A little boy gives a female kid a hug outside a cake shop in Wanxincun in Hedong District, Tianjin, in Aug. 1999. The grown-up girl now wants to know his identity. (Photo : Sina Weibo)
It was Aug. 1999.
Somewhere in the corner of the bustling city of Tianjin, a female kid received an unexpected hug from a male stranger: another kid only a few centimeters taller than her.
The fact that it was her second birthday made the incident seemed extra special.
Now fast forward to Feb. 2017.
Only two pictures are what remain of the sweet memory, stored on the phone of the little girl’s mother.
Seeing the pictures for the first time on Feb. 3, the girl--in her late teens by now--asked help from netizens via Weibo for the boy’s identity, reported China Daily.
Known only by her username “Xiaoxiannvhehehehehe,” she posted the said pictures in Weibo, a site similar to Twitter.
Part of her Weibo post reads: “Looking for the boy in gray clothes in Tianjin.”
One picture shows them closely looking at each other, separated by the glass door of a cake shop somewhere in Wanxincun in Tianjin’s Hedong District.
The other picture shows the mystery boy, wearing a white T-shirt with gray sleeves tucked in his gray shorts, hugging her.
His mother, face not captured in the picture, was standing beside them.
“Xiaoxiannvhehehehehe” asked her mother what happened at that moment. Her mother said that the two of them initially stared at each other through the shop’s glass door.
As soon as he exited the cake shop when his mom opened the door, the boy simply gave her a hug.
“Xiaoxiannvhehehehehe” apparently hopes his identity will be revealed to her.
More than the wonders of the Internet and the help of anonymous concerned netizens, she seems to need to have a stroke of luck.
Without any other available pieces of information--not even a name--the mystery boy could be likened to a needle in a haystack.
A different case, though, happened for some natives of Hebei Province who experienced a reunion of sorts during the Spring Festival, according to China Daily.
Friends meet each other on their hometown and catch up on their memories as former classmates.
They even make new memories as they pose for a picture on the same spot where they had one taken more than ten years ago.
It would be amazing for “Xiaoxiannvhehehehehe” and the boy to meet again, even more spectacular if they get to relive the moment they met in that cake shop nearly two decades ago.
Their mothers must be present to take pictures.
