Glass man

?Have you ever met such a person?

Cheng Jiang looked into his smiling eyes, and wanted to ask him, but didn't have time to ask, because Cynthia was completely tired of playing at this time.She ran from top to bottom quickly, and tripped on the way, Cheng Jiang quickly got up to catch her.The conversation had to be terminated.

He hugged her to bid farewell to Shen Jiqing, while the little girl poked her face out from his shoulder and said "goodbye" to "Bobo" at the bottom of the stairs with a smile.Then they went upstairs, turned the corner of the stairs, and went back to their rooms.It was already dark, so the curtains were quickly drawn.

The temperature was not cold, and the curtains were warm. Cheng Jiang clenched and clenched it in his hands.

Cynthia had already sat on the bed, her two shoes were thrown on the ground randomly, with her toes pointing towards the outside, one in front and one in back.When Cheng Jiang looked up, there was no one on the bed, only the two children's slippers—adult plastic slippers, one in front of the other, went to the wall.In the blink of an eye again, he clearly walked back.He stood with his back against the window, closed his eyes tightly, and finally saw that the shoes were still tilted back into place, and the girl had already lay down.

Do I really love her?

The bright light in the corridor failed to bring in, so he could only walk forward in a daze, helped her change her clothes, and got into the small bed.She pushed her hair back from the pillow, and to her left and right were a stuffed animal she got for her birthday last year.

"Good night." Cheng Jiang said, drawing the curtain between her little bed and his desk for her.He turned on the computer and began to translate another article sent to him by his part-time job.After that, he did two practical translation exercises, and watched the last 10 minutes of a dance drama video that he had been watching intermittently recently.

He has not been very clear about the content of this kind of expression form, so after finishing it, he turned the progress bar to the front and read some of the short paragraphs several times.

When he thinks that tomorrow he will think about the meaning of the red silk scarf [Note] passed around by several female dancers, and when he pulls the curtains that he couldn't close just now, he suddenly feels that today's window sill and The old days were not the same.

He opened the curtains again and looked at the soil basin on the table.

The author has something to say: Note 1: Pina Bausch, "Rite of Spring" scene

☆、chapter37

The flower Cheng Jiang planted bloomed.

The tiny marigolds were blooming under the moonlight, at first they were only half in bloom, but when he took a closer look, it was clear that they had opened into a disc.He didn't even dare to touch it, he just felt a small spark jump out of his chest, which was half extinguished by the moonlight, but a second spark sprang out right after.Cheng Jiang stood at a loss, his body was stiff, and the only thing he could do was to watch.Seeing the flowers bloom, I will bring them to Shen Jiqing tomorrow and see what he will say.

It will be better tomorrow.

But who knows what will happen to this flower tomorrow?His past experiences came flooding back.He might die again tomorrow.Only tonight is safe and secure.

Those few sparks were frozen in his body, unable to escape.He swallowed a breath, gently hugged the flower pot to his chest, stepped back suddenly, and pressed his hand on the doorknob.With a light twist, the door opened backwards, and he retreated into the dark corridor.

Firestar leaped forward, and he finally didn't have to hold his throat to breathe.

Cheng Jiang turned around and looked at Shen Jiqing's closed door at the other end of the corridor.

In the whole house, Shen Jiqing's own room is the quietest and most deserted one.Because of this, when he heard someone knocking on the door outside the room, at first he felt that he was hallucinating the sound coming from outside the house.The knocking sound was not stable, at first there were three knocks in a row with some heavy force, and then two soft knocks with a short pause in the middle.At the end of the knock, the sound became smaller and smaller, as if a person was knocking on the door with the skin of his hand instead of the joint.

He paused for a long while, finally sat up, turned on the light, sat on the edge of the bed with bare feet and listened for a while, and then went out to open the door.

It was Cheng Jiang standing outside, more than a meter away from his door, holding a soil basin in both hands.A few leaves protrude from the pot, and a small orange-gold flower is clustered in the middle.Probably because he saw that Shen Jiqing was still wearing the house clothes he wore at home during the day, he seemed relieved, but he still asked a little awkwardly:

"You haven't fallen asleep yet?"

"what time is it?"

"It's almost ten o'clock."

"It's still early. This is..."

"Calendula." Cheng Jiang said, lifting the flower pot slightly, "I give it to you. I planted it in winter, and it just bloomed. You see, the so-called "five elements lacking wood" is really not true, right? "

Shen Jiqing first subconsciously stretched out his hand to catch it, but before Cheng Jiang's hand could be withdrawn, his hand was pressed on the opponent's, and the two stood still like this.Cheng Jiang's hand had a cool warmth.His lips moved, but he didn't say anything. There was a ring of vibrant light floating on the top of the small orange flower in his hand, like the brightest ring in the flame, but it wasn't actually hot.

Shen Jiqing lowered her eyes to look at the flower.

In fact, he already knew that it was a calendula, but when he lowered his head, he felt that this flower was different from the ones he had seen before.These petals are the purest orange-yellow, and there is something beating brightly in the stamen, like a gear.He just tilted his head, and the gear started to spin, driving all the other gears to work.His internal organs were spinning, and the overlapping spiky petals of the central gear were picking out something he had been secretly aware of for a long time and putting it in the bright light.He'd thought he didn't feel that way anymore, but it came back, stronger and more real than he remembered.

He knew what it was.

A finger on the back of Cheng Jiang's hand twitched slightly, and he suddenly remembered the blue shadow he had glimpsed in the yard when he went home a long time ago, which was probably a dead cornflower.

The dead flower, the living flower... Alive, he came into his garden, as if in this way he defeated a part of her.

Shen Ziwei has only had three marriages.

The third part is with Cheng Yuegu, a mysterious woman who is over forty years old but still has charm. The second part is with Liu Jiangyin, a young and beautiful young girl at that time.His first marriage gave him his only child, but Shen Jiqing thought that Shen Ziwei thought it would be better not to have this child, after all, what accompanied him was his most humiliating memory.

Because his wife almost couldn't wait to cuckold him during the confinement period.Then the facts were revealed, and the two separated.

No one knows why she cheated, because they grew up together when they were young, and her new husband is also meticulous and careful with her.Some people say that she has already started to learn to be bad, and some people say that she is a strong woman who feels weak and unwilling because of the meticulous care, so she cheats to find a sense of self-control.The adulterer never showed up. In the end, Yuan Xiaochan packed her things and left with her head held high. The driver was a foreign woman with curly hair.

But they were all gossip, and even if they were accidentally heard by the son left behind by the hostess, there were only vague words left.

Shen Jiqing once saw a wedding photo when he was rummaging through boxes and cabinets: a young man in a suit against a red background and a smiling young woman wearing a ridiculously shaped wreath. Those were his parents.He could barely make out the man's appearance, because he had never seen Shen Ziwei smile on other occasions.But the woman's eyebrows and eyes are completely unfamiliar to him.

He turned to the back: [Shen Ziwei, Yuan Xiaochan and his wife, 1982]

He stayed awake until midnight, and when the door opened at the entrance, he ran downstairs with the photo and asked Shen Ziwei.Look, is this my mother?

Shen Ziwei took the photo, passed his fingers over the woman's face, took a deep look, folded it and tore it up.Where did you find this?

He insisted: Where is my mother?

Shen Ziwei changed his shoes and clothes exhaustedly and entered the door, leaving him standing at the entrance.Mother?Your mother is a dirty bitch.

He never asked again.He was four years old that year.

The auntie nanny said that his mother planted a tree for him before he was born, and it was on the edge of the clean courtyard.But as long as he could remember, the tree had no leaves, its branches were black, and its branches stretched out hideously.When he looked at it from the window of the room, he always felt that there was a crow missing in it.However, my father didn't care much about things in the small courtyard, so he didn't care about it.

Later he also heard her say that the tree had been frozen to death in the winter of that year.But Mr. Shen only asked about the yard, so she couldn't do it for her.

Another year later, Shen Ziwei brought back a woman who was at least ten years younger than him and said that she was his new mother.Liu Jiangyin is petite and has a bright smile. Wearing a small blue skirt, she looks radiant.She smiled at him and said that this is really a good-looking child, and he will be a family from now on.

They had a not-so-grand wedding, and Shen Ziwei still lived in this house because of his work.From time to time, he looked down from the window and saw waves of weeds growing in the yard, even accompanied by a round of small wild flowers—but they were quickly eradicated, because Liu Jiangyin was a pollen allergy sufferer.

Hay fever, what a strange disease.

Fortunately, people with sufficient medical awareness don't make a fuss about it, use sophisticated instruments to detect it, so show tolerance and compassion to patients, and actively do a good job in protecting them from the poison from flowers. Absurd attack.She was apparently well protected, though, because even years after her death, her ghost still haunts the house where she lived, prohibiting all plants from blooming.He took over the house alone, but did not manage the yard.

He stopped looking down the window because he knew there would be nothing in the yard.

Liu Jiangyin.

Many years ago, Liu Jiangyin was kind, simple, and beautiful; when she was alive, she was like a walking corpse, but after death, Liu Jiangyin was everywhere.

But when she was just married to Shen Ziwei when he was five years old, he clearly hoped that he could love her.

From the tip of the nose, Shen Jiqing suddenly came back to his senses when he detected the faint scent of flowers.

Cheng Jiang still maintained the standing posture just now, saw him look back, and asked very carefully:

"Are you happy then?"

He couldn't speak, so he could only pursed his lips and nodded desperately, and the other party smiled shyly as he wished.Everything he just sensed is silently converging into an undercurrent, gushing out from his chest, and now it is quietly flowing through his body, making his fingers tremble slightly again.He suddenly wanted to hug the person who planted flowers for him.

no.He thought again, what do you think you are doing?

Cheng Jiang added:

"However, it's better to take your flower down and put it in the living room tomorrow, so that I can water and fertilize it. Because even if it blooms... I don't know how long it will live. I will try my best."

Shen Jiqing's own voice was temporarily lost, so he could only shake his head in agreement with Cheng Jiang's words, showing eight teeth.At this time, Cheng Jiang had gently pulled his hand out from between the flower pot and his palm, and lifted the pot from bottom to top.He added at the end:

"There will be more flowers at home in the future. The sweet-scented osmanthus tree outside is said to bloom next year if it is well taken care of."

He slowly retracted his hand, hugged the flowerpot tightly to his chest, and nodded to Cheng Jiang.

"Then I'll go back," the other party smiled, "Good night."

Shen Jiqing stood at the door with flowers in her arms, watching Cheng Jiang walk to the room at the other end of the stairs, and seemed to turn around and smile at him when he opened the door, but maybe he was wrong.The door opened quickly, and Cheng Jiang's figure flickered and disappeared inside.There was silence in the small corridor.

He retreated to the room in two steps, closed the door behind his back, opened the curtain a little, and put the flowerpot on it.The window sill in his room is extremely narrow, and it will be good enough to put the flower pot, but if you want to close the curtain again, it will bulge up, making him look awkward.He simply didn't pull the curtain any more, and wanted to stretch out his hand to tidy up the flowers and leaves, but quickly withdrew his hand.

He thought: This is my flower, mine, mine, mine.Someone planted a flower for me.

Rarely did he feel a strange, terrified pleasure.

He couldn't take his eyes off the flower pot, but he didn't know where to look. In the end, he could only turn around as if to avoid it, and took two steps to the bookshelf.His hands were searching frantically for something, not in the cracks, in the drawers, not in the gap between the top of the book and the shelf.Finally, he found the small plastic-wrapped square box behind several books, and carefully wiped the dust off it:

It was a small New Year gift that Cheng Jiang and him gave him when they first met, the bright yellow box of "Happy Life Guide" that he hadn't opened yet.

☆、chapter38

Cheng Jiang's translation test has passed.

Before the results came out, he still couldn't help thinking about it, but after it came out, it seemed as if he should have passed the exam.It was already the end of July at this time, and he was finally able to officially settle down to prepare for the second-level exam. With experience, he was not as anxious as before.

He was in a good mood for quite some time.The house is brightened up again, the weather is getting hotter and hotter, and layers of green outside the window are spread from the tree branches to the farthest distance that cannot be seen clearly.The yard was empty and green, so after the last round of summer rain before August, he started to tie new colorful birds to the osmanthus branches in the yard.

The first batch of birds had already been "scattered into mud and dust" in the heavy rain last year, so Cheng Jiang learned the lesson and changed to making them with candy-colored thin plastic sheets, and specially selected more than a dozen different shapes. silhouette pattern.He evenly tied down from the top of the branches, and the birds hanging from the thin cotton ropes loomed among the green leaves. From a distance, it looked like the tree of life in fairy tales.

"Bird," said Cynthia, hopping about the tree.

Now she can learn more than a dozen new words every day, and she has begun to express herself more and more clearly by chanting at home alone all day long.The female teacher in the small class said she was still quiet at school, but it wasn't a big deal.All children cannot be expected to be full of energy everywhere.

Children's enthusiasm is often very short-lived. Cynthia had to go back to the house to play with building blocks after staying outside for a while, because it was too hot outside.The room was quiet, Shen Jiqing was probably upstairs in his own room.Cheng Jiang locked the door of the yard, looked up at the wall clock on the wall: eleven o'clock in the morning.

There were still fresh tofu in the refrigerator, and he took them out, washed them, drained them, and cut them into small pieces.

He then prepared a series of other ingredients, but before he could start, he found that the salt box and the soy sauce bottle were both empty.The grains of salt had bottomed out several days ago, and Cheng Jiang reminded himself every day that he had time to buy a new bottle, but he always accidentally forgot.The remaining bits of rough particles stuck to the box, and he crushed them with his fingers, then cleaned the box thoroughly.

Cheng Jiang said to the girl:

"Play by yourself for a while, huh? If you have something to do, go upstairs to find someone, and be careful when you go up the stairs. Cynthia?"

"Y-yes," she said, "bye."

The neighborhood where Shen Jiqing lives is relatively old, surrounded by old neighborhoods, and there are a bit dilapidated shops along the street, which sell some cheap men's and women's clothing.There is a small shop for daily necessities at the entrance of the community. Although most of the time Shen Jiqing buys their daily necessities from the more formal supermarket they often go to every weekend, but when they need something urgent, Cheng Jiang still visits here occasionally.

Because the distance is not far, he can take Cynthia with him when Shen Jiqing is not at home.

But it was only "occasionally" when he said that he would go, so Cheng Jiang didn't have a very clear idea of ​​what to put there.He doesn't like this kind of small supermarket: it's small and dim, and the eyes of the salesperson at the counter are always staring at the customers buying things inside like cows, which makes him feel creepy.

He was struggling to move quickly between the shelves that were close together, afraid of knocking something off.The shelves are small, and the products are placed very densely, hiding each other.He lingered for a long time in front of the shelf selling firewood, rice, oil and salt, but he quickly found soy sauce, but he couldn't find where the salt was put.He felt that the salesperson's sharp eyes were fixed on his hesitant movement, and he was unwilling to go to talk to him, so he had to search carefully again, and finally found out what he wanted to buy from among the piles of sugar.

Everything was in order, Cheng Jiang paid the fee without saying a word, and did not ask for a plastic bag.When he came out of the small shop, he felt a strange astonishment, just like he felt after get off work every day.He closed his eyes hard, and when he looked up, he unexpectedly saw an acquaintance not far away.

The cat old man in neat Chinese short-sleeves was walking slowly from the other side of the street with a black plastic bag in his hand.

In Cheng Jiang's memory, black plastic bags are usually associated with the dead bodies of edible animals.When I was a child, there was an aunt in the Cold Bay Theater who used to bring back raw chicken pieces or fish in black plastic bags. She liked to buy inferior products, so the place she passed was full of stench.

Sometimes she would waddle past him and tease him by saying:

"Joe, what are you waiting for here?"

"Wait for my mother," he'd say.

"Then let's play a game, shall we?"

She always said the same sentence every time, so he always glanced at her suspiciously without saying a word.However, she would take him as the default, and then happily let him guess what was in the bag by smelling it.

He didn't want to guess.The bag contains either bass or carp, and if the smell is less, it is chicken.Before he was in elementary school, people in the theater would try to tease him every time they saw him, and he would smile stiffly at them and mumble "um, ah, oh." Despite knowing that they meant well, he still Resist this forced communication.

Why can't he just sit there quietly and wait alone?

The Chinese study manual Cheng Yuegu bought for him reads: Do to others what you do not want to be done to others, and do to others what you want to be done to others.He didn't quite understand what that meant at the time, but he finally did.Cynthia is different from him, she is any part of normal society, and he is just a person who has lost the human bond.

But he made Cynthia like himself.

Why do you think that what you want is also what other people want?You also know that this is one of the reasons why Cheng Yue gave up on you: sometimes you are different from others.

So he has been trying to change.He himself was fleeing Cold Bay.Until now, I still can't believe that I am actually standing in front of the store, considering the feasibility of talking to the old man when he comes over, instead of subconsciously pretending not to see him and walking away.While he was weighing, the old cat had already walked over, and a fresh fishy smell wafted from the black plastic bag.Cheng Jiang was not disgusted by the fishy smell.The old man stopped in front of him and squinted at him for a few seconds before he seemed to recognize him.

"Isn't this Xiao Cheng?"

"Hello." Suddenly breaking away from the usual conversation situation, Cheng Jiang couldn't help becoming cautious again, "Are you going out to buy vegetables today?"

"Yes."

"You don't come out very often."

"Not often."

Cheng Jiang was just standing at the door of the small shop waiting for him to come over, but the old cat didn't leave at this time, so the two had to stand face to face at the street corner.While they were chatting nonsense, Cheng Jiang's fingers pinching the salt bag turned involuntarily, kneading the salt grains inside.He also didn't like the silence in the middle of the conversation, so he glanced at the black plastic bag and said without words:

"Did you buy any fish?"

"Bought fish. My daughter is coming back today."

In fact, the old cat doesn't often mention his daughter, Cheng Jiang thinks it's very fresh.

"That's good. I remember you saying she was sick last time."

"It should be fine. How many years ago, her mother passed away today, and she will definitely come back to have a drink with me on this day every year when she becomes an adult. If she comes today, it means that she is well. If she not coming……"

Cheng Jiang was about to say something like "I wish you a speedy recovery", but the old cat went on to say:

"It's not a serious illness. It's just that her congenital heart is not very good, and her blood supply is a little insufficient. I inherited it from her. It's not as good as the next generation... I haven't had any major problems for so many years. It's just that I used to go to the hospital when I was a child. Later, when I was older, I was sick. It’s much more worry-free. She’s thirty now. My daughter, how old are you? She had a baby later, at the end of the year before last. We were against it at the time. But there are many people who have difficult births. Especially people like her, how dangerous it is."

"Yes." Cheng Jiang didn't know much about this kind of thing, but there was nothing wrong with agreeing.He then suggested:

"Shall we go back?"

But the old man's cell phone rang at this moment.He quickly took out a pair of elderly mobile phones from his pocket in a way that did not match his age, and while answering the call, he began to walk slowly towards the gate of the community with Cheng Jiang.

"Hello? Duan."

At this time, the old cat's walking speed suddenly became very slow, and his voice gradually returned to normal from the initial high.

"What's going on? Oh, okay, okay. It's okay, it's okay, there's nothing to apologize for. Can Jingjing talk to me?"

He paused for a few seconds, and suddenly began to sweat from his forehead.

"Well, it doesn't matter if it's inconvenient. No, really no need, anyway, I can't understand such a small child. Okay, that's it, I'll hang up first."

The old cat had completely stopped at this time.Holding up the phone, he stared at the screen for a while before putting it in his pocket.Cheng Jiang had already walked a few steps and looked back at him.

"She's not coming." His lips trembled, and he said in a strange tone, "Her man said she couldn't come today. He said it's not convenient for her to answer the phone."

Before Cheng Jiang could figure out how to respond, the old man suddenly let go of the plastic bag.There was only a muffled sound, and the black plastic bag fell vertically to the ground, splashing water everywhere.The dead fish slid out straight and lay down on the ground, his closed eyes were dry and wide open in the sun, just like the eyes of the old man at this moment.

Under Cheng Jiang's horrified gaze, the old cat clenched the clothes on his chest with one hand, and slowly slumped on the ground expressionlessly, his chest heaving violently and dripping with sweat.

The author has something to say: (Crying and bowing for the unexpected increase in collection)

☆、chapter39

The old cat didn't say a word the whole time, and he didn't even answer Cheng Jiang when he asked him loudly what was wrong with him.They had come to a very awkward position at this time: neither in front of the store nor in the community, but on the side of the road with no other pedestrians at a long distance from the residential area and the store.

He can only quickly sort out his cognitive information about the old man cat:

Sixty years old, living alone, has unspoken sad things, often feeds cats.A senior intellectual with an only daughter who suffers from heart disease.

"...I inherited it from her..."

He used a contingency thinking that hardly belonged to him to judge that the old cat had a heart attack.Based on his poor medical common sense, he only knew to lay the person down first, and did not dare to take any other actions, let alone delay, so he quickly dialed 120 to call for an ambulance.

The community where Shen Jiqing's family is located is very close to the city center, and the surrounding roads are spacious. After a while, he heard the iconic sound of an ambulance.Twenty or ten minutes later, he himself sat in the ambulance, and he hadn't realized what he was doing here.Probably when the medical staff asked him if he wanted to accompany him, he subconsciously nodded and got into the car, because they couldn't contact the old man's daughter and son-in-law for the time being, and he felt a little pitiful for the old man to be sent to the hospital alone.

He felt especially sorry for the lonely old man.

Cheng Jiang sat in the ambulance for a long time before realizing belatedly that he wanted to call Shen Jiqing.

After the call was connected, there was no sound from the other side for a long time.

"Hello?" he asked tentatively.

"Ah! Yes. What's the matter?"

Only then did Cheng Jiang think of organizing his words, otherwise he wouldn't know where to start.Say first: "I'm in the ambulance." Then quickly add before the other person reacts: "Mr. Mao Yi just had a heart attack and can't contact his family, so I need to accompany him to the hospital, and I will be back in about a half-hour. Not coming."

"Okay." Shen Jiqing said, with a disappointed tone, "But I can call the property owner, and I should be able to get his daughter's phone number and send it to you later. Yueyue, I will take care of it for you, so you don't have to worry."

Five minutes later, Cheng Jiang dialed another strange number, which was a novel experience.It was a male voice who answered the phone.

"Hello, hello. Excuse me, is this cat... Mr. Mao Yi's family?"

The person opposite said:

"That's my father-in-law. What's the matter?"

It's strange, the old cat's daughter seems to have disappeared completely today, and even her husband answers the phone.

"Mr. Mao Yi just had a heart attack, and he is now heading to Qinghe Hospital in an ambulance. Then... shall I ask a nurse to answer the phone?"

The nurse and the short segment on the other end of the phone ended with just a few curt words.Because he was concerned about the situation at home, as soon as the phone was returned to Cheng Jiang, he dialed it back for Shen Jiqing.

"Haven't you two eaten yet?" he asked.

Indeed not.The ambulance was bumping, and there was a traffic jam ahead.The old cat lay stiffly on a white stretcher, and the strange smell of mixed disinfectant and car oil floated in the air.The hospital in Cold Bay had a thick smell of disinfectant, like the smell of a swimming pool, that made his temples throb and throb.Cold Bay's medicine may not be as high, but their euthanasia is common.They couldn't cure his lung disease so they put him on a ticket.He looked down.

"But my daughter just started middle school." Cheng Jiang said.The doctor shrugged.There is no coercion in Cold Bay: go if you want, pull down if you don't.

Next person!

The smell of disinfectant, the smell of formalin.Formalin is an interesting name, the smell is like a bee sting.The old man's fingers gripped the bed sheet stiffly.

Cheng Jiang collected himself and straightened the phone.The sound of doors opening and footsteps descending the stairs sounded in the background.

"There's a plate of tofu on the table. I've washed it and cut it up. Did you see it?" He felt that he was contemptuous of life by blatantly making a phone call in the ambulance, so he lowered his voice.

"I see. Put it directly in the pot?"

"Put the oil first. Don't pour too much, just... first pour out an area the size of a fried egg, and then wait for it to smudge. Wait for it to heat up, and then turn off the heat when it is bubbling. Turn off the fire Turn the button half a turn when it’s time. If you don’t understand, please confirm with me later.”

There was silence on the other side for a while, only the faint crackling of flames could be heard. "alright."

"Now put the tofu, do it slowly, don't burn it. After putting it in, turn it to medium heat, and turn it over when the bottom changes color. Do you know how to turn it over?"

After getting an affirmative answer, the ambulance just stopped.He fell at the end of the line and followed to a corridor on the sixth floor, and sat on the public chair against the wall under the instructions of the nurse who just called.He had previously told Shen Jiqing to call him back as soon as he finished the face-to-face, so as soon as he sat down, the phone rang again.

"Now it's time to prepare the sauce. Put half a spoonful of white sugar, three spoonfuls of soy sauce, and a lid of water."

Shen Jiqing searched for a while, and said:

"Unfortunately, there is no soy sauce at home."

Cheng Jiang lowered his head and looked at the soy sauce bottle on his lap.He took a deep breath and said distressedly:

"Here I am."

"what?"

"I mean, I just came out to buy soy sauce, so the new soy sauce is here for me."

They were silent for a while across a telephone line.Finally, Shen Jiqing spoke first:

"So you're sitting in the hospital corridor with a bottle of soy sauce right now?"

He described it quite vividly.

"Yes," Cheng Jiang replied, "It still refuses to sit properly, I think it's strange that I am so."

Formalin, disinfectant.Which smell is right?He felt the chair move, not the shaking kind, but blunt and gentle, as if floating in liquid.A thin layer of water has accumulated on the ground, and there is no water on the ground.

His bowels were constricting, as if punishing him for a light-hearted joke in the hospital.

On the opposite side, Shen Jiqing laughed nervously again, which was mixed with the noisy background sound of Cheng Jiang in the corridor, making it indistinct.Shen Jiqing said something again, but he couldn't hear clearly at all, and when he spoke, he felt that his voice was drowned in the noise.Cheng Jiang didn't like talking too loudly in public, so he said goodbye to Shen Jiqing hastily, and hung up the phone first.

He put away his mobile phone, stared at the pitted white wall in front of him and sat there, waiting for the old cat's family to arrive.

The old cat's son-in-law is called Duan Zhe. He is in his thirties. He is small, with a serious face, and wears a pair of round glasses, so at first glance it seems a bit comical.He and Cheng Jiang first briefly introduced each other, and then began to ask about the specific situation of the old cat before and after his illness.Cheng Jiang had already told the same process in the ambulance before, so this time the need to organize language was largely omitted.

"Around eleven o'clock in the morning, I went to the store at the gate of the community to buy seasonings, and I happened to see Mr. Mao coming back from buying fish. I rarely saw him go out before, so I waited for a while and talked to him. Mr. Mao said today It is the anniversary of his wife's death, so the daughter will definitely come back to accompany him, which seems to be a custom in their family."

"What else did he say? Can you tell me the details?" Duan Zhe said, with a pleading look on Yuanyuan's face.

"He also said that if his daughter came today, it meant she was well. He was very happy at the time, and then a call came in... sir?"

Cheng Jiang saw that Xiao Duan's face sank indistinctly, and his small eyes squeezed into the round mirror frame, which looked both ridiculous and worried.He took a few deep breaths, suddenly stretched out his hands to hug his head, slapped it hard a few times, and leaned forward with his whole body.Cheng Jiang was taken aback, thinking that this person also had some kind of heart disease, so he almost stood up and called the nurse.But Xiao Duan quickly returned to normal, and waved his hands wearily to indicate that he was fine.

"So, did it happen right after the phone call?" he pressed.

"Yes."

"Did he say anything after answering the phone?"

"He said his daughter wasn't coming. Is she very ill?"

Duan Zhe's comedic little round face was flat, and he shook his head slowly a few times without saying a word.

They sat silently for a long while, and Xiao Duan suddenly said:

"To tell you the truth, my wife actually passed away at the end of the year before last. Something went wrong in the delivery room and she was not rescued. The old man didn't know yet."

do not know?

Cheng Jiang didn't dare to look at Xiao Duan's round face, but only dared to look down at the pocket of his coat.He couldn't see what he looked like, but he knew that he must be a pair of dead eyes at this moment.Xiao Duan still said:

"The last thing she said was 'Don't tell Dad'. The old man's heart has not been very good in recent years. When Mao Jing was about to have a child, he quarreled fiercely with him and made him have an attack once. So when something happened to her We didn’t dare to tell him, and we wanted to hide it first. Sometimes my sister pretended to be her voice and called him, but my sister is on a business trip now.”

That's all for a short paragraph.They sat for a while longer before Cheng Jiang came back to his senses. After the two shook hands, he could go straight back.Before letting go of his hand, the man with a round face suddenly bowed to him:

"Thank you for taking care of my dad."

Cheng Jiang walked out of the hospital