soft hedgehog

In the blink of an eye, it was late autumn.

Liang Yuchen didn't go home one weekend, saying that he went to other places to work as an accompanying interpreter, and he could earn several thousand a trip.Ji Tong is alone at home as an uncle, with the door open, lying on the bed eating fruit while flipping through Liang Yuchen's comic books, not cherishing it at all.

The commemorative film program in the living room talked a lot about the benefits of winter swimming in the north, strengthening the body and boosting the spirit, and he followed suit.On the sofa, his mother and his stepdad were talking about something, their voices were not high, and they sighed.

As the program came to an end, a vague sentence came: "Forget it, don't celebrate."

Ms. Hu's voice was a little louder: "Is it reasonable not to celebrate the child's first birthday after coming home?"

Of course this is not about Ji Tong.He immediately closed the comic book and listened to it for a while, but he still couldn't hear it clearly, so he went to the door of the room and asked, "Who are you two talking about, Liang Yuchen?"

His mother had already given up correcting the problem of addressing, and gathered the shawl on her body and said: "It has nothing to do with you, go back to the house and play."

The more you don't let him listen, the more you want to listen.

Ji Tong walked over, rode a chair backwards, stared at the two adults and asked, "What's wrong with him, it's his birthday? Let me declare that I have no objection. Don't let him live and rely on me... ..."

Liang Changlei's expression was unclear: "Tongtong is quite sensible, but we still don't let your brother pass it."

Considering his feelings so much?Not so.

His mother still thinks it's wrong: "I'm not afraid that people will say that my stepmother is mean, but I just feel that not celebrating my child's birthday will make him sad."

Ji Tong interjected with a smile: "He is already 23 and still has children. Your stepmother's words are really interesting."

"Stay here!" His mother glared at him, "It's none of your business to talk about your brother."

"Am I not a child?" He retorted, "The stepmother is not mean and the mother is mean!"

Liang Changlei rubbed his knees: "Tongtong, if you really want to hear it, you can just stay here. It's not a secret anyway. The day after Lidong is your brother's birthday in the lunar calendar, but his mother didn't have it on Lidong. It's too far away." Recently, it's not appropriate to celebrate or not, so your brother hasn't mentioned birthday in all these years."

Lidong is only half a month away.

Hu Aihua lost his mind: "It's really difficult."

Ji Tong thought for a while, and it was rare for him to say something seriously: "There is nothing to embarrass. They are two irrelevant things, why mix them up."

"It's not just mixed up." Liang Changlei said, "The main reason is that I'm afraid it will make Yuchen sad."

"Won't he be sad if you don't celebrate his birthday?" Ji Tong thought in a strange way, without holding back his words, "It's not that he killed his mother, so why is it that everyone pretends not to know when it's his birthday? "

Liang Changlei fell silent.One is his son, and the other is his late wife. He was not good at speech, and every Qingming took his son back to visit the grave, and the father and son would not cry in front of each other—it was used to being reserved.

Hu Aihua asked: "How about you?"

"According to me?" Ji Tong said, "According to me, the two things will not be delayed."

—

The first day of October is the Cold Clothes Festival. According to the northern custom, papers are burned for the dead relatives. When the day comes, there are a lot of black ash piles on the roadside.

That day, Ji Tong called the fat man early to ask him to come back, and then called Liang Yuchen, saying that he had something to do with him and that he would meet him at home.

After nine o'clock in the evening, he and Yang Xiao squatted on the roof of Building No. 5, guarding a large porcelain basin and a pile of paper money, looking at each other in blank dismay.The two young men, who are under [-], experienced several firsts in their lives today: the first time they went to a shroud shop, the first time they bought paper money, and they will burn paper money for the first time in a while.

"Tongtong..." Yang Xiao was a little stage frightened, "What shall I say later?"

"What do you want to say?" Ji Tong took out the newly bought lighter and tried the fire, and the red and blue flames ignited clusters in the dark night, "Didn't you always think about your little dragon before, and said you dreamed of it , now I will give you a chance to talk to it about your thoughts."

Hearing these words was really frightening, Yang Xiao shuddered slightly, looked around, "Why do I always feel that there are two eyes looking at me..."

Ji Tong glanced at him in disgust.

Liang Yuchen, who had just returned home, found no one at home, so he called him to ask where he was.

"The rooftop," Ji Tong said, "you hurry up."

It's so late to go to the rooftop to enjoy the moon?Liang Yuchen went to the roof to look at the sky, there was no moon, it was covered by clouds.

"Here." Ji Tong whispered to him.

He took a closer look, and not far away was a man squatting on the ground guarding the fire, his hand seemed to be still throwing paper into it.

"What are you doing here?" He asked Ji Tong.

"Hush!" Ji Tong stuck his index finger to his lips, and pointed mysteriously at the stocky figure in front of him, "The fat man is burning paper, for his dead pet dog."

Liang Yuchen didn't quite understand, and unconsciously lowered his voice and asked, "Today is the death day?"

"No," Ji Tong shook his head. "Today is the first day of October. It is customary to burn some money for the dead relatives. Didn't you see someone burning by the roadside when you came back?"

Liang Yuchen suddenly realized, no wonder there were people warming up at the crossroads, he thought it was for warmth.

The two stood in the same place, listening to Yang Xiao gradually start to mutter: "Xiaolong, don't fight with other dogs over there, you can't beat them, you'd better recognize a big brother, and let the big brother cover you up if something happens. you."

Say a paragraph, throw a few pieces of paper into the basin.Dogs follow their owners, and when they arrive in the underworld, there is still one word: Counseling.

Liang Yuchen was quite puzzled: "Where does the dog have to spend money?"

"Hey, one heart." Ji Tong raised his chin, signaling him not to interrupt and continue listening.

"Actually, I really miss you. I don't have any other dogs when you're gone. Your grandma misses you too. She told me yesterday that you love salty bones the most. Maybe it's because you eat too much that your life is short. Yes." Yang Xiao sighed, "Last week I dreamed about you, and dreamed that your legs were healed, and you were skateboarding with me, and your tail was wagging happily."

Although it was an act, the words were also mixed with real feelings, and the tone became choked.

"It would be nice if you left a few years later. I went to college a while ago, and there are a lot of stray dogs in the school. If you are still there, I can take you to make friends with them, and I can take you to Ji Qingyang has a look, maybe she can kiss me when she's happy."

Ji Tong raised his forehead, Liang Yuchen's eyebrows twitched slightly, thinking that this kid is really interesting.

After chattering for a while, the two stepped forward, and Ji Tong pretended to persuade: "Okay, fat man, don't be sad, Xiaolong must understand what you mean."

Yang Xiao stood up and stretched his numb legs a few times, and handed the leftover paper money to him: "I'm so sad, go down slowly, burn the rest for me."

After speaking, he limped away.

"You said that you—" Ji Tong pretended to be helpless, and said to Liang Yuchen, "What am I burning for? My relatives are still alive, why don't you come, isn't your mother gone? You also burn some money for her express express."

"No need." Liang Yuchen shook his head and did not answer.

"Why don't you use it?" Ji Tong stuffed it into his hand recklessly, "They will burn you if you don't, so why let your mother live a poor life there?"

Liang Yuchen looked down at the paper money in his hand, was silent for a moment, and suddenly said: "I don't remember what my mother looks like, and I'm worried that I won't be able to burn it."

Ji Tong never thought of it, he was thinking about this.

He snatched back half of the paper money and said, "You always remember her name."

"Yang Cuiqin."

"It's easy to have a name." Ji Tong dragged Liang Yuchen to squat down, and took the lead in burning a few, "I'll burn it with you."

Sitianmudi, full of flames, the two of them were shoulder to shoulder, both of them were not wearing much, but they didn't feel cold at all.

"Aunt Yang," he raised his head cautiously, "we'll burn some paper for you. You can buy whatever you want with the flowers. Don't be reluctant."

After finishing speaking, he refilled the paper three times in a row, and then nudged Liang Yuchen with his elbow.

Liang Yuchen was also filling in, the shape of flames reflected in his pupils, his mood was dim.After being silent for a while, he slowly said, "Mom, I'm fine. I'm in graduate school and I've moved. Don't miss me."

Having said that, he fell silent again.The paper money in the hands of the two of them was getting less and less, and Ji Tong knew that it was not suitable for him to speak again, so he silently added a sentence in his heart: Auntie, my mother treats him very well, she is not malicious at all, don't worry.

Hu Aihua, who was far away on the third floor, sat in the living room and sneezed. Who misses me?

After burning the paper, the two stood up, and Ji Tong's legs were numb, and he almost couldn't stand still.Liang Yuchen hugged him quickly: "Lean on me, just move around for a while."

Ji Tong was right next to him, stomping his feet, rubbing his hair back and forth on his cheek.

Liang Yuchen was fascinated and said, "Your hair smells of soot."

Ji Tong pulled a bunch of hair and tried to smell it: "Really, I just took a shower at night."

Liang Yuchen clasped his waist, buried his cheeks in his hair, and put his lips close to his ears, as if to hide his emotions: "Are you doing it for me?"

Ji Tong didn't expect him to be so smart, and he was stunned for a moment, and let him hold him without moving. After a while, he blushed and said, "I'm for the dog."