rice story

On a certain day two months ago, Cheng Yunpeng was dragging a suitcase and walking on the streets of New York. It was still early, and there were at least 12 hours before the evening flight took off.

So he decided to take a good look around...

It only took him less than expected, one and a half months to finish the dissertation defense and other matters of the school, so he hurriedly packed his bags and prepared to return to China, and rushed to Zhao Dami's arms...

Now Cheng Yunpeng doesn't know what's wrong with him, as long as he thinks of the word "Zhao Dami", he feels an indescribable heartache.

He secretly changed the flight ticket he had booked in advance, but without telling Zhao Dami, he decided to give him a surprise on the spur of the moment.

For so many years in the United States, Cheng Yunpeng almost had no time to take a good look at this most famous metropolis in the world...

Now he is wandering aimlessly on an unnamed avenue. He gently raises his head, facing the rare bright sunshine. Look at the tall buildings...

Cheng Yunpeng is probably because the sky is too warm, it seems that these annoying noises and hustle and bustle suddenly become kind...

"Cheng... Pengpeng?!"

Hearing someone calling him from behind, Cheng Yunpeng suddenly turned his head.

He saw the woman he hadn't seen for a long time standing like that on the zebra crossing with people coming and going... It's been a long time since I saw her... Probably, 5 years?

Cheng Yunpeng has always been unwilling to call her mother, or anything else... Even if he occasionally thinks of her in his heart, he will at most silently use "that woman" as a reference...

Correspondingly, she never seemed to call Cheng Yunpeng by anything other than her full name, "...Pengpeng"?This is the first time...

Cheng Yunpeng turned around and waited for her to approach... She seemed a little old, showing a little fatigue, her eyes dimmed a lot, and it seemed that she no longer had the ability to shine as sharply as before.When she got closer, Cheng Yunpeng realized that there were still some faint spots on her face.

She is almost an ordinary and simple woman, almost no different from other women in the world... Even when she was young, she was so beautiful...

"Long time no see... Do you have time? Find a place to sit?"

When the woman walked in front of him, Cheng Yunpeng realized that she was still holding a three or four-year-old girl tightly by her hand.The little girl looked up at Cheng Yunpeng with her eyes wide open, neither smiling nor making trouble.

"This is Lily, my daughter..."

The woman knelt down to pick up the child and introduced it to Cheng Yunpeng.

Cheng Yunpeng smiled at her, and then said.

"...Drink something? This cafe..."

When we met again after many years, Cheng Yunpeng was surprised that he could be so calm... For a person who resolutely "abandoned" him 5 years ago, he could be so calm and without hatred...

He didn't even want to question the seemingly simple woman in front of him.

Do you even know what happened that night?

Do you care about my life or not?

Do you know how I got here all these years?

Did you ever think of me as your own child?

……

Until sitting in the cafe, Cheng Yunpeng still didn't say a word.

He looked at the woman, leaned down carefully, and helped her little daughter roll up her little lace sleeves, then handed her the small spoon, and helped her slowly bring a large cup of ice cream closer to her... The extension of the ice cream slid down some melted cream, her finger accidentally touched it, but she didn't care, she just put that finger in her mouth and sucked it...

In Cheng Yunpeng's memory, his mother was never like this...

She is a beautiful woman who still has to put on a noble and glamorous image even if she is hysterical and forced into a desperate situation... She cares about herself more than everything else, instead of being like this now, hunched over and laughing for a fool The youngest daughter carefully padded her scarf...

She seems to have finally learned how to be a mother, but it has nothing to do with Cheng Yunpeng...

Perhaps, people are always like this, and they have to miss a lot before they can accumulate enough good things.

"Pengpeng, how are you recently...?"

She finally helped her little daughter take care of everything, straightened up, and asked a seemingly unintentional question.

"pretty good, how about you?"

Cheng Yunpeng took a sip of coffee and asked her with a smile.

"I'm married. With another person... This is me and his child, he treats me very well..."

"That's good...", Cheng Yunpeng fell silent after finishing speaking, he suddenly didn't know what to say.

What to say?

How about her life now?

Cheng Yunpeng didn't care.

Tell her about her own life?

Cheng Yunpeng thought, she probably wouldn't care either!

Except that this person used to be his mother, everything else shows that they are no different from strangers...

"... Tony and I broke up... peacefully... He confessed everything to me, and I promised him not to report on him..."

Tony is the name of the man who is almost going to be his stepfather... If she hadn't brought it up, Cheng Yunpeng felt like he would have forgotten it...

"...I have no choice, Pengpeng... He threatened me at that time, if I don't agree to him, he will go to you, until you are ruined..."

The woman was talking, and suddenly looked at Cheng Yunpeng, her eyes showed a look of horror, and at the same time, she seemed to be seeking the other party's forgiveness...

"Forget it, it's been so many years..."

Cheng Yunpeng looked back at her expressionlessly, the countless guesses he had made over the years are no longer important now...

What he wanted to know so much at the time, the reason why his mother didn't come to find him, is now placed in front of him like this...

He used to want to figure out so much, what kind of role did his mother play in that incident that almost caused him lifelong harm, hero?Or an accomplice?

The answer was nothing... She was just a bystander.A complete bystander who puts himself first...

Cheng Yunpeng felt that the answer might have been in his expectation...

"...I told your father about this at the time...", the woman calmly withdrew her eyes and said lightly.

"I told him to come and pick you up...but he refused..."

Cheng Yunpeng held the small spoon in his hand, stirred the coffee in front of him, and sneered softly.

The woman looked at him, but she didn't intend to go silent with the gloomy atmosphere, so she said to herself again.

"... He also sent someone to the United States to look for you secretly... I heard that you went to work in a bar, so I told him about it... He didn't know why, but suddenly came to the United States during that time, and by the way, he came to the United States. Passed me once...he told me you were in trouble...but didn't tell me what it was..."

The woman babbled on, completely unaware that Cheng Yunpeng's face became more and more strange, and just continued talking...

"...He told me that he wanted to use the name of a foundation project for you to continue your studies...We all know that we are sorry for you...Pengpeng, I am not a good mother...I hate your father, so I can't help but put my words on him That kind of emotion unintentionally vented to the young you..."

"But... Pengpeng... He is not a bad person, he is not so bad that you need to sneer to show your contempt for him... For many years he has provided for your life, for your study, and even spent a large amount of money anonymously to fund Your research at school...even if he is really a scumbag with a corrupt life and a habit of messing around...that has nothing to do with you...Pengpeng, he has tried his best to be a father..."

Cheng Yunpeng's hand stirring the coffee gradually stopped...

He has some indescribable emotions in his heart...

Facing the woman in front of him, and the father she was talking about.Cheng Yunpeng suddenly didn't know what kind of expression he should use to face them...

They were the ones who made him hate the world and the rest of the world, they were the ones who made him almost have no choice but to fall into the abyss, but they were the ones who saved his life before he knew it...

At the moment when he thought he would be extremely disappointed and had only a slight chance, life suddenly gave him a surprise when he decided to say goodbye completely.

Cheng Yunpeng took the spoon out of the coffee cup and placed it obliquely on the small plate at the bottom of the cup.

He suddenly said something softly to her.

"If there is a chance...thank him for me..."

After hearing this, the woman suddenly covered her mouth and began to cry softly...

If time could stand still at this moment, Cheng Yunpeng might still choose a life parallel to this woman without hesitation...

……

However, everything happened too suddenly.

There was a sudden commotion from the street outside the cafe. Before Cheng Yunpeng could realize what it was, he felt the woman on the opposite side suddenly reach out and push him back...

Then, there was a deafening gunshot, and screams from inside and outside the cafe...

The gun of the robber outside the window suddenly went off, just piercing the glass next to Cheng Yunpeng's seat.The woman noticed the situation outside the window one step earlier, and quickly pushed Cheng Yunpeng, who was blowing coffee under the table with his head down...

The bullet that might have passed by Cheng Yunpeng's temple pierced through the woman's outstretched left arm...

There are actually not as many shooting incidents in New York as expected...but they happened to be like this.

Cheng Yunpeng ended up staying in the hospital for a long time, I don't know if it was to repay the debt or something else.He stayed until the day he made an appointment with Zhao Dami to return to China...

Then I just called him and told him that there are still some problems with my experiment, and I need to extend the return period...about another two months...

Cheng Yunpeng sat on the bench at the entrance of the hospital, clasped his fingers and recalled the past, recent, past, and future scenes...

He thought of the woman who lay in a pool of blood two months ago and was eventually forced to have an arm amputated.

At that time, she, as a stranger regarded by Cheng Yunpeng, saved his life.

The author has something to say: it is still Pengpeng's small solo theater~~~

Still no rice or anything~~~

Pengpeng's parents are very complicated, I don't know if I have made it clear~~~

Parents don't care about him,

But my father helped Pengpeng when he was alone and helpless~~~

But his mother saved his life at a critical moment~~~

These things may seem instinctive to other parents,

To Pengpeng, it is like a gift~~~

I don’t know if I can make everyone understand~~~