After night fell on the pear garden, silence enveloped the place.
Lin Banxia took a cab back from the banquet. Now, she was sitting on the sofa, holding an album in her hands, flipping through it page by page.
On the old, yellowed photos, her grandparents' faces radiated kindness. From the year she turned one, almost every birthday, they would take a picture together at the pear garden's gate.
As she looked at herself growing older year by year in those photos, the contrast against the relentless toll time had taken on her grandparents was painfully apparent.
Lin Banxia's hands suddenly froze as she came across a photo of her mother.
She was standing between Lin Kunhuai and her mother. At that time, she wore a little red dress, like a cute and adorable princess.
Her heart, unexpectedly, ached. Tears began sliding down her face uncontrollably.
She couldn't explain the sadness, but it felt overwhelming. Life's twists and turns had been far too cruel.
