Excerpts from the text |
The second time I saw Fang Shaoyi, it was on the irori oven table at my uncle's house. She wore a burgundy sweatshirt with a ball head, and her cheeks were red with the heat of the hot pot, as if she shared a face with her mother next to her. She toasted the elders at the whole table, wished them a prosperous new year, attracted the elders to be happy, and praised her for being more sensible in college.
Birds
□ Zhao Jinyan
One
Fang Shaoyi came to me, with eyebrow bangs and freedom, through the white sunshine by the light rail window, gently called me a sister, oh sister This seems to fly, like opening on the treetops and clouds. I stood and looked out the window, and then turned my head to look at her red cheeks and rabbit teeth, as if I had looked at the limited distance twice.
I asked her, why did she suddenly want to come? She wrinkled her nose and bent her eyes after a few seconds, and smiled and said that she just wanted to come and see, there was no special reason.
Did you tell your mom that? She shook her head and told me that I had earned the money to come here. I nodded in approval and gently held her backpack with my left hand to prevent her from falling backwards in the rickety carriage.
Fang Shaoyi called me a sister, but I was just vain. We were much older, and she couldn't tell if the yellow creamy was the yolk that grew out of the ground when I was already in puberty, and I had very little contact with her mother and my aunt, but she just crisply shouted when we met, so she was also taught by her mother to call me crisply. The most time I met her was around the summer vacation of a certain year in college, when she was still a primary school student and came to my house with her cousin Chang Jun to make up lessons. Chang Jun followed the appearance of his mother's side, his eyes were big and his teeth were thin, as thin as a white sugar cane in the ground, and his mouth and stomach were all arranged and combined with words, and he spoke for one hour and fifty-nine minutes in two hours. Teach him to read English, he should read it as a assembled Chinese; for the sake of the tooth, the sound of the [v] that requires the upper teeth to touch his lower lip can never be pronounced. I was only oppressed by my mother to do things, and I got up every morning, such a person made me look like I had not been saved, why should I repeat the mistakes of his teachers in school, so that I would lose my life in vain. But Fang Shaoyi is different, she always sits quietly on the sofa with a language reference book, and occasionally has a problem before timidly asking me a few words, I finished asking her if she understood, she always understood. But I also know that she is not completely ignorant. For a while, when I had not yet gone downstairs to give a lecture, she and Chang Jun would play a card with no name, probably based on the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", and they only played like a thousand mountains and rivers upstairs and downstairs, Chang Jun shouted, and Fang Shaoyi let out a breathless laugh. When I frowned and went downstairs, Fang Shaoyi converged quickly, obediently sat back in his position to read, only the corners of his eyes and eyebrows still had some smiles, but Chang Jun still came to introduce cards to me with great interest, calling me a sentence of "Has I written my homework" or "Did I memorize the text" blocked, and then opened the English book to read those words that he never knew what it meant, made a sound that he could never make, and then read a few words to coax him when his uncle came to pick him up, anyway, his father was a person who only knew how to pick up stones, as long as I didn't tear it down, where was he not like it.
Fang Shaoyi sometimes went back with Chang Jun and his uncle, and sometimes he went back on his own, riding an old yellow-green bicycle. I've seen this bike, it was ridden by Grandma, who always put a full bundle in the back seat when she came to deliver sweet potato vines, tied with a long dried banana bark. Fang Shaoyi rode this bicycle and went to Grandma's house or her aunt's house for lunch at noon at thirty-six or seven degrees. These are her three points, starting from my house, the route just painted as a "river", occasionally when eating at my house, the four points are connected and mo becomes a diamond shape. Chang Jun said to me at the dinner table, Auntie, you see Shaoyi, this fat pig, eating so much. At that time, Fang Shaoyi had just eaten a small half bowl of rice with oyster sauce lettuce in front of him, and I did not have the anger to give them two bowls of shrimp and said, eat more. Chang Jun used his fangs to nibble on the shrimp skin while chanting, originally, in my house, I have been eating all day... Fang Shaoyi slammed a punch in his back, and Chang Jun's chest cavity touched an empty sound, coming out of his spine and bone, hurting like a squirrel. Fang Shaoyi gave him a blank stare, smiled, and told you to talk nonsense, and then she slowly ate the shrimp. When she finished eating, Fang Shaoyi didn't eat many dishes, and I gave her a bowl of soup. The soup had just come out of the saucepan, steaming hot, and she blew it, tentatively taking a sip, making a small "beep" sound, and sweat flowed down her sideburns to her neck, looking a little hot. After Chang Jun finished eating, I asked him if he wanted to drink a bowl of soup, and he refused and consciously washed the bowl. I took out some of the master's etiquette and let him go, and he said scolded, and I wouldn't dissuade him. Fang Shaoyi drank the soup faster, because it was too hot, every small sip of it would gently "ah" a sound, Chang Jun came out after washing the dishes and laughed at her like a duck that was about to be boiled, she took time out and gave him a blank eye. Then Chang Jun was about to urge her to hurry, and she "grunted" and drank the dishes in one breath. They said goodbye to me, I put down my rice bowl and got up to send them, Fang Shaoyi carried her pink plastic bag containing books and walked out of the door next to Chang Jun, walked uphill, the sun made people itch, Chang Jun picked up the books under her armpits and put them on her head, Fang Shaoyi also held them, pink bags, with "Love Clothes House" printed on it - I heard that it was the new clothes that Xiao Yi bought for her when she returned from the city, and used this bag. I closed the door, and my eyes were blackened by the sunlight, vaguely remembering the appearance of Fang Shaoyi's father, who was as white as her father. I don't remember much about the rest, except for the last word that always laughed and called out my name when I met, and I can't even remember whether I ever called out to his little uncle. I wasn't there when he married my divorced aunt with a son older than me.
Two
Sister, what are we going to eat? Fang Shaoyi pulled my hand. I thought about it and asked, what do you want to eat? Fang Shaoyi asked, what is delicious? I took out my phone and searched for a few stops, but to no avail.
That, that, let's eat that okay? Fang Shaoyi pointed to the billboard outside the window, which was the Crayfish Fort. I asked, just want to eat this? She nodded and said that when she was at school, she had no time to eat and was on vacation. Well, then eat this, I said. She smiled contentedly and asked, How long until I get home? I said, the next stop. As soon as she heard this, she stood up straight from the side of the reclining seat, flipped her backpack twice, pulled the shoulder straps again, and straightened the folds of her coat. Fang Shaoyi was about the same height as me, but much thinner. The bulging black backpack looked more than twice as thick as her body from the side. I offered to help her carry her bag, and she didn't even say no, just looked heavy. Between the push and refuse, the subway arrived at the station, and I had to pull her out first, saying, when we come home for the New Year, buy a suitcase. She nodded again.
Back at the residence, I opened the door, took out the wool slippers prepared for Fang Shaoyi from the shoe cabinet in the entrance, and placed them in front of her. She bent down to take off her shoes, but the backpack used her back as a slide, which had the posture of making her perform a five-body salute. I took off half of my shoes, and when I saw the situation, I hurriedly grabbed her backpack, and she quickly used her hand to prop up on the ground and bounced up, the backpack fell backwards, she took half a step backwards, "booed" the door panel, and when she looked up, her whole face turned red. I was stunned for a moment and said that the young man was doing well, put the shoes under his feet into the shoe cabinet, and changed the wool. She took a breath and touched her forehead, with a sense of the rest of her life. I couldn't help but laugh out loud, took off her backpack and put it on the shoe cabinet, went to the restaurant to get a cup of water to drink, and took out another cup that was not commonly used to make a cup of tea for Fang Shaoyi. She had held hot tea and sat down on the couch in a dignified manner, much more Sven than she had drunk soup a few years earlier. It was very windy outside and I offered to order a takeaway for dinner. She said yes, and I handed her my phone and asked her to add everything she wanted to eat to her shopping cart. After a while, she returned the phone to me, and there was only a crayfish burger and a cup of Nakaco in the shopping cart. I didn't speak, and I ordered some more snacks.
She pulled out her phone and looked at the time and put it on the table, as if I were still carrying half a teacher's Yu Wei. I thought about what I was going to say to her so I wasn't embarrassed, and my phone just rang.
Hey, Mom, well, got it... I know...... You wait, I handed the phone to Fang Shaoyi and said, your aunt. Fang Shaoyi answered, shouted, laughed very meekly, said either "um" or "good", and so on for a long time, my mother finally hung up the phone. I turned on the TV and handed the remote control to Fang Shaoyi. She changed stations several times and stopped at a family drama. I was not interested in the pictures of a family making a fuss, and I opened the tablet to search for information about some exhibitions, trying to get inspiration about the project plan. In the background sound, Fang Shaoyi asked, Sister, you are like this... No, I'm like this, isn't it too much trouble? I was absent-minded, staring at the flat screen and casually saying, what is not troublesome. She added, even though, you're busy too. I ticked a bullet point in the profile and said, well, it's pretty busy. She lost her voice for a moment, and I reacted and said, I mean busy at work, cherish your days at school. She nodded, I thought about it, and added, usually I live alone, well... It's still quite boring, don't care too much, huh. But she was very solemn, said thank you, but made me a little confused.
When I faced Chang Jun and Fang Shaoyi a few years ago, it was the same as now, it was also the fish on my mother's knife board. I looked at her, didn't say anything rude, looked down and continued to deal with my work, and asked her, what has my aunt been doing lately? She didn't speak. I realized, propped my elbows on the back of the couch and asked, what about your brother? Don't you ask you to play with him during the winter vacation? She looked up, rubbed her hands on her knees, and said, "He's busy and not available." I took a sip of water and said, then it's good that you come here to see. Fang Shaoyi rubbed her eyes and reluctantly smiled, the light and shadow of the TV cast on her face, and her eyes flashed especially strongly.
I stood up and turned on the light at the entrance, it was getting dark fast in winter, but at five o'clock, I couldn't see the other person's face clearly without turning on the light. The takeaway arrived five seconds after the lights came on, just enough for me to spin my whirlwind body toward the door again. I carried the takeaway to the table, took the still warm food out of the bag and laid it out, and beckoned Fang Shaoyi to come and eat. She came over and sat down, waiting for me to assign her crayfish fort. I handed it to her, and she took a bite and said, "It's delicious, and took a tissue to wipe off the sauce that was sticking to her mouth." I pushed the snack in front of her and asked her to eat a little more, and she just nodded, but didn't move a bit. I picked up a stick of fries dipped in ketchup and handed it to her, and she hesitantly reached over and said, I've lost weight lately and can't eat too much. Only then did she take the chicken wings and bite them open, and the juice of the chicken burned her lips and tongue, and sucked a large mouthful of Coke.
After eating the takeaway, we brushed our phones on the couch together. Fang Shaoyi laughed while typing, obviously chatting about something funny. Her hair was already scattered, the color of her clothes was wide open and closed, there was no full makeup, and only two eyebrows were drawn that did not fit her very well. Fang Shaoyi, whose face was half obscured by the mobile phone, could still flash the shadow of my aunt and uncle, and I surged with an emotion that I didn't know what it was, fluttering and falling on the smell of food left in the air. The aroma of the crayfish burger attached to the bag lingers through the garbage bag in the warm baking room, spicy and slightly fishy, unlike the strong green pepper flavor of the Orleans Chicken Leg Fort. And when did I become adept at discerning the smell of Chicken Leg Fort Orleans? I'm not afraid to eat green peppers.
Three
A year before Fang Shaoyi came to my house to make up for classes, her father was already reluctantly supportive. At first, during chemotherapy, I was able to stay in the hospital for a few days and then go home to recuperate, but then my condition worsened and I couldn't come back. When Fang Shaoyi was still in kindergarten, she heard about what kind of work she worked here and there in the city, and people did not come back, only from time to time there were rumors of her coming back. And her half-brother, who is "wandering" outside, never comes home. At the age of eighteen, she had spent most of her life wandering wild birds. At night, she played with her classmates outside for a while, sweating a lot, and when she was still unhappy, the mothers of her classmates came to scold and scold, rushing to let their children go home and take another bath, urging them to go to bed early. She always stayed until the last classmate waved to her before going home, most often going to Grandma's house. When it was still cold, when nine o'clock arrived, even the dogs in Huangtang were no longer outside. Walking on the road, an aunt who worked the night shift from the factory saw her and shouted, Shaoyi, don't go back, there are big rats at night! She giggled and said, I'm not afraid.
The summer that gave her tuition, her father returned from the hospital. Her mother followed suit to take care of her soon-to-be-dead husband, and her brother rushed back, and the family of four was in a neat line as never before. Fang Shaoyi returned home. Out of courtesy, my mother asked me to visit with her and brought the last Oforian Chicken Leg Fort to Fang Shaoyi. When I arrived at Fang Shaoyi's house, my aunt and Fang Shaoyi sat in the courtyard with a small tea table next to them. When they saw us coming, they smiled and looked not depressed. My aunt's "son," who was not far from her age, was crouching in front of the door smoking a cigarette with a pair of green flip-flops and nodding at us. The aunt made tea, and a low voice came from the room. My mother stuffed the Orleans chicken leg fort to Fang Shaoyi and said, I just went to the city today to buy hamburgers, originally one for your brother and sister, and your sister said that she would give it to you. The aunt asked Fang Shaoyi to thank me, she just shyly took it, took it apart and ate it.
Who's in it?
His distant cousin.
What do you think? Can I still eat it?
You can also eat some rice.
……
I saw Fang Shaoyi sitting on the stone slab in front of the door, wearing a yellow blouse and orange shorts, intently nibbling on the hamburger, as if completely unaware of what was going on around her. She hadn't heard my mother and her mother discussing whether her father was going to die and what she was going to leave behind after he died, and she probably didn't know that her father was only coming back briefly.
After a while my mother and I went in. Fang Shaoyi's father lay on the bed, with a blanket under him. He still shouted my tail, and I smiled at him. The last time I saw him, he could still ride a motorcycle, and he was still like Fang Shaoyi's father. Now he was lying there on his knees, skinny to the bone, wearing a black tank top and blue shorts, and spinning slowly overhead with the lowest ceiling fan, almost drowning out the sound of his panting. He stroked his head and barely sucked two sips of water with a straw, and his eye sockets were deeply sunken, already like Fang Shaoyi's grandfather. His mother comforted him, don't think too much, eat more if you can, and he should close his eyes. We walked out tacitly, and my aunt was still making tea for my uncle's distant cousin.
Will such a hot blanket grow prickly? My mother asked. The aunt waved her hand and said, there is no way, do not pad him to get a headache, can only help him turn over.
Alas, you can't sleep much this night, can you?
It was OK, but I and Shao Yong took turns to look at it, and one person couldn't do it.
My mother and my little uncle's distant cousin both expressed their appeasement to my aunt, old husband and young wife, there is always such a stubble. Subsequently, they turned their conversations to Me and Fang Shaoyi, and the focus of the conversation had become how to raise children. When the distant cousin left, the aunt looked at Fang Shaoyong behind her and whispered to her mother, Do you think he is dying? The strength is still very large. Everything was called out to me, and he knew how to hurt his son the most. Then she touched Fang Shaoyi's hair again and said, "Only I am the one who makes plans for her."
Not long after, there were more people visiting the sick, and the aunt made pot after pot of tea, and there were cigarette butts on the ground. After a few short words from the parents, my mother and I bid farewell to my aunt, who asked Fang Shaoyi to say goodbye to us, and Fang Shaoyi bent her beautiful eyes and waved.
After about half a month, Fang Shaoyi's father died, and she continued to flow between Grandma, Uncle, and Aunt. Fang Shaoyi's brother was very kind to her, and her mother was also very good to her, just not taking her. This is the freedom and laissez-faire that many children envy, but we don't know that excessive freedom is another way of saying that there is life and no one to raise for Fang Shaoyi at that time. This was something That Fang Shaoyi had accidentally heard from her grandmothers who were chatting while picking pickles. After one of them finished speaking, he lovingly stuffed a mouthful of pickle leaves into her, who was blowing bubbles on the side, and said, "It's a pity that it's so watery." She accepted this praise in a wooden way, and the salt grains on the vegetable leaves were so salty that she could not speak, and the saltiness made all her internal organs dehydrated.
Four
Fang Shaoyi brought her own toiletries, and I didn't use them. Since there was only one room, I made a bunk, and when Fang Shaoyi came in in wearing a small floral pajama, I had just laid out the futon. She was startled and asked me to sleep on the bed. I waved my hand and said, "There is a reason why guests sleep on the floor." She said it was okay, and I half-jokingly said that your aunt wouldn't spare me if she knew I let you sleep on the floor. Her hair was still dripping and she wanted to say something, so I got up and gave her the hair dryer and went into the bathroom. When she came out, Fang Shaoyi squatted on the ground and used a tissue to clean up the fallen hair, and I asked her if she wanted to eat some supper, she said no, and lay down on the bed with some twists. I wiped some face cream at random, so tired that I went to sleep with my head covered, and I forgot whether Guan Fang Shaoyi recognized the bed or not.
When I got up the next morning, Fang Shaoyi had already cooked the porridge. I was a little surprised and told her that we could go out and eat. Fang Shaoyi said, anyway, I woke up early, and I have nothing to do. I sat down to have breakfast with her and talked about part-time work. Fang Shaoyi did not have any requirements for this winter vacation part-time job, only said that she wanted to experience life. I immediately thought of Shen Qing, who worked at the property, and last night I made an appointment to have lunch together at noon.
Lunch was eaten in a shopping mall near the community, and Shen Qing came dressed in flowers. I teased her as if she had come on a blind date, and she said that she had to be a little more exaggerated than the collagen of an eighteen-year-old girl. Fang Shaoyi also called out to her sister, and she smiled and responded, saying, Your sister is really a water spirit, different from you. I gave her a blank look and said, "No, my sister-in-law was also a beauty."
After eating almost, Shen Qing asked me, she is only eighteen years old, she has no experience, where do you let me put her? Why don't I give her a few thousand dollars as pocket money to count, play around here, to no longer go to other places to shop, the freshman is still very young, in advance to find yourself what is the benefit of bitter food, after some are suffering Oh little sister! Fang Shaoyi was speechless and looked a little nervous. I said to Shen Qing, you see you are scared of her, you think that everyone is like you in the hands of several suites, every day casually go to the property to shop around the money Oh, she wants to experience life, you let her experience it. Shen Qing smiled at me and said, Interesting, then let her go to the monitoring room. The monitoring room does not want any technical content, sit there and look at the picture, and sometimes answer the phone, the little sister will do this, right? Fang Shaoyi nodded vigorously and said, Thank you sister. Shen Qing laughed out loud again and said, Your sister is really cute. I patted Fang Shaoyi's shoulder and said, it is something cute.
I checked out, and Shen Qing had to buy Fang Shaoyi a set of clothes as a gift. I even refused, but Shen Qing said, it was not bought for you, your sister did not say no, when the sister sent a gift and there is nothing to worry about. I glanced at Fang Shaoyi, she stood quietly beside me without speaking, Shen Qing walked forward, waving for us to follow. Fang Shaoyi walked up to me, and I followed. In the shop, I saw Shen Qing holding pieces of yuan on Fang Shaoyi's body, and Fang Shaoyi was constantly going back and forth in and out of the dressing room, like a pendulum in a Western clock. Shen Qing took a fancy to a slightly tight gray turtleneck sweater and asked Fang Shaoyi to try it. Fang Shaoyi walked out wearing the sweater and walked out with his eyes wandering, grabbing the collar with one hand. Shen Qing warmly greeted him and said, Put your hand down for me to see. Fang Shaoyi looked at me and put her hand down. The tight sweater wrapped around Fang Shaoyi's body, which was more lined with the slender body of the girl than those wide styles. Pretty good, why don't you let me see, oh, you see, your sister put on this, and then put on a beige coat immediately foreign, Shen Qing said. I nodded and said, Pretty good. Shen Qing paid for the wind and fire, shoved the bag into Fang Shaoyi's hand, and said that he would wear it when he went to work on Monday. Fang Shaoyi nodded and thanked Shen Qing.
Back at home, Fang Shaoyi put her clothes on the floor of the bedroom and squatted for a long time. I looked up at her and asked, what's wrong? Don't like it? She shook her head and said, "I like it."
Then tomorrow I will wear it and see if I can produce gold?
She looked up at me and said, so expensive, shouldn't I take it?
Shen Qing's heart is just that, don't think too much, just go to work. I pulled out the leather band on my wrist and tied my hair as I walked toward the kitchen and said, "Let's eat some dinner." She said, okay.
On Monday, I handed Fang Shaoyi over to Shen Qing before going to work, and then squeezed into the subway in the morning rush hour. In the carriage, everyone looked down at their mobile phones, answered the phone, and slept, not knowing where the aroma of pancakes came. The soy milk bought outside the subway station has not yet had time to drink, afraid of being pickpocketed, the mobile phone has to be held in the hand. There were several hands staggered on the armrest in front of me, and I gently hooped it with two fingers, chatting for comfort. Over the head, I saw the scenery outside the window, remembered the way Fang Shaoyi had just arrived, only two days later, she was like a vegetarian transformation program. Although she is not yet an adult, she is not a child.
Because I had to work overtime, I transferred the account to Fang Shaoyi and let her solve it by herself at dinner. I didn't want her to order it back, and sent a voice saying that she had made dinner and didn't have to worry. I breathed a sigh of relief and thanked God for not sending me a giant baby. I asked her how she was doing on her first day of work, and she said that Shen Qing had taken her to know well, and she quickly got started, and the people who worked together looked like grandpa and grandma who had retired to do things. I sent an emoticon to understand and conclude the conversation.
I arrived home at ten o'clock in the evening, the yellow chandelier in the restaurant was still on, and sticky notes were posted on the refrigerator. Fang Shaoyi also wrote Zhou Zheng's words on it, reminding me that there was corn rib soup in the stew pot. I sat down to drink a bowl, and the hot air of the soup circled around under the light bulb a few times, which should be made by Fang Shaoyi with the remaining ingredients in the refrigerator. After drinking the soup and washing into the room, Fang Shaoyi was already asleep, making some heavy breathing sounds.
Shen Qing sent me Fang Shaoyi's work schedule, the morning shift was from seven o'clock in the morning to three o'clock in the afternoon, it took only five minutes to walk back to the residence from the monitoring room, she stayed in this house for nearly seven hours, except for the pot of soup and the ingredients that disappeared in the refrigerator, there was no change in other places. I moved my waist, which was beginning to ache from sleeping on the floor, and felt that there would probably be no big things this month.
Five
As I expected, Fang Shaoyi was quiet and did not cause me any more trouble. She slowly learned to live in the city, sometimes making many trips to the subway to see exhibitions, and the most common food she heard about was wontons. Except that I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night and think about how Fang Shaoyi's night shift is doing and when I go out on the weekend, I think about whether she has eaten, and I have a relatively peaceful life. I asked Shen Qing about her work performance, and Shen Qing didn't know what to do when she asked three questions, but only said that she was a small child and could make any big mistakes. So I asked Fang Shaoyi, and Fang Shaoyi was very interested in saying it, such as seeing couples kissing passionately, and children pressing each floor on the light, she would call them in the elevator to scare them, making her feel that there are thousands of faces of life that are true.
Until one day, Shen Qing told me that she had to dismiss Fang Shaoyi, and she couldn't stop it. I was standing in front of the door typing in the password and asking, what is so serious? Shen Qing said, steal something. I entered the last digit of the password, opened the door, and said, steal something? How come? Shen Qing sighed and said, we didn't look very introverted when we met at that time, they sent a representative to my office to talk about this matter, and I was blinded. But she stole some small bread to eat, but also used the skin care products of other people's aunts, things are not big, I gave them a salary increase to send off, that is, you yourself be careful, you know?
I was fixed in the hallway, the overhead lights turned on and out, half a day could not say a word, and finally only apologized and thanked Shen Qing. Today, Fang Shaoyi is a middle class, and she will not leave work until eleven o'clock in the evening. I ate takeout, washed up and sat down on the couch, thinking back to the way she met Shen Qing, trying to find some evidence that she was grabbed by desire, but I didn't think anything through. After eleven o'clock, there was the sound of Fang Shaoyi entering the door lock password. She opened the door to see me sitting there, called out to her sister as usual, and then changed into her woolen slippers. I watched her skillfully turn to the kitchen to get a cup of hot boiling water and sit on the sofa opposite me, wearing the sweater that Shen Qing had bought for her. I told her that you wouldn't have to go to work tomorrow. She opened her eyes slightly, and said uneasily, is it Shen Qing's sister who thinks I have done something bad? I can improve.
No, this is not a young instrument that can be changed.
She didn't speak, not quite understanding what I was talking about for a moment.
Stealing things doesn't work, you know?
She was there, opened her mouth to speak, but said nothing.
Can you tell me why you did this?
She looked up at me deeply and then lowered her head again.
In the end, I was left behind in a silent tug-of-war, because tomorrow is not the weekend, and I have to get up early to go to work.
The next day I got up, Fang Shaoyi was still sleeping, this was the first time she had not gotten up to make breakfast since she came here. I thought about it and left her a note on the table, asking her to wait for me for a few days and go back to Huangtang for the New Year together. But Fang Shaoyi did not wait for me, she took away her backpack, and when she first came, she said that she wanted to buy the suitcase.
Six
After a few days, the company was on vacation, and I took the train back to Huangtang. On the train, my mother called and asked if I was going home with Fang Shaoyi. I said, she went back first. Mother said, why are you so unreliable in your work, let your sister come back alone, your aunt is not at home, where does she live alone to eat? I thought of Fang Shaoyi's basket and said, "People so big don't starve to death." As a result, my mother shouted that I had no conscience, which attracted the sideways glances of the people in the audience, and I hung up the phone immediately.
The second time I saw Fang Shaoyi, it was on the irori oven table at my uncle's house. She wore a burgundy sweatshirt with a ball head, and her cheeks were red with the heat of the hot pot, as if she shared a face with her mother next to her. She toasted the elders at the whole table, wished them a prosperous new year, attracted the elders to be happy, and praised her for being more sensible in college. I laughed darkly and was heard by my mother, who quietly gave me a look and signaled me not to be yin and yang. I clipped a chicken leg to Fang Shaoyi, saying that Shaoyi was only a freshman, and she wanted to work to see the world during the winter vacation, and she was really a self-motivated child, much stronger than I was then. Fang Shaoyi smiled and did not respond. The mother echoed on the side, really, Shaoyi is a child with ideas. The aunt touched Fang Shaoyi's head and said, I hope she is a little out of the way, not to let people look down on her, saying that she is a child without a father. Fang Shaoyi was stabbed and shrunk, and took a sip of the drink in front of him. Chang Jun still grinned widely, saying that my family was her family, and her aunt twisted her thighs.
It was nearly twelve o'clock, and the adults let the three of us carry the fireworks to set off. We climbed to the roof and waited for the time. When it was almost the hour, there were a few drops of rain on the hair, and I didn't know which one was the first to release it, so I let the changjun also light it. Chang Jun was busy with his hands, and Fang Shaoyi and I stood behind us. It was hard to light up, and the standing army also hid from our side. Fireworks rise to the sky, making a loud sound, and the fireworks of every household fly up, and the short one meets the short one, as if it becomes a kind of eternity. Chang Jun recorded a video on the side to send a circle of friends, Fang Shaoyi called me, I turned to look at her, her eyes reflected red and green fireworks, said, sister, I stole a lot of things, but no one knows. I was dumbfounded.
No one wants to know, Fang Shaoyi said.
At this time, changing the army finished recording the video, the fireworks finished the last door, he saw us standing there, asked, sister, don't you go down? I stared at Fang Shaoyi and said, Go down. I took the lead and walked down, Chang Jun followed behind me, and Fang Shaoyi was at the end, carrying the fireworks box that had been empty. Fang Shaoyi's eyes became a nightmare in my Chinese New Year's Eve night, in which wild dogs galloped and swallows flew around on the beams, I climbed up the ladder and took out two bird eggs from the swallow nest, and when I came down, I was dripping three drops of bird droppings.
Seven
On the first day of the Chinese New Year, I was sent by my mother to my aunt's new home to give a New Year gift. Fang Shaoyi was instructed by her aunt to bring me a fruit plate to entertain me, and sat on the opposite side in a white sweater and was not very skilled at making tea for me. I took it up and drank it, but my aunt asked me expectantly, how is it? I made an aftertaste and said, it's really good. She smiled satisfactorily and said, "Someone else sent it, and I heard that one pound is one thousand and eight."
I poured a belly full of tea and prevaricated my aunt by asking the same questions as the others. After touching it for about half an hour, I got up to leave, and the doorbell just sounded. My aunt grabbed me and lay down on the door to look at the people. She suddenly took a step backwards, and when she fell, she gently closed her voice, lifted her pair of white sneakers on the shoe rack, and said in an air voice as she retreated to the bedroom, The people of the court, if they ask, they will say that I have not returned, you know? Fang Shaoyi sat there silently, I had to nod my head, and my aunt closed the bedroom door.
After not opening the door for a long time, people outside the door began to bang on the door and shout the name of the aunt. I opened it, and when someone came up, he pushed me and asked, what about your mother? Before I could speak, the unkempt woman entered the house. She saw Fang Shaoyi calmly sniffing melon seeds there, and suddenly realized, as if, "Oh, you are Chang Lishu's daughter." Fang Shaoyi looked up at her and ignored her. She cried out like a soul in the house, Chang Lishu, Chang Lishu! The enforcement officers of the two courts took out a piece of paper and flashed it in front of my eyes, and walked in. They're still polite, but what about your mother? We need her to come with us. Fang Shaoyi spat out the melon seed shell, clapped her hands, and said that she was not there, she had just gone out. The unkempt woman laughed and said, I just inquired about it before I came, your mother owes money to the old man and does not pay it back, you hide her, do you want to pay it back? Get her out. Fang Shaoyi moved his lips and did not open his mouth. The two sides confronted each other, hesitating and anxious, and finally the spark collapsed, and the unkempt woman and the executive searched into the bedroom. They searched around Fang Shaoyi's room, but when they didn't find her aunt, they were sure it was in another room. They opened the door and found their aunt in the closet as if they were hiding. The aunt took the lead, saying that they were sneaking into people's houses, and the two executives quickly said that they had leaflets. The unkempt-headed woman's forehead burst into flames, eager to pluck the hair of her aunt and said, let you lie for so long, today must have a conclusion! The aunt was not timid and took a mouthful of spit from her. The unkempt-headed woman went up to beat her, but was pulled apart in time by two executives. One of them grabbed one, and when they came out of the bedroom, it was like holding two prisoners. Fang Shaoyi watched them walk out and stood up, and the aunt and the unkempt woman broke away and glanced at each other. The aunt said, it's okay, I'll go and talk to them to make things clear and come back. Then he walked ahead and went out, and the two executives also went out and pressed the elevator.
The unkempt-headed woman was about to step out of the door with her high heels, turned around again, looked at Fang Shaoyi, and said, Your mother owes money and does not pay it back, and it is useless for you to read well. This life has been a bad reputation.
The elevator outside "ticked" and the aunt shouted, stinky bitch! Can't go! The unkempt-headed woman went away in a menacing manner.
Fang Shaoyi suddenly fell into the sofa in a daze, and I called her and said, I will go back without anything, she did not respond to me. I wanted to say something, but I felt that I had nothing to say, so I had to pick up the car keys on the table and turn around and leave.
Halfway through the car, my mother called. My eyebrows fluttered, and I knew that there would probably be no good. The mother said in an anxious tone, "Is something wrong with your sister-in-law?" As soon as I heard it, I knew that it was my aunt who called her to ask her to take care of Fang Shaoyi, but she still had to ask again, which was her mother's redundancy.
You brought Shaoyi to our house and went to see Grandma together at night. She is now, she must be in a bad mood, she wants to enlighten, if she is in a bad mood, she went to Grandma's house, Grandma knows what to do if your aunt has an accident? I have turned the front of the car, my mother is still reading on the phone, if she does not go, your aunt will not go, Grandma will ask... I said, got it.
I called Fang Shaoyi downstairs and asked her to come down. She refused at first, and I relayed my mother's words. After listening, she finally slowly came downstairs, got into the car, and looked out the window all the way. I received invitations from a few friends to party, and we didn't talk about last night's fireworks or my aunt.
Eight
In the evening, I went to Grandma's house with my mother, Fang Shaoyi, and my uncle's family. Grandma was still wearing a big red jacket for Chinese New Year's Eve night, and the gold earrings on her ears fluttered with her laughter under the incandescent light. Grandma asked her mother, why didn't LiShu come? Her mother said her friend told her to come to the house and sit down later. She didn't come back very often, so I let her go first. Grandma nodded and said that she had a rare time with her friend. Then he pulled Fang Shaoyi and said, you can't complain about your mother, she is working hard for you outside for so many years. Fang Shaoyi did not speak, and her mother played a round field for her, saying that Shaoyi was so sensible, she must understand, and we did not have to worry. Grandpa scolded Grandma on the side, saying, As long as you are always so wordy, Shaoyi himself will not think? Grandma raised her eyebrows and said, I'm talking to my granddaughter, what are you talking about? When Shaoyi was a child, she slept with me. Grandpa took a puff of his cigarette and stopped looking at Grandma. Fang Shaoyi withdrew his hand and said softly, Well, I know. Grandma laughed again and started a family routine with her aunt and uncle and mother. Chang Jun sat for a while and couldn't sit still, and after saying hello, he rushed to the next door to play a game together, and his aunt couldn't hold back. Grandma was very casual and said that the big New Year should be played. Then he took out a fifty piece from his jacket's pocket with great interest and asked Me and Fang Shaoyi to buy firecrackers to play with. I said, Grandma, I'm not a child, I don't play. Grandma's hand with the money still stopped where it was, saying, go buy it, it doesn't matter. I still want to refuse, my mother has opened her mouth, to buy everyone to play, who said to let you play alone. I obediently asked Grandma to take back the money and go out to buy it. In the small shop, I randomly picked a few boxes of spider cannons and wrestling cannons, and the fairy sticks bought a lot.
Everyone came out of the living room and took the lighter to the yard to play. Grandma was most interested, and the fairy sticks opened one by one, and everyone lit one after another, dancing and drawing circles in the night. The aunt is like a little girl, using this fire to draw words to let the uncle guess, the uncle understands the romance, guess several times is not successful, let the aunt proudly reveal the answer. We laughed in the back and said that the Chang Army had escaped the disaster. Grandma played for a long time, sneezed, and was not happy, so my mother asked me to go to Grandma's room and get a shawl. Grandma's house was built in combination with the old house and the new house, and I bypassed the living room and went from the alley next to it to the old house. The size of the old house is quite small, the first floor is placed with the bed of the grandfather, and the second floor is placed by the bed of the grandmother. The wooden ladder to the second floor has no handrail, and when you leave, you make the sound of your hands knocking on the empty wooden box. When I reached the top, I grabbed my handle and propped up a plank of wood used to block it, which was the tiled door. Going upstairs, I found her flower shawl in Grandma's closet, and needless to say, it was my aunt's taste. After taking the shawl, I was ready to go downstairs, and then I heard my mother shouting downstairs, bring my hat too! So I took my beanie hat again, pulled the plank apart with great effort, carefully reached down one step with my feet, sat down, moved down two steps, turned around, and prepared to cover the plank, but glimpsed the hem of the white sweater. I leaned to the left and saw Fang Shaoyi pull open Grandpa's bedside table, flip it over a few times and close it, hurry out the door, meet my mother at the threshold, and put her hand behind her. My mother complained to her that I was moving too slowly, and saw me sitting on the landing between the conversations, and said, "What are you doing sitting there?" Let you take something and take it for half a lifetime! When you get it, tomorrow's fireworks are all over! I threw the shawl and hat at her with one hand and said, "This staircase is too difficult to get down." She took the shawl, picked up the hat that had fallen to the ground, and said, "Let you die too well!" Then she hurried to warm up her mother. Fang Shaoyi was still standing on the threshold, she turned her back to me, opened the palm that had been tightly held, and asked me to see the jade pendant inside. My hand lost its strength for a moment, and the plank was smashed, and she heard the voice turn and look up at me, her eyes calm. There was an incense basket hanging from the hook in the ceiling next to the wooden ladder, and the wind blew the basket to the left and right, and the incense and shoujin in the basket wafted out a zen flavor. I went downstairs, patted my pants, walked past her, and said, "What are you doing standing, the fireworks are almost over."
I sat down next to Grandma and threw a few cannons. Grandma was still chatting with her mother about Huang Tang's gossip, and I interjected and asked, Grandma, how did you know Grandpa? Grandma looked at Grandpa and said, Hey, the matchmaker introduced, and didn't say anything more. She and Grandpa had quarreled for most of their lives, and now they couldn't even sleep in the same bed. So she turned to me and asked, are you talking to people? I shook my head, she said, not small Oh, you can talk, girls don't fight too hard, too strong is not good. I smiled and said, Grandma, it's different now than you were then. Grandma lit a fairy stick, waited for it to burn out, put it in the same burning pile next to her, and said, What is different. I tried to refute it, but finally didn't speak.
Playing until the middle of the night, Grandpa and Grandma could not hold back and dozed off. The mother sent Grandma to the second floor to lie down, only to hear the aunt calling Grandma in the alley. The little aunt looked heavy, and forced herself to go upstairs and say a few words to Grandma, and the group went home separately. On the way, I asked my mother, Grandma and Grandpa are like this, isn't it uncomfortable to live together? Mother did not look at me, looked down at the short video, said, nonsense, they are hungry ghosts pretending to be polite, today I also saw your grandma wearing a jade pendant, and your grandfather is a pair. I thought of Fang Shaoyi and asked, why didn't Grandpa wear it? Mother said, must be collected somewhere, your grandfather is like this, only black face. When I got to the intersection, the street lamp in front of me was broken, and my mother looked up and said, Be careful in front, I tightened the steering wheel, and there was no afterword.
Nine
In the next few days, I was busy with gatherings with friends, so I didn't think about Fang Shaoyi's family anymore, and only listened to my mother say that my aunt was collecting money everywhere, and my mother naturally borrowed it. The aunt was caught on the spot, and the IOU signed was three times more than the amount she won, which was not a small amount for her. I asked my mother to persuade my aunt to sell the house and then make plans, but my mother objected more than my sister-in-law, what should I do if I sold the house? She also looked bigger, and she didn't have a dowry in the future. I understood my mother's preference for Shaoyi, and I didn't bother to persuade her again, so I just went out and went out to spread wilderness.
It wasn't until the news of Grandma's broken head came on the evening of the fourth day of the first year that my mother and I hurried over. When she arrived, Grandma was lying on the bed moaning, and there was fresh blood on the gauze on her head. Fang Shaoyi stood trembling on the side, her uncle was smoking a cigarette, standing in front of her with a bowed back, asking, How did Grandma fall? Fang Shaoyi shook his head. The uncle spewed smoke from his nostrils, plucked his nose with his yellowed little fingernails, and said impatiently to his mother, you come and ask her, Auntie fell, Abba called me, when she came, she and Abba were next to each other, Abba did not speak, she did not speak, the ghost knew what was wrong. The mother walked from grandma's bedside to Fang Shaoyi's side, patted her shoulder to show comfort, and said, No hurry, Shaoyi must also be frightened. The health center in Huangtang did not give Grandma anesthesia, and she sewed four stitches, grandma couldn't open her face in pain, the effect of the pain-relieving potion had passed, and she cried out more than a miserable sound. The mother called the aunt, and the aunt was noisy and could not hear clearly. My mother hung up the phone, rolled down a few tears, and said, this is not out of the way, I know, I know.
After discussion, I first guarded Grandma on the first night. Before leaving, my mother told me several times in a very uneasy way, but I did not confront me and agreed to them one by one. When I was about to go upstairs, I passed grandpa's bed and saw him sitting at the head of the bed, quietly smoking a cigarette. I walked over and said, Grandpa, go to bed early, I'll just keep it. The smoke smoked Grandpa's face, and he nodded and said, After smoking this one, I will sleep. I turned off the headlights for him, turned on the bedside lamp, and went upstairs with the flashlight of my phone. Grandma's voice was slightly flat, as if she were dreaming. I lay down on the recliner next to the bed, played with my phone for a while, and got ready to fall asleep. Remembering my mother's instructions, I set an alarm clock every hour. In fact, this alarm clock is very redundant, the recliner is too hard, how to lie down is not comfortable, I dare not flip, for fear of noisy Grandma, the alarm clock has been ringing four or five and has not been able to fall asleep. I turned over slightly and looked at Grandma on the bed through the moonlight through the small window high in the wall, covered with a red flower quilt, revealing only a head, and making a slight cry of pain. The dog in the backstreet somehow barked a few times, and she woke up a little. She slowly opened her eyes and said, Shaoyi, I want to go to the toilet. I got up and turned on the light, put on my unkempt hair, patted Grandma's chest through the quilt, and said, Grandma, it's me, Shaoyi is home. Grandma said, Oh, oh, it's you. I helped Grandma up to the night pot, helped her pull up the curtain, and waited outside. Grandma herself pulled open the curtain and came out, closed the curtain again, pinched her nose and smiled, and told me that it was all medicinal. I smiled too and helped Grandma back to the bed.
I turned off the light and lay back in my recliner. I couldn't sleep, so I turned on my phone. After a while, Grandma called me, and I answered, saying, I'll turn off the phone, you go to sleep. Grandma said, no. I turned to the side and asked, so what do you want to do? Grandma said, I was depressed and wanted to talk. I said, then you say. Grandma sighed and said, Do you remember? When you were a child, you used to come here to drink milk. I also took a picture of eating chicken legs in the kitchen, and before, you kissed me and your grandfather very much. I said, remember. Grandma also said, I don't know when it started, you don't love to come, and you are always very cold when you come, you say, do you have any opinions on Grandma? My heart dropped and I said, No, you think about it more. Grandma said, you always watch, don't talk, I'm old, I can't guess what you're thinking. I turned around and said, nothing, or sleep, you need to rest more. Grandma sighed a long time and said, "Oh, good."
The next morning, my mother boiled chicken soup and brought it. She asked me how I was last night, and I said, nothing happened. Grandma leaned on the pillow to drink chicken soup and said that she estimated that she had not slept all night, and I was confused yesterday, as if I had spoken to her in the middle of the night. I smiled and said, you are dreaming, I just answered two sentences. My mother pointed to my dark circles and urged me to hurry home to rest, and I left in peace. Grandpa sat on the threshold downstairs drinking porridge, I called him, he beckoned me to drink, I said I want to go back to sleep, and left.
Ten
Grandma had been lying for two days, and the aunt had never shown her face. Grandma asked, and her mother had to excuse her like the night of the first year. My aunt watched all night, yawning, and intuitively felt that this was a chore, of course, it was inevitable to stir up trouble. This morning Chang Jun and his father bought ribs for his mother and passed by the casino and saw Li Shu, what is the matter! Auntie, although you hurt your sister, you can't ignore your brother. As soon as Grandma heard her aunt's words, she knew the reason, and she was so angry that her scalp cracked for the second time, and she asked her mother to find her aunt. My mother blamed my aunt in her heart, and she was even more uneasy about letting my aunt and grandma be alone, so she remembered me as a useful messenger.
It was raining lightly outside, and I washed my hair that I hadn't washed for two days, and I held up an umbrella and rode out in an electric car with one hand. The location of the casino is not hidden, next to an abandoned old house, a clearing is enclosed in tin and equipped with roller shutter doors. The door was half-pulled, covered with a black mesh veil, hanging straight into the small ditch on the ground. I called my aunt outside and didn't answer. I had to lift the black mesh veil and bow my waist to go in. The card player turned to look at me, not surprised, and said, Lishu, your niece is coming. The aunt held a card in her hand and said, What's the matter? I walked up to her and said, Grandma let you go. She looked up and smiled at her card friend and said, it's okay, play a few more rounds. Then tell me, you wait, wait, wait will take me over. I had to stand next to her and pull out my phone in boredom. Xiao Zheng, the new arrival in the group a few years ago, tirelessly patted me on the back, proposing at least five plans a day, but none of them showed that he was involved in this work. I had no choice but to make a cursory comment, put forward some opinions, and was afraid of dampening his enthusiasm, and attached some mediocre good words. After you come and go, my aunt is still fighting.
At the poker table, fried gold flowers are played, and a circle of people gather around the table waiting to judge the fate of their pockets. The white light bulb hung straight above the table and swayed, and the light that hit the sister-in-law's face swam around, reflecting the thick pores and dandruff piled up by the hairline after staying up late. But the little aunt didn't care about these, her hand was very good, the golden flower was handy, and there was no decadence of the people around her. I saw the lean man sitting next to her helping her collect money, spitting and counting money on her thumb and index finger, which made the atmosphere a little tense. The aunt pressed his hand, he would understand, put the money into the pocket, but the macaque eyes still flowed out of luck. The cards were divided into the last few cards, and my aunt said, Ah, the last game, my niece is waiting for me. Everyone looked at their cards, most of them just gave up, and a fat man and aunt were still betting. This fat man I have seen, used to sell pork. The family developed a lot of land, made a lot of money, the pork will not be sold, the limelight is handed over to the family, turned around and buried in the casino, and its gambling style is known for a "dare" word.
The fact that the aunt owes money has long been known, and the fat man obviously looks down on her. You can think about it, I just want cash and don't mortgage the house, he said. The aunt laughed and said, where there is so much nonsense on the table, I said bet on it. After a few rounds of betting, the fat man opened his hand, and it was three spades three. The aunt held the card in her hand, and everyone stared at her. The fat man showed a winner's posture and said, "You are at best a smooth man." After the aunt looked around, she showed the cards in her hand, three red peach eights. The fat man threw his cards into the pile, stood up, and said, Dry, don't play. The aunt took the money, smiled so that the wrinkles in the corners of her eyes flew over, handed a look to the man next to her, the man drew money from his pocket, gave a red bill to a person at the card table, and said, I'm really sorry, please drink, next time play together.
Walking out of the casino, my aunt saw that I was only riding an electric car, opened her mouth, and said, you ride this. I nodded. She said that on this rainy day, I already knew that I didn't want you to wait, and I was wet riding this past. She glanced at the man and said coyly, alas, this rainy day is the most annoying. The man took care to tie up the money with a leather band and said, "There are many today." The aunt was not very satisfied, and said, you may want to help me save it. The man nodded. I called out to my aunt, who came over and rode into the back seat and propped open the umbrella over both of us. I was about to start, but she suddenly shouted to stop. She got out of the car and ran over, tucked the umbrella between her shoulders and neck, and kissed the man in a difficult and apocalyptic posture. I thought of my old little uncle. The dark blue umbrella slid backwards, blocking my view, showing me only my aunt's slightly curved calves in flesh-colored stockings. Someone in the casino came out and laughed. Until the umbrella completely landed, I crossed the aunt and the man and saw Fang Shaoyi holding the umbrella. She stood there fixedly, as she had done many times, without speaking, waiting for her aunt to see her. The aunt finally woke up the growing spring rain and gently pushed the man, who touched the aunt's cheek and turned to walk past Fang Shaoyi. The little aunt suddenly saw Fang Shaoyi, a little confused, but did not explain. Fang Shaoyi turned sharply, quickly turned the corner, and came to another road. My aunt sat up and put her arms around me, and I slowly drove out.
When she arrived at Grandma's house, the aunt hung the umbrella in the yard, and as she walked, she took out three cards from her pocket, shredded them and threw them into the vegetable garden. I followed her and faintly saw the shards of flowers with red peaches. On the second floor, Grandpa was also there. Everyone gathered around Grandma's bed, and the atmosphere was as cold as the wind of last night. My mother took one look at me, meaning I had messed things up. The aunt smiled and tried to resolve it, saying, what is wrong with this, big New Year's Day. Grandma closed her eyes and made an elongated sound of "um" from her nostrils like a cow. The little aunt coaxed her, Auntie, I have something to do these days, and I didn't mean not to come. Grandma ignored her.
The aunt couldn't hold her breath and said, Sister-in-law, there is more than this one thing.
The little aunt was nodded, looked at Fang Shaoyi clearly, and said, I am only in my forties, and I can't always guard her.
My aunt laughed out loud, sighed heavily, and said, How do you become a mother? I didn't even know that my daughter had stolen something.
The aunt said, you nonsense.
My aunt rubbed her nose and said that she had admitted it herself.
The aunt looked at Fang Shaoyi, and Fang Shaoyi said in a nasal voice, Yes, I stole Grandpa Gong's jade pendant. The aunt said, what do you do not do well, go steal things. Fang Shaoyi said indifferently, anyway, you only know your concubine. The aunt raised the volume and said, Who told you about the mess? Fang Shaoyi said that the whole Huangtang people knew, and I knew it when my father was not dead.
The aunt took a few steps back, looked at us, and like a prisoner on trial in the courtroom, she said, "Your father is not a good commodity." None of us spoke, and my aunt said, When I married him, I followed him to pick pig feed, dry pig manure, and eat everything bitter, but he only left a suite for his son. He didn't think about Shaoyi's future, only I was making plans for her. She shed tears as she spoke, one at the head of the bed and one at the end of the bed, echoing my mother's sobs.
Grandma sighed heavily and said, Your dad and I knew about it the other day.
Uncle had an epiphany, that is, the day he broke his head! Grandma and Grandpa did not speak, which was a tacit acquiescence. In this way, Fang Shaoyi's sin was added to the first class, not only stealing something, but also because he surrendered himself and did not choose the right place, grandma slipped her feet and slammed her head on the threshold.
The aunt said softly, the family really does not let the old man worry. Grandma did not stop, saying that she was a little tired and wanted to sleep, and the child's affairs were handled by herself. I could see that Grandma was a little cold, And Fang Shaoyi had slept by her pillow since childhood, but she didn't know how much Fang Shaoyi had secretly stolen from her. Now a brain poured out, as if she had fed her cockroach eggs. Everyone went downstairs, grandpa's lost jade pendant was placed on his bedside table, I stood on the threshold and looked back, just as Fang Shaoyi came downstairs and looked at me coldly. I stopped her and said, "You mean it, didn't you?" She stopped and said, yes. Then the aunt took her hand and dragged her away. The mother's "Oh be careful" voice came from the alley uninterruptedly, as if looking after two children who were learning to walk.
I sat on the threshold and remembered the two chicks that had fallen from the nest of swallows on the beam when I was a child, and they had not yet grown hair, lying on the ground with their mouths open and calling. I told Grandma that I wanted to raise them. Grandma said, you can't feed, quickly lose it. But I was still very reluctant, I put them on the hillside of the back door, gently covered them with soft sand, trying to avoid Grandma's interrogation, and then quietly fed them every day. After Grandma went out, I scooped some rice in the kitchen and opened the back door, and the two birds were gone. I cried and told Grandma that the two birds were gone and they couldn't fly. Grandma said that it must have been the dog at the back door that had taken it away, and it was better to throw it away just now.
Chang Jun nodded at my back and said, Sister, why don't you go? I turned back and said, 'I'll go later.'" He threw up and caught the mobile phone in his hand and said, Fang Shaoyi is doing something ghostly, this is good. The uncle led his aunt downstairs, heard Chang Jun's words, and scolded him for talking too much. Chang Jun stepped out of the door, and his aunt shouted and asked him where he was going, and he went back to take care of himself. The aunt "sighed" and said, This child, hurriedly chased out and returned.
My aunt turned to me and said, look at your brothers and sisters, none of them are as steady as you. I lifted my head, and without a word, my aunt said nothing, took my uncle's hand and said I was leaving. I nodded and got up again and went upstairs. Grandma lay on her side of the bed with her eyes closed, heard a voice, opened one eye, and asked me, are you all gone? Before I could answer, she said, "I don't know about it, it's better, isn't it?" I was in a bit of a trance and asked, Grandma, do you remember when I was a child I picked up two birds? She shook her head and said, can't remember, old, old.
I know that it's not really about age, it's about similarity. Coincidentally, we are so similar to Grandma, we are all proficient in "seeing", but we are not good at protecting and intervening, whether it is a bird or a person. Fang Shaoyi is a variant in this regard, and her self-surrender is rather a failed self-help, and the result of stealing is the same as the cause.
Eleven
At the end of the Spring Festival holiday, I left Huangtang to clear the whirlpool brought by Fang Shaoyi. In the phone calls from her mother, she would still carry some news about Fang Shaoyi. The aunt deeply entrusted her money and kissed the people in the rain, and did not get better than the little uncle she complained about, rolled up her deposits and ran. She drank free wine at my house and cried and vomited, and her mother described her hard work cleaning up the vomit, and her waist was as sore as a freshly plucked arbutus from a tree. The people of the court came again, and the aunt said to the unkempt woman, don't want to take a penny from her in this life, the human flesh is salty and salty, and you have to eat casually. The unkempt-headed woman jumped violently and sued her sister-in-law. Like the previous forty years, the aunt was strong in the outside world, and finally handed over the house and moved back to the old house left by the little uncle. Fang Shaoyi rarely went home after school started, twice a year, and did not talk much to her aunt at home. My mother had been talking to herself for years, not knowing that when I listened to these calls, I had been convicted of being overly wary of "usurping the throne." I left my position as the leader of the group and was transferred to another idle department. The new leader of the group, Zheng, was sweating profusely as I was packing my things, telling me not to misunderstand him, and the rest of the team members worked with twelve points of attention, more seriously than at any moment before, and none of them looked up. I tucked a bunch of project plans into his arms, didn't get angry, and smiled and said hello. If my mother knew, she would be like Grandma, happy that I was weak after all.
I changed jobs and was busier than before. When my mother told me the news of Fang Shaoyi's marriage, I didn't say a word and transferred her share of the money and let her attend by herself. But unfortunately, Huang Tang's life number deduction master took the newcomer's eight characters together, pinched his fingers, and the day was just on the May Day holiday. I resisted – the holidays were too short and there were too many people. My mother took out the familiar logic and lobbied, and finally asked me, are you all family, do you mean it? I grabbed my ticket to go back.
When I got home, it was already eight o'clock in the evening, and I had drunk a bowl of rib soup to pad my stomach, and my mother urged me to wash up, rest early, and go to help early tomorrow morning. I played with my phone until one o'clock before I went to sleep. When my mother woke me up, the house still needed to light the lights. I opened one eye and saw that she was fully dressed and wearing a pair of gold earrings. She took the ironed dress out of the closet, lifted my quilt, threw the skirt at me, and said, hurry up and change, it's too late. I struggled to get up and pack up and go downstairs, where she was kneeling in front of the shrine to pray. I said, it's not you marrying your daughter. She paused for a moment as she spoke to the bodhisattva and ignored me. It wasn't until I finished reading it, took three sticks of incense in my hand, stroked it twice, got up from the mat, and inserted the incense into the incense burner, and said, I don't know you. Then she was busy packing the gifts for Fang Shaoyi and led me to Fang Shaoyi's house.
The sky was not yet bright, and Fang Shaoyi's home was already in full swing. The old house was older than when I came to college, and the bright red words of joy were pasted on the old white wooden windows and doors, on the door frames, and the repainted white walls inside hung a happy and couplet. For easy access, the bamboo curtain of the door frame is rolled up, and it is very thriving with a bunch of longan leaves in the slightly hanging red paper bag. The small courtyard outside the house was shedded, and a few corner tables were set up, and the aunts used one to make and fry the spiced material, rolled it up and put it in the oil pot and rolled it several times to fish it out, and the oil soaked was annoying. The uncles made tea and smoked at two or three other tables, and the uncles walked around carrying a plastic bag and distributing some Tieguanyin and Chinese cigarettes to each table. Passing by the aunts' tables, the uncle asked if anyone smoked. A slightly older man raised his flour-stained hand and said, Yes. Uncle went over, attentively took out a lighter and lit a cigarette for her, and my aunt laughed and said, "Give me one too, and he smiled and said, Some of you smoke at night." Everyone laughed, and the aunt blushed, annoyed that she couldn't hold the spiced skin steadily.
My mother pulled me to greet people, and in the distance I saw Chang Jun riding a bicycle, and from the sides of his body, I could see the purple skirt and red tray. The aunt returned from the temple, and she got out of the back seat of Chang Jun's electric car, carefully pinching the tray around her waist, and slipping out of the red veil covering her head with a chicken's sharp beak and yellow dough. The little aunt was fat, the high ponytail was lowered, and a red hairpin was pinned to the head. She saw that my mother was very happy, came over and took her hand, looked at me again, and said, Come? Come in and sit down. We went into the living room, where Grandpa and Grandma were talking on TV. I called them out, and they all laughed in response. Grandpa's clothes were half new, he wore a pair of dark gray trousers, and a pair of blue flip-flops were still between his feet. Grandma is saying that he does not understand the occasion, he stares at the TV without making a sound, and his mother and aunt advise Grandma not to get angry on a good day. Chang Jun parked the car, came in with the key in his hand, and called a big aunt and aunt. I said, you've drawn the strip. Chang Jun smiled and showed his steel teeth and said, "It's almost one meter nine." Chang Jun and I sat and played with our mobile phones, and my mother and aunt chatted happily, saying that in three hours the groom would come. Emotionally, the little aunt almost shed tears for Fang Shaoyi's two-hour drive to "far marriage". Speaking of Fang Shaoyi, my mother suddenly remembered the congratulatory gift she had brought and asked me to take it upstairs.
twelve
Fang Shaoyi was upstairs wearing makeup. She sat at the old-fashioned dresser with her eyes closed, as if she were extremely sleepy, tossed by the makeup artist with her eyes closed. An elderly grandmother helped the red basin to sprinkle the longan branches and leaves dipped in water and told the makeup artist to jump left and right. A few of her bridesmaids were noisy outside on the small balcony, and I sat on the edge of the bed waiting for her, putting the gift aside. It was bright outside, and the sun was shining through the window behind me, casting a golden glow on the road to the staircase.
After waiting for a while, the makeup artist asked Fang Shaoyi to open her eyes to see, and Fang Shaoyi approached the mirror, nodded, and said, Yes, and then saw me in the mirror. The fan-shaped sunlight moved, illuminating the dust floating in the air, bending on Fang Shaoyi's bare feet, and when she turned around, her right toe was slightly forced, her toes tiptoed up, and her left foot did not come out, revealing several large green tendon-like bone lines. She quickly laughed and said, Sister, you are back, and then got up to my side, asked me if my work was still going well, whether I was very tired when I came back, I answered one by one, and took out my mother's gift and handed it to her. Ah, she said with surprise, thank you. She opened it, took out the gold bracelet and looked at it, and said, "It's so beautiful." My hand was propped on the mattress, and I used my fingers to pick the fabric, and the wind blew the curtain off, and I got up and hooked it again, saying, listen to my mother, the groom is very honest, good looking, he starts his own business and knows how to be enterprising, you are very well matched. She was a little shy, and said, "What's so exaggerated." A few bridesmaids teased at the side, saying, Golden Boy jade girl, a match made in heaven! She stood up and gestured to hit them, and they took out their mobile phones, saying that the bride should be dignified, and took a few pictures of her. She had to turn off the fire halfway through and sit back. The bridesmaid held up her mobile phone and said, let's take pictures with my sister. I sat up straight and smiled, and the bridesmaid beckoned and said, sit closer. I moved slightly, Fang Shaoyi took my hand, I turned my head to look at her, the bridesmaid said, my sister smiled, I looked into the camera, showing eight teeth, smiling very appropriately.
I was ready to go downstairs, took a few steps, stood at the top of the stairs before I remembered, turned to her and said, Shaoyi, congratulations. She only had time to nod her head in thanks, and was pulled to the balcony by her bridesmaids to take pictures. When I went downstairs, I was hungry and empty, and Grandma asked me to eat noodles too, but I only drank a cup of green tea. Chang Jun walked in from outside eating noodles, heard the laughter upstairs, looked up, sat down next to me, and said, Sister, is it so troublesome for girls to wear makeup? Yes, I said. He shook his head and inhaled half a bowl of noodles. The mother and aunt hurriedly walked in with a small bowl in their hands and asked Grandma, is it okay to let Shaoyi hold it? Grandma said that she held it before getting into the car, and when she got off the car, she bit half of it for the groom to eat. Chang Jun held the bowl close together, saw that it was a chicken heart, coughed twice, the face residue and saliva sprayed on Grandpa's face, and Grandpa was so angry that he gave him two ass. He couldn't laugh, put down the bowl and drew paper for Grandpa to wipe, turned back to me and said, Auntie, is this too disgusting? Grandpa thought he was talking about him, scolding Chang Jun for being unruly and unruly, saying, In this way, Gong Dad will give you bamboo shoots and fried meat! Grandma gave Chang Jun an eye knife and said, Children don't understand, don't talk nonsense. So my mother and aunt went upstairs. The bridesmaids came down one after another and went outside to eat noodles.
When the time came, the three of them went downstairs with red eyes. A group of people sent Fang Shaoyi to the palanquin, and the good words of sending the married woman rushed out of the firecrackers, and the little aunt wiped her tears and watched Fang Shaoyi leave. Chang Jun and his uncle drove behind the palanquin and put me in the procession of dowry. When I arrived at my in-laws' house, I stepped on the tiles and went over the stove again, and after a long time, Fang Shaoyi was able to sit on the bed in the new room and rest a little. And when our task was complete, we came to say goodbye to her. Chang Jun and his uncle only probed at the door of the new room and said, Shaoyi, we are leaving! Her eyes turned red again and she said, so fast. I walked in the door and handed her a piece of paper and said, so close, it's convenient to go home. She nodded and choked her throat and said, "Let's go, don't be too late, pay attention to safety." I said, I know, I was ready to close the door, Fang Shaoyi stopped me again, I turned back and asked, what's wrong, what else do you have to explain?
She said, sister, he knows me, I think it's good.
I grabbed the doorknob hard and said, that's fine.
Afraid of makeup, she took a tissue and gently pressed the tears from the corners of her eyes, and the nose was still red with a layer of foundation. I was empty for a while and said, more contact with the family, the aunt is very reluctant to you.
She nodded and waved her hand, giving me peace of mind to go back. Chang Jun was already calling me downstairs, and I took a step outside, or retreated back, walking quickly to Fang Shaoyi. She looked up at me with doubt, and I bent down, gently, put my hands around her shoulders, patted her on the back, said, Happy Newlyweds, and then got up and walked out. I took it to the door, and Fang Shaoyi's cry was faintly heard behind me.
When I return to my sister-in-law's house, the sun will not set, and the sky will be covered with pink-gold clouds. The guests have not dispersed, and the mother and aunt are still busy in and out. After cleaning up the boiler table and chairs a little later, a large group of children had time to sit down and get together, drank a lot of wine, and made a fuss until midnight. The return journey was not far away, but my mother was so tired that she could not take off her shoes, and sat on the bench by the shoe cabinet for a long time. I sat too and didn't make a sound. The wind was blowing softly, and I looked up to see the moon foggy, and a swallow nest had been built under the eaves. I pointed to my mother and asked, when was there a bird's nest there? The mother was also strange, saying that she had not seen it before. The cold moon and the swallow nest formed a diagonal of the upper half of the screen window, I took out my mobile phone from my bag to take a picture, edited the picture and prepared to share when Fang Shaoyi sent a photo of today's daytime, as well as a photo of the groom. I looked at my mother, moved my mother around me, and said, what, this is what you call a handsome guy? My mother pushed my hand with the phone away, squinted at the picture, and said, "Good talent." I couldn't help but laugh. She slid to the right a little, saw the photo of me and Fang Shaoyi, said, Oh, Shaoyi real water, and looked at me carefully next to me, saying, this is general. I said, I know, I want to get my phone back. She overpowered, said, but I think my daughter is the most watery. I froze for a moment, and there was a bird chirping in the nest outside the house. With one sound, two sounds, the moon was still sinking in the blue-black sky, and the third, the undissolved wine gas climbed into my eyes, so hot that I shed tears and slid into my ears. I pressed my finger twice to the corner of my eye to stop, and my mother leaned against the wall and heard the exhalation of a drunk. I bent down and took off my shoes, and Shunshi also took them off for my mother. Mother unnaturally shrunk her feet, I looked at her, she also looked close to my eyes, did not move again, dialed my bangs, only said, you are really weird today.
—END—
Yangtze River Literature and Art, No. 1, 2022
Responsible Editor | Zhang Shuang
▲Zhao Jinyan |
Zhao Jinyan, born in 1996 in Fujian, is currently a graduate student of creative writing in the Department of Chinese of East China Normal University.