate these to a small animal rescue organization.
Cat food, dog food, various snacks and nutritional supplements, and small blankets were all placed in the shopping cart by Wen Ran in a hurried yet neat and orderly manner.
Aunt Zhu could only watch helplessly from the side because arranging things was something Wen Ran had to do herself.
What appeared to be obsessive-compulsive disorder to others was just her own set of rules.
Because she was afraid of making others wait in line too long, Wen Ran seemed very urgent. Aunt Zhu could only keep comforting her and help her organize things. Fortunately, Wen Ran eventually completed this task, and only then did she relax from her tense state.
When checking out, Aunt Zhu took out two cards and gestured to ask Wen Ran. Wen Ran pointed to one of them: “Use this one.”
This was her own card. Besides the savings her family had given her before, it also contained income from her own work.
Of course, this job was unknown to outsiders. Even Xie Yunli didn’t know she had a job with quite decent income.
The other card was the bank card Xie Yunli had given to Aunt Zhu, the one he said could be spent on freely.
He would regularly transfer money into it every month, never asking how much they spent or what they spent it on.
Aunt Zhu said: “Should we deliver these to them? The distance might be a bit far.”
Wen Ran: “Xiao Zhi, Xiao Zhi will come to get them. We arranged it on the computer.”
“Xiao Zhi? Your good friend?”
Wen Ran nodded.
Also having autism spectrum disorder, Xiao Zhi’s condition was more severe than Wen Ran’s. Aunt Zhu had seen him before, so when she saw the chubby boy getting off a truck across the street, she recognized him immediately. He was carrying a children’s backpack with a fluffy cat toy hanging from his pants.
Unlike Wen Ran’s appearance, Xiao Zhi’s appearance was closer to some people’s impression of autistic children. When he walked and talked, his hands would gesture wildly, his speech was unclear, he couldn’t communicate normally with people, and normal social interaction was even more impossible.
However, he and Wen Ran were each other’s good friends.
Perhaps precisely because they couldn’t establish normal social relationships with normal people, the two of them, both having autism, had instead built an extraordinary friendship.
When he carefully crossed the street and saw Wen Ran, his face immediately beamed with a child-like happy smile: “Ranran, Ranran, Ranran! So happy to see you! I’m so happy!”
Wen Ran also smiled along with him: “Xiao Zhi, I’m also very happy. How are you doing?”
Aunt Zhu looked at the two of them with relief.
Although neither could communicate normally like ordinary people, they had their own way of communicating and didn’t fear the other’s impatience at all.
Like when Xiao Zhi was excitedly gesturing, Wen Ran could patiently echo him. And when Wen Ran occasionally stumbled over words and didn’t know how to express herself, Xiao Zhi could miraculously understand what she wanted to say.
Until they reached a certain topic, Aunt Zhu saw both their expressions become serious. Even Xiao Zhi’s honest chubby face lost its smile.
It wasn’t until Xiao Zhi reluctantly loaded the items onto the truck and left that Aunt Zhu asked Wen Ran: “What were you just talking about? You seemed unhappy.”
“Kaka.”
Wen Ran said: “We were talking about Kaka.”
“Oh, that poor little dog.”
Kaka was a stray dog rescued a week ago. When found, several of its teeth had been pulled out, two nails were stuck in its body, and it was covered in blood all over. It was hard to imagine what terrible things it had experienced before being abandoned.
Although its life was saved, its condition was still very poor. It was still being kept alive with daily IV drips.
From the moment she learned about this, Wen Ran had Aunt Zhu donate ten thousand yuan to the rescue station for the expensive treatment costs that same day. She had been following the situation ever since, with Xiao Zhi occasionally sending her videos and photos of Kaka on the computer.
Long ago, Wen Ran’s family had once kept a dog, also named Kaka.
Because Wen Ran’s parents had heard that keeping small animals could help with autism treatment, reducing the loneliness of autism patients to a certain extent and alleviating anxiety.
It could also prevent and stop self-harm behaviors in autistic children and provide comfort during emotional outbursts, so they decided to keep a gentle dog.
Facts proved that the dog indeed had a great calming effect on young Wen Ran’s emotions. When Wen Ran showed no response to anyone’s teasing, not even her parents’, she had already established a friendship-like emotional relationship with that dog. Many times when Wen Ran lost emotional control over daily matters, that golden retriever could always comfort her first and prevent her from harming herself.
Like when her parents would often argue about her treatment issues, Kaka would always stay by her side. When she had emotional breakdowns and screamed, Kaka would try hard to protect her with its fluffy body, preventing her from hitting herself.
Once when Wen Ran’s father took them out and left Kaka to accompany Wen Ran on a park bench while he went away for a while, he returned to find both Wen Ran and Kaka missing. Actually, Wen Ran had been frightened by noisy sounds and ran away, but Kaka had brought her back to her father’s side in no time.
Kaka had once been her best friend and had protected her like a brother.
But unfortunately, Kaka died in a car accident after accompanying her for four years.
And when Kaka died, Wen Ran witnessed it with her own eyes. That incident also caused her serious psychological trauma, leading to a long period where she couldn’t recover.
The rescued dog named Kaka, although a little mixed breed, looked somewhat like Kaka when he was small, and the name was exactly the same.
Aunt Zhu immediately understood. Wen Ran’s sudden desire to go shopping by herself and going out alone yesterday were actually her training herself. She wanted to go see that poor little dog.
“You want to go see Kaka, don’t you?”
Wen Ran nodded, her eyes slightly red: “I miss it very much, and I’m also very worried about its condition. Aunt Zhu, I’m so afraid…”
Aunt Zhu patted her shoulder: “When do you want to go?”
The rescue organization was some distance away. Even by car, it would take at least forty to fifty minutes.
Wen Ran took a deep breath and said: “If possible, I want to… want to go tomorrow, so… let’s take a car home today.”
Aunt Zhu: “Take a taxi? Is that okay? Should I still tell Mr. Xie and have him drive us there?”
As soon as Wen Ran heard this, she shook her head: “Don’t trouble him!”
When she got anxious, her speech became even more unclear. She could only express herself intermittently with effort: “I… am already… his trouble. This kind of thing… don’t trouble him. I don’t want…”
“Alright, alright, then we’ll go by ourselves. Auntie will take you.”
Aunt Zhu sighed inwardly.
On the way back, they took a taxi. Wen Ran hadn’t ridden in a car for a long time, and the taxi had a smell. Sure enough, she started getting carsick as soon as she got in.
Although it was only a ten-minute journey, she still threw up terribly once they got home.
After vomiting, she sat pale-faced in front of the computer. Aunt Zhu came in with fruit and saw her concentrating on drawing.
“Why don’t you rest today?”
Aunt Zhu said.
Wen Ran shook her head: “The deadline is coming soon.”
Wen Ran wasn’t a professional illustrator, but the commission fees for her work weren’t low because her works never disappointed anyone.
From childhood, the talent she displayed in art was remarkable, and she was very interested in illustrations in fairy tale books. If given a fairy tale book, she could stare at the illustrations inside and flip through them over and over for an entire day.
Before she was even ten years old, she could paint any still life she saw with vivid accuracy. Her grasp of proportions in painting was an innate talent. Sometimes, with just one glance, she could very accurately determine various measurements of an object and then accurately depict it with her brush.
A few years ago, she began participating in illustration creation for some fairy tale publications and had achieved good results over the years.
Besides painting, she also learned musical instruments very quickly.
Although the fact of being born with autism was confirmed when she was three years old, she was also a natural artist.
However, not many people knew she had created many amazing artistic works, and not many people knew that at age ten, she could perfectly play a piece after hearing it just two or three times.
She never needed excessive praise, nor had she ever wanted anyone’s recognition. She had always been in her own quiet world, doing what she could do and liked to do.
If not for her mother’s premature death, perhaps Wen Ran would have long since lived a normal life and perhaps achieved more in the arts. Even though she was born with the defect of autism, she wasn’t inferior to anyone.
Aunt Zhu sighed, carried the tray downstairs, and suddenly heard someone ringing the doorbell.
At this hour, who could it be?
Usually, no one would come here.