Borrowing Light(9)

The wind chime by the door swayed gently, emitting a soft tinkling sound.

Shen Riqui today wore a light blue denim skirt with a loose beige shirt on the outside, carried a canvas bag, and stepped into the bookstore with light steps.

The air was the odor of old paper, mixed with the fragrance of damp wood after the rain.

All around were high and low bookshelves, like a labyrinth.

She was lost in thought as she looked around when she looked up and saw a familiar figure.

Wearing a navy apron, Lin Yu was organizing a stack of old magazines in the corner, and when he heard the wind chime ring at the door, he turned his head to look at her, a little smile in his eyes.

"Such a coincidence?"Shen Riqiu walked over.

"Well, I sometimes help the boss here organize old books."Lin Yu smiled and patted the dust on her hands, "Do you need help finding any books?"

Shen Riqui cocked her head and said seriously, "I want to find some old picture books about drawing, preferably ones with a bit of a sense of story."

Lin Yu nodded and led her through the rows of bookshelves to a corner by the window.

There were all kinds of old picture books piled up there, some with yellowed spines and some with tiny dust on the covers.

Shen Riqui squatted down and looked through them one by one.

Lin Yu also squatted next to her, casually picked up a book and flipped through it, smilingly handed it to her, "This is a collection of illustrations from the seventies, a lot of hand-drawn scenes of small towns."

Shen Riqiu took it and gently turned the pages, it was really gentle and delicate watercolor paintings, one by one, like the light and shadow of memory.

The two people just leaned in the middle of a row of old books, occasionally exchanging words and sharing each other's findings.

Shen Riqui found an old sketchbook with a leather wrapped cover and badly worn edges.

She casually flipped it open, and inside was actually a dense collection of sketches and accompanying notes that read, "Save it for someone you're going to love in the future."

She was stunned for a moment, her fingers brushing over the yellowed pages.

"Lin遇," she called out softly to him, handing him the sketchbook to look at, "Do you think ... that in every old book, a person's secret is hidden?"

Lin Yu carefully flipped through the sketchbook and smiled after a while, "I think, yes.Every old book is a quietly hidden affair of the heart."

Shen Riqiu closed the sketchbook and embraced it as if she was holding an unseen tenderness.

She looked up out the window, and at the end of the alley, a cat stepped on the wet stone path and quietly walked by.

The sunlight leaked down from the broken window pane, spreading dappled light and shadows around her and Lin Yu.

At this moment, time seemed to become extraordinarily slow.

It was as if it wanted to quietly seal the tiny, soft fluttering between them into a certain page of a book.

In the end, Shen Riquelike carried a few picked picture books to the checkout, and Lin Yu helped her carry some of them.

After leaving the Pick Up Light Bookstore, the rain started to fall again.

Lin Yu held up an umbrella and turned his body sideways to protect her, giving her half of the umbrella to cover her, and exposing half of his own shoulder to the rain.

Shen Riqui looked at the tips of his hair dripping with water droplets and gently gripped the old sketchbook in her arms.

She thought, some people, just unknowingly, an ordinary rainy day, into a lifetime hidden in the heart of the tenderness.

The sky was slightly bright, and the air of the town smelled of grass that had been washed by the rain.

Shen Riqui wore a creamy white cotton shirt and light gray skirt, with a canvas bag on her shoulder, and slowly walked along the stone road to the grocery store at the end of the alley.

A small brass bell hung on the door of the grocery store, and when the door was pushed, there was a "tinkling" sound, which was fine and crunchy.

The old glass on the door reflected the shadow of Shen Ri Sunflower, a circle of soft halo.

The store was small, with wooden shelves filled with all sorts of groceries: handmade jams, ceramic mugs, dried flower bouquets, and some fresh vegetables from small local farms, neatly stacked in wooden crates.

The aroma of hay, bread and old wood mingles in the air, like some kind of hidden and gentle nostalgia.

The girl who was busy organizing behind the counter looked up and her eyes lit up for a moment.

It was Zoe.

Mrs. Margaret's daughter, a girl with soft brown hair and a smile as warm as spring.

"Sunflower!"

She called out cheerfully, her voice as light as a tinkling stream.

Shen Sunflower was slightly startled, then smiled and approached the counter.

"It's you, Zoe."

She responded softly, her tone carrying a bit of surprise and intimacy.