In the dark, Scarlett flushed.
The hum of insects could be heard from all sides. Scarlett was just about to ask Raymond why he had brought her to this spot when he suddenly put his hand over her eyes and, drawing her along with his other hand, said, "Come with me."
Then he added in a low voice with a chuckle, "I'm not going to sell you, babe."
Color suffused Scarlett’s face at the sound of the word "babe". She felt lucky that despite the bright moon, Raymond couldn't see her face clearly due to the darkness of night.
"Okay."
She made a response and obediently let him draw her forward.
After progressing for another two minutes or so, Scarlett felt that they had walked into a wood. Raymond who had been leading her along halted and removed his hand from her eyes.
Having been blindfolded for a while, Scarlett needed some time to let her eyes adjust, but even so, she still saw the spots of light in mid-air.
Soon Scarlett's vision returned to normal. Looking at the swarm of lightning bugs in front of her, she felt incredulous. "Fireflies."
"Yeah."
Raymond had discovered this place by chance, but that had been almost a decade ago. In fact, he had been uncertain as to whether or not this meadow teeming with fireflies still existed, which was why he didn't tell Scarlett where he was taking her on their way to this place.
He had feared that Scarlett might be disappointed if the fireflies had gone.
This was Scarlett’s second time seeing so many lightning bugs. The first time had been when she was seven years old. Her father had taken her to a woodland near the factory he worked, where she saw a similar scene.
But afterward her father had left the countryside factory to seek his fortune in the city, and Scarlett had never seen anything like that since then.
After her parents passed away, she had once gone back there to look for the fireflies only to find that the factory had been demolished, and tall buildings had been built in the vicinity. The place where her father had taken her to see fireflies had been turned into cement roads. Not even a patch of weeds could be seen there, let alone fireflies.
She hadn’t seen any fireflies since she'd reached adulthood, but now Raymond had brought her to a place like this.
Touched, Scarlett stood there wordlessly for quite a while.
It had been so many years, but she still missed her parents somewhat.
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