fingers of musicians

The sky was cloudy and heavy rain came suddenly.

An old man sat on the steps of the hospital with a grass stalk in his mouth.A curtain of rain fell from the roof, just hitting a section of steps under the old man's feet, and the water splashed and wet the shoe.

The door behind the old man creaked. He casually turned his head and glanced happily, "Yo, it's you."

He Yulou glanced at the old man, but said nothing.His face was wounded, his left hand was wrapped in gauze, and he held it unnaturally by his side.

"Have you been beaten?" The old man looked He Yulou up and down, and lifted the grass in his mouth towards the tricycle parked beside him, "Son, do you want me to take you back?"

He Yulou looked into the distance and said, "No need."

He stood there for a while, before waiting for Gu Jiapei, he took two steps towards the door, and heard Gu Jiapei's voice faintly coming from the door: "... Please, lend us an umbrella, my son's hands can't get wet in the rain." .”

He Yulou pushed open the door.

In the corridor, Gu Jiapei stood in front of a nurse with a tired face, one side of her bare head and eyebrows were weird and glaring.People passing by seemed to have crooked necks and strabismus. They kept looking at her until they couldn't move their necks and eyes, and then fell into a new problem of being unable to close their mouths.

The nurse stared at the top of Gu Jiapei's head and said, "No. Please don't hinder our work."

Gu Jiapei was already on the verge of collapse, but she still wanted to plead: "But I saw—"

He Yulou took off his shirt with one hand, and gently put it on Gu Jiapei's head: "Let's go."

Seeing He Yulou's naked upper body, the nurse was taken aback for a moment, and then said sternly, "What are you doing, put on your clothes quickly! Isn't this a hooligan?"

He Yulou lowered his head and looked at himself, and then looked around with all kinds of scrutinizing eyes: "It's not me who has no clothes on." After he finished speaking expressionlessly, he pushed open the door, supported Gu Jiapei and walked out, regardless of the abuse behind him.

"Little boy, come here." The old man was wearing a raincoat and sitting on the seat of a tricycle.There are two raincoats behind the tricycle.

He Yulou didn't want to talk to him, he shouted impatiently: "What are you trying to do? Let your mother accompany you in the rain?"

He Yulou hesitated for a moment, then helped Gu Jiapei walk towards the tricycle: "I haven't seen you being so kind before."

The old man spat the grass on the ground, and said casually, "Is pulling the dead the same as pulling the living?" He raised his head, just in time to see rainwater dripping from Gu Jiapei's forehead, and the side without eyebrows continuously poured into his eyes , but she didn't respond at all.There is always a spark in the eyes of a living person, the eyes will hide, but there is still vitality.The old man lowered his head and didn't look at the mother and child anymore. He rolled his feet on the grass and stepped on the pedal of the tricycle: "Tsk, I owe you, so hurry up."

The old man took the two of them to ride to He's house.

"How did you get beaten?"

"Little brat, what about you?"

Several times on the way, the old man wanted to talk to him, but He Yulou ignored him.

After riding for a while, the old man glanced back at He Yulou: "You think I can't figure it out? Look at you, if you don't have any other skills, you will hang on. If you don't beat you, who will you beat?"

He Yulou glanced at his left hand under the raincoat, with a cold face, but still did not speak.

The old man lifted off his raincoat, revealing a part of his back: "Look at this hole? There is still a bullet in it. I, the Japanese, defended the country, and it was worth it. You Then, do you think it's worth it to be beaten by another group of brats in a daze?"

He Yulou didn't answer all the way, only the sound of rain splashing on the raincoat.

When Gu Jiapei got out of the car at the gate of He's house and entered the yard, He Yulou took off his raincoat and looked directly at the old man: "Is this a troubled or a prosperous world?"

The old man was about to leave, but when he heard this, he raised his eyelids and took a look at He Yulou, suddenly he was amused: "It's quite a grudge."

He Yulou shook the water off the raincoat and threw it to the old man: "Forget it."

The old man looked at He Yulou's back: "If someone asks this question, it's a prosperous age; if you ask, it's a troubled world."

He Yulou turned his head and stared at the old man: "It's all in troubled times, there is nothing worth it. If you lose an inch of land, you can get it back, but here," He Yulou pointed to his knees, "Kneel down, you think you can still stand?" up?"

The old man suddenly jumped off the tricycle, slapped He Yulou hard on the head, and said angrily, "Of course I can stand up! Only those lying in the hospital like your father will never be able to stand up!"

He Yulou's eyes turned red instantly, he clenched his right fist and hit the old man's face.

Seeing that the fist was about to hit the old man's eyes——

"That day in the hospital, there was someone lying next to your father." The old man looked at He Yulou, neither hiding nor dodging.

He Yulou's fist stopped just a line away from the old man's eyes.

"My son," said the old man.

That day, there was indeed another person who was also beaten to death. It turned out to be the old man's son, but... He Yulou suddenly remembered that the old man sent his father home first.

The fist raised in front of the old man's face slowly lowered.

"Here," the old man pointed to his knees, "If you kneel down, you won't be able to stand up again. I told my son that too." Tears flashed in those eyes, "I just want to I regret that I didn't tell him at the beginning... If you want to stand up, you have to live first."

The tears just flashed away, the old man wiped the rainwater off his face, casually pulled a piece of weed from the He family's yard, put it in his mouth, and got on the tricycle.

"It's easy to turn... It's hard to bend..." The old man groaned indistinctly in his dialect while pedaling the tricycle, which gradually disappeared into the heavy rain.

The smell of rain and mud surrounded the surrounding area.

"It's easy to bend, but hard to bend..." He Yulou stood under the eaves of the courtyard gate, the rain fell from the eaves, pattering on his head and shoulders.But he just stood there and didn't enter the house.

After a long time, suddenly amidst the sound of heavy rain, a voice came: "Master... Congratulations, He Yulou."

He Yulou looked at Wen Yue'an in the wheelchair wearing a green shirt from a distance, but he didn't know how to face it.

He remembered that before he went to the hospital, when those red armbands had just left, Wen Yuean turned the wheelchair to him.

At that time, Wen Yuean cautiously called his senior brother, and he stretched out his left hand in front of Wen Yuean, and asked with a smile, "Biqin?"

Wen Yuean seemed to be struck by lightning, as if frightened by his smile: "...Brother?"

He Yulou walked to the piano and tapped the keys with his left hand, which had already lost consciousness, and the piano made chaotic sounds.He knocked on the piano like this for a while, turned around, and said to the pale Wen Yue'an: "Look, I can't play as well as your "Sailing the Sea Depends on the Helmsman". You won."

"Wen Yuean, you have won."

Wen Yuean turned the wheelchair to grab his right wrist, imagining how to get a little support and support from such small movements as before: "Brother...don't..."

He Yulou withdrew his hand little by little, and walked outside.

"I can't play you anymore...so, you don't have to call me senior brother." These were the last words he said to Wen Yue'an before going out.

He walked out of the house and stood in the yard, seeing the long-lost flowers and plants, all the dead fish in the stream, seeing those piano scores and books stained with ashes, and the traces of digging everywhere on the ground, suddenly seemed to be out of control, He took a shovel and roughly dug out the things Wen Yuean wanted to bury carefully.

There are the cups they drew for each other, and the words they passed together.

After he finished digging, he turned around and found Wen Yuean sitting at the door of the house, just watching him and crying.

In front of Wen Yuean, he lit up all the words.

A raging fire separated him and Wen Yue'an, as if all the past and fetters before had been burned like these words.

But as if it wasn't enough, the fire in front of my eyes was far less intense than the fire in my heart.

When he smashed the cup that Wen Yuean drew for him, Wen Yuean cried and shouted: "No other one! That is what you gave me, it is mine, you can't smash my things... I only have that cup... "

He looked at the cup for a while.

Black background, cold moon, tower.

The moon shines on the jade tower.

At the bottom of the cup is the high-spirited upper part of "Six States Getou", but only the sad, indignant and desolate lower part remains in his heart.

Finally, he put the cup on the windowsill and walked out of the courtyard gate.

At this time, the two faced each other far away, Wen Yuean held the cup tightly in his hand, as if afraid that He Yulou would change his mind again.

He Yulou still stood there, motionless.

His insides had been shattered.

If the father is right, then Wen Yue'an is unforgivable.However, if Wen Yue'an is right, then his father's death is meaningless. Not only his father, but also all the persistence, struggle, heroism and sacrifice he once agreed with are ridiculous.

If so, then everyone just needs to get on their knees in the first place.

Anyway, as long as you are alive, you can stand up again.

Looking at Wen Yuean's thin figure, He Yulou didn't dare to approach him at all.

He knew he had been shaken.Because when he recalled the scene of Wen Yuean playing the piano and singing with tears in his eyes, and the scene of him burning those words and breaking the cup in front of Wen Yuean, the original anger had turned into overwhelming contradictions and guilt.

Wen Yuean has called him his senior brother for so many years, yet he has to rely on Wen Yuean's humiliation to protect him.

Finally...

He Yulou closed his eyes, not daring to look at Wen Yuean again.

He could only hear the sound of the wheelchair turning slowly, and after a while, he heard the sound of the umbrella opening.

Wen Yuean held the umbrella carefully, but couldn't reach the top of He Yulou's head: "...He... Yulou, take the umbrella."

Wen Yue'an has been calling her senior brother for so many years, but now she really doesn't.

He Yulou barely opened his eyes, took the umbrella, but held it low, covering Wen Yuean's head, and placed himself under the rain: "Go in."

The umbrella blocked Wen Yuean's body and also blocked Wen Yuean's eyes, which seemed to make her feel better.

Wen Yuean said softly: "...hand."

He Yulou said, "It's fine."

Wen Yuean didn't dare to speak anymore.

Walking to the door, He Yulou put away the umbrella, and lifted the wheelchair with his right and left arms. At this moment, the two were close at hand, breathing intertwinedly, but Wen Yuean's fingers were blue and white because of tightly pinching the cup.

He Yulou put down his wheelchair and wanted to say something, but a person who was originally so smart was so clumsy at this moment that he couldn't think of what to say.

Suddenly there was a loud noise on the stairs, like the sound of something falling over.

"Where's Yuge?" Gu Jiapei hurriedly came down from upstairs, in a panic, "Didn't Yuge lock herself in the room all the time? Yue'an, Yuge went out? She didn't even wear shoes."

Wen Yuean glanced upstairs, trying to recall what happened after He Yulou broke the cup, but found her mind went blank: "...I don't know."

He Yulou asked, "Has anyone been here?"

Wen Yuean's face turned even paler: "...I don't know."

"I didn't mean you—" He Yulou's heart was sore and painful, he wanted to coax Wen Yue'an like before, but he couldn't.

"I'll go find her." Gu Jiapei went out without even taking an umbrella.

He Yulou hurried out to follow.

As soon as he stepped out of the room, he heard the voice of "Senior Brother" in his mind, so he couldn't help but look back.

Wen Yuean was holding the cup, sitting in a shadow, didn't speak, just looked at him from a distance, as if looking at those who had written words and the big fire, and also looked at the broken cup.