round spring

When I left Brother Chun's house, I always wanted to look back...

——An Yuan's Diary

Difficult times always pass slowly, but even if you count the minutes on your fingers, time always passes.

An Yuan stayed at Shen Xingchun's house for another half a month. During this half month, he stayed by Shen Xingchun's side, never leaving. Wherever Shen Xingchun went, he went.

Shen Xingchun always said that he was a little follower, but An Yuan just smiled when he heard that, and followed along without refuting.

The weather has been very good, there were two light snowfalls in the middle, and it has been sunny since then, with the sun hanging overhead at noon, bringing a little warmth.

Grandparents went out, An Yuan followed Shen Xingchun to play with the big yellow dog in the yard.

"Brother, Da Huang is too old, how old is Da Huang?" An Yuan asked while stroking Da Huang's head.

Before, An Yuan only thought that Rhubarb had a docile temper, that's why he always stayed in his own den, lazily, moving when he could, and barking when he couldn't. After a few days he often came out, he realized that Rhubarb was It is because it is too old, the hair on the tip of its mouth has turned white, and its teeth are slowly falling off. The dog food that Rhubarb eats is very soft. Shen Xingchun soaks it in boiling water every time, and then feeds Rhubarb after scratching it with his hands. .

An Yuan squatted next to the kennel, and after touching it a few times, Rhubarb slowly opened his eyes, grunted a few times, and then lay down with his eyelids closed again.

Shen Xingchun touched Rhubarb's paw and said, "Duhuang is 12 years old, and he has been with me for 12 years."

An Yuan murmured, "I'm also twelve this year, Rhubarb is the same age as me, but it's already old, but I'm still a child."

"Dogs have a short lifespan."

While the two were talking, Rhubarb moved his ears, raised his eyelids and looked in the direction of the door, got up and yelled symbolically at the door twice, indicating that someone was coming.

Shen Xingchun and An Yuan looked in the direction of the courtyard gate at the same time. A middle-aged, slightly fat woman came in from the courtyard gate. The woman had a black leather bag on her shoulder, was wearing a mink coat, had yellow hair that stood out, and high-heeled shoes Step on the ground, "da da" sound.

"you are?"

Just as Shen Xingchun finished asking, An Yuan stood beside him and called out to the woman, "Biaogu."

The woman who came was An Guoqing's cousin Li Xiuzhen. Li Xiuzhen took off the leather gloves on her hands, stood in the middle of the yard and walked around, first looked around, and then gave a faint "Hey", which was a response to An Yuan's call just now. people's words.

Shen Xingchun asked An Yuan in a low voice: "Is she your cousin?"

An Yuan nodded and said, "Yes."

An Yuan looked at his cousin. He knew that her cousin was here to take him away. He had lived in her cousin's house before, but he didn't like living in her cousin's house. There were not so many reasons for a child. His intuition was that his cousin The family doesn't like him very much, it can be felt from a person's micro-expressions and movements, now that he is looking at his cousin like this, the feeling of being dependent on others has engulfed him.

But An Yuan knew that his father had entrusted him to his cousin, so he stood beside Shen Xingchun and hesitated for a while, then walked a few steps forward, walked up to Li Xiuzhen, raised his head and called her "cousin" ".

Li Xiuzhen looked around again, and after a while, she looked down at An Yuan and asked, "How are you living here?"

An Yuan nodded and said, "Very good, my grandparents and brother are very kind to me. They cooked me a lot of delicious food, ordered milk for me, and..."

Li Xiuzhen obviously didn't want to hear what he continued, so she interrupted him: "Your father told me in the letter, let me take you back."

Shen Xingchun watched An Yuan's hand hanging by his side pinching the seam of his trousers, his chin retracted, he felt An Yuan's bewilderment, walked quickly to An Yuan's side, and stood against his shoulder, Tell Li Xiuzhen: "Is it my cousin? Come in and sit down."

Li Xiuzhen glanced at him, and Shen Xingchun clearly saw the disgusted expression in Li Xiuzhen's eyes. Although he didn't like it, he couldn't say anything, after all, she was An Yuan's cousin.

He just quietly held An Yuan's fingers that were still twisting the seam of his trousers, and wrapped his whole hand in the palm of his hand.

An Yuan's feeling of helplessness and panic just now was held by Shen Xingchun in the palm of his hand, and it was only in the palm of his hand, and his heartbeat gradually stabilized.

Li Xiuzhen glanced at An Yuan and said, "Go and pack your things."

An Yuan's heart that had stabilized just a little bit suddenly fell to the bottom, and asked: "Cousin, shall we leave now? Is it in such a hurry?"

"Otherwise?" Li Xiuzhen felt that there was no problem, "I came here to pick you up. I changed trains twice along the way, and took a long bus ride. I have already wasted a lot of time."

An Yuan moved her chin, and touched the calluses on Shen Xingchun's fingers with the fingers that were shrunk in Shen Xingchun's hand.

Shen Xingchun touched An Yuan's fingers reassuringly, and then gave way to Li Xiuzhen, "Cousin has worked hard all the way, so I went into the house to drink some water, it's noon, eat lunch before leaving, An Yuan has a lot of things, let him clean up."

When Grandpa Shen and Grandma Shen came back, they saw a woman they had never seen before sitting on a stool in the middle of the main room. Grandpa Shen knew who it was when he thought about it.

"Is it Cousin Xiaoyuan?"

Li Xiuzhen stood up from the stool and nodded towards them, "Yes, I am Li Xiuzhen, An Guoqing should have told you, I am here to pick up An Yuan."

"I didn't expect you to come so soon. I thought Xiao Yuan'er would be able to stay home for the New Year before leaving." Grandpa Shen patted Grandma Shen's hand, "You cook some food for cousin."

Li Xiuzhen waved her hand and said, "No, I won't bother you here. I'm just here to pick up the child, and I'll leave after picking him up. I still have to drive."

"What time does the car leave?" Grandma Shen asked.

"At eight o'clock in the evening." Li Xiuzhen said.

"It's too late," Grandma Shen said, "cousin, sit down for a while, I'll go to the kitchen to cook."

Just as Li Xiuzhen was about to say no, Grandma Shen had already turned around and entered the kitchen. In the end, she had no choice but to sit back on the chair.

An Yuan in the room was slowly stuffing things into his small schoolbag, while Shen Xingchun folded his arms and leaned against the edge of the Kang.

An Yuan didn't have many things in the first place, many of the things he used these days were Shen Xingchun's, and if he wanted to waste time, there was nothing left to store.

After he zipped up his schoolbag, Shen Xingchun asked him: "Who is in your cousin's house?"

"Cousin, cousin, and a cousin."

"What does your cousin do?"

"She and my cousin both work in a factory, a shoe factory."

"Are you familiar with them?"

An Yuan nodded, "Familiar, I stayed at my cousin's house a few times before when my dad was on a business trip."

Shen Xingchun glanced out along the crack of the door, but he couldn't see Li Xiuzhen, and he also felt that he was overthinking it. Li Xiuzhen might not be a hot tempered person, after all, she was a pro-cousin, so it couldn't be too bad.

Shen Xingchun took out a box of candied fruit from his pocket and handed it to An Yuan, "Here, something to eat on the road."

An Yuan looked at the box in Shen Xingchun's hand. The box was transparent. It used to contain calcium tablets or something, but now it was full of candied fruit. He took the box in Shen Xingchun's hand and said softly "Thank you brother".

Shen Xingchun smiled and raised his hand to pinch An Yuan's face, and said, "You're welcome, study hard when you get home, don't worry about anything else, your father's address and my address, I'll write you a copy later , you can write."

An Yuan nodded without saying a word, put the box of candied fruit into her schoolbag, put it together with her bottles and cans, and then kept her head down, staring at her sweater.

He was still wearing Shen Xingchun's sweater, and there were many balls on the clothes. He grabbed the hair balls on the sweater one by one, and finally put the plucked balls in the palm of his hand and rubbed them into a small gray ball the size of a little finger. Ball, rub back and forth.

Shen Xingchun took out a piece of paper and a pen, wrote down the address of An Guoqing Detention Center, his home address and the phone number of the village committee, folded the note, put it in the middle of Anyuan's schoolbag, and ordered One sentence, "The note is in your schoolbag for you, don't lose it."

An Yuan pursed her lips and let out a muffled "um".

The grandparents in the kitchen were squatting beside the stove, whispering something, and Grandma Shen raised her chin towards the direction of the door, "Look at the child's cousin, can you treat the child well?"

Grandpa Shen said: "After all, she is the child's cousin."

Grandma Shen turned her head, added two sticks of firewood to the bottom of the pot, then suddenly turned her head to look at Grandpa Shen and said, "Old man, why don't you let Xiaoyuan stay at our house."

Grandpa Shen was silent for a while, and said: "Xiao Yuan'er is a child in the city, no matter how uncomfortable it is to be with her cousin, it is better than in our village, and the education in the city is much better than ours in all aspects. Oh, the child has never suffered before, in our house, I feel wronged..."

Grandma Shen didn't quite agree with his statement: "It was my life that was saved during the National Day. Seeing that the child is lonely now, our conditions are not as good as those in the city. As long as we treat him kindly, it won't be too bad."

Grandpa Shen said: "We can't forcefully keep the child. It was arranged for the National Day. He will naturally find the best child."

When Grandma Shen heard it, it was indeed the reason, and she didn't say anything...

After lunch, it was already two o'clock in the afternoon. Li Xiuzhen actually put down her chopsticks before taking a few bites. No matter how much Grandpa Shen and Grandma Shen made concessions, she didn't move her chopsticks again, but An Yuan kept eating the rice in the bowl slowly. .

Finally, Li Xiuzhen became a little impatient, and urged: "Is An Yuan full?"

An Yuan hurriedly put down the bowls and chopsticks, sat up straight, and said, "Cousin, I'm full."

"Let's go when you're full, I really won't be able to catch the car later."

An Yuan followed her cousin out the door with her schoolbag on her back. Grandpa, grandma and Shen Xingchun sent them to the intersection of the main road. Grandma Shen suddenly thought of something, and called An Yuan again, "Xiao Yuan, wait, I left something behind. Grandma will go back and get it for you."

Li Xiuzhen slung the handbag over her shoulder and said, "It's been packed for hours, why are things still left behind?"

Grandma Shen said: "Blame me, I left something for the child."

After she finished speaking, she waved to An Yuan, "Xiao Yuan'er, come here and follow grandma into the house to get things."

An Yuan took two steps, and ran to Grandma Shen, who took him by the shoulders and led him into the house. She took out a stitched cloth bag from her pocket until the door was closed, and tied the bag open. It tightened a little, and then stuffed it into Xiao Yuan'er's hand, "Xiao Yuan'er, put this away, keep it close to your body, don't lose it."

An Yuan pinched it with his hand, and knew that it contained money, and it contained a lot of money. He put the money back into Grandma Shen's hand and said, "Grandma, I don't want your money."

"This is not grandma's." Grandma Shen stuffed the money back into An Yuan's hands, "This is what your father left before he left. Now that you have gone to someone else's house, what you want to buy may not be so random. Put it away, save some flowers, don't throw them away."

An Yuan had a sore nose, and nodded while pinching the purse.

When An Yuan came out with grandma, Shen Xingchun was standing outside the door, kicking the snow in the yard with his head down, the brim of his hat was still crooked, his chin was tense, and there was no expression on his profile.

"Brother..." An Yuan called him.

Shen Xingchun turned around when he heard the voice, smiled at An Yuan, walked to his side, raised his hand and squeezed his face again, this time he quickly let go, and pressed the brim of his hat again Brushed his hair.

"Your hair has grown. Go back and cut it. Your face is not round anymore. Eat more food, drink milk, and grow up. Do you hear me?"

It took An Yuan a while to answer with a choked throat: "Brother, I heard it."

Still carrying the small bag on her back, An Yuan walked behind Li Xiuzhen's side, falling half a step away, following Li Xiuzhen's pace, walking out at times fast and sometimes slowly.

Shen Xingchun looked at the little curved back, which was very different from the child with his chin raised and back straight when he came. He stood at the intersection with frowning eyebrows and watched for a long time, watching his back getting smaller and smaller .

An Yuan followed Li Xiuzhen for another ten or twenty meters, then stopped suddenly, looked back at her grandparents, and then at Shen Xingchun.

He suddenly raised his leg and ran back a few steps, and finally stopped in the middle of the road. After a little distance, he panted and asked Shen Xingchun loudly: "Brother, will we meet again in the future?"

The sun above his head was a bit dazzling, Shen Xingchun squinted his eyes, and after thinking for a long time, he said: "Not necessarily, maybe, maybe not..."