cute and cool

When I got off work the next day, Qiao Beixin came again.

Cheng Wang asked speechlessly: "Why don't you go back and cook quickly, why are you looking for me?"

Qiao Beixin was quite confident: "I cook...you know that level."

Cheng Wang laughed angrily: "You don't want to improve?"

Qiao Beixin said sincerely: "I'm improving now. My mother certified it. It's much better than a few years ago. This can't be done overnight."

When getting off the subway, Cheng Wang patted his head and asked, "Let me go buy some fruit. Is watermelon okay?"

Qiao Beixin shook her head: "She can't eat it. Last time she ate two pieces of watermelon, she kept having diarrhea. And my dad and comrades-in-arms will bring something when they come over, so don't buy it."

"How inappropriate to go there empty-handed!"

Cheng Wang's hair was shaggy, and two or three hairs stood up on top of his head and fluttered in the wind.Qiao Bei thought to himself that he must have rolled all over the bed last night to sleep with his hair like this.

The soft two or three hairs made Qiao Beixin's heart soft.

He resisted the urge to rub those few hairs, and said, "She will be very happy if you go to see her, nothing else matters."

When she got home, Qiao Beixin opened the door, and there were already several middle-aged people standing upright in the living room.

Qiao Beixin greeted and introduced Cheng Wang one by one.

Liang Yilan was in good spirits today, she was not in a wheelchair, and walked out of the bedroom slowly, holding on to the furniture.

Several men who can cook are helping Aunt Huan clean up in the kitchen, while others are sitting in the living room chatting.

Twenty minutes later, Aunt Huan came out to greet everyone for dinner.

Liang Yilan still refused his son's support, walked over carefully and took a seat.But as soon as she picked up the chopsticks, she suddenly raised her head, glanced left and right a few times, and asked suspiciously: "Why, Xiao Fei didn't come today?"

The originally bustling dining table suddenly fell silent.

This group of middle-aged men with loud voices made the house noisy before, but now they are quieter than each other. They all lower their heads and look at the rice bowl in front of them, and no one wants to make a sound.

A few minutes later, an extremely suppressed gasp was heard on the table.

In the end, it was Liu Ming who spoke out.He put the chopsticks by the side of the bowl—even though he was extremely careful, he still made a little noise.

He forced himself to cheer up, forced a weak smile at Liang Yilan, and said, "Xiao Fei...Xiao Fei is going to accompany Faith."

Liang Yilan was dumbfounded, and nodded after a few seconds. She looked at the remaining people and said in a low voice, "Oh, oh. I remember, Xiao Fei and Faith used to have a good relationship..."

Have a good meal, because the topic seems so heavy.

After dinner, Qiao Beixin sent them downstairs, while Cheng Wang stayed upstairs with Liang Yilan.

It was still early, and the woman didn't want to go to rest so early, so she leaned on the window sill and looked down.

She was in a trance, why are everyone at this age?In a blink of an eye, the oldest one is over 50 years old.

She murmured: "Time flies so fast. Why are you at this age? Last year Xiao Fei was still healthy."

Cheng Wang looked at her, not knowing how to comfort her.

The woman said again: "This year is Xiaofei, maybe next year it will be me..."

Cheng Wang felt very sad when he heard this: "Auntie, don't say that."

Liang Yilan didn't show any pain or sadness, and there was even a faint smile on the corner of her mouth: "Birth, old age, sickness and death are human nature, you don't need to force it, and you can't force it."

She seemed to take all these things aside: "It doesn't mean that you have to live a hundred years to be considered complete. I have experienced everything that should be experienced. I have no regrets, and I don't feel hard. I just feel happy."

She even comforted Cheng Wang in turn: "Xiao Wang, don't feel sad. Recently, I've been dreaming about Xinxin's father."

Speaking of her long-lost lover, a rare sweetness appeared on the woman's face.

"It's almost time, it's time..."

When Cheng Wang left, Liang Yilan smiled and said to him: "Xiao Wang, if you don't like him, just refuse."

Qiao Beixin was speechless: "Mom."

Liang Yilan's words made Cheng Wang very worried, and he urged Qiao Beixin to go back as soon as he walked downstairs.

"How is Auntie doing recently? Are you okay?"

Qiao Beixin stood where he was and sighed. He couldn't speak, so he could only shake his head.

"Then...is there any other way?"

Qiao Beixin still shook his head.

After this time, Cheng Wang visited Liang Yilan more frequently.

But not long after, Liang Yilan was hospitalized again.

This time, her condition was already very bad.

The scorching heat passed quickly, and Qinshi entered autumn and then winter.

Liang Yilan was repeatedly discharged from the hospital and then hospitalized again. It is difficult to tell whether she spent more time at home or more time in the hospital in the past few months.

By October, Liang Yilan was too sick to take care of herself, and she was rarely sober during the day.

Old people often say that winter is hard.

In the winter of that year, there were several snowfalls in Qinshi.It is said that Ruixue heralds a good year, but Ruixue cannot leave behind a seriously ill woman.

Liang Yilan didn't survive that winter.

On the afternoon of a weekday in November, Cheng Wang received a call from Qiao Beixin.

His heartbeat started to speed up when he saw that the caller was Qiao Beixin - what kind of thing would make him call himself on a weekday afternoon.

Cheng Wang shook his hands and pressed the screen twice, but he couldn't connect to the phone.

He suppressed his heart, calmed down for a moment, and pressed the screen again——

The voice on the phone was noisy, and Qiao Beixin didn't speak for a long time, but Cheng Wang could hear his slight breathing.

Cheng Wang ran out of the office, found the quietest place nearby, and waited quietly for Qiao Beixin to speak.

After a while, a voice finally came from the other end of the phone.

"……she left."

The funeral is very simple, and the older generation has long since disappeared. The funeral follows the woman's wish during her lifetime, simple and low-key.

Qiao Xin's comrades-in-arms helped arrange the funeral.

They have sent away many brothers over the years, and now they have to send away their widows.

Qiao Beixin probably had expected such a day. During the whole funeral, he appeared calm and silent, only the black band on his arm was extremely eye-catching.

The stubborn but fragile boy at the beginning finally grew up. He groped how to shoulder the responsibilities on his shoulders, and understood that some things could only be digested and handled by himself.

On the day when the ashes were placed, Qiao Beixin politely refused to be accompanied by other people, and only asked Cheng Wang's opinion: "Can you go with me?

With red eyes, Cheng Wang agreed.

About a year ago, Liang Yilan mentioned this matter, and Qiao Beixin bought a monument for her parents to be buried together in advance according to her wishes.

There are not many things put together, only the letters between my parents when they were young and in love.

The letter paper has long since turned yellow, and the writing on the pen has also become blurred with the oxidation of the ink.

Qiao Beixin has been holding back from looking through it, always feeling that her parents' love should not be disturbed.

It was just that he was still sad. When the thick envelope was put in, Qiao Bei's heart trembled, and the letters scattered all over the floor.

More than 20 years have passed, and the letter paper has become brittle. He bent down to pick it up, carefully squeezed it back into the envelope, and accidentally caught a glimpse of the contents of a certain letter.

Compared with Qiao Beixin's delicate handwriting, his father's handwriting is obviously more free and easy, and he looks like a man who is not afraid of anything.

But such a man is more tender than anyone else when he writes a love letter.

"My wife Yilan: The application for transfer back to the mainland has been completed, and I will submit it tomorrow. The border is difficult, but it is far less painful than the separation between you and me. When you leave, my heart also leaves."

The writing on the edges was blurry and the paper was uneven.

Qiao Beixin knew that this was what it looked like after being wet by water.

He hastily flipped through the other letters, each beginning with the same four words.

My wife Yilan.

Qiao Beixin sealed the envelope silently, put it in the box, and was about to close it when Cheng Wang stopped her.

He fumbled in his pocket, took out a long and thin thing, and stuffed it into Qiao Beixin's hand.

This is the old pen that Qiao Beixin gave him a long time ago, and it is a relic of Qiao Beixin's faith.

Qiao Beixin was a little surprised: "Why did you bring it here?"

Cheng Wang said: "Return it to the original owner, return it to uncle and aunt."

Qiao Beixin shook his head and said, "No, I gave it to you, you just keep it."

"I know, but..." Cheng Wang didn't know what to say, and insisted that Qiao Beixin put the pen in together.

"Okay." Qiao Beixin didn't shirk anymore, took the pen, and put it in the box together with the thick envelope.

When he looked up again, he saw the photo pasted on the tombstone.

The posthumous photo followed Liang Yilan's wish and replaced it with the original photo of the two together.

The father, whom he had never met before, had a tanned face, his short body was close to his scalp, and he smiled foolishly at the camera.His wife was wearing two thick braids, leaning against him, smiling sweetly and gently.

When I went back, I was speechless all the way.

Qiao Beixin fell asleep in the car.

From the moment Liang Yilan passed away until now, his emotions have been well controlled, and all the sadness has been hidden in his heart, trying to adapt to the identity of a reliable adult.

Cheng Wang didn't know how much of this "reliability" was real, and how much was pretended by him, but Cheng Wang did notice his busy and exhausted time.

After seeing him fall asleep, Cheng Wang muted his phone and sat beside him, wanting to sleep too.

But he couldn't sleep.

Liang Yilan's departure made Cheng Wangzhen feel sad.

Liang Yilan is gentle, quiet, patient and tolerant.

... How he wished to have such a mother.

After leaving his mother, he quickly erased those unpleasant experiences from his mind. Although they occasionally appeared in his dreams, he knew clearly that those were all in the past.

At the beginning, there will be longing, and then it will become numb, and the days of being dependent on each other are not bad.

It's just that after comparison, I know that no matter how good the elder brother is, he can't replace the mother's position.

How much he wants to experience the life of being ordered by his mother to buy spices, buy fruits, and greet guests...

Cheng Wang blinked and wiped away the tears from the corners of his eyes.

After returning to Qiao Beixin's house, he asked about the pen.

Cheng Wang said: "The significance is too great. I was afraid of losing it, so I kept it at home and didn't take it to school. I found it the other day. I thought I should return it to my uncle and aunt. It's useless for me to keep it."

Qiao Beixin nodded slowly, and said, "Actually, you can keep... Forget it, put it all in. It's meaningless to say that."

After the two had a simple dinner, Cheng Wang said goodbye and went home.

"Don't send it away, you have worked hard these two days, go to rest early." He said.

The short sleep during the drive did not give Qiao Beixin a moment of rest, but instead made him exhausted.He seemed to be the fragile boy who faltered a few years ago when he first learned that his mother was seriously ill.

He lowered his head and thought for a while, but instead of answering Cheng Wang's words, he started another topic and asked him: "Xiao Wang..."

Cheng Wang nodded in doubt.

Qiao Beixin pressed him to sit on the sofa, sat next to him behind him, and put his hands on his face, refusing to let him turn around.

Immediately afterwards, Cheng Wang heard Qiao Beixin ask in a low voice, "Can I give you a hug?"

The familiar body temperature quickly spread from the shoulder.

Qiao Beixin leaned her forehead against his back, and tightly wrapped her arms around his waist.

It was the coldest season of the year, Cheng Wang was sitting in the heating room wearing a thick sweater, the clothes on his back were soaked with tears.