Chapter 22
Aunt Zhu took out the new boots she had bought for Wen Ran, which reached just below her knees, covering her exposed calves.
“Our Wen Ran is too beautiful; it’s better to dress more conservatively,” Aunt Zhu said.
Children who were too beautiful always attracted a lot of attention. Wen Ran’s appearance naturally carried a unique attractiveness, and ever since she was small, taking her out would draw many people’s gazes.
For ordinary people, receiving attention was something that made them happy, but for Wen Ran, not receiving attention was what made her feel safe.
Previously, every time she went out, she had to muster great courage. This time was the same. When she reached the door, she gripped Aunt Zhu’s hand tightly, took several deep breaths, and slowly walked out of the house.
Zhou Wei had already parked the car and was waiting for them at the door.
Speaking of which, this was the first time he had seen Wen Ran. Even though he had come many times before, each time it was Aunt Zhu who received him, and he had never seen Wen Ran come down from upstairs.
In his imagination, Wen Ran was an overweight girl with hair covering half her face, who looked very autistic and gloomy.
So two years ago, he had complained to his wife that their boss was too stubborn, wondering what kind of responsibility had made him sacrifice his own marriage. Even if he didn’t care about matching social status, he should at least find a normal girl to marry.
However, although he thought this way, today was after all the first time meeting Wen Ran, so he still properly put on a suit to at least give his boss’s wife a good impression.
Yet when Wen Ran walked out, he realized that his imagination over the past two years had been completely wrong!
How could this look like an autistic person with intellectual deficits?
She was clearly a girl with a good figure and very beautiful appearance.
Even in modern society where everyone used exquisite makeup to enhance their looks, Wen Ran’s appearance was very attractive. That gentle, girlish quality about her made it clear she was a young lady who had grown up in a greenhouse from childhood.
Especially standing together with Xie Yunli, they were an incredibly well-matched pair.
He couldn’t help but sigh that heaven was indeed fair. This girl with such a beautiful appearance was born with autism…
If she were a normal girl, how excellent she would be.
“Miss… Miss Wen Ran…”
For a moment, Zhou Wei seemed to become the one with social disorders, even stuttering when greeting her: “Nice to meet you, I… I’m Mr. Xie’s, I’m that…”
“His name is Zhou Wei, he’s my personal assistant,” Xie Yunli interrupted him.
Although his tone didn’t sound impatient, Zhou Wei could tell from his voice that he had acted foolishly, so he quickly shut his mouth and properly opened the car door for them.
After they got in the car, Zhou Wei could see Wen Ran’s unusual nature.
Indeed, she rarely went out and was completely unaccustomed to the outside environment. From the moment Wen Ran got in the car, she appeared uneasy, and her complexion had become much paler.
This time they were driving a business car with a relatively wide back seat. Aunt Zhu and Xie Yunli both sat in the back, with Wen Ran leaning against Aunt Zhu’s shoulder, her whole body almost in a state of wanting to curl up.
Aunt Zhu kept gently patting the back of her hand, comforting her condition.
Xie Yunli said: “Zhou Wei, drive more steadily.”
“Yes, boss.”
Zhou Wei straightened his posture and drove with twelve times his usual concentration.
Actually, he always drove very steadily, but this time, he obviously needed to be even more steady.
The journey was quite far, and with the restriction on driving speed, it would take at least nearly an hour.
“Tell Auntie if you feel uncomfortable. If it’s really bad, we can stop the car and get out to walk around,” Aunt Zhu whispered to Wen Ran. “Don’t feel embarrassed; they’ll all understand.”
Wen Ran pressed her lips together and nodded.
When they reached the most familiar road, Zhou Wei glanced at the rearview mirror, suddenly cleared his throat softly, and said: “Mr. Xie, we’ve reached our company.”
He was afraid of startling Wen Ran, so he spoke in a gentle, soft tone, very different from his usual serious yet somewhat humorous manner.
After speaking, he carefully glanced at Wen Ran in the rearview mirror, wanting to see if she had any reaction, but instead met Xie Yunli’s gaze in the mirror.
Zhou Wei’s relaxed shoulders immediately straightened again.
But hearing this, Wen Ran did indeed curiously raise her head, wanting to look outside.
“Not this side,” Xie Yunli pointed in another direction and said to Wen Ran: “That building in the middle, we’re on the eighteenth and nineteenth floors, two floors.”
“Eighteenth, nineteenth, two floors,” Wen Ran murmured, repeating after him.
Xie Yunli looked at her profile; her gaze was still following that building as it moved.
He had once read some books about autism, which explained autistic patients’ “echolalia” this way: Autistic children have difficulties in communication, but they often have advantages in memory, so their method of learning language is to repeat continuously after hearing, whether immediately or with delay.
As autistic children continue to grow socially, cognitively, and linguistically, they begin to summarize language rules, but their method of summarization differs from normally developing children. They mostly use some of their own habitual speech, such as echolalic language, to break down chunks of verbal memory.
This is also a way for them to communicate with the world using their own language, just that their method of communication differs from others. Sometimes the strange speech that people completely cannot understand may hide very deep meanings behind it. If one cannot understand that layer of meaning, one cannot truly understand them.
Of course, with gradual growth, their language patterns will also slowly improve.
Wen Ran had certain language barriers. Even now, she found it difficult to fluently say a sentence expressing her thoughts, but every time she wanted to speak, it represented that she was seriously responding to others and seriously expressing herself.
Until that building was completely out of sight, Wen Ran finally withdrew her gaze.
But what she didn’t know was that Xie Yunli was still looking at her.
After a while, Aunt Zhu saw Wen Ran frowning with somewhat unsteady breathing and quickly asked her: “Ranran, are you feeling uncomfortable?”
Wen Ran didn’t speak, but her hand gripping Aunt Zhu’s arm tightened.
Xie Yunli said: “Zhou Wei, stop nearby for a moment.”
Zhou Wei quickly found a parking spot and stopped the car. Aunt Zhu accompanied Wen Ran out of the car, and after walking just a few steps, Wen Ran crouched down and dry-heaved several times.
“Such severe car sickness,” Zhou Wei said. “Mr. Xie, should I go find a pharmacy to buy motion sickness medicine?”
“No need.”
Xie Yunli got out of the car and went into a supermarket, returning moments later with two bottles of juice for Aunt Zhu.
Wen Ran didn’t like taking medicine; she had taken too much medicine before due to her physical condition.
Actually, more than car sickness, what made it difficult for her to bear was sitting in a car for a long time. She had been unaccustomed to riding in cars since childhood, which was one of the reasons she rarely went out.
A few minutes later, they got back in the car. Zhou Wei sped up a bit and finally managed to reach their destination within an hour.
Actually, Wen Ran had already vaguely sensed where they were going, but she was still somewhat confused. It wasn’t until she got out of the car and saw the familiar place that she stared in surprise with widened eyes: “Xiao Zhi.”
Xiao Zhi was sweeping at the entrance. As soon as he heard her voice, he immediately threw down what he was holding and ran over, calling out happily as he ran: “Wen Ran, Wen Ran, Wen Ran, you came!”
Seeing this scene, Xie Yunli frowned slightly.
He really hadn’t known that Wen Ran and this boy had such a good relationship.
Xiao Zhi had been diagnosed with severe autism as a child and hadn’t been able to attend school properly. The only work he could do was being with small animals, and his good friends, besides those small animals, were just Wen Ran.
Watching the two of them communicate with animated gestures, Xie Yunli asked Aunt Zhu: “How did they meet?”
“Before, Xiao Zhi’s mother also took him for autism intervention therapy, and that’s when they met. But due to cost issues, Xiao Zhi couldn’t continue, and he couldn’t attend school properly either.”
Aunt Zhu sighed and said: “Actually, Wen Ran is considered to have relatively mild autism. Many children with severe cases can never live independently their whole lives. Xiao Zhi always causes trouble here, but the people here treat him quite well and have always taken good care of him. Mainly, the small animals are willing to get close to him, which is quite magical.”
Xie Yunli nodded and said nothing more.
But Aunt Zhu felt that his expression seemed different from before, as he kept staring in the direction of Wen Ran and Xiao Zhi.
Could it be that he didn’t like seeing Wen Ran too close to Xiao Zhi?
That shouldn’t be the case. Aunt Zhu felt she was overthinking it. After all, Xiao Zhi was like a child. Wen Ran could communicate so naturally with him entirely because they had spent some time together at school when they were young.
Xiao Zhi said: “Wen Ran, did you come to see Kaka? Kaka is almost well now; today it even came out to pee by itself! It’s very good, very very good!”
“I…” Wen Ran hesitated and glanced in Xie Yunli’s direction.
Xie Yunli noticed her expression and walked toward her. “No, we didn’t come to see Kaka.”
Wen Ran’s expression immediately became sad.
However, Xie Yunli’s next words left Wen Ran stunned in disbelief.
He said: “We came to take it home.”
Xiao Zhi looked at Xie Yunli, pointed at him and made two “ah ah” sounds: “You came yesterday, you’re Wen Ran’s, Wen Ran’s husband! You’re Wen Ran’s husband!”
After saying this, Xiao Zhi gestured animatedly to Wen Ran again: “Wen Ran, Wen Ran, your husband is so handsome, so much taller than me! Do you like him very much? Do you?”
His straightforward shouting left even Xie Yunli momentarily stunned.
Wen Ran’s face suddenly turned red. This was the first time she had heard someone say so directly… state the relationship between Xie Yunli and her.
Not just family members, they were also husband and wife!
As if suddenly realizing something was wrong, Wen Ran glanced at Xie Yunli’s feet and turned to run toward Aunt Zhu.
Xie Yunli turned to watch her run away. He didn’t follow but said, not sure if it was to Xiao Zhi: “You’re not wrong.”
Xiao Zhi: “Huh? Huh? Are you talking to Xiao Zhi?”
Xie Yunli didn’t look at him, but the corners of his mouth turned up: “… I am indeed her husband.”
“Oh my, this silly child Xiao Zhi.”
Aunt Zhu quickly came over to smooth things over: “Come on, Ranran, let’s go see Kaka.”
Wen Ran nodded: “Let’s go see, go see Kaka. Where is Kaka?”
Lin Yuan, the person in charge of the rescue station, already knew they were coming and directly took Wen Ran and the others to see Kaka.
Kaka seemed to have remembered Wen Ran’s scent. As soon as Wen Ran approached, it struggled to get up from its bed and pushed its little head into her hands.
“Kaka… Kaka…” Wen Ran murmured its name, and as she called it, her eyes turned red: “I missed you so much… Kaka, are you okay? Does it still hurt?”
Lin Yuan said: “Kaka can basically walk now. We examined it yesterday, and its injuries have mostly healed. You can try holding it.”
Before Wen Ran could make a move, Kaka seemed to want to get even closer to her, nuzzling its fluffy little head into Wen Ran’s embrace and making soft whimpering sounds in its throat, as if it really missed the warm feeling of her body.
Wen Ran had actually only come to see it once, but just from that one time, Kaka had remembered her scent and even wanted to be close to her.
This was actually quite rare, because Kaka’s injuries were from human abuse. Dogs that had been hurt by humans usually developed strong defensive instincts toward people.
But since Kaka was rescued, people discovered that not only did it not develop hostility toward humans, but it also obediently and gently accepted their care.
Watching Kaka curl its scarred body in her arms, Wen Ran couldn’t help but shed tears again. She felt so heartbroken.
The Kaka she had once owned, so well-behaved, so good to her, had left her in such a tragic way, and this little dog in front of her, also named Kaka, had also suffered such deep harm.
Such well-behaved, such cute little animals why would anyone have the heart to hurt them?
Wen Ran held Kaka and kept crying, unable to stop.
Through her teary eyes, she saw Xie Yunli walk over and gently wipe her tears with soft tissues.
He said: “Alright, don’t cry anymore. I’ve already made arrangements. We can take it home now.”
“Really… really possible?” Wen Ran could barely speak clearly, only able to ask while sobbing and stumbling over her words: “Really possible… possible to take Kaka home? I want to… I want to always always be with it, I want to take care of it, always… always take care of it, be with it, really… really possible?”
“Yes.”
Xie Yunli nodded and said to her: “Starting today, the two of us will be Kaka’s guardians. It will live with us, and no one will ever have a chance to hurt it again.”