Three or Two Things about Rebirth

As soon as he got off the train, Qiu Luming was dumbfounded. It was too cold!

The station was empty, and the northwest wind was howling, sweeping up the newly fallen snow and blowing towards the passengers who had just got off the train.

Qiu Luming was wearing an orange, ankle-length thick down jacket. Although it was bulging and ugly, it blocked most of the wind and snow for her.

But her nose couldn't stand the sudden cold air. She could hardly breathe, and her feet were instantly frozen. She jumped on both feet like a wooden peg, screaming madly, and covered her nose with the scarf. As a result, a layer of white frost soon formed on her eyelashes.

Qiu Jiashu jumped off the car without even looking at her. He picked up two bags in each hand and strode towards the exit against the wind. Qiu Luming quickly hid behind him, jogging to catch up, and followed the crowd out of the station.

When they arrived at the bus station and found the bus to Jiayang, Qiu Jiashu asked Qiu Luming to get on the bus first. He climbed onto the roof from the ladder at the back of the bus, placed the two large bags on the roof and tied them up, and then carried the remaining two bags onto the bus.

As soon as Qiu Luming got on the bus, he looked at the mess of black footprints on the ground and was a little confused about where to sit. The driver smiled and said, "Hey, the college student is back!" Then he pointed to the seat behind him, "Numbers one and two!"

"Thank you!"

"What are you thanking me for? Teacher He paid for the ticket."

Qiu Luming thought for a moment and said, "Thank you for reserving a good seat for me."

At this time, Qiu Jiashu got on the bus, stuffed his bag under the seat, and greeted the driver and the familiar people in the back. Most of the passengers on this bus knew each other and exchanged pleasantries warmly.

Qiu Luming wiped the white frost off his eyelashes, looked at Qiu Jiashu and said, "Hey? Second brother, why don't you have eyelashes?"

Handsome guy Qiu Jiashu was so angry that he said, "I have it! It's just not as long as yours."

"Really? Let me see. Oh, your single eyelid is pressed down. But your eyebrows are quite long and wide. You looked like an old man with white eyebrows just now!"

"...Qiu Luming! Are you sure you don't want to eat some more scones and gag your mouth?"

Qiu Luming chuckled, took off his scarf and sat down.

There is no train from Jiayang, and the road condition to Tanghe is also not good. This road is more than a hundred kilometers long, with mountain roads, steep slopes, and permafrost areas. It seems that this road is always under repair, but will never be repaired.

In short, it takes a lot of effort for people in Jiayang to go out.

The heavy snow this time has made driving even more difficult.

The bus was not big, with nearly thirty people sitting in it, and some people were sitting on small benches in the aisle. The bus was not cold. There was a thick heating pipe next to Qiu Luming's right foot, which led to the last row of seats. After ten minutes of driving, she was so hot that she unzipped her down jacket.

It was just that someone, probably because their shoes were wet, took them off and put them on the heating pipe to dry, making the whole car filled with the smell of stinky feet. Qiu Luming pinched his nose and wanted to complain, but he heard the aunt in the back seat speak loudly, "Oh my god, whose socks are burnt? Put them on, it's enough!"

Everyone in the car laughed. Later, no one knew whether the man had put on shoes or was numb from the smoke, but Qiu Luming never smelled the stinky feet again.

There were very few vehicles on the road and the bus was moving very slowly. Most of the passengers were silent, with only a few chatting in low voices.

Qiu Luming was drowsy when the bus suddenly stopped.

The driver put on a cotton hat and got out to check. After a while, he came back with a hissing sound from the cold and said that the big smoke bomber in front had scraped a meter and a half of snow on the road. Then he pulled out two shovels from under the seat. Seeing this, Qiu Jiashu immediately got out of the car to shovel the snow, and did not forget to turn around and remind Qiu Luming, "You are not allowed to get off the car!"

Several young and strong men got off the bus one after another. From the front windshield of the bus, we could see more than 20 people shoveling snow. After about ten minutes, a group of people came back happily, as if shoveling snow made them very happy.

Even though they were stamping their feet under the bus, several people still brought a lot of snow onto the bus, and the floor of the bus was muddy and very dirty.

The driver drove the bus to the side of the road and stopped, waiting for the oncoming vehicles to pass. Twenty minutes later, he moved forward again. Less than half an hour later, he stopped again.

A jeep had driven into a roadside ditch and a Liberation truck was towing it out. Many passengers breathed out their breath to melt the ice on the windows and looked out to see what was going on.

This time we were delayed for another half an hour before we could move forward again.

At the bottom of a big slope, all the passengers got off the bus. The male passengers pushed the bus and the female passengers followed behind on foot up the slope. She heard a little boy of about seven or eight years old whisper, "Mom, look at that woman. She looks like a big penguin!"

She turned around and found him accurately. She pointed at him in a warning. The little boy was startled and shouted in panic, "Mom seems to have heard it!"

Qiu Luming smiled. This morning, she discovered that her ears were extremely sensitive and could move. As long as she moved her ears, she could hear subtle sounds that others could not hear. If she didn't move her ears, she would be no different from an ordinary person.

——No one in the family knows this secret.

Just now on the bus, she heard two men and women of different ages whispering to each other, saying things that gave her goose bumps and sounded like they were having an improper relationship.

She couldn't help but glance at the female passengers. A woman in a blue-gray old woolen coat caught her attention. Her outfit was very eye-catching, but the knee-high boots on her feet seemed to have poor anti-slip performance and she had slipped twice.

Finally, a man in a military coat ran down the slope and pulled her up the slope.

As soon as the two spoke, Qiu Luming immediately confirmed that they were the two people whispering sweet nothings in the car.

Then I heard the two women behind me snort, "What a joke! Less than two months after your wife died, you already found another one!"

"That's not bad. His wife is such a good person at managing her life. She doesn't mind eating or wearing anything. Now, let's make this witch happy!"

"Emma is over 40 years old, what's the point?"

"Oh, what do you think? What does a man want in a wife?"

Qiu Jiashu also ran over and dragged Qiu Luming up the hill. Everyone got back on the bus. Qiu Luming noticed that Qiu Jiashu knew the man in the military coat. The two chatted for a few words and seemed to be colleagues.

The bus stopped and started along the way. The journey that should have taken more than two hours took a full eight hours. When the bus entered Jiayang County, it was already dark.

"Brother Zhang, let's stop at the fire station!" a pretty girl said to the driver in a sweet voice.

The driver didn't say anything and stopped the car when he arrived at the intersection of the fire station.

"Daguo, stop for me at the intersection of the Water Conservancy Bureau!" This time it was an uncle.

When we arrived at the intersection of the Water Conservancy Bureau, the bus stopped again. The uncle got off and said to the driver, "Well, Daguo, come to my house when you have time!"

"Hey, uncle, take care!"

The driver turned around and asked Qiu Jiashu, "Brother, why don't you get off? You can save yourself a lot of time if you get off here!"

"Brother Zhang and I are getting off at the bus station, and my eldest brother will pick us up."

The bus turned and soon drove into the bus station yard. A headlight illuminated the yard brightly, and several people came out from the waiting room when they heard the sound.

Qiu Luming was in the front seat and got off the bus first. At the door, a man wearing a big cotton hat and a white mask held her arm and asked, "Are you hungry?"

I couldn't see his face clearly, but the voice was the same as my father Qiu Jiye's in my memory.

She stood blankly at the car door, looking at her father, and many memories came to her mind.

Qiu Jiashu asked in surprise from behind, "Dad, why are you here to pick him up? Where's my eldest brother?"

"Your eldest brother is on the night shift today." Qiu Jiye answered as he pulled Qiu Luming out of the car, rubbed her hat, and pulled down his mask. "My silly girl, after not seeing you for half a year, you don't recognize your dad?"

Under the light of the winter night, Qiu Luming felt a little dizzy. His two fathers looked different, but they felt very similar in his heart.

During the Republic of China, before she was ten years old, her father loved her very much. Although she had no mother, she never lacked family love. But after her father remarried, most of his energy and love were gradually divided between her stepmother and the several children she had. She felt sad because her father was no longer her father alone. She became the unnecessary person in the family, so she would rather stay away than watch them love each other.

The father in front of her has loved her deeply for the past eighteen years.

Qiu Luming was overwhelmed with emotions and couldn't help but hug his father, "Dad!"

After crying enough, she realized that she was sitting on a sled, being pulled by her second brother under the dim street lights. His shadow moved forward and backward. Her father was walking beside the sled, and when he saw that she had stopped crying, he patted her head again.

Alas, her tears began to flow again.

The bus station was in the west of the city, and the Qiu family lived on the riverside in the east of the city. The three of them walked for more than half an hour before they finally reached their home.

There was a wooden sign on the corner that said "Binjiang Street". After walking about fifty meters, Qiu Jiashu stopped and pulled Qiu Luming up, "We're home!"

Qiu Luming stamped his feet and was supported by his father, climbing three steps and walking into two doors covered with iron sheets and riveted with iron nails.

The light from the window illuminated the courtyard. A shed was built at the gate, with an aisle in the middle, a warehouse on the west, and a coal shed on the east.

A figure flashed in the room and opened the second door. "Come in, come in, the heat is out!"

Qiu Luming hurriedly took a few steps, but once she entered the kitchen, she stepped on the floor tiles and slipped, falling to the ground. Her butt hurt. Qiu Luming struggled twice in embarrassment, but couldn't stand up. She heard Qiu Jiashu chuckle behind her, and then heard her mother laugh and say, "Oh, it's not even the New Year yet, and I'm already kowtowing to ask for New Year's money?"

Qiu Luming looked up at the familiar yet unfamiliar face. He wanted to call his mother but felt he couldn't open his mouth, so he started crying again.

Then she was picked up by someone and held in a sweet and warm embrace. Her back was gently stroked and comforted, "Okay, okay, Mom won't laugh anymore!...Ahahaha!"

Qiu Luming hugged his mother tightly, buried his head in her chest, and cried heartily.

Who knew how much she envied others for having mothers? She had been envious for eighteen years. Now her mother's arms had a familiar smell that clearly warmed her for eighteen years. She didn't know what she had missed or what she had gained. She couldn't think except crying.

Her big down jacket was taken off, her face was wiped with a warm towel, and even her shoes were changed, but she still didn't want to leave her mother's arms.

Suddenly, a small hand tugged at the hem of her sweater, "Little aunt is crying again, little aunt Diudiu!"

"That's enough, look, your nephew is laughing at you."

Qiu Luming raised his head, wiped away his tears, and turned back to glare at the child.

The little guy turned around and ran out, "Grandpa, grandpa! My aunt hit me again!"

"Little rascal, did your aunt really hit you?" Qiu Jiye was washing his hands, pinching his grandson's nose, and then shouting to the bedroom, "Comrade Manshu, are your noodles ready?"

He Manshu cried out, pushed Qiu Luming away and went to the kitchen.

Qiu Jiashu put away his luggage, washed his face, and set up the dining table. At this time, He Manshu also brought out two bowls of noodles, "Eat quickly!"

There were a few pieces of shredded pork and cabbage in the steaming bowl of noodles, but the noodles broke when they were picked up, obviously they had been cooked for a long time.

The taste was hard to describe. Qiu Luming looked at Qiu Jiashu and saw him eating noodles in big mouthfuls without saying a word. She also chose to remain silent, and at least she ate half a bowl.

"Is it tasty?"

Qiu Luming raised her head and looked at her mother's face, memories flooded back to her. Her mother was good at singing and dancing, writing poetry and painting, skating and swimming, sewing and handicrafts, but her cooking was terrible!

She forced a smile and put down her chopsticks. "It's delicious, but unfortunately I had some scones in the car, so I can't eat any more."

"Hahaha!" He Manshu clapped her hands and laughed, "Old Qiu, come here quickly! Look, you old girl have learned how to be hypocritical!"