An Accident in Broad Daylight

When he went back that night, Xu Tangcheng found that his grandma hadn't slept yet.There was a crack in the bedroom door, and a narrow beam of light leaked out.

He opened the door and went in, and saw a silhouette wearing flower glasses, pulling his hand back and forth, with a thimble wrapped around his wrinkled and callused thumb, shining against the stars.

Seeing him coming in, grandma raised her head, glanced at him through the lens, and immediately smiled: "I'm back."

"Ah."

Xu Tangcheng knelt down and watched her use colored threads to sew a circular piece of cloth to a small piece of cloth that had been embroidered with many patterns.The shape of the cloth was a bit strange, and it seemed to have a certain thickness. He turned his head in one direction, tilted his head, and carefully identified the pattern on the cloth.

It seems that it is a small animal that has no eyes.

"What are you doing?" he asked softly.

"Tiger shoes." Grandma answered leisurely, and slowly unfolded the things in her hand, showing him, "Do they look good?"

Xu Tangcheng nodded.

Seeing that he was looking at it seriously, as if he liked it, grandma took out another shoe upper with a tiger face on it from a plastic bag at the side, and handed it to him.

It was the first time Xu Tangcheng saw such a thing.

The tiger-head vamp in his hand is very delicate, with a pair of big eyes, two upturned ears, and even those two pinches of colorful tiger whiskers are too cute.He stretched out his hand, gently stroked a bunch of colored threads, and repeated, "Tiger-toed shoes?"

Grandma lowered her head, and while threading the silver needle into the cloth, read a jingle: "Tiger head shoes, wear tiger head shoes, walk steadily, run fast, and drive away the demons are so majestic."

The old man's tone was slow and low, like the distant background music in a movie, and the accompanying picture was a long shot of a child learning to walk.

"Children wear tiger-toe shoes to ward off evil spirits and stay safe. Moreover, such shoes do not cover their feet or slip. They are most comfortable to wear when children are learning to walk."

"Really?" Xu Tangcheng looked at the tiger-head shoe uppers in his hand many times, and said with a smile on his face, "It's so beautiful, which kid is this made for?"

Grandma kept moving her hands, and glanced at him again, but said an answer that stunned Xu Tangcheng.

"Your child."

Holding his small tiger face, Xu Tangcheng's jaw trembled, and he asked in disbelief, "My family?"

"That's right." Grandma laughed at his reaction, and the wrinkles on her forehead stretched out, "Each of you has two pairs of shoes and two pairs of cotton trousers. These are yours. After finishing yours, it will be Tang Qi's."

"Did you do it for my child so early?" After a dumb moment, Xu Tangcheng raised his hand, covered his eyes with the upper of his shoe, and smiled, "There's no sign yet."

Grandma embroidered a tiger's eye and cut off the connecting thread.She raised one hand away from the upper of the shoe, squinted her eyes, and looked left and right, Yue was looking at how the embroidery was going.After watching it, I was satisfied, and said: "It's not too early, I'm afraid I won't be able to do it in the future."

"how come."

"Why not?" Grandma took off the flower glasses and rubbed her eyes.Xu Tangcheng noticed that the corners of his wrinkled eyes were reddened, and the fundus of his eyes was also covered with bloodshot eyes.

The traces of aging are always pervasive.

"My eyes are getting worse every year. When I get old, I won't be able to go anywhere. Maybe one day, I will be really blind. What will I do then?"

Grandma smiled and picked up another black disc, and handed the needle and thread to Xu Tangcheng.Xu Tangcheng took it silently, faced the light, put it on quickly, and handed it back.

"Besides, I might not be able to see your sweet baby."

Xu Tangcheng frowned, put his unretracted hand on grandma's knee, patted it twice, and reprimanded softly: "Don't talk nonsense."

"It's nonsense, this kind of thing..." Grandma sighed heavily, and gave the first injection, "It's hard to say."

When Xu Tang was established, he looked serious and made an expression of sudden realization. He stretched his head forward and looked at grandma from bottom to top: "My mother asked you to be a lobbyist, she didn't urge me enough, she even pulled me are you coming?"

Grandma listened and smiled brightly.

"I'm not urging you, my precious grandson still can't find a wife? He looks so handsome, so he won't worry about it." Speaking of this, the grandma said "Yo", and moved her head closer to Xu Tangcheng, "He cut his hair. "

"Well," Xu Tangcheng turned his head to both sides, grinned and asked, "Does it look good?"

"It's beautiful." There were too many calluses on grandma's hands, and because of her age, her skin was dry, so when she rubbed against Xu Tangcheng's ears, it was not soft, but it was hard and abrasive to the touch.

She stroked Xu Tangcheng's head and looked at it for a while, then said, "Any kind of cut looks good."

Grandma insisted on embroidering the upper before going to bed, so Xu Tangcheng stayed by her side.

Such a night is actually very rare. Xu Tangcheng watched the needle and thread flying quietly, and his heart was obviously soft and peaceful.

"Grandma, I'll take you to play next year." Xu Tangcheng said suddenly, "Let's take a plane and go somewhere far away."

"By plane?" Grandma was a little surprised, and soon she smiled and shook her head, "I don't, I can't go far with my arms and legs."

"You don't need to go. I'll buy a wheelchair and push you. We won't climb mountains. I'll take you to a warmer place. You can go to Hainan, which is where Yikan and the others went last winter."

Grandma still shook her head.After the upper was embroidered, grandma put it in the bag, and Xu Tangcheng buried himself in helping her tie the plastic bag.

In the hissing sound, I heard the old man say with a smile: "I'm not going anywhere, if you want to go, just go, I won't burden you."

"What are you talking about, what a burden." Xu Tangcheng straightened up, watching grandma wipe the glasses with a glasses cloth.

In his memory, grandma's hair was gray very early, it seemed that it started when he was very young, or in other words, since he could remember, she had already had gray hair all over her head.Once Han Yin came to his house and met his grandma. At that time, Han Yin told him that his grandma was really a standard image of a kind old grandma.

He felt the same way.

Xu Tangcheng smiled softly, stretched out his hand, and rolled his temples for her.

New Year comes quickly.

As in previous years, the uncle's family rushed back on New Year's Eve.During the reunion on New Year's Eve, Xu's family of nearly [-] people all got together to have a New Year's Eve dinner.The thriving population determines the excitement of the meal. People in a room must be divided into at least two groups to eat. Those who don't drink will eat first, and those who drink will eat later.Because there were some smoking-addicted men in the family, Xu Tangcheng rushed the non-drinking group to finish their meal, and took Xu Tangqi to retreat early.Before leaving, Zhou Hui took him by the arm and told him that he must remember to turn on all the lights in the house when he went back, saying that it was New Year's Eve and the house must be bright.

When I got home, I saw someone downstairs setting off fireworks.Xu Tangcheng's eyes moved up following a bunch of small fireworks, and the fireworks shot up to the sky. His eyes swept over the buildings in front of him—the rows of windows with flickering lights, only two of which were dark.

Xu Tangqi trotted to Xu Tangcheng's side with his pockets in his pocket: "Brother, let's set off fireworks too. Did you buy them for me?"

Xu Tangcheng looked away and nodded at her.

Xu Tangqi liked fireworks since she was a child, and Xu Tangcheng bought some for her every year.He fetched it from the car, found a place that wasn't too cold, and let her play for a while, while he went upstairs two steps at a time.After turning on the lights in every room in the house, and then closing the door to come out, he paused in the somewhat cold corridor.

Through the window in the corridor, one can also see the continuous fireworks rising into the sky, clusters, one after another, which also aroused lively noises.

After looking at the closed door opposite for a while, Xu Tangcheng stepped forward and knocked on the door.

No one responded.

Are you really not at home?

Xu Tangcheng wondered if the people inside had fallen asleep, so he knocked again unwillingly, with a glimmer of hope.This time the knock on the door lasted for a while, so long that Xu Tangxiang was fascinated, so that when the door was suddenly opened, the door panel almost hit his face.

"Is something wrong?"

Inside the door, Xiang Xipi was looking at him with a face full of impatience.The light in the living room was turned on, and Xu Tangcheng saw the mess in the room at a glance over Xiang Xiyue's shoulder, the coffee table was overturned, and a pile of ceramic shards were scattered on the ground.

He withdrew his gaze, looked at Xiang Xiyue who was wearing pajamas, and said in a normal tone, "I'm looking for Yi Zhe."

Xiang Xiyue raised her hand and stroked her hair back.After staring at him for a while, he actually pulled out a somewhat weird smile.

"died."

Those two words, accompanied by the sound of the door being slammed heavily, made Xu Tangcheng stand in front of the door in a daze for a long time.

The lights went out, and outside the narrow window in the corridor, the light flashed across, and the white smoke remained in the air, and then disappeared silently.

Xu Tangcheng rubbed the soles of his feet on the edge of the steps for a long time before he fell down and jumped down a step.

When I went downstairs again, I looked up and saw that there was only one black window left. Xu Tangqi held a cold firework and approached him, asking him to make a wish quickly.

He closed his eyes, but was shaken by Xu Tangqi: "Your posture is wrong!"

The wire firework had already burnt half way through, Xu Tangcheng opened his eyes, stretched out a hand, and cut off the sparks that exploded to the surroundings.

It was destined to be a bad night's sleep. At about five o'clock in the morning, Xu Tangcheng was awakened by the sound of firecrackers.He leaned over, reached for the phone from the bedside, pressed it on, and checked the time.After putting down the phone, he buried one side of his face in the pillow, and was just about to squint for a while, but louder salutes sounded outside the window.Xu Tangcheng pulled the quilt and turned over, wrapping his body tightly, but he couldn't block the deafening sound of the cannon at all.

A little irritated, he sat up and stared at the curtains that were constantly illuminated by the fire for a while.

The first thing I did after waking up was to take the phone and send out a text message.

Within 2 minutes, the screen lit up and displayed an unread text message.

"Happy New Year."

It's a reply from Yi Zhe.

In the reply interface, Xu Tangcheng pressed his fingers on the phone keyboard for a long time, but he spelled and deleted without getting a proper word.In the chaotic voice, his thoughts seemed to be chaotic.He gave up replying, threw away the phone, and while getting dressed, he was still thinking whether Yi Zhe was also woken up, or didn't sleep at all.If he was woken up, where did he sleep, and if he didn't, where did he say "Happy New Year"?

Opening the door, the light in the living room was already on, and several bowls filled with a thin bottom of vinegar were placed on the dining table.Xu Tangcheng took a look and found that there was one more.

Zhou Hui leaned out from the kitchen: "I'm awake, then I'm going to start cooking dumplings, Tang Qi is also awake."

"Well," Xu Tangcheng walked into the kitchen to help, and asked strangely, "Why are there five bowls?"

The half-covered dumplings were pushed into the pot by Zhou Hui, and quickly, they were submerged in boiling water.

"Placing one more bowl means that our family is going to have newcomers."

"What newcomer?"

Zhou Hui glanced at him with a smile: "What do you think? Of course you brought me a newcomer."

Xu Tangcheng paused and understood.

"Ouch," he couldn't laugh or cry, "it's so funny."

After two days, Xu Tang Chengcai finally saw Yi Zhe again.

Yi Zhe rode his bicycle downstairs and saw Xu Tangcheng teaching a little boy to ride a bicycle, holding on to the handlebars.

"Put your legs hard, kick, and don't crook your body."

The little boy was riding an old lady's bicycle. Because he was not tall enough, it was quite difficult for his feet to pedal.Yi Zhe stopped, looked at Xu Tangcheng with a good-tempered smile and stabilized the car, and hugged the little boy with one arm, helping him straighten his body.

Xu Tangcheng was wearing a dark green cotton jacket today, with a sweater inside and a white hat on the outside.Looking at him, Yi Zhe turned his head and thought for a while. Xu Tangcheng seemed to really like wearing light-colored jeans. Even in winter, he always had a pair of whitish jeans.

"Are you back?"

Someone not far away suddenly called out.

Yi Zhe regained consciousness and retracted his legs.The wheels ran over the broken red gun jacket, and Yi Zhe stopped beside Xu Tangcheng.

"Where did you go?"

Suddenly being asked like this, Yi Zhe obviously didn't react.

Seeing him in a daze, Xu Tangcheng added: "I want to ask you to set off fireworks with me on Thirty Night, but you are not here."

thirty?

Hearing these two words, Yi Zhe suddenly opened his eyes wide.

As if he knew what he was thinking, Xu Tangcheng immediately said, "I opened the door to Auntie, but I didn't say anything."

"Ah."

This response was accompanied by a strong nasal voice. Xu Tangcheng raised his eyebrows and asked, "Have you caught a cold?"

Looking at it this way, he realized that Yi Zhe's hands were red from the cold.Yi Zhe rubbed his hands under his gaze, then put his hands in the pocket of his down jacket.

"Why don't you wear gloves?"

"I was in a hurry when I went out, so I forgot." After speaking, Yi Zhe sniffed and explained, "I didn't catch a cold, but I was a little cold just now."

Xu Tangcheng tilted his head: "Your voice is already like this, are you okay?"

Yi Zhe lowered his head and didn't speak.

Seeing that Xu Tangcheng had been talking to the elder brother who had just arrived, the little boy had no intention of continuing to teach him at all, so he called out "Brother Tang Cheng" anxiously.Xu Tangcheng lowered his head, patted his head lightly, and signaled him to wait for a while.

"Is there any medicine at home?"

After asking, Xu Tangcheng felt that his question was probably redundant.

"Forget it, you go back first, it's cold outside. He'll learn it right away, I'll teach him for a while, and I'll find you later."

find him?

Despite being confused, Yi Zhe instinctively obeyed Xu Tangcheng's instructions, held on to the handlebars, and prepared to leave.

Before he could figure out what the phrase "I'm going to find you" meant, the little boy beside him suddenly said, "Brother Tang Cheng, this brother's car looks good."

The little boy looked at Yi Zhe, then blinked and asked Xu Tangcheng: "When I learn it, can I ride this one?"

"Brother's bike is too high, you can't ride it, and you can't reach this one." Halfway through speaking, Xu Tangcheng suddenly discovered something, and he was surprised, "Huh? Have you changed your bike?"

The brakes of the new bicycle are tighter than the previous ones, and Yi Zhe's frequency of pinching the brakes has decreased a lot.He suddenly used more strength in his hands, but still pretended to be calm, and nodded.

Xu Tangcheng looked around: "Why do I feel that there is not much difference from before?"

It's also red, and it's also a mountain bike.There is basically no difference in shape, except that the beams have become flat.

"What happened to the previous one?" Xu Tangcheng wondered.

Yi Zhe stopped and said in a low voice, "It's not easy to ride."