HNYWEF -Chapter 176 Old Friends, Still the Same

Zhenguan Year Five, Fourth Month, Thirteenth Day.

Xiangzhou.

The road grew narrower and narrower.

From an official road to a dirt path, from a dirt path into an alleyway.

The walls on both sides of the alley were old—mud-brick walls, worn into grooves by wind and rain. Grass grew along the tops, dead and fresh strands tangled together.

Zhou Xiong walked slowly, every step firm and steady.

Zhou Yi followed behind him without speaking. Li Lizhi followed as well, also silent.

Zhou Xiong stopped in front of a door.

It was a wooden door, weathered with age. The paint had long peeled away, exposing the wood grain beneath. Several cracks had been patched with iron sheets. The frame leaned slightly crooked, but the door itself was tightly shut.

The threshold had been worn smooth and glossy, sunken in the middle from countless footsteps over countless years. The courtyard wall was old too, a few tiles broken along the top, but it was obvious someone still lived here.

Zhou Xiong stood there, looking at the door.

He raised his hand to knock.

Just as his fingers were about to touch the wood, the door opened.

A man stepped out from inside.

He wore an ordinary gray cloth robe with the sleeves rolled up. His hands were still wet, as though he had just been washing something.

He looked up, saw the people standing outside the door, and froze for a moment.

He looked at Zhou Xiong.

Zhou Xiong looked back at him.

The man’s gaze slowly swept across Zhou Xiong’s face, once, then again.

Then the corners of his mouth moved.

Not the shock of a sudden reunion, but a smile that slowly welled up from deep inside.

Looking at Zhou Xiong, he gradually revealed the smile of someone seeing an old acquaintance after many years.

He spoke first.

“You are…?”

Zhou Xiong looked at him for two breaths.

He had only met this face a few times before. Back then, the boy in front of him had only been in his teens—thin, tall, always standing behind her, awkwardly calling him “brother-in-law” before hiding away the moment he finished.

Now the man standing before him was half a head shorter than Zhou Xiong. His shoulders had broadened, blue stubble shadowed his jaw, and fine lines had formed at the corners of his eyes.

But between his brows and eyes, there was her shadow.

He resembled her.

Not in appearance, but in the way he slightly narrowed his eyes while looking at people.

Exactly the same as her.

Zhou Xiong nodded.

“That’s right. It’s me.”

“Brother-in-law?” he called again.

This time, he wasn’t saying it for anyone else to hear.

He was saying it to the person standing right in front of him.

His voice was lower than before, but heavier.

Zhou Xiong looked at him, his throat moving slightly.

He wanted to say something.

To say, “You’ve grown up.”

To say, “It’s been so many years.”

To say, “I came too late.”

But none of it came out.

He simply stood there, looking at the man calling him “brother-in-law.”

The man’s smile suddenly opened fully.

Not a polite smile, but a real one, rising straight from the heart. His eyes curved as he smiled.

He said nothing more.

One stood inside the threshold, one outside it.

Fifteen years lay between them.

Wind swept through the alley, stirring both their robes.

The man suddenly stepped back and moved aside, opening the doorway.

“Quick, come in!”

Then he turned and strode inside, shouting as he walked, his voice bright and hurried, as if afraid no one would hear him.

“Father! Mother! Brother-in-law is here!”

Zhou Xiong lifted his foot and stepped over the threshold.

When his foot landed, it came down solidly on the blue bricks of the courtyard.

The courtyard was small, paved with blue brick and swept clean. A cluster of roses grew by the wall corner, much the same as in his memory, only older now. The pomegranate tree in the corner had grown much taller.

The man closed the door behind them and turned back to face Zhou Xiong.

He looked at Zhou Xiong, then at Zhou Yi and Li Lizhi standing near the entrance. His gaze lingered on their faces for a moment.

Then he looked back at Zhou Xiong.

The smile on his face faded slightly, turning into something deeper, harder to describe.

“Brother-in-law… how many years has this journey of yours lasted?”

Zhou Xiong looked at him without answering.

The man did not wait for an answer either.

He turned and walked further inside. After two steps, he suddenly stopped and looked back.

The smile returned to his face, even deeper than before.

“Brother-in-law, come inside first.”

He tilted his chin toward the main room before continuing ahead.

After a few more steps, he looked back again, as though afraid they might disappear.

Zhou Xiong remained where he was, watching that figure walk farther away, watching him stop at the entrance to the main room, lift the curtain, then turn back and wave at him.

Zhou Yi and Li Lizhi followed behind in silence.

The roses in the courtyard swayed gently in the wind. A few petals drifted down onto the blue bricks—

a touch of red, a touch of pink.