Yore Descry (昔日的描述)

Prologue

The setting sun, the twilight sky, a beautiful and pleasing sight most people. But for Xiao Haoyu, it's a different case, because it kept reminding him of that one event. One particular dusk, when Haoyu was 19 years old, he stepped into a room at the hospital. Laid bedridden was his grandfather, 79 years old, who greeted him with a smile when their eyes met.

"How were your classes today, Haoyu?" the senior man asked with his weak voice as Haoyu pulled a chair to sit down near to the bed.

"Nothing special," Haoyu shrugged.

"What about your parents? How are they?"

"They're fine, grandpa." Haoyu answered with a heavy heart, but kept a smile on his face. His grandfather was at the age of weakness, he had become bedridden from a stroke and has dementia for the last year. His grandfather had forgotten, that Haoyu's parents have disappeared and passed long ago, leaving their only son to be raised by his grandparents. Every day Haoyu visits his grandfather, he was fearful, that one day his grandfather would not recognize him, asking the question 'who are you?' that Haoyu feared the most.

"Oh, yes. I almost forgot," his grandfather broke his daze, Haoyu discerned; his grandfather had slowly lifted his hand to his grandson. Haoyu opened his palm and a necklace dropped onto his hand; Haoyu's eyes widened when he laid eyes on it.

"This is..." he touched the silver archaic key, that was tied with a black string.

"You're the only one I trust with my antique shop, Haoyu, I want you to have it and take care of it for me." Haoyu's mouth gaped slightly from his grandfather's words, just that moment, the noise of the heart rate monitor filled the room. The alarm got louder, faster, and its pitch changed, then came the long continuous beep. It all happened so fast in front of his eyes for Haoyu to grasp, just before he fully processed it, he was escorted out of the room as nurses and doctors rushed into the room where his grandfather laid. It was noisy with many people talking, but at that moment, Haoyu was deaf to noises other than the long continuous beep. It stopped, it turned dead silent when the machine was turned off, there was no need for it anymore, Haoyu's grandfather was dead.

His grandfather's funeral was organized, attended by guests containing family friends and distant relatives. Dressed in a black suit, was Haoyu standing by the coffin, the only one standing there to greet the guests.

Haoyu placed a bouquet of flowers in front of his grandfather's tomb stone, then got back in his car to start driving. There were folded cardboard boxes at the trunk and backseat of his vehicle, he stopped and parked his car just outside an antique shop, Yore Antiques. He brought all of his boxes to the second floor of the shophouse, where he had lived in the house area of the two-story building. The whole day he spent reorganizing the second floor, cleaning and putting stuff away, including replacing his grandfather's things with his own. Haoyu organized them neatly in cardboard boxes and carried them all downstairs to the storage room, he was finished, but he stopped when he was about to shut and lock the storage room. The features on his face shifted, his teeth clenched behind his trembling lips, he fell onto his knees with his head down and forward. The silver key dangling around his neck by its black string made a high-pitched ting when it touched the floor, while Haoyu finally opened his mouth and wailed, on the floor with tears rushing from his eyes.

"I was the only one he had left, and he was the only one I have left. Now that he's gone, I'm left with nobody, alone."

***