salt by salt

"Brother Toshihiko—"

The weather was fine on the weekend afternoon, and Wu Yanrui, wearing a pink and white polka-dot dress, got out of the car and rushed towards me excitedly: "I don't have violin lessons today, my mother promised me to go to the amusement park!"

"Understood." I stroked the braid with a bow on the top of her head, raised my head and greeted her mother, "Sister Yan."

I am physically inconvenient to drive, Yan Xia will drive us to the gate of the amusement park every time and then return to work in the company.She nodded to me, and smiled slightly: "Junyan, please take care of Xiaorui again."

"how come?"

After Wu Mian placed me in City S, I had to return to City B to handle work. Sun Ning had to go to work and take care of me alone. Yan Xia, Wu Mian's ex-wife, offered to lend a helping hand.She was as meticulous and steady as Wu Mian, and she helped us deal with many problems in silence.

Wu Yanrui pulled me into the car, and for a while she grabbed my arm like a jelly candy and chattered, and for a while she picked the front seat to play with her mother's long hair, saying that she was going to spend the Spring Festival with her father during the winter vacation.

"It depends on your final grades." Yan Xia's profile was quiet and beautiful, and she patiently let her daughter act coquettishly, "Papa wouldn't want to sign a score sheet full of duck eggs, would he?"

The relationship between Wu Mian and her is not like an ordinary divorced couple, but more like a pair of close friends.They seem to be partners who understand every look in each other's eyes tacitly, but if this is the case, how can they get divorced?

But other people's housework is not something I can care about, so I withdraw my thoughts and look out the window.

"You can't play dangerous items in the playground. You are young. Riding roller coasters and pirate ships will crush your bones, and you will not be able to grow taller in the future. Don't run around. Brother Junyan is very hard chasing you. You have to be considerate of him. No Eat snacks and water given by strangers, and your mother gave you pocket money, if you want to eat, take the money to brother Junyan, and ask him to take you to buy it."

The car was parked outside the amusement park. It was the weekend, and the amusement park was full of people, and the laughter of children could be heard here.Yan Xia gave instructions carefully, and Wu Yanrui couldn't wait to get out of the car: "Mom, this is not the first time for me to come here. Brother Junyan knows that I am a good boy."

"Mom doesn't worry about you." Yan Xia leaned forward to unbuckle her seat belt, and kissed her on the forehead affectionately, "Listen to Brother Junyan, after watching the stage play tonight, mom will come to pick you up."

"Uh-huh."

Wu Yanrui's heart must have drifted to the playground, Yan Xia's face was full of tenderness and helplessness as a mother: "Unconsciously, I said a lot. Junyan, I sent you the e-ticket on WeChat, and Xiaorui likes it when she is happy." Run around, you remember to hold her."

"Okay." I felt a little sour in my heart, and smiled at her forcefully, then turned my head and extended my hand to Wu Yanrui who had been waiting for a long time, "Little Wu, let's check the ticket and go in."

Although I was mentally prepared that there would be a lot of people on the weekend before I came here, but after I actually entered the playground, the crowd still shocked me.

"There will be that, that firework show tonight." Wu Yanrui, with the shiny stickers distributed by the staff on her face, waved the event map in her hand to me, "Brother Junyan, I want to see it!"

"We booked tickets for the puppet show." I was a little unaccustomed to being approached by people, and I protected Wu Yanrui with the other hand to prevent her from being bumped, "Didn't you want to watch this last month?"

"But this performance only happens once every three months. We can come out to watch the fireworks after the stage play is over. Brother, you read it, it starts at 08:30."

"That's too late." I said, "Mom made an appointment to pick you up at [-]:[-], so you can't keep your word."

"I want to see, I want to see, I want to see, I want to see!" The child's temper comes and goes, Wu Yanrui pouted and stomped on the spot, seeing that I was unmoved, she immediately changed into a pitiful expression, "Jun Yan Brother, please, I’m going out to play for the first time this semester, and I usually go to a lot of cram schools on weekends. Can you tell mom to pick us up later..."

Yan Xia has very strict requirements for children, Wu Yanrui spends most of her leisure time on small language training and various interest classes.But she is not a parent who does her own way. These extra-curricular classes are chosen by Wu Yanrui herself, and they are not the kind of remedial classes with heavy tasks.

But Wu Yanrui behaved really pitifully, her cheeks were as soft as a bun, her eyes were big and round, and her eyelashes flickered when she acted like a baby, making it hard to refuse.I said with difficulty: "I need to think about this matter. Maybe you are very tired from playing in the afternoon, and you will change your mind when you have dinner, so let's talk about it later."

"Okay!" She smiled and hugged me, the speed of her face change reminded me of another coquettish guy, "I like Brother Junyan the most."

Apart from this small episode, it was actually a pleasure to accompany Wu Yanrui to the playground.

She is clever and clever, and matures earlier than children of the same age because of her parents. Although she occasionally makes noise on purpose when she wants something, she is a polite and cute little girl most of the time.

I am a disabled person who can't run and play at will, and I don't feel dissatisfied. I even stop to care about my feelings, for fear that my legs will hurt if I walk too fast.

According to Wu Yanrui's wish list, we played carousels, bumper cars, fun rock climbing and water parks. Both her and my hair were wet from the water, so we simply sat on the benches by the roadside and waited to dry Dry.

"Brother Junyan..." Wu Yanrui suddenly tugged at the corner of my clothes, "I want to eat ice cream."

A children's food truck is parked opposite, featuring cotton candy ice cream and hot dogs.I hesitated for a while: "It's already September, so it's not suitable to eat ice. How about buying you some cotton candy?"

"Alright." Wu Yanrui nodded logically, took out banknotes from the piggy Peppa backpack, and put them in my palm solemnly, "If you want strawberry flavor, you can buy two, and we will go together eat."

"Then you wait for me here, within my sight."

After all, the dining car was parked on the lawn not far away, and the little girl screamed too loudly just now, and now she looked listless, so I didn't intend to let her go with me.

When I was buying marshmallows, my peripheral vision stayed on Wu Yanrui all the time, and I didn't notice that I also bought strawberry flavor.Returning to her side with two pink clouds, Wu Yanrui grabbed a piece and put it in her mouth, her small face immediately wrinkled into a ball: "Hey, so sweet."

I tasted it, and my expression twisted for a moment: "Well, indeed."

That being said, the two of us still sat side by side and finished the marshmallows in our hands.Wu Yanrui's two short legs dangled back and forth, showing me her fingers and mouth that were dyed red by pigment.I wiped her with a tissue, and she puffed her face and made a serious expression: "Brother Junyan, we are good friends, right?"

"of course."

"Then can you tell me why you are sick?" she said. "I asked my mother, and my mother said it is a secret that cannot be asked, but I really want to know."

I touched her disheveled braid: "It's not a secret. If you want to know, I can tell you, but you can't say it."

"Well, it's a deal." Wu Yanrui reached out to hook me up, "In exchange, I'll also tell you a secret of mine."

I embellished my own experience and turned it into a story between three women.When talking about me falling down the stairs of Song Cheng's house, she whispered, "Why are they so bad?"

"Everyone expresses love differently, Song... maybe he just needs a sense of security and wants me to stay by his side."

"No." Wu Yanrui shook her head seriously, and counted with her fingers, "I like brother Junyan, so I know to be obedient, and if you don't let you run with me, you will feel uncomfortable. Mom likes Mimi at home, she will Take Mimi to the doctor in the middle of the night, and accompany her to get an injection. If love is more like than liking, why do those people treat you badly and leave you alone?"

I was dumbfounded for a moment, then smiled after a long silence: "You're right."

"It's okay, there will definitely be better girls who like you." She breathed a sigh of relief, and patted my arm like a little adult, "It's my turn to say—my secret is, I know why Mom and Dad divorced .”

"For a while, an elder sister always came home to look for her father. Mom was very angry, and my father said she shouldn't be angry because that elder sister was a patient. Brother Junyan, I don't understand, she can't tell that she is a patient at all, Why did you let her? Mom was crying because of her. So I don't hate you, but I ran to you and Sister Sun Ning when I heard that Dad brought back the sick again."

I believe that Wu Mian is not a man who would abandon his wife and daughter and cheat, not to mention that his wife has no resentment towards him, only regret and loss.Maybe that girl was just the spark that burned down an already shaky marriage.

I comforted: "Even if they are not together, I still love you in my heart."

"I know. My mother told me not to blame my father. It's not that they don't love each other, but they have no destiny to be a couple. They will be unhappy if they are forced to be together. I don't want them to be unhappy. It's good now. My father often asks how my mother is doing. , Mom will also care about Dad, we are still a family." Wu Yanrui folded her arms and pouted, "Don't treat me like a child, I'm very smart."

"Okay." I glanced at my watch, "It's almost five o'clock, do you want to go to the theme restaurant for dinner?"

She quickly put on a smiling face, raised her hand and held me: "Let's go."

By the time the puppet show ended, it was already past eight o'clock in the evening, and Wu Yanrui played like crazy for the whole afternoon. When the actors came out for the curtain call, they were too tired to keep their eyes open, and they didn't yell that it was time to watch the fireworks show. They lay in my arms and yawned. .

Holding a little girl is not particularly difficult for me, but I can't walk too fast, so I quickly fall behind the crowd.Wu Yanrui leaned on my shoulder and muttered the character lines just now, and suddenly leaned close to my ear: "Brother Junyan..."

"what happened?"

"It seems that someone is following us." She rubbed her eyes. "I've seen him several times before, and he has been playing the same game as us."

I frowned, worried that the movement of turning around with my child in my arms would expose my weakness of inconvenient legs and feet, so I patted Wu Yanrui on the back reassuringly, and continued to walk forward slowly: "It may be a coincidence, there are so many people in the playground, Bad guys dare not do anything."

The lights beside the road are in the shape of pumpkins in fairy tales, casting a warm yellow halo faintly, and the castle in the distance is shining brightly.

The crowds are scattered at several intersections. This time period is the peak of night activities, and not many people choose to leave the park. This road can be said to be sparse.

I pretended to be unintentional and looked back, but I didn't find any suspicious person, but there is nothing wrong with being vigilant, so I simply said to Wu Yanrui: "Let's not go to the parking lot, shall we meet up with my mother in the central square? You buy a glowing balloon to take home."

"Okay." She refused to let me continue hugging, "I'll walk by myself, otherwise Brother Junyan's arms will be very tired."

We stayed in the square and waited for Yan Xia to come over. The view here is wide, and many couples are waiting for the fireworks show. The noisy environment is reassuring.Seeing Yan Xia's silhouette from a distance, Wu Yanrui, who was teasing the duckling, ran towards her and threw herself into her mother's arms. Yan Xia stroked her hair, showing a gentle smile.

I breathed a sigh of relief, stood up and sorted out the bags of souvenirs at hand. The surrounding scenery suddenly changed from light to dark, and the crowd burst into cheers.

Gorgeous fireworks bloomed in the night sky, bursting out countless shining streamers.My line of sight was occupied by this beautiful and huge firework, and I didn't come back to my senses for a long time.

When the light dissipated, I noticed a man with a hood standing not far away, staring in my direction.Just as I was trying to identify who the other party was, another radiant firework illuminated the dark sky. Because of the backlight, I could only see his black outline clearly.

The man approached me step by step, and my heart suddenly throbbed.I can't tell what kind of emotion it is, I obviously want to escape but stop in place, even my fingers are trembling.

Countless fireworks pierced the sky and melted into a waterfall of light. He stood still in front of me, his fair and slender fingers took off his hood, revealing his blond hair and his usual beautiful face.

When I was stared into by those eyes, I seemed to fall into an icy blue lake.

"elder brother……"

His arms hugged tightly, strangling me to the point of suffocation.I tasted the salty taste of tears when I breathed and blended, and Andrei spoke with a choked nasal voice, muffled, and for some reason sounded like a puppy that had been strayed for a long time and finally found its owner.

The fireworks turned into sparks and fell, disappearing from sight.

"Don't...leave me again."