round spring

But one day, I couldn't bear it anymore, thinking that it would stretch time infinitely.

——An Yuan's Diary

"Dachun, drink some water." Sun Xue held the several-month-old child in one hand, and poured Shen Xingchun a glass of water with the other.

Shen Xingchun hurriedly stood up from his chair to take the water glass in Sun Xue's hand, and called "Fifth Sister".

Sun Xue was the fifth eldest, four years older than Shen Xingchun. Shen Xingchun's impression of her was the two days after she was retired by Shen Jianjun. The other children in the family were taken out by Sun Liang to work and earn money. At home, in the twelfth lunar month of winter, her cotton padded clothes were mended several times, her hands and feet were cracked and swollen from the cold, and she squatted next to the stove with a fever, roasting a sweet potato for him.

Shen Xingchun remembered that he ate up the blackened and burnt sweet potato skin, which was the only food he ate in those two days.

When Sun Xue heard Shen Xingchun calling her Fifth Sister, she was startled for a moment, then wiped her hands on her apron, smiled and said, "I didn't expect you to remember me."

"Remember," Shen Xingchun held the water glass in his hand, "You even baked a sweet potato for me that day."

"At that time, there was nothing else to eat at home, only sweet potatoes, potatoes and cabbage." Sun Xue said.

Shen Xingchun sat on the stool and looked around Sun Xue's house. He could see that Sun Xue's current conditions were better than before. At least there was no need to worry about food and clothing, but it could only be regarded as a very ordinary family.

Shen Xingchun looked at the child in Sun Xue's arms, and asked, "How old is the child?"

"Nine months."

"Are you alone at home? Where's your brother-in-law?"

The child in Sun Xue's arms groaned twice, she patted the child's back, rocked and coaxed the child as she walked, and waited for the child to sleep soundly before saying: "Your brother-in-law is working a long-term job outside and comes back once a week, by the way, The third brother lives in the back street, but he has gone out of town with his sister-in-law these days, and my mother is here to help me take care of the children, and sometimes goes to the third brother's."

Sun Xue also talked about several brothers and sisters, others were in other places, some had not been in contact with each other, and some had only met once in a few years, Shen Xingchun sat on the stool and quietly listened to the things that were related to him but not related to him. thing.

After Zhang Mei came back, she cleaned up Shen Xingchun's room for the night, and took out a bulging snakeskin bag after cleaning up.

"Dachun, here are peanuts in it, you take it with you when you go back tomorrow morning, it's for Grandma Shen."

Shen Xingchun put the bag aside, "I won't take peanuts anymore, you don't need to bring me anything, grandma's house also grows peanuts, and they grow quite a lot every year."

"Take it, this bag is full of big peanuts." Zhang Mei opened the snakeskin bag to show Shen Xingchun, grabbed a handful and put it on the table next to Shen Xingchun, "It's delicious, try it, it's all Newly harvested peanuts this year."

Sun Xue knew that if Shen Xingchun didn't pick it up, Zhang Mei would keep letting it go, so she took the snakeskin bag and put it at Shen Xingchun's feet, and said to Zhang Mei: "Mom, you go inside and rest for a while, I'll tell Dachun, I'll let him Take it tomorrow."

Zhang Mei smiled and said "Hey" a few times, although she responded and went back to the room, she turned around and searched a few times, finally found some candy in the drawer under the cabinet, and stuffed it to Shen Xingchun, "Dachun eats candy. "

Shen Xingchun took the candy from Zhang Mei's hand, swallowed the peanut in his mouth, and pushed aside a fruit candy in his hand. The candy had obviously been placed for a long time, and the candy was stuck to the candy paper. Tear it off and put it in your mouth.

Zhang Mei saw that he ate the candy, turned around with a smile, and took the child from Sun Xue's arms before going back to the house, "I'll take Xiaoya and go to sleep, you talk to your brother for a while, he has to go back tomorrow , can’t stay at home all the time.”

Sun Xue handed the child to Zhang Mei, and said, "Don't forget to take the medicine in the room."

Zhang Mei said "Yes" and slowly went back to the house with the baby in her arms.

Seeing Zhang Mei enter the house and close the door, Sun Xue wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes, then turned her head and said to Shen Xingchun: "Mom has liver cancer. It was diagnosed last month. The doctor said it couldn't be cured. Before Dad died, we thought you He sold you to another place. I only found out that you were still in the Shen family last year. In fact, she went to your school to visit you secretly at the beginning of the year. She came back after taking a look. This time she was found to be sick, and she always wanted to say go again. Look, she was afraid that I would be tired with the child, so she went by herself without telling me."

The candy in Shen Xingchun's mouth was not too sweet, and it stuck to his teeth. He stuffed the candy wrapper into his pocket and said, "Does Fifth Sister know the address of my grandma's home and the address of my school? Write to me if you have anything to do in the future."

"Hey, good," Sun Xue replied with a smile, "I'll write to you."

Before Shen Xingchun left the next morning, he pressed the cloth money bag Zhang Mei gave him under the pillow. In addition to the money Zhang Mei gave him, he also put his own savings in it, a total of more than 300.

Zhang Mei and Sun Xue had breakfast to send Shen Xingchun off. After all, Shen Xingchun still carried the bag of peanuts. Seeing that Zhang Mei's face was not very good, and Sun Xue was still taking the child, she said, "You don't have to send me off. It's hot, and there are children, I know the way myself."

Zhang Mei changed into clean and fitting clothes, but her face was still waxy white. She insisted on going, "Not far, there is a passing car at the entrance of the village. It's just a few steps away. I'll see you off."

Fortunately, the passing cars were fast, and Shen Xingchun got into the car without waiting for a few minutes at the intersection. He found a vacant seat by the window, opened the glass window and told Sun Xue to let her pack the pillows he slept on last night after returning.

Sun Xue sighed a few times, held the child and pointed to the bag on him: "Dachun, watch your bag on the way, don't lose it."

As soon as Sun Xue finished speaking, the driver closed the front door, shouted "departure" and stepped on the accelerator. Shen Xingchun realized what she meant, and opened his bag. Sure enough, he saw a yellow envelope inside. He opened it and took a look. There are more than 200 yuan.

Shen Xingchun lay down by the window and looked back. Zhang Mei was exhausted and fainted on the ground. Sun Xue held the child in one hand and supported Zhang Mei in the other, looking around helplessly and calling.

Shen Xingchun picked up his bag and ran to the front door, and said to the driver: "Master stop, I won't leave, I have something to do, I want to get off."

After breakfast, An Yuan and grandma pulled weeds in the vegetable garden and gathered the vegetable seedlings. The eggplant seedlings had grown very tall. They inserted a long wooden strip next to each eggplant seedling, and tied the eggplant seedlings to the wooden strips to fix them. good.

"Grandma, why hasn't my brother come back?" An Yuan asked while tying her up.

"Maybe we have to wait a while, or there may be some delays."

An Yuan looked up at the sky and said, "If you don't come back, it will be dark and difficult to walk on the road."

Grandma smiled and said, "It's not even noon yet, and it's getting dark early. Do you miss your brother? You miss him after only leaving for one night?"

When Lin Hao came, An Yuan raised his chin, staring at the sun above his head in a daze, holding a few sticks of wood in his hands, and on his head was wearing a straw hat with a wide brim, covering most of his face, revealing His skin was very red from the sun, the hair on his ears and temples was wet, and there was a little mud on his fair neck.

An Yuan felt someone standing on the ground. When he recognized Lin Hao against the sun, he quickly turned his eyes away and didn't dare to look at him. He turned around and continued to insert wooden sticks to fix the eggplant seedlings.

He was terrified all night last night, wondering if Lin Hao would tell Shen Xingchun that he wanted to tear up his diary several times, but failed after several attempts, he also knew that he would not To tear it up, even if it is torn off, it doesn't mean anything, he couldn't get rid of the longing for Shen Xingchun from the bottom of his heart, so he finally put the diary into his schoolbag properly.

Lin Hao didn't look at An Yuan any more, and turned to call Grandma Shen: "Grandma, the phone number in the village is from Dachun, let me call you."

When An Yuan heard that it was Shen Xingchun, he stopped what he was doing, stood up and ran out of the vegetable garden along the ridge, and asked Lin Hao, "My brother's phone number?"

Lin Hao looked at the mud and wooden sticks in An Yuan's hands, nodded and said, "Well, your brother's phone number."

Grandma Shen also heard it, and when she straightened her waist, she saw that An Yuan had already run out, so she said to him directly: "Xiao Yuan, go and answer your brother's phone call, it must be delayed by something over there."

An Yuan patted the mud on his hands, put down the wooden stick in his hand, raised his legs and ran towards the village committee in a hurry.

Lin Hao looked at the back of An Yuan who was running away quickly, and remembered the diary he accidentally saw yesterday. He didn't sleep well last night, and all he thought about was this over and over again. He regretted that he owed to look through it He would rather not know anything, but since An Yuan won't let him tell Shen Xingchun, he won't talk too much, but he doesn't know what will happen to An Yuan and Shen Xingchun, after thinking about it messily, Lin Hao has long The invisible figure sighed heavily.

An Yuan was running, Shen Xingchun had already hung up the phone, An Yuan was missing, the village committee member said that Shen Xingchun would call back in 10 minutes.

An Yuan glanced at his hands that were still covered with mud, went to the yard to get some well water to wash, dried the water on his hands, went into the house, sat by the phone and waited quietly.

Ten minutes later, the phone rang. Shen Xingchun thought it was grandma, so he first explained the situation on the phone, and then said that he would be delayed for a few days, and he would not be able to go back until a few days later.

An Yuan waited for him to finish speaking before dragging his voice, and called "Brother" to the phone.

"It's Xiaoyuan, I thought it was grandma."

"It's me, when are you coming back?"

"I won't be able to go back until a few days later. You can go back and tell grandma later."

"How many days is it in a few days?"

"I'm not sure how long I'll be staying for the time being. I'm in the hospital with Fifth Sister right now, and I'm on the water."

"Okay, I see," An Yuan said, "Is Auntie's health important?"

"not too good."

"Then in the hospital, I should pay more attention to myself."

"You don't have to worry about me," Shen Xingchun asked after finishing speaking, "What are you doing at home?"

"My grandma and I are pulling weeds and growing eggplant seedlings in the vegetable garden," An Yuan raised the brim of the straw hat that had been pressed down on his head. The hat belonged to his grandfather, and it was a bit too big for him.

"Is it hot?" Shen Xingchun asked.

An Yuan wiped the sweat from his temples and said sullenly, "It's hot."

"Don't be greedy for cold even if it's hot, don't drink cold water."

"Understood, I don't drink cold water."

After An Yuan finished speaking, he heard Shen Xingchun talking to other people. He couldn't hear what the people said, but Shen Xingchun said he understood.

"Xiao Yuan'er, are you still listening?" Shen Xingchun asked An Yuan after talking to the people over there.

"Listening." An Yuan pinched the phone line with his fingers and twisted them around.

"I won't tell you anymore, I'll hang up first?"

An Yuan remained silent, and another person entered the room, standing two steps behind him, apparently waiting for or making a phone call.

Without wasting any more time, he hurriedly talked to Shen Xingchun and hung up the phone first.

An Yuan only ate two bites for lunch, and grandma saw him absent-minded, and asked him, "What's the matter? Did you miss your brother?"

An Yuan nodded, "Well, I thought he would be back today."

"Grandpa told me last night that Dachun's mother's illness should not be very good, and his mother is also suffering. Dachun should take care of her for a few days."

An Yuan felt a little regretful that he didn't go with Shen Xingchun yesterday, but after one night, he was not used to it, so he put down the chopsticks in his hand and said, "Grandma, I want to find my brother."

It's the last chapter