godfather

It was a weekend when Meng Xiaobei arrived in Xi'an, his mother and brother met him at the station.Ma Baochun still had that carefree and cheerful temper, without any scruples, and said, "Our big baby has finally come home, this time it's time to be at ease, let's honestly go to school and take the exam at the door of our house!"

When Meng Xiaobei looked at his brother, Meng Xiaojing's eyebrows became more handsome, his hair was cut shorter than last time, he was slightly tanned, and he was wearing a pair of men's "amphibious" casual sandals that were very popular at that time. The two sleeves of the T-shirt should be piled up on the shoulders deliberately, which is said to be cool, revealing the beautiful muscle lines of one side of the collarbone and upper arm, and boys want this style.

As soon as Meng Xiaojing lifted the luggage, he said with a smile, "It's so heavy, you moved all your Beijing homes here?...Xi'an actually has everything, it's not that dusty."

Meng Xiaobei laughed, "That's right! Grandpa and grandma insisted that I bring them to you. Our grandfather has hidden Shandong special tunes and Confucian mansions for several years. He is reluctant to drink them, so he insists on me carrying them on his shoulders!" "

Meng Xiaojing said: "Oh, Dad can't drink now either."

Meng Xiaobei: "Where's our dad?"

Meng Xiaojing said: "The family is lying down."

Meng Xiaobei cast a small wink: "Hey, how is your fan color TV selling this summer? Xi'an is going to be hot this year, your hypermarket is going to be very popular!!"

The corner of Meng Xiaojing's mouth twitched: "Damn, I won't be selling there anymore. I'm back now. My dad insists on letting me go home and wait for you, ready to receive you!"

"Are you such an important person in our family, Meng Xiaobei?"

……

Meng Xiaobei bowed his head with his bag and had a good time. The brothers met and tried to coexist peacefully. He came "back home".Crowds of people rushed towards the exit in an orderly manner, and steaming white air rose from the railway wheels behind them.Many people outside the station held up white signs of "State-owned Hotel" and "Fufeng-Baoji Long-distance Bus" to solicit customers. There was a row of windows of the fast food restaurant in the waiting hall. aroma.

The taste of the ancient city of Xi'an.

Meng Jianmin's family has already moved to a new residence. They moved together with the factory's first batch of migrant workers to a staff dormitory compound located in the suburbs of the city.There is a gatekeeper on duty at the gate, and the red brick buildings are neatly lined up.Next to their compound is the factory area of ​​a certain foreign-funded pharmaceutical factory. Looking at the pure white and clean factory building, a bus carries a large number of workers in and out every day.Meng Xiaobei knew about that famous pharmaceutical factory in Beijing. On the TV, the deep and loud baritone advertisement popped up all day long on CCTV, "Overeating, indigestion, stomach acid, stomach ulcer, stomach motility? Don't be afraid!! Please Look for it, Ding, Lin!!!"

Meng Jianmin did not go to the train station to pick up his eldest son in person, because of his health.Meng Jianmin's health has not been very good since the two sons were in their first year of high school.The hospital in Xigou couldn’t treat him at all, and the cause of the disease could not be found at all. He went to various hospitals in Xi’an for treatment all year round, and the factory gave him a long-term leave of absence.

Meng Jianmin walked over slowly from home, put his arms around his eldest son, and slowly pressed the guilt of ten years of separation on his palm: "Xiaobei, I'm sorry I didn't pick you up. I can't smell the smell of kerosene and gasoline at the train station now. I can't breathe."

Meng Xiaobei asked, "Dad, what's the matter with you?"

Meng Jianmin said: "The lungs have fluid."

Meng Xiaobei sat cross-legged on the bed, frowning tightly, surprised and dignified, listening to his father explain what the disease of hydropneumonia was all about.Given the type of work Meng Jianmin does in the factory, he does not touch waste chemical raw materials or asbestos mineral dust. He is a master mechanic and does hard technical work. Normally, he should not be infected with lung disease.

Meng Jianmin was leaning on the head of the bed, his eyes were sunken, and he was quite optimistic. He smiled like a handsome old man: "Actually, he ran around to fix Meng Xiaojing's legs, and the shifts in the factory were very tight. Playing life to urge our group. I stayed up late and worked overtime in the factory during Chinese New Year. In the dark night, an electric box above the power line broke down. I climbed up to repair it, and the people below held up a headlight to illuminate me..."

"The telegraph pole is very high. We used a ladder to go up. As a result, I couldn't see clearly halfway through the repair, and I didn't step on it firmly, so I fell down."

Meng Xiaobei exclaimed, "You fell?... You never told us."

Meng Jianmin pouted his hair: "What's the use of telling you kid?... At that time, I fell very hard, four stories high. If it wasn't for a layer of construction plastic sheeting underneath, help me cushion it, your father and I will really die." It fell apart."

After Meng Jianmin recovered from the fall, he didn't take it seriously at first, but his health continued to deteriorate, and it became more and more serious year after year. Finally, he was diagnosed with pulmonary edema.

"Maybe it's due to concurrent inflammation. Inflammation leads to hydrops in the diaphragm, and the sewage accumulates in the chest cavity. Doesn't it make me uncomfortable to fall?"

"It's not a big deal, it won't affect your studies, don't worry."

"Don't report to your grandparents!"

Meng Jianmin exhorted, raising his hand and pointing at Meng Xiaobei.

Meng Xiaobei quickly turned his head and pointed at his brother: "Meng Xiaojing, did you hear that, it's all because you were worried about your legs at that time, so please honor our father from now on!"

Meng Xiaojing said without hesitation: "Yes, our father is my father. I will take care of him. Every time he goes to the hospital to pump water, I will accompany him in bed!"

That night, the whole family sat around to greet Meng Xiaobei.Ma Baochun's cooking skills are really average, just a meal of home-cooked noodles from Kansai people.Saozi noodles are served with shredded potatoes, shredded carrots, cucumber and bean curd, and a few cold dishes, "Get on the car dumpling and get off the car noodles".The beer and liquor on the table were all wrapped up by the two brothers who stood up to the same height as Meng Jianmin.

At the dinner table, Meng Xiaobei drank a glass of beer in one gulp, without any polite words, and said to his father very manly: "Dad, don't worry, Meng Xiaojing and I have grown up too. After graduating from high school, I will go out to earn money. You support me and worry about me."

Meng Xiaobei estimated in his heart that the last time his father brought Meng Xiaojing to Beijing, the family had a lot of trouble, and the chickens flew away.At that time, Meng Jianmin was much older, and he should have been ill.What Meng Xiaobei said was contrary to his heart, not because he was worried about Meng Xiaojing, but because he must be angry with his father.A photo of a family portrait, everyone is awkwardly pouted and looking in different directions... The family is pulling each other's pain when they are far away.

Even though Meng Xiaobei has been emotionally estranged from his parents for a long time, he does not want to see that his father is not in good health.He has calculated everything, and he has made up his mind to go back to his home in Xi'an and be a wild child who doesn't love his mother or love his neighbors and uncles and aunts for two years. After the exam, hurry up and get out!The only thing that didn't count... His father was sick.

There is one bedroom and two living rooms in the house, and Meng Xiaobei and Meng Xiaojing share the same room.Meng Jianmin arranged the room in advance, directed the child's mother to go out and order the furniture, and changed Meng Xiaojing's original single bed into a bunk bed, and then the two brothers each had a writing desk with a one-piece bookshelf, and the furniture was furnished by two brothers. Fair distribution, impartiality.

Meng Xiaojing winked and said, "Meng Xiaobei, Dad is actually looking out for you, for fear that you will be wronged! The day before you came, he suddenly found that there was no desk lamp on your table. I said just make do with it. You can buy it yourself when you come." Hey, isn't it just a lamp. He insists on letting me go to a hypermarket to buy a new desk lamp that is exactly the same, otherwise my dad thinks that the two tables look asymmetrical, and I'm afraid you will be unhappy."

Meng Xiaobei took out an exquisite packing box from his luggage bag and held it in his hand, intending to make up for his previous faux pas, pretending to throw it to his brother inadvertently while packing up: "Hey, the watch my godfather bought for you. My watch looks pretty much the same, didn’t you say you like it last time...my godfather treats you well too!”

"Bought it for me?" Meng Xiaojing was quite surprised, looked at it carefully in his hand, and quickly put it on, pursing his lips happily: "...you help me thank you godfather, it's quite expensive."

Meng Xiaobei said: "You call to thank yourself! Thank you for these two words and let me say it for you. It's so funny."

Meng Xiaojing rolled his eyelids: "How dare I talk to him? You have to turn your back on me again, so I won't say anything."

The black history was exposed, and Meng Xiaobei was immediately unhappy: "Who, who, who won't let you talk to him? You go and talk, you go and go!"

Going back to the room at night, Meng Xiaobei glanced at the bed and said, "Which one of us will get on and get off?"

Meng Xiaojing said: "I'm afraid of heights, you go up."

Meng Xiaobei: "Success, don't think I'm turning over and shaking you at night."

When Meng Xiaobei got up at night, he faintly heard his father coughing continuously in the next room, as if it was difficult to sleep.He stood outside the door for a while, and didn't know what to say, so he didn't say anything intimate and considerate, so he decided not to say anything.

Then when Meng Xiaojing got up at night, Ma Baochun yelled directly in the room, Meng Xiaojing poured honey water for your father.

At that time, Meng Jianmin had to lean and sleep "sitting" every day. He could not lie flat, otherwise the pleural effusion would easily cause suffocation.Accumulation of water for a long time leads to chest tightness, difficulty in breathing, heart pain, and shortness of breath. You need to go to the hospital to get water every once in a while.

Ma Baochun has to go to work on weekdays, and their compound has a special shuttle bus to transport a large number of workers between Xi'an and Qishan.Brother Meng Xiaobei escorted Meng Jianmin to the hospital for a pre-pleural puncture examination.Walking in the family dormitory area, the most common sentence I hear is "Meng Jianmin sees that you have raised these two eldest sons, they are so handsome, how wonderful your family is!" It seems that the only enviable achievement of Mr. It is to raise two decent young men, Xiaobei and Xiaojing.

Meng Jianmin's back is already very thin, and he looks narrower than his two sons. His features on his face are thicker and deeper, as if twenty years of wind and frost have been carved on his face, and a layer of skin covers his neck and shoulders. The still strong skeleton .Last year, I did a pleural puncture and pumped out 1500cc of turbid fluid. However, the leakage of water from the lungs was still serious. After a while, the fluid spread to the chest cavity, and repeated pumping was required.

The chest department of the hospital had many serious cases. Meng Xiaobei sat outside the clinic waiting for his father, in a daze for no reason, feeling hesitant and even fearful.In ten years, his father became old in a blink of an eye.Meng Xiaobei slowly pushed a stretcher trolley past his eyes, passing through a dark and long corridor.A man in his fifties was lying under the quilt, his eyes were gray and lifeless, his mouth was half-open under the nasal tube, his chest was like a blower making a buzzing sound of a bellows, and every heavy and stagnant breath seemed to drive the strength of his whole body , I can't catch my breath...

Meng Xiaobei touched the scar on his forehead, and seemed to remember in his consciousness that his father liked to kiss his forehead when he was young.

And Shaotang likes to kiss his mouth.

Ten years passed in a blink of an eye, but it was also a long time. He gained a lot and missed a lot.

Consultation with experts at the central hospital, still unable to diagnose the original cause of Meng Jianmin, only long-term treatment and self-cultivation.It was the weekend again, and Ma Baochun originally changed his clothes and put on a shoe. After thinking about it, he turned around and said, "Meng Xiaojing, if you take your brother around the city, I won't go."

Ma Baochun said with a smile: "I will go with you brothers, you must think that I am walking slowly, and that I am nagging you that you can't go anywhere, which annoys both of you! You two brothers play by yourself, go wherever you want, and eat Eat what you want! Meng Xiaojing pays for the meal, and I will reimburse you when you come back."

Damn it was an intentional "matching".It is not easy for parents to intervene in trivial matters between boys.

Even if Meng Jianmin and Ma Baochun are closer to Meng Xiaojing in their hearts, at least on the surface they will try their best to treat them equally, and they will never engrave all their preferences for the two grandchildren on their faces like his old lady.Ma Baochun kept the two bowls of water as level as possible for the two brothers. As much as Meng Xiaojing's bowl contained, there must be as much as Meng Xiaobei's bowl.Everything you buy is one piece per person.When buying discounted clothes in a shopping mall, if there is only one piece of that size left, Ma Baochun would rather put it aside and not buy it, and never buy just one piece to provoke conflicts.

Walking downstairs, an aunt with the same surname Ma saw them at the door of the unit next door.The two are old neighbors in Xigou.Meng Xiaobei called out in a rough voice, "Aunt Ma!"

Aunt Ma said pleasantly: "Oh, you are Meng Xiaobei!!"

"You look so good-looking now?... No worse than your brother!"

Someone is in love, has a lover, and now the eyebrows and eyes are different.Meng Xiaobei walked with his arms swinging, without looking back, he licked his lips chicly: "I'm no worse than Meng Xiaojing!"

Aunt Ma kept greeting him from behind: "You are much more handsome than when you were a child! When you were a child, you have been relying on our old ladies whose glass has never been broken by you! Come to Aunt Ma's house for dinner tonight. Cook you crispy meat and big elbows, I cook better than your mother!"

Passing by the reception room at the door, Meng Xiaobei's pager rang.He looked down and hurried to find a phone to call.

He called Shaotang's new number and said "miss you".At first, I wanted to tell his father about his lung disease on impulse, but after thinking about it, my little father is too serious, especially with his father who has been friends with his father for many years. If he knows the truth, he might ask for leave the next day and take the train non-stop. When I came to Xi'an, it seemed that I was "fake public affairs for personal gain"... Although I really wanted to see Tangtang.

Meng Xiaojing's eyes showed surprise and envy: "You already have a pager? Not many people in our school use it, not even Dad!"

Meng Xiaobei: "Yes."

Meng Xiaojing's tone was clear, "Call your other father."

Who says twins don't have a tacit understanding?

Meng Xiaobei shrugged acquiescingly, the corners of his mouth curled up happily.

Meng Xiaojing asked again: "How much do you pay every month?"

Meng Xiaobei complained: "The Internet fee is only [-] yuan per year! I have to work by myself, or I can't afford the annual fee!"

Meng Xiaobei's brows and eyes became more and more open, and his heart also opened, and he was no longer so petty and self-inflicted.As the lord of the land, Meng Xiaojing is more confident and calm in his heart, and will never show the shrunken and useless appearance of a small doormat on his own territory.With He Shaotang not in front of him, how much conflict can these two brothers have?

Meng Xiaojing said generously, "Where do you want to go for dinner?"

Meng Xiaobei: "Which steamed bun in Xi'an is delicious?"

Meng Xiaojing asked: "Do you want to eat expensive and high-grade food, or delicious food?"

Meng Xiaobei: "Nonsense, eat the best and most authentic, who wants to eat expensive!"

Meng Xiaojing shook his head with great experience: "Go to the city, Lao Liu's. If our mother takes you out to eat, it must be to Tong Shengxiang in the Bell and Drum Tower, or the old Xi'an restaurant. She must be embarrassed to take you to eat cheap, I'm afraid you think she doesn't take you seriously! That kind of place is for entertaining guests from other places, we students don't go there, I'll take you to the place I usually go to."

The two of them went to the city to eat steamed buns made of old Liu’s mutton. They were cheap and big bowls with thick soup, and the steamed buns were freshly baked.Meng Xiaobei broke the buns randomly by breaking a large bowl into a small bun, and then pushed it directly to the back kitchen to cook the soup.Meng Xiaojing slowly broke a whole bun into more than 100 pieces of buns smaller than broad beans. The noodles soaked in sheep soup that he broke up by himself were more fragrant, and he enjoyed the eyes of the girls next to him while eating.

Meng Xiaobei said, "Hey Meng Xiaojing, do you think that you are not handsome enough if you open your mouth wide enough to show more than four teeth when eating? ... The lower lip is still in the pocket, I have never seen your two small teeth. What does Huya look like!"

Meng Xiaojing wiped the corner of his mouth gently, "Can't you stop talking when you eat? You stuffed too much in your mouth and sprayed it in my bowl."

Meng Xiaobei transferred to Meng Xiaojing's school when he started school, an ordinary high school in their school district.The school building is an old-fashioned red brick building, which naturally cannot be compared with the high-end design of the small white western-style building library in Beijing Chaoyang No. [-] Middle School.There is also no swimming pool, and two adjacent middle schools share a formal large playground.

Meng Xiaojing is also considered a "land snake" seriously, familiar with the terrain, led Meng Xiaobei to the back of the playground, and got in through a big hole in the middle of the barbed wire.Today is the playground for the students of the school next door to use, and the entry and exit vouchers.Someone was injured on the basketball court, and the boy greeted the people off the court, "Our team is short of two players, do you want to play?" Meng Xiaobei responded generously, "Of course!"

Meng Xiaobei is not tall and thin, and has always been a point guard, pulling saws from both sides near the center circle.Meng Xiaobei roared and stretched out his hand to command, and sent a diversion to Meng Xiaojing from afar in the right field.Meng Xiaojing took the ball and rushed in, almost picked up by the opponent's defender and flew to touch the basket!The ball hit the edge of the basket and bounced, Meng Xiaobei rushed over to make up for it.Several hands fumbled around the basket and grabbed Meng Xiaobei, as if hitting his younger brother's hand and poking the ball into the basket!He immediately threw himself on Meng Xiaojing's shoulder, fell down and rolled into a ball...

Meng Xiaojing screamed at you for chopping off my feet again!Meng Xiaobei rolled happily, and his teammates came up to stroke their hair.

In just one game, Meng Xiaobei quickly became acquainted with a group of boys in the nearby family area.Everyone wears jerseys mixed, a bottle of water is divided among three people, and the sweat dripping across the shirts is stained.Under the scorching sun of midsummer in the ancient city, the face is tanned to the color of the bricks of the old city wall.

A group of high school girls came over from the sidelines and enthusiastically struck up a conversation: "Meng Xiaojing, why are you here to play today! I have never seen you play basketball before!"

The girls in Xi'an are more enthusiastic and bold than the girls in Beijing, and express their emotions outwardly. They make no secret of their admiration and desire to make friends with handsome boys of the same age in the school and on the street.It was only then that Meng Xiaobei realized how famous his brother was in several schools within a radius of ten miles!Meng Xiaojing is also the "school grass" of their third middle school, and has a good reputation.

The girl inquired about the handsome stranger with great interest: "Hey classmate, what's your name?"

Someone rubbed the curtain of his hair and said, "My name is Meng Xiaobei."

Several girls exclaimed, gathered around and looked at it!They all said, "Is Meng Xiaojing your elder brother or your younger brother? You two really look alike!"

Meng Xiaobei's thin eyelids were rounded, he couldn't believe it: "I look like him?!"

The girl laughed and said, "Absolutely alike, the eyes are slender, the face shape is exactly the same, and the curvature of the bridge of the nose and the tip of the nose, you two look like a family!"

Meng Xiaojing also looked at Meng Xiaobei, and sneered, "Hehe, is it true?"

Meng Xiaobei hugged Meng Xiaojing with an elbow, and appeared side by side frankly and generously.He touched his younger brother's handsome face, and the two of them almost touched each other, comparing each other, and asked the people around: "Do you look like a relative?!"

The girls all had charming smiles, and their voices were crisp and joyful: "Like! It looks like two brothers at first glance, are they so handsome!"

There are also girls screaming to greet the people on the playground: "Come on, this is Meng Xiaojing's brother!!!...Come and see the twins!!!"

Meng Xiaobei: "..."

Rao, the "school grass" of No. [-] Middle School who had seen the big scene, was also blushed by the enthusiasm.Meng Xiaojing turned his face away, smiled embarrassedly and buried his face in Meng Xiaobei's shoulder, but actually his heart was turbulent.Meng Xiaobei had a thick skin, he hugged his younger brother and faced the crowds of spectators all around, his hair was so handsome that it flew up.When a man is admired by the same sex and the opposite sex, it is inevitable that he will be a little narcissistic. Meng Xiaobei also has this kind of boyish mentality, and his face is full of peach blossoms!

Several girls asked Meng Xiaobei for the pager number, and asked him to come out the next day to play at the Small Wild Goose Pagoda in the Bell Tower Square.

Meng Xiaobei didn't like to see his younger brother too much before, but for some reason, for the first time in his life, he found that he actually liked hearing people around him say that he and Meng Xiaojing looked very similar, that they were indeed the closest and handsome brothers, A family that is connected with blood.How come no one had said such a thing to the two of them before? !It felt like a small drop of blood went around and slowly merged into a bowl of thicker blood... The girl in Xi'an is simply an angel.

As night fell and the family compound was lit up with thousands of lights, Meng Xiaobei waited until the aunts downstairs squatting and shaking cattail fans to enjoy the shade had all returned home, and then ran to the reception room to call Shaotang.Shaotang called him again at dinner time just now, and the relationship between the two of them chasing their lives and calling each other was reversed!

When the BP machine at the waist rang "bibibibi", the whole family looked sideways, and all looked at him calmly.

Meng Xiaobei's lower body trembled from being dripped, clutching his waist and hurried back to the room, watching quietly...

Ma Baochun pursed his lips and said to Meng Jianmin: "Look, let's quickly install a phone at home, so that Meng Xiaobei won't have to run upstairs and downstairs every day, this kid is not too tired!"

Meng Jianmin snorted: "I really want to install a phone number for him, it costs thousands of dollars."

Meng Xiaobei sat on the small table in the reception room, covering the receiver with his hands.

His little father's voice in the receiver was low and tender: "Do you want to pay for this call?... Tell me the number, hang up first, and I'll call you."

Meng Xiaobei's voice became distorted involuntarily: "Tangtang, where are you now?"

Shaotang said: "In the compound, my uncle's house."

"I'm just lying in the same bed we slept in last time."

Meng Xiaobei's heart was suddenly poked, and he was so soft: "You miss me?"

Shaotang said in a deep voice, "Yes, I really want to."

Meng Xiaobei: "..."

Shaotang whispered: "Baby..."

Meng Xiaobei also said roughly: "Big baby!!..."

Shaotang is rarely so straightforward and nasty in person.Shaotang didn't like to talk about these things, so Shaotang pressed up and kissed him directly.

Shaotang asked: "Is it okay with your brother? Did you remember to give that watch to Meng Xiaojing? Listen to your parents and don't embarrass me."

Meng Xiaobei snapped his fingers: "Absolutely, no embarrassment! I'm very good now, I never seek trouble at home, I don't talk nonsense, and Meng Xiaojing and I are tight-lipped at school!"

Shaotang sneered: "I've seen it for a long time, as long as I'm not around, you and Meng Jianmin and Meng Xiaojing are very close, so this time I won't get involved with anything, and it will never affect your family reunion!"

Meng Xiaobei hurriedly said: "Hey! The real family reunion is when you come!"

Meng Xiaobei reported to Shaotang again: "Our schoolmates all said that Meng Xiaojing and I look alike, I screwed up, can we look alike hahahaha!"

Shaotang said that the two of you are indeed becoming more and more alike, and Meng Xiaojing is far from being a little girl when he was a child, and he looks like a handsome guy from Northwest China. In my eyes, you two will always be brothers.

People who are more intimate and miss each other have nothing to say on the phone. They are too familiar, and they just gnaw and do it when they meet. If they don't meet, they don't know what to say.The slightly rough and hoarse breathing of each other came from the receiver, and what was suppressed in the breathing was a long period of desire and affection from the man.Meng Xiaobei couldn't help but said, "It's not convenient for me to be in the reception room...you can do it..."

Shaotang was depressed, and said harshly: "What am I doing alone? Who am I going to do it with? My brother-in-law next door is asleep."

Meng Xiaobei definitely heard a hint of coquettishness from his little dad's voice, and said happily, "Dear baby! I went to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda and the Small Wild Goose Pagoda a few days ago, and took a lot of photos. Pick out all the photos that show my face and figure, and send them to you immediately! I love you! Are you comfortable!"

The rubbing of the cloth made a moving sound full of layers, and Shaotang said in a hoarse voice, "Lend me your hand."

Meng Xiaobei smirked: "Okay, I borrowed from you...Ten fingers are taken away!..."

The two leaned closer to the receiver at the same time, kissed deeply, and made a sound.

What was love at that time?

For Xiaobei and Shaotang, their love is to be able to endure longing, endure hardships, and keep the ordinary fleeting years.