shelter

When walking back from the administrative compound, it was obviously the same road, but Shen Qi felt that it was even more muddy than when he came. When he returned to the rental house, the pair of cotton shoes were completely soaked.

Shen Qi drew the curtains, not daring to let in the light from the opposite side. He leaned against the wall and thought almost desperately that Zhou Jingtang would not come back.

Zhou Jingtang once said that he was not allowed to watch his leaving back, but now it is a prophecy, he walks far away where he can't see.

Shen Qi smiled wryly and thought, if he knew at that time that he would never see him again, he would not say goodbye so frankly, he would hug him hard, absorb the warmth from his body, so as to accompany him through this cold winter .

That night, Shen Xi slept very restlessly, the room was too cold and the quilt was thin, he woke up several times in the middle of the night.Until dawn, I didn't warm my feet.

He simply packed some things, greeted the landlady, and asked her to call Aunt Zhou Zhou in Tangqin Township if she had any news about Shen Qingzhu.

He returned to Tangqin Town.

The town was also full of wind and rain, and the girl who went to school in the city, when she came back, turned into a boy with short hair, and she really became the talk of every family.

The old house by the Qinghe River was much cooler. He opened the gate and entered the yard only to find that the snow was so thick that he couldn't set foot on it.

After cleaning all afternoon, the stove in the kitchen was rekindled. He cooked a pot of porridge for himself, and the fragrance wafted out of the window, which added a bit of fireworks to the house.

Shen Qi was sitting by the window with hot porridge in his hands, this position happened to see the gate, he didn't know what he was looking at, but there must be something to draw his attention.

On the first night after returning home, he rarely slept peacefully.

Shen Qingzhu's bedroom is diagonally opposite his room, he went in while cleaning the house, and the dresser inside was dusty.He rarely entered Shen Qingzhu's bedroom since he was a child.

After wiping the dresser clean, his legs ached, so he sat down to rest, and his eyes fell on the drawer with a gap left.He opened the drawer in a strange way, and there was a book in it, with a pocket watch on it.

Shen Qi recognized this pocket watch. When Shen Qingzhu was a child, he would always sit on the rocking chair in the yard with tears in his eyes, holding this pocket watch in his hand.

He opened his pocket watch, and inside was a black and white group photo, which had faded to yellow over time.Shen Qingzhu in the photo is very young, with a calm smile. The man next to him is wearing a white shirt and a pair of plain glasses, and his eyes are not looking at the camera.

This is probably the person Shen Qingzhu wanted to see again until his death.

Shen Qi suddenly understood Shen Qingzhu a little bit. If his life came to an end at this time and he didn't see Zhou Jingtang again, he would indeed die with regret.

How would you describe that feeling?Probably, he was unwilling to close his eyes.

The weather improved a little in the afternoon, the low dark clouds dispersed a lot, the sky was high and the clouds were wide, and a layer of ice cones formed under the stone bridge on the edge of the Qinghe River in front of the gate.

On the third night when Shen Qi returned to Tangqin Town, Shen Qingzhu came back.

It was after eleven o'clock at night, the temperature dropped sharply, Shen Xi went to bed early, and when he heard the rapid knock on the door, he immediately lost his pajamas.

He put on a cotton coat and walked out of the bedroom with a cane. The yard was already covered with another layer of snow. He cautiously and impatiently opened the wooden door of the yard. Aunt Zhou was standing outside the door.

Aunt Zhou looked anxious, and she became even more anxious when she saw him like this, and said, "Why are you wearing such thin clothes? Hurry up and change into a thicker dress. There is a call from the town, and your mother is dying. Come with me to the town Go pick her up."

Shen Qi panicked, he couldn't care less about changing clothes, he grabbed Aunt Zhou's hand and said, "I'm not cold anymore, where are we? Let's go there first, no no no... I have to take the card , it costs money to send it to the hospital."

Shen Qi went back to the room to get the card as fast as he could with his cane, but Aunt Zhou couldn't bear to say it behind him. The person on the phone said that Shen Qingzhu was gone, and she came to call Shen Qi to collect the body.

Outside the yard, Aunt Zhou's small three-wheeled car was parked outside, and Aunt Zhou helped Shen Qi get on the small three-wheeled wheel.Although she couldn't bear it, she still said it: "Qiqi, your mother... Anyway, you have to mourn."

Shen Qi felt a little dizzy, the tricycle was shaking abnormally in the snow, the steel nails on his legs hadn't closed yet, every time he shook, it hurt every time.

It was clearly in the cold wind, but when he arrived at the town half an hour later, he was already sweating from the pain.

The town head of Tangqin Town is the sub-district office, which is off work at this time, but because there are staff members who live nearby, they rushed over to open the door for convenience.

Shen Qi has always had a fluke mentality, thinking that maybe Aunt Zhou heard it wrong, Shen Qingzhu must be fine, but when he approached and saw that the street office was surrounded by many people, he had already had a bad prediction in his heart .

The crowd in twos and threes whispered to each other, and the trivial voices could not be heard clearly.Shen Qi walked in from the crowd, only seeing a white cloth.

The custom in Tangqin Town is such that the dead are not allowed to enter other doors except their own.Therefore, Shen Qingzhu lay in the courtyard in front of the street office, with a wooden board under his body and a white cloth on his body.

Shen Qi's eyes turned red, and he knelt beside her.

He choked up and cried out, not looking away from the white cloth.

He didn't know why Shen Qingzhu could hold his breath to see that man for the last time, but couldn't hold his breath to go home and see himself.

On snowy nights in the twelfth lunar month of winter, the onlookers looked indifferently or sympathetically at the weeping boy next to the white cloth. Where in the world could they empathize with him? Amid the crying of the boy, they could discuss whether they should eat dumplings or rice porridge tomorrow morning.

Shen Qingzhu died on the return journey.

She arrived in Liucheng this afternoon, dragged her sick body to the old alley and learned that Shen Qi had already returned home, so she spent money to find a private car and went back to Tangqin Town overnight.

Unexpectedly, when she arrived in Tangqin Town, the driver turned around and told her that she couldn't wake up. It happened to be delivered to the sub-district office of Tangqin Town. After opening her bag, she saw her medical records.

Shen Qi took her home.

On the way home, he always thought of the scene when Shen Qingzhu left in tears and begged himself to let her see that person.

He thought, Shen Qingzhu should have no regrets in the end.

When Shen Qi returned home, he took out the bank card that Shen Qingzhu had left for him, handed it to Aunt Zhou, and asked her to help with Shen Qingzhu's funeral.He is young and doesn't understand these things, so he must have an elder to help him.

After two o'clock at night, Aunt Zhou took the card and went back. In the huge room, only Shen Qi and Shen Qingzhu were left.

Shen Qi had always been timid, but now he was sitting peacefully on the floor next to Shen Qingzhu, leaning against the corner of the table, holding Shen Qingzhu's cold hand.

How does it feel to lose a loved one?Probably, even if he stood in front of you in the form of a ghost, you would cry and go up to him and give him a hug without hesitation.

He leaned against the corner of the table and fell asleep, thinking that this might be the last time in his life that he fell asleep peacefully beside his mother.

Early the next morning, Aunt Zhou brought people from the funeral company to buy coffins, buy mourning clothes, put them in the coffin, decorate the mourning hall, invite guests, and set up the cemetery. The money on that card was quickly used up.

Shen Qi took out another one, which was the compensation given by Tang Wei's father.

Tangqin Town is a small town. The residents have been pushed up for three generations, and they are basically related to each other. If there is something wrong with the family, basically the whole town will come to help.Everyone knows that the boy who has not yet turned 17 has to support his mother's funeral at a young age.

With Aunt Zhou around, she took care of almost all the important matters. Shen Qi's task was to listen to the funeral teacher, kneel when he should kneel, kowtow when he should kowtow, and hold the chopping board when he should.

He could no longer speak or laugh, and even his eyes were glazed over. Kneeling in front of the mourning hall, he was no longer angry.

In just three days, he lost weight visibly to the naked eye. On the fourth day, according to the custom, when he held the incense candle around the coffin, his raised arms were already so thin that only skin and bones remained.

Aunt Zhou couldn't bear the fact that his leg was not healed, so she told him to rest, but he stubbornly refused, tossing and tossing and resting for a few days, his body also collapsed, not to mention that he was also sick.

Shen Qi buried Shen Qingzhu next to his grandparents, which was what Shen Qingzhu ordered before she was alive, and she said she wanted to go home.

Standing in front of her grave, Shen Qi thought sadly that his mother had returned home, but he had no home.

The crowd dispersed, and he stood between the white world and realized that he had nothing and was alone.

The dearest person is gone, the boy I love the most is lost in time, and the peaceful life has long been dilapidated.

That day was January 2002, 1.

Shen Qi was just 17 years old.

When he was young, he looked forward to growing up, wanted to become a majestic person when he grew up, and wanted to give Shen Qingzhu his shoulders to rely on. He never thought that the price of growing up would be so high, like a grand catastrophe, he couldn't survive it.

The water of the Qinghe River is pure and thorough, and the water surface is so calm that there is no ripple.

Shen Qi took an extra step and stepped into the clearness.

The world is cold and calm.