Xingchuan

Suburban nursing home.

"Come on." The nurse on the third floor was already very familiar with Ling Yi, and she nodded with a smile when she saw him.

Ling Yi returned a gentle smile, carrying the fruit into a double room at the far end of the corridor.

"Aunt Sun."

"Oh, I just told Xiao Ge that Ling Yi is about to come. Look, Cao Cao will be here soon."

"I bought some apples, would you like to pick some?"

"No baby, I have it here." Aunt Sun smiled and opened the bedside drawer. "My daughter bought it for me. I haven't finished eating half of it for several days. If I put it away, it will be broken. Tell her not to buy it." She prefers to buy it, and she doesn’t listen to it.”

"That's your daughter's filial piety."

"You are filial too." As she spoke, Aunt Sun arranged her things, "I'm leaving, Ling Yi, my daughter is still waiting for me downstairs, see you next week."

"Goodbye, Aunt Sun."

The door was closed tightly, and Ling Yi's smile slowly melted away.

Looking back, there was a woman in her fifties sitting on the single bed near the window. The collar of the old sweater was a little unthreaded, and the cotton velvet trousers were washed hard. There was floor heating in the room, but a thick scarf was wrapped around her neck. As if afraid of the cold.

The sunlight outside the window silently sprinkled on the white sheets, the woman squinted her eyes slightly, and made low hoarse and meaningless syllables in her throat, as if something was tearing her vocal cords.

"Mom." Ling Yi took off her coat and sat on the folding chair beside the bed, "Good morning."

"It seems that a leader came to the city to inspect today. The traffic on the road is controlled, and there are so many people on the subway. When I came, I waited three times before going up, so I came late, so you should wait."

After sitting down, he found that his mother's socks were worn crookedly, so he leaned over to straighten them.The hand touched the ankle, and it felt cold to the touch, so she covered her mother's calf with the quilt.

"Is there any news this week? I heard from Nurse Ge that Auntie Sun finally got divorced. Did she tell you? I didn't have the nerve to ask just now."

The woman lowered her head, picked up the ball from the sweater, and threw it everywhere.

"Aunt Sun is very interesting. I saw her put a shuttlecock in her bag just now. She must be going to the park to make friends in the afternoon. This is very good. In fact, you should also make more friends."

He got his hands under the quilt, covered his mother's instep, and felt that his hands were also warm.

"I heard from Xiaoge that you don't go downstairs all day now, do you feel cold? No matter how cold it is, you have to go out for a walk, and you will feel better after walking."

"Huh? Mom." He put his face closer and smiled, "Mom? Let's make friends, let's kick the shuttlecock."

Maybe it was because he was too close, and for the first time since entering the room, his mother looked up at him.The eyes were blurred, and the word "you" whimpered out of his throat.

"Me? I'm still the same, I have nothing to say."

"hand……"

"Hand, there's nothing wrong with my hand. I fell down and the stitches will be removed in two days." He took out his gauze-wrapped right hand and shook it in front of his mother's eyes, showing that nothing happened to him.His mother raised her arms slowly, wrapping his hands around his bent knees.

He felt warm in his heart, "It's really fine."

"painting……"

"Okay, you can continue to draw, don't worry."

After grunting a few times, his mother slowly calmed down, lowered her head and picked up a ball of wool next to her, which should have been given by Aunt Sun.

Ling Yi's hands were pressed against her mother's knees, her back was soaked in the sun, and her whole body was warm.

The rooms in this sanatorium are small in size. Although they are simple in every way, they are quiet and safe.

His mother ignored him, and he got up to tidy up the messy drawers and the messy wardrobe.The nurse will not move these personal items, and his mother has no ability to take care of herself, so she can only arrange them when he comes.

After finishing his work, he sat back, spread out the quilt, and stretched the sheets.

Mom still ignored him.

He felt a little tired, so he bent down and slowly pressed his side cheek against the back of his hand. He lay on his mother's lap as he did when he was a child, resting quietly.

The room was silent, no one disturbed.

"Mom, let me tell you something." He tightened his knuckles a little bit, "He's back."

After holding back for several days, there was no one to talk to, and finally I was able to talk to him today, even though my mother couldn't understand.

"I saw him, he's in Linjiang." Ling Yi closed his eyes, feeling as safe as a baby in his mother's arms, "I didn't find him on purpose, or I ran into him." It seemed like the fate was not over.

"Mom, do you know, he didn't recognize me at first. When we were face to face, I wore a mask, so he couldn't recognize me, and I could recognize him at a glance. It wasn't recognition, it was just listening. As soon as I heard him speak, I knew it was him."

As he talked, he found an extra hand, which belonged to his mother.He rubbed his mother's palm for a moment, feeling an unspeakable pain in his heart.

Mother's hand slowly descended, slowly stroking his thin cheeks, from the eye sockets to the bridge of the nose to the chin.He closed his eyes and asked softly: "Mom, tell me, does he really not recognize this face? Could it be... Could it be that he has become short-sighted in recent years. "

While talking, Ling Yi actually laughed.

"But later he found out, he knew it was me. I guess he still remembers the photo on the phone desktop." His cheeks were slightly warm, "I don't know what he will think of me, it doesn't matter, just let him go."

His mother couldn't control her movements, and unconsciously twisted his face, hitting hard.

He hissed, and his tone softened: "By the way, he has a child. It's called Xiaoshu. He's cute. He's a boy. He's almost four years old. He can almost reach my waist when he stands up. He should also be a tall boy in the future." tall, just like his father."

The smile on his face was forced, and his facial features were no longer like his own.

"People really...will change slowly. He used to say that he didn't like children."

Suddenly quiet.

No one spoke, and there was a long silence, at least five or six minutes.

Then Ling Yi put her face down completely, and hugged her mother's knees with her whole body.It was just a low whimper at first, and then slowly turned into a sob.

His mother was still pinching his face like an enemy.His face was full of tears in pain, and he finished the last sentence he wanted to say in a voice that only he could hear: "I guess he really forgot about me."

—

After having lunch with her mother, Ling Yi left the room, washed her face, and went to the lounge where the nurse was.

"Nurse Ge, let me spare you a few minutes." He stood at the door.

Nurse Xiaoge had always had a crush on this handsome man, but now she turned her head and saw that his hair was dripping with water, his eyes were moist, and he showed a fragile expression in the backlight, and he was inexplicably willing to get close to him.

She quickly wiped her mouth, covered the takeaway and walked to the corridor, not forgetting to close the door behind her.

"What's the matter, Ling Yi, is it because Auntie is not feeling well?"

"No." Ling Yi pursed her lips, lowering her gaze, "Nurse Ge, that person hasn't been here recently, right?"

Xiao Ge was stunned for a moment, and then realized who he was talking about.She immediately looked back and forth, and then shook her head, "No, don't worry, we have 24-hour surveillance here, if anyone has been here, I will know."

"It's fine if you don't. Then I won't delay your meal, and come back next week."

Ling Yi turned and left, but before he had gone far, he heard Xiaoge calling him from behind, "Ling Yi!"

He turned his head away.

"You have to be careful yourself," Xiaoge pointed at his neck, "be careful, that person is crazy."

Obviously in the eyes of ordinary people, Ling Suhui, Ling Yi's mother who was sitting on the ward, was the lunatic, but she said that that person was a lunatic.

Ling Yi's eyes were slightly grateful, and he nodded slightly, "Thank you, I will be careful."

—

About an hour later, he walked into Dijing with a folding umbrella given by the lottery in the supermarket and a computer bag.

The air is filled with lingering rain and earthy smell, and the winter rain is caught in the wind and hits from all directions.Although the rain wasn't heavy, it was still soaking through the sleeves and trousers legs after walking for a long time.

When he arrived at the downstairs of Li Xingchuan's house, he looked up at the upper floors, counting the floors through the rain curtain, counting to the eighth floor, and looked at it silently for a while.

Xingchuan should be at home, the appointment is at two o'clock in the afternoon.

After breaking up unhappy the day before, he and Jiang Hao implicitly expressed that they did not want to be involved with this project anymore.Originally, Jiang Hao agreed, probably because he was afraid of causing trouble, but at night, for some reason, he backed out.

On the phone, Jiang Hao happily said that Li Xingchuan had introduced him to a big project, and he couldn't spare the energy to follow up on this small project, so Ling Yi was in charge of it.

Ling Yi didn't ask what the big project was, after all, no matter what it was, he wouldn't be given a share.He just couldn't figure it out, since Xingchuan hated him, why did he let him continue working on this project?Changing designers is a breeze for clients.

Probably tortured and vented enough.

The umbrella cloth above his head made a rustling sound, and he stood at five minutes to two, intending to go forward and ring the bell, but there happened to be residents coming in and out of the unit building, so he borrowed the light.

Take the elevator up, and the hall door is wide open.Ling Yi consciously put on the shoe covers, stood at the entrance and knocked on the door.

No one should.

What about people from Xingchuan?The door was open, so he couldn't have gone out, maybe he was on the phone.

After waiting for a minute or two, there was still no movement. Just as I was about to retreat outside, I saw the owner of the house coming out in a dark bathrobe, and the wet hair was still dripping.

Ling Yi froze.

When the two looked at each other, Li Xingchuan frowned and stopped.

Ling Yi explained in a low voice: "I saw the door was open, so I just walked in. Or I—"

In the middle of speaking, he suddenly found that Li Xingchuan was stepping on the floor with bare feet.

"Forgot to take your slippers again? Don't move, I'll get them for you." In the past, this person was like this, regardless of spring, summer, autumn and winter, he took off his shoes and went to the bathroom to take a shower in one go. After washing, he remembered that the slippers were still outside.

Ling Yi's body seemed to have muscle memory, and she turned around consciously and went to the shoe cabinet in the entrance to get a pair of shoes out.Turning around, he found Li Xingchuan looking at him coldly.

The gurgling noise of disposable shoe covers when walking, which seemed nothing at first, is now embarrassing.

He squatted down under Li Xingchuan's gaze, and said nothing, only neatly arranged a pair of slippers.

Before he had time to get up, he heard an indifferent voice above his head: "You can't even tell whether the shoes are big or small?"

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