Embroidered Pillows and Paper Tigers

This day was the day when they moved out of City D. Li Shi'an took Xiaoqian to the airport for security check early in the morning, and he received a call from Zhu He.

Zhu He said at the other end: "My master temporarily took over a case, and I can't come back, but there is a brother who opened a law firm in D City, I asked him to handle this matter for you, that Fu Youcheng is a disobedient Yes, during the detention inside, he still swears at people, the senior brother checked him a little bit, it seems that this person still has a lot of problems, do you want my senior brother to help you take special care of him?"

When he said this, he was full of confidence and confidence. It was hard for Li Shi'an to imagine that this was Zhu He from four years ago, and he said with emotion in his heart, "Then take care of me."

Li Shi'an took Xiaoqian to City G. He still started from sales at the grassroots level. He also had to work part-time at night. He often worked until two o'clock in the morning. There were joys and tears, until two years later, a small department manager came to work. , the higher the salary, the easier it will be.

He had saved a sum of money, and he had repaid some of the money he owed Tang Doudou in pieces over the years, plus the amount he saved should be paid off.Just the night before he was going to contact Tang Doudou, he received a call from Lao Xie.

Lao Xie has now become an honorable male nurse. He is in the same hospital as his sister. He called to tell Li Shi'an that he met Li Qishan to see a doctor in the hospital. After Li Qishan left, Lao Xie asked the doctor for Li Shi'an if It's a serious illness, but I still tell him about it.

At this time, it had been two years since Li Shi'an saw Li Qishan for the last time, and Li Shi'an planned to go back for the New Year.

However, air tickets for the Spring Festival are not easy to buy. He and Xiaoqian are traveling by train and car. Forgive me for a long time. The two girls can only wait in L City for two days.

Li Shi'an remembered that Luozhi Lake was not far from L City, so he thought he would be idle if he was idle, so he decided to take Xiaoqian there.

This is Li Shi'an's second visit to Luozhi Lake, and it hasn't changed much since the first time. He went to the hotel where he stayed with Shen Yan again, and the owner has changed.

The new shop owner is a nagging woman, complaining that the business is not easy to do, the New Year's holiday is too short, Luozhi Lake is too remote, and the transportation is inconvenient. Many people would not choose this place when the holiday is short, and complain about the high rent, it is better to rent the land by yourself It is cost-effective to build a small wooden building.

Li Shi'an took this to heart. He has always liked a small pier in Luozhi Lake. There are few people coming to that pier. It is close to the lake, quiet, and has great development value. If he can rent a piece of land and build a hotel by himself, he will It is a very good choice.

"Do you like it here, Xiaoqian?" Li Shi'an was still thinking about what the proprietress said when he led Xiaoqian around the lake.

"I like it." Xiaoqian said, "There are so many red-billed gulls here, I really like birds."

Li Shi'an smiled and said, "Then shall we live here?"

Xiaoqian jumped up happily: "Really, Dad?"

The father and daughter got on the train back to City D two days later. Li Shi'an took Xiaoqian back to see Li Qishan. Once he grew up, his parents seemed to press the fast forward button. After two years, Li Shi'an felt that Li Qishan was getting old. many.

The two of them didn't want to quarrel anymore, and tried to avoid the topic of Shen Yan and Qu Ya, and they still had a peaceful and beautiful year.

Not many days later, Li Shi'an called Tang Doudou, mainly to ask Tang Doudou if he could pay back the remaining money later.

Tang Doudou is always tolerant to him.

Li Qishan accidentally overheard the conversation between Li Shian and Tang Doudou, and one night Xiaoqian went to bed, and the father and son had a conversation.

Li Qishan clearly told Li Shi'an that he was old and hoped that he would come back to manage the factory, but Li Shi'an told him that he had his own plan and that he would go to Luozhi Lake to open a hotel.

The father and son broke up again, and the next day Li Shi'an went to Zhongsheng to hand in his resignation report, and then made a phone call that he copied down while playing in Luozhi Lake.

Fortunately, before the tourism industry was in full swing at this time, Li Shi'an negotiated the land at a very low price. He raised some money with Zhu He and Lao Xie, and experienced contract wrangling and the natural inertia of the locals. After the contest, he personally supervised the construction of a two-story wooden building.

On the day when the small wooden building was completed, he was happier than the first time he got an order for the company. After all, this was what he had always wanted to do. He wanted to find someone to talk about his happiness and sadness, but he didn't know who to turn to.

The operation of the hotel was not so smooth at the beginning, and there was not much improvement after one summer and one autumn. Li Shi'an was not in a hurry, after all, Xiaoqian could not spend much money to go to school in this kind of place. , and never put pressure on him.

One day when he was basking in the sun in the glass room of the hotel, he saw Xiaoqian feeding the red-billed gulls on the wooden boat, and for some reason he thought of Qu Ya again.

Li Shi'an would occasionally think of what Xie Jiang said, and would think of the phrase '3% of ordinary people are seriously abnormal'.

Could it be that Xiaoqian's inability to hear was not caused by Qu Ya's medication?She didn't have to blame herself so much.However, the deceased is gone, and he only hopes that Qu Ya's spirit in the sky will feel a little relieved knowing that Xiaoqian is living well now.

On this day, Li Shi'an picked up the brush again. He wanted to record Xiaoqian's growth. He felt that paintings should be more meaningful than photos.

The turning point in the business was when Li Shi'an met an old Zhong who was as quiet as him.

Lao Zhong is a middle-aged man who likes to take pictures, especially rare birds. He runs around the country all year round. Luozhi Lake is sunny in winter, and many birds will come here to spend the winter, so Lao Zhong comes here every year.

It was an accident that Lao Zhong met Li Shi'an. He almost fell into the lake to take a group of photos, and his shoes and pants were all wet. It happened that Li Shi'an was sketching by the lake, so he invited Lao Zhong to the hotel to change clothes.

Lao Zhong would come to this pier every year. It was the first time he knew that there was a hotel here. He saw that Li Shi'an was an open-minded and free-spirited young man.

Li Shi'an only regarded Lao Zhong as an ordinary guest, and forgot about it when he left.Unexpectedly, just over a month after Lao Zhong went back, many people came to him one after another, and they seemed to come here because of the reputation. After inquiring, Li Shi'an found out that Lao Zhong was in a well-known travel forum and photography forum. The celebrity personally wrote a long article for his hotel, boasting a bit exaggeratedly, saying that he is a young artist who sees through the red dust.

Although I don't agree with Lao Zhong's bragging rights, that article has really brought benefits to Li Shi'an. The hotel's birthday is getting better every day, and it has become a check-in place for Internet celebrities.

After earning money, Li Shi'an's first priority was to rectify the parts of the hotel that were not repaired due to insufficient money, try to be concise and generous, and then repay the debt.

As soon as the debts are paid off, I become lazy and unwilling to do everything by myself. I hired two local aunts to do the work, and I hide in the glass room to paint every day when I have nothing to do.

I also met a person in the store who came here admiringly. As soon as the person came, he said that he would hold a painting exhibition for Li Shian, package him, and auction his paintings. I didn't even go to the Academy of Fine Arts.

The man was even happier when he heard it, and said that it was okay, since he had resisted the authority of his parents since he was a child, the self-taught talented painter was the hottest point of hype, and then he was invited out by Li Shi'an.

For the fact that he failed to go to the Academy of Fine Arts, Li Shi'an felt that Li Qishan could not be blamed, but he could only be blamed for not persevering.Between him and Shen Yan, he is the negative example.

Although the paintbrush is picked up, it is only a spiritual sustenance. Li Shi'an's life now has another spiritual sustenance, and that is Xiaoqian.

When he is not painting, Li Shi'an basks in the sun in the glass room, and after a while he sticks his head out to see if Xiaoqian has come home from school. Sometimes he feels like he has stepped into old age ahead of schedule.

He is very satisfied with this kind of life and has nothing to dissatisfy with. His children are healthy, he has no debts, no financial pressure, and everything is going in a good direction.

Except for the rare nights when he faces the mirror-like floor-to-ceiling windows, he feels that the lake is too quiet.

***

Because Li Shi'an was still saying that business was not good a year ago, and he paid off all the debts a year later, Lao Xie once thought that he had done some illegal and criminal activities, so he brought his girlfriend to him, and it happened that both of them wanted to marry him. Thousands, by the way, you can also take a tour.

Lao Xie stayed with Li Shi'an in Luozhi Lake for a few days, and Li Shi'an naturally entertained him according to the best friend's standard--get rid of him as you like, don't bother me.

On the contrary, Xiaoqian accompanied Lao Xie and his wife after school these days, explaining things to them like a little tour guide, and even took them on hikes.

On the day of leaving, Li Shi'an drove Lao Xie and the others to the tourist distribution center. Before parting, Lao Xie handed Li Shi'an an invitation card. Li Shi'an took it over and saw that it was a wedding invitation.

Old Xie smiled, and before getting into the car, he patted Li Shi'an on the shoulder and said, "Brother, you are one step ahead of the siege, hurry up."

Li Shi'an watched Lao Xie and his wife get on the bus and disappear at the end of the winding road. At that moment, he felt that some things seemed to have happened in his previous life.

The once carefree teenage years have gone far away, and everyone is a young man who starts to talk about marriage and family.For the past two years, Li Shi'an has been looking for Shen Yan, but there is no clue.

The quiet time in Luozhi Lake often makes him feel that time passes very slowly. The life here is like a huge and opaque water tank, with water seeping out slowly. At first, Li Shi'an disliked it for being slow. He didn't know when the water would flow. get clean.But as time slowly elongated, he began to panic again, because he didn't know how much water was left, whether it was enough to water a pot of flowers, whether it was enough to cook a meal, whether it was enough to meet that person, whether it was enough to fill all the regrets in life gap.

Li Shi'an always faces the big French windows in the room at night and loses his mind. He always feels that when he closes his eyes, he can see Shen Yan dancing, and the waves behind him roll up a huge wall of water. Spin in your own world.

Lao Xie's wedding was scheduled for the May Day holiday. Xiao Qian had always called Lao Xie godfather, and the couple had taken care of Xiao Qian a lot in the past few years, so Li Shi'an took Xiao Qian back to City D to attend the wedding.

No matter how fierce the quarrel with Li Qishan was, Li Shi'an would still go back to see him when he returned to D city.

The last time the two father and son had a quarrel and hadn't contacted each other for a long time, and they had nothing to say when they met again, but when they were going back to the lake area after the wedding, Li Qishan took the initiative to send their father and daughter off for the first time.

But just before going out, Li Shi'an knew Li Qishan's real purpose.

Li Qishan said that although Luozhi Lake is a scenic spot, it is still a remote village in essence and cannot provide good education, so he asked Xiaoqian to stay.

Li Shi'an thought about it carefully, and felt that what Li Qishan said was reasonable, but he still refused. He said, "You are busy working in the factory all day, who will take care of Xiaoqian?"

Li Qishan said: "How I took care of you back then, how I take care of her now."

Li Shi'an shook his head: "Xiaoqian is a girl, you treat her as rough as raising me. Besides, she has ear problems, what if the cochlea is damaged or lost?"

Li Qishan didn't seem to have considered this issue, thought about it, and said lightly: "Then I will sell the factory, and I will guard her every day."

Li Shi'an looked at Li Qishan in surprise.

When Li Qishan talked about his life's hard work, no matter how lightly he said it would be wronged: "Anyway, you don't want it, and I'm tired after these years, isn't it sooner or later."

Li Shi'an: "It's not because of Xiaoqian that I didn't find anyone to marry. Don't think that if you leave Xiaoqian, I can..."

"Don't mention this to me!" Li Qishan interrupted him sharply, the father and son met each other's eyes, Li Qishan lowered his head and slowed down his tone, "I hid the child's medical certificate back then, so I felt sorry for her and wanted to make up for it. "

After a pause, he said again: "I'm getting old too, you're always not around, I..."

Li Qishan couldn't continue, but Li Shi'an still understood what he was going to say.

Li Shi'an called Xiaoqian into the room, wanting to ask the child what he meant.

"Xiao Qian, do you like it if we stay in D City?"

Xiaoqian is still a child after all, she is tired of green mountains and green waters, and colorful cities are more attractive to her, she nodded and said, "I like it."

Li Shi'an tentatively asked: "Then would you like to stay with Grandpa?"

Xiaoqian said: "I will be where my father is."

Li Shi'an said: "Dad has to go back to the lake area. Grandpa is getting older every year. Dad hopes you will stay and take care of him."

"Then can't we take grandpa with us?" Xiaoqian asked.

In view of the fact that the father and son have met and quarreled in recent years, Li Shi'an said: "Grandpa can't go, besides, you can go to a better school here, and you can also learn what you like, dance, music, painting, whatever. "

Although Xiao Qian was only 8 years old, she still understood Li Shi'an's meaning, and her eyes turned red.

,

Li Shi'an hugged her shoulder and said softly, "If you don't want to, Dad won't force you."

But Xiaoqian shook her head in his arms: "I just can't bear to part with Dad."

Li Shi'an was the last one on his way back to the Lake District. When he returned to City D, his family lost a baby. Gradually, he couldn't stand the desertedness. He bought a dog just like what Shen Yanliang had said before. But it's not a golden retriever, it's an authentic Chinese pastoral dog named Pea.

He is not so lonely now that he has a dog. He occasionally jokes with guests, and more often he takes the dog out for sketching, and even pretends to be a tourist when he meets annoying guests.

His skin is still so fair, the kind that can't be tanned naturally, so others will believe that he is a tourist.

Three months after returning to the lake area, one day Li Shian brought Peas home, and saw a tall beauty waiting for someone at the front desk of the hotel, and took a closer look, my mother, Tang Doudou!

Tang Doudou made a special trip to visit Li Shi'an. When she put the wedding invitation in front of Li Shi'an, Li Shi'an was taken aback.

Seeing him in a daze, Tang Doudou asked, "Is it too soon? Xie Chen just got married, and it's my turn again."

Li Shi'an picked up the invitation and flipped through it, and saw that the wedding was scheduled for next year's Spring Festival. He said, "I'm almost three years old, what should I do?" Remembering that he always hurt Tang Doudou's heart, now that she has a home, she is sincere Happy for her, he said again, "Don't worry, I will definitely come."

"Bring a gift." Tang Doudou said.

"Okay, definitely." Li Shi'an answered simply.

Tang Doudou suddenly noticed a painting that Li Shi'an hung on the wall of the hotel, the one she wanted at the beginning but Li Shi'an refused to give, she said: "I don't like anything else, why don't you just give me your painting Bar."

Li Shi'an looked in the direction of her finger and remained silent.

Tang Doudou smiled awkwardly and said, "It's okay if you don't give it, then can you tell me who is painted on this painting?"

Li Shi'an thought for a while and said, "My sweetheart."

Tang Doudou nodded, with tears in her eyes. She wanted to ask, but she didn't have the courage: "Okay, I'll let you go."

She sent an invitation and came all the way to see Li Shi'an's reaction with her own eyes, but Li Shi'an's reaction was also within his expectations.

Tang Doudou stayed in the lake area for a total of one day. On the day she left, Li Shi'an stood in front of that picture for a long time. To be honest, Li Shi'an never drew such a work again in these years, as if his talent and inspiration were The night I met Shen Yan, I was completely overdrawn.

He didn't know why he still kept the painting.Is it nostalgia, or what?However, Shen Yan could not be found, no matter whether he kept the painting, the hourglass that Shen Yan gave him, or his T-shirt that Shen Yan once wore, these behaviors were like a ridiculous self-movement .

Sometimes he thinks from Shen Yan's point of view, thinking that Shen Yan should have hated him to death when he left, and he should never want to be found by him again.

It must be like this, that's why he hasn't heard from him for so many years. Every time he thinks of this, Li Shi'an can't help but give up on himself.