THE ADOPTED CHILD

R and B

Aunt Susan sat beside Camellia for a long time. After the emotion passed, she repeated to her several times about the three families that will come here tomorrow to adopt children. Aunt Susan assured her that they were all very good, well-off families, and especially because they had no children, they came to the orphanage to find one, not because they already had children and wanted to receive more. So the adopted child will definitely be loved, not abandoned. These families often want to find a baby to adopt because, according to them, raising a baby when he or she is not fully aware of the world around them is much better than adopting a growing up child.

“But an obedient and understanding girl like you will surely be loved,” Aunt Susan said. “Just think about it one time first. If you change your mind, tell me."

"Thank you!" Camellia looked at Aunt Susan. "I want to be here."

“Oh, this baby. You don't have to answer right away." Aunt Susan smiled gently and put her hands on the ground to stand up. “I just want every child here to live a better life.”

Aunt Susan left. Camellia still sat leaning against the tree, bewildered for a long time. Aunt Susan's sharing made her very touched. In the orphanages she lived in before, most of the aunts and uncles were very nice to her and the other children, but in her memory, there was no one as devoted as Aunt Susan. In addition to paying attention to the children's activities every day, Aunt Susan often tries to find a good family to send the children to. She went to each adoptive family to verify with her own eyes before completing all the documents and procedures. Camellia, for a moment of tears of emotion, cast off all doubts about Aunt Susan. She's definitely not the woman that Shasara incarnates.

At night, waiting until everyone was asleep, Camellia crept out of bed and opened the door to go out. She also did not forget to bring a small flashlight with her. She wanted to go to the tree hole to take a closer look. After all, the two inscriptions on the arch were R and E or F and B.

Camellia had intended to come see it the next morning, but in the afternoon, after talking with Susan, she suddenly became curious. She decided to go see it at night, not wait until the next day.

As soon as she got to the backyard of the orphanage, Camellia was startled when suddenly a series of lights flashed and went out at the same time. Eyes just getting used to the dark, Camellia saw a figure pass quickly. She froze and then strained her eyes to look closely, but saw no one. She dared creep a few more steps in the direction where she saw the shadow move. The flashlight in the hand doesn't turn on either. Still no one. Camellia shrugs, thinking maybe it's the light that flashes and then goes out, making her dizzy. She turned her back, still did not turn on the light, but leaned on the faint moonlight overhead to fumble her way.

All the paths leading to the forest were familiar to Camellia. She chooses the gravel road to go. She likes to go this way the most because on this curve, every step she takes is accompanied by a pleasant crunching of gravel. The night was cool, even a little chilly. Camellia pulled the two flaps of her windbreaker and continued walking.

Her left leg had just lifted, before she could put it down, she heard the crunch of gravel. She gently put her left paw down, her ears perked up, listening. She is careful step by step. The crunching sound was almost at the same time as she lowered her feet.

Going almost all the way to the gravel road, the crunching sound was still sounded behind her, sometimes clear, sometimes faint. The person in the back had no intention of going forward with her, but just quietly following behind. There were a few moments when she thought she heard wrong. Camellia wanted to try and see who it could be, but she knew that the person who had chosen to follow her quietly would not let her easily see.

"Ouch!" Camellia was walking when she tripped and fell to her knees. Her knees are on the gravel and both her hands are on the ground.

She slowly bent her legs, turned and sat down on the gravel, slowly pulling up the leg of her pants to look. Both knees were scratched to the point of bleeding. Her right ankle stiffened. She tries to touch one hand and pulls it away immediately. Perhaps the ankle was dislocated, so it was very painful. Camellia grimaced, gritting her teeth softly, moaning in pain.

"Camellia." Before she had time to glance to see who the person following her was, Aunt Susan's deep, panicky voice spoke. "Are you okay?"

Camellia looked at Aunt Susan. As soon as she knew that the person behind her was aunt Susan, she was also a bit surprised. But when she looked at Aunt Susan who was scrutinizing the wound on her limbs, she saw nothing strange anymore. Maybe Aunt Susan saw her leave the room in the middle of the night and go into the forest, which most children wouldn't dare to see once it was dark, so she followed her.

"I'm fine." Camellia said. “Why are you here?”

"I saw you walking in this direction, so I didn't feel secure, I had to follow you." Aunt Susan said while helping Camellia to her feet. “Look, you've fallen just now. My God! Are you in pain?"

Just as Camellia had predicted, Aunt Susan, seeing her walking towards the small forest in the middle of the night, was not secure about her, so she quietly followed. She was silent for a long time because of emotion. She's been so emotional these days! And every time she was touched by Aunt Susan's concern.

"I'm fine. Only minor scratches." Said Camellia.

She knew that Aunt Susan would definitely take her back to her room now to check her wounds and then ask her why she went into the forest in the middle of the night. The plan to scrutinize the inscriptions in the tree hollows didn't work out tonight.

Camellia suppressed a sigh in her lap, and slowly returned with Aunt Susan to the orphanage. As she walked, she tried to think of a reason to tell Aunt Susan later when she asked why. Just now, in order to know who was behind, she pretended to slip and fall. Unexpectedly, the gravel surface was so slippery that she fell harder than expected. Her leg really hurt, but she didn't want Aunt Susan to worry any more, so she only said that she had a slight scratch on her leg. When she returned, her ankle was still aching. She thought she would have to adjust it later.

That night, after talking, Camellia slept in Aunt Susan's room. The reason was because Aunt Susan was afraid that she would wake the other children up when she returned to her room.

The next morning, as usual, Camellia woke up very early. She has always had a habit of getting up early. But when she woke up, she realized that Susan was even up earlier. When she woke up, Aunt Susan was no longer in the room. Last night, waiting for Aunt Susan to sleep soundly, she sat up and adjusted her ankle joint so that in the morning her leg no longer hurt. She has done this by herself more than ten times already.

Camellia went back to her room, brushed her teeth, washed her face, and went down to the dining room. Aunt Susan was there busy preparing breakfast with the kitchen ladies. Aunt Susan quickly asked her a few questions and then resumed her work. Camellia quietly finished eating the breakfast that a kitchen lady gave her and then went out to start the Sunday chores that she was already familiar with.

At this moment, Camellia suddenly realized that it was Sunday. No wonder there are three families that come here to adopt a child. To adopt a child, they also have to choose a day off. Camellia laughed at her thought and then cautiously looked around to see if anyone noticed her. She hadn't forgotten that day on the train ride back to Orphanage Hope, because she was so busy thinking about things that she laughed, and then, she had to try and talk for a long time with Aunt Susan, even though she didn't like to talk and didn't feel comfortable at all.

Near noon, there were indeed three families who came to observe the children and choose one to adopt. They all seemed to be people with good conditions, good temperaments, as Aunt Susan found out. They brought the children a lot of gifts and were very kind to ask, so each child was eager, each child was very obedient, expecting the child they chose to be him or her. Of course, still only Camellia was not.

She took advantage of the time when no one was paying attention, sneaked out and ran straight into the forest. She wanted to look closely to see what the two letters carved into the arch of the tree hollow were. She herself could not understand why she was particularly interested in the letters carved in the hollow of this tree.

Going near the tree, Camellia suddenly stopped because she heard people laughing softly inside. She didn't know if she heard wrong or not, so she just stood silently and listened. In this small forest, normally, children do not dare to come, adults are still busy with their work, so no one has time to go to the forest for a walk. This hollow is not easy to find. There should be no one inside that.

A louder laugh came from the hollow of the tree, pulling Camellia out of her thoughts. This time, she insisted that she didn't mishear. Moreover, she could clearly hear the laughter of two people, not just one.

Camellia was a little upset. As she turned out, this hollow was not her own territory, but belonged to at least two other people. Are these two people the ones who carved the words on the arch of the hollow? She stood dumbfounded thinking, until she heard an "ah" from one of the other two, startled and confused.

"Little girl, hello!" The person in the brown windbreaker spoke first.

Camellia stared at him, not saying a word. She raised her eyes, glancing quickly at him from head to toe. His brown hair was flowing, his eyes were deep light brown, his face was very handsome, very manly, his figure was tall and slender. Exactly the kind of man that girls usually like these days.

"Hi, little girl!" The man in the blue shirt came out from behind the man in the brown shirt and knelt down on one knee in front of Camellia and reached out a hand, tended to stroke her hair or hold her hand or something.

Camellia, startled, jumped slightly, taking a step back. The man in the blue shirt's hand was hovering in the air. The man in the brown shirt saw that and laughed. Camellia looked up at him again. He smiled, looking very attractive. She stared blankly for a few seconds, her eyes not blinking.

"Don't be afraid, little girl, don't be afraid." The person wearing the blue shirt probably coaxed her because he thought Camellia was scared.

Camellia withdrew her gaze from the man in the brown shirt and turned to the man in the blue shirt. He has light blonde hair, blue eyes, every feature on his face is also very beautiful, but he looks softer and gentler than the person in the brown shirt.

“Are you this bad at communicating with a little girl?” The man in the brown shirt sat down next to the man in the blue shirt, put an arm around his shoulder, reached up and ruffled his hair, then turned to Camellia. “I'm Richard, this guy's Brian. What's your name?"

Richard and Brian.

Oh, so the two letters carved on the arch of the tree hollow are R and B.

Oh, then, these two men are a couple.

From the very beginning, when she clearly heard the laughter of two people in the hollow of a tree, Camellia thought of the case of a couple hiding in their secret room to go on a date but did not think of two men. When she saw the two of them clearly, Camellia was too absorbed in their beauty to notice.

Why do handsome people like this keep choosing each other but not a girl? She thought about it and then laughed softly at the thought. By the time she realized that these two men were looking at her, she couldn't hold back her smile.

“You look so pretty when you smile like that.” Brian spoke gently to Camellia.

"Camellia." She looked at Brian and then looked back at Richard, then said no beginning and no ending.

"What a beautiful name! You live at Orphanage Hope?" Richard understood what Camellia wanted to say and that made her feel happy. She nodded.

“I thought this hollow was our own domain,” Brian smiled and said. “I've never thought that someone else would find it out. But you did it, little girl. Looks like we're destined for each other!"

Camellia looked down at the carpet of leaves at her feet, hesitated for a moment, and then sat down too. She talked to Richard and Brian. Turns out, the two of them used to live at this orphanage. Now, they are adults, they are so busy, so they only sometimes come back to visit the orphanage. Today, when they arrived, everyone was busy welcoming families to come to adopt children, so they went to the forest to play and visit the old space.

Brian tells a very funny story. Camellia really loved to listen. Richard sat next to him, talking less, mostly listening to Brian tell, sometimes adding a sentence or two. Camellia enjoyed the harmonious, gentle atmosphere between them.

At lunchtime, Camellia accompanied Richard and Brian back to the orphanage. She didn't need to crawl into the tree hollow now to see what the two letters carved on the arch were. She already knows.