innocent year

The man came forward in three steps at a time. First, he picked up Xu Minghai's collar, picked him up and put him aside, and then hugged Qiu Shi, who was lying on the ground, to Zhou Yingying's side.

The mother didn't care about arranging her messy hair, and quickly knelt down to brush off the snow and dirt on her son.

For a while, no one spoke, and there was only the ups and downs of panting in the yard.

"Why... why didn't you send a letter in advance when you came back? I'll pick you up at the train station." The man finally spoke again.His facial muscles seemed to be frozen, and it was impossible to tell whether he was happy or angry.

"Why pick her up? Chen Lei, why are you so cheap?" Li Yandong called Xu Minghai over while cursing.She looked at the blood oozing from her son's tiger's mouth, so she gouged out Qiu Shi with hatred, and cursed, "It's really a fucking dog!"

Chen Lei immediately turned his head and said, "Li Yandong, don't make trouble with this place. They all grew up wearing crotch pants together, what are you throwing at Yingzi?" Then he said to Xu Yong, "My daughter-in-law looks after herself. Come on, don't practice virtue all day long."

"Yes, yes," Xu Yong blasted one big and one small into the room like a pig, "you go back first."

"I'm a virtuous person?!" Li Yandong pushed Xu Yong away, put his index finger on the tip of his nose, and then drew a big arc towards Chen Lei, "Who is this grandma for? What's wrong with growing up together? Did she, Zhou Yingying, pay attention to you for a day? Back then, she followed that surnamed Yang to the Northeast, but within a year, he..."

"It's all a bunch of fucking shit, why bring it up?! Is it better for people to come back alive?" Chen Lei rudely interrupted Li Yandong's conversation, "Just say what now Let's do it."

"I told her just now that I'm sure I'll get out of fifteen, and it's useless now! Our house has an area of ​​ten square meters, what do you ask me to do for a while? She is a human being, but I am not a human being." Chen Lei, you bastard whose brain was kicked by a donkey!" Li Yandong's cursing voice gradually mixed with crying, "Besides, I cleaned this house last year, repaired the roof and replaced the windows, and it cost me a month's salary!"

"If there is any difficulty, let's solve the problem and it's over. It's easy to talk and discuss. Let's go, this house is not surnamed Li." Chen Lei made a conclusion, then looked at Zhou Yingying and said, "You take the child to my place for a few days. I set up a wire bed to sleep in this room with Xiao Hai, let's get this done first. Xiao Hai," Chen Lei turned his face and asked Xu Minghai, "Can I make do with you for a few days? I'll help you clean up later. No matter how narrow your house is, I still don’t believe that a half-grown child can’t be accommodated in it.”

Xu Minghai nodded quickly, and then pointed at Qiushi with that injured finger regardless of previous suspicions: "He is so small that he doesn't take up space. How about I share a room with him, and you and this aunt squeeze into a room?"

"Nonsense!" Li Yandong immediately raised his eyebrows, raised his hand and slapped Xu Minghai on the head, "If you don't study hard at school, what's going on in your head every day? I'll go to your homeroom teacher later! "

Xu Minghai rubbed the back of his head and felt aggrieved. He assured Chairman Mao that his thoughts were very pure. Didn't he follow along to solve the problem?

"That's it. It's settled. What's the fuss about, what's the big deal? By the way, Yandong, you should cook more meals at night." After speaking, Chen Lei bent down, picked up the luggage on the ground, put it on his shoulders, and turned away. Ignore the scolding of "I will do it! I will be your grandma!"

Qiushi was pulled by Zhou Yingying, and followed Chen Lei to the southeast corner of the courtyard.

As soon as she entered the room, Zhou Yingying let Qiushi sit on the chair, and then took off his hat, scarf and thick cotton coat.The coal stove in the house is burning vigorously, and there are dried orange peels on the stovetop, and the air is dry and warm.This made Qiushi feel like a snail, and finally shed the shell that had been carried all the way.

Chen Lei's place is not big, it basically belongs to the living room and bedroom.There are a lot of messy things, all piled up on the bright side.He took out a bottle of "Guozhen" from the cabinet next to the TV, put a few spoonfuls of the orange-yellow powder into a cup, then rinsed it with water from the thermos and handed it to the mother and daughter.

"Guozi, thank you uncle." Zhou Yingying told Qiushi.

Qiushi is deeply wary of any adult male, but this uncle in front of him gives him a different feeling, a rare sense of security.So, he thanked him in a low voice, and took several sips from the glass with the red flowers painted on it.The warm, sour and sweet taste completely warmed him up, and then his fingers and face began to itch.

"Don't scratch it, it's freezing, it'll be fine in a while." Chen Lei stopped Qiu Shi's movement, then turned around, and found a pirated version of Transformers from somewhere, which was also left by Xu Minghai last time.Chen Lei handed the toy to Qiu Shi, and Qiu Shi looked at Zhou Yingying the same way.Then, under the acquiescence of his mother, he took it carefully.

Zhou Yingying thanked her in a low voice.

Chen Lei finally grinned, showing an expression almost smiling: "I haven't seen you for so many years, but my appearance hasn't changed much, but my temperament has changed. When you were young, that tigress in Yandong bullied you, and you would just find a place to cry yourself. Now you dare Hands on with her."

"She can run on me in any way, even if she makes me sleep on the road, I can bear it." Zhou Yingying looked at her son with gentle and strong eyes, "But what about Guozi? For him, I have to go all out to be worthy of this call." mom."

"I just saw your son's fight with Xiao Hai, it was very fierce. I will definitely not suffer from it in the future." Chen Lei glanced at Qiu Shi, and then asked in a casual tone, "Where is the child's father?"

"I committed a case in the local area and was sentenced. We divorced before going in, and then we entrusted someone to go through the formalities of returning to the city."

There was another long silence, Qiu Shi turned the Transformer in his hand into a car three times with its arms and legs, and the two adults in front of him didn't say a word.

"I thought I'd never see you again in this life." Chen Lei sighed long, "No wonder the eyelids kept twitching a few days ago. After the left eye twitched and the right eye twitched, I just didn't dare to think about you. I saw you when I entered the hospital just now. You and I are so stupid, it's like a dream."

"Isn't it just a dream?" Zhou Yingying lowered her head, her gaze stayed on the concrete floor under her feet, "When I was young, I thought the days were scary. The world is vast, there is a lot to do, and I am not afraid of anything. ? As a result, I spent half of my life just like this. After arriving in Heilongjiang, I was so confused that I didn’t know how to survive every day. I was eight years old when I opened my eyes.”

"It doesn't make any difference whether you've lived in a daze or clearly. It's 360 days a year. You can't suffer even one day less." Chen Lei approached and patted her on the shoulder lightly, "The past Just let it turn the page. You just lost it by accident, but you have finally found your home anyway."

"Yeah." Zhou Yingying slowly raised her head and smiled.

At this time, the door suddenly opened, and Xu Minghai ran in and put the aluminum pot in his arms on the table without saying a word.He stretched out his hand to lift the lid, only to see a drawer of white and fat steamed stuffed buns squeezed together one by one.The scent stimulated Qiushi's stomach to growl, he was hungry.

"My mother just let me take half of the drawer. I thought to myself, how can it be enough? Who can eat enough?" Xu Minghai was very excited, and he didn't feel that his actions were turning his elbows outwards and throwing his cannons inwards.

"Okay, Xiao Hai, godfather doesn't love you for nothing." Chen Lei stroked Xu Minghai's short hair vigorously, as a compliment.

Xu Minghai shined when he gave some sunshine, and said loudly: "I'll go get it if it's not enough!" After he finished speaking, he took advantage of the gap between Chen Lei's going to get the plates and bowls, ran up to Qiushi, and raised his hand to cover his tiger's mouth covered with purple potion , Grinning his teeth and saying: "Brother, I have fought a lot, if you dare to open your mouth and bite me to death, you are still the number one."

Zhou Yingying also felt sorry when she saw it, and urged: "Guozi, quickly apologize to Xiaohai."

Qiushi bit his lip and said nothing, his eyes looked away, and his cheeks gradually turned red.

"Hey! This Transformer in your hand is still mine!"

When Qiushi heard it, he threw the thing that he had been playing with just now on the ground.

"Guozi! Pick up the toy and return it to Xiaohai, and say sorry." Zhou Yingying frowned.

Unexpectedly, instead of cooperating, Qiushi immediately raised his left hand and opened his mouth to bite the back of his hand.

This made Zhou Yingying's heart not long after she relaxed, but then she grabbed it again.She grabbed Qiushi's hand that was brought to her mouth, and hugged her son in her arms.

Zhou Yingying felt as if her throat had been burned by hot briquettes, she quickly said to Xu Minghai in a hoarse voice, "Xiao Hai, Auntie will compensate you. I'm sorry, Guozi only came today. Don't blame him if you admit it."

Xu Minghai looked dumbfounded on the side, but at this moment he heard an elder of the other party apologize to him, and waved his hands in fright: "Auntie, I'm not angry! I'm really not angry, I'm just teasing him." After all, he never He took out a handful of sour tricolor from his trouser pocket, put them all on the table, and said to Qiushi, "You will be a member of this yard from now on, and there is a brother in the alley to protect you."

Qiushi ignored him and just buried her face in her mother's chest.At this moment, only this world is familiar to him.

And Zhou Yingying looked at Xu Minghai, and felt that this child looked like Chen Lei when he was a child, righteous and enthusiastic.It's a pity that I didn't understand it back then, but now that I think about it, having such a brother-like character by my side is simply a blessing in my previous life.

The steamed stuffed bun was eaten silently, and after the meal, Chen Lei and Zhou Yingying started to talk about the old days.It's just that no matter how the "old" is described, it seems to be separated by a layer of window paper, and no one dares to ask in depth.

Before going to bed, Chen Lei filled the stove with coal, poked the fire hole with fire chopsticks, poured boiled water on a soup lady borrowed from Uncle Zhang's house, put it on the bed, and then moved the wire bed to Xu Minghai's place.Zhou Yingying took the hot water from the aluminum pot and gave Qiushi a brief scrub, and let him sleep on the inner side of the bed.

A day and a night of exhausting boats and cars, coupled with the previous chicken and dog jumping, made the tranquility at this moment extremely precious.Lying beside Qiushi, Zhou Yingying gently stroked her son's hair, and finally uttered Qiushi's first words after dinner: "Mom, I don't like this place."

Zhou Yingying didn't answer her son's complaints, but said: "When the Chinese New Year comes, Mom will take you to Baiyun to watch the temple fair. It's very lively there. Let's 'play money eyes' and 'touch stone monkeys'..."

But Qiu Shi was not taken away, he insisted: "Mom, that aunt bullied you, she is as bad as Qiu Jiawang! We live here, she will continue to bully you."

After a long while, Zhou Yingying said softly, "But Mom has you. Just like in the village, Guozi always protects Mom."

"But I'm too weak," Qiushi muttered, "Mom, I shouldn't bite people, but I can't run if I don't bite him."

"Mom knows," Zhou Yingying held back her sore nose, "Guozi, after the Chinese New Year, Mom will contact the school to let you go to school. You study hard, and when you grow up, no one can bully us. Also, people Brother Xiao Hai is a good boy, he was bitten so badly by you, and he gave you buns to eat. You must apologize to him tomorrow, you know?"

In the chaotic darkness, Qiushi could clearly see the killing determination in Zhou Yingying's eyes, and when she heard her soft pleading, she could only nod her head.