Chapter 290: Memories

As the passed a large double door, Xiao Yun darted her eyes and spot something. Wang Li Lei noticed how she had stopped her steps and turned his head toward her, "What is it?"

"There," Xiao Yun pointed her finger to the frame of the door and brought him toward the place. When she turned the knob to open the room, she saw how the place was similar to a living room or perhaps a drawing room. The place seemed to be where a family would spend their time together to share stories and not far from the couch was a  fireplace to use in the winter.

But what Xiao Yun pointed her finger to wasn't towards the room, instead she place her finger to the horizontal scratch on the frame of the door with a little writing carved to the wooden frame of 'Wang Li Lei, three years old'. It was a height record his parents did for fun to see how much Wang Li Lei had grown each year.

"Your parents did this?" She asked with her eyes crinkling in delight to learn more of Wang Li Lei's childhood that she didn't know of.

"Yes, my father and mother wanted to show how tall I grow every year in my birthday. It was almost a tradition to them." Xiao Yun hummed At his explanation, the corner of her lips couldn't help but stayed upward.

"How did your parents carved this?" She thought of using the sharp part of the key or perhaps using a carving tool properly when Wang Li Lei recalled something to laugh. "They used a fountain pen. I think the first time my mother decided to record my height to the wood frame, she was lost to what she should use. Then, she suddenly remembered how the day before my father who had collected a good amount of fountain pen from his business companies complained that he can't use them all. So my mother chose a fountain pen that she like and carved it."

"Your Mother sounds like a very out-going person." Xiao Yun had never seen a proper picture of his mother and imagined how fun it would be if she was still alive.

"She was," Wang Li Lei chuckled. "In comparison to my father, my mother was a very cheerful person. She would often encourage me to climb on trees and said of how she often did it as a child." When he was a little he wondered whether there would be any children of his age who would climb on trees until he met Xiao Yun.

Xiao Yun heard his story and felt how happy he was to share the stories of his childhood. Her fingers traced on the wooden frame, "Li Lei do you have a fountain pen? The one that doesn't work anymore." Wang Li Lei placed his hand on his trouser pocket to pull a black fountain pen he often brought with him and passed it to her hands for her to murmur a thank you.

Bringing him to the wooden frame, she leveled his head with the wooden frame and stood on her pointed toes. She tried her best to reach the top of his head only to fall back twice and thrice. Wang Li Lei reaches out his hand whenever her body starts to shakes down when she fall and whispered, "Come here." She did what he asked for and felt his hand wrapping on her waist to support her body.

Xiao Yun carved a straight line which shook a little when she walked back down. Wang Li Lei moved behind as she finished her carving and helped her wrote his own name and age. Seeing how they have continued the tradition, a giggle passed on her lips, "You've grown too tall." The last record made by his mother was before their death. At that time, Wang Li Lei was only at the height of her waist and now he almost reached to the top edge of the door.

"Is it bad?" He teased her back and she shook her head, "Have you ever heard that children would follow the height of their father? I'm short so it's good that they would follow you." A hearty laugh escaped on his lips. He bent down and kissed her lips.

Once they walked after another three halls and walked up to a staircase, Wang Li Lei brought her until they come to a stop into a double door room which was a lit wider than the room they had come across before. A crinkling Sound reached to her ears and turning her face she saw a few keys chained together on his palm. When did he bring the key? She didn't see him taking the key from Mr. Len who was the gardener of the house or his wife who was the housekeeper.

"I brought the key with me." He said after spotting her curious gaze.

"There are a lot of keys." Xiao Yun whispered. From what she could count, there had been sixteen keys on his hands and perhaps even more close to twenty.

"There is only a few room which is locked in the mansion and these keys are to all those locked room." He explained as he pushed the key to turn for a crisp sounding clock resounded. Turning the knob, he took her hand and lead her inside.

Her light steps brought her inside. Even though it was only a day after her legs gotten a stature, she didn't feel any pain even after the long walk. She shifted her gaze around, seeing the room which was not a normal bed room or a study room but a room with colored glass wall. As the place was dark, she couldn't get a clear look to what the room was used for but one thing she knew was that the room had a large balcony outside the glass wall.

Wang Li Lei reached out his hand to push the button for the light to enter the room again. When the light came Xiao Yun noticed the shelves of books surrounding the place and wondered, "What was this room used for?"