Wu Shang

"Wu'er, Wu'er, it's time to wake up, it's time to eat." There was a knock on the door following the call.

Wu Zhicuo woke up early, but he pretended to be in a deep sleep and waited for his mother to yell a few more times before answering in a sleepy voice: "Oh, okay. Mom, you eat first. come out."

"Okay, don't stay in bed."

"Yeah." Wu Zhicuo answered while covering himself under the quilt, his expression darkened again when he heard the footsteps leaving outside the door.

He lifted the quilt and looked at the empty ceiling, feeling confused.He didn't expect to see his mother when he got off the plane last night. According to his mother, she received a call from Gao Rui and she made an appointment to pick him up at the airport. After knowing that he didn't have communication equipment, he was at the exit of the plane he was on. Wait, no trouble.But Wu Zhicuo knew in his heart that his mother suffered a lot for him this time.To be honest, he doesn't have the strength to get up now, no matter how he escapes or enlightens himself, the wound left by that person is real, and he is very tired from trying to forget and ignoring.He was so tired that he wanted to become a useless person, just lying on the bed like this, lying on his bed for hundreds of years, nothing will exist anymore.

"Huh." Wu Zhicuo sat up, changed his clothes and got out of bed, thinking that he would not make his mother sad because of him again.

After washing up well, Wu Zhicuo became much more energetic, and when he arrived in the living room, he was smiling.

"Good morning, Mom."

"Good morning," Huang Ma smiled and frowned the corners of her eyes, but she was very kind. "How did you sleep?"

Seeing the creases in the corners of Huang Ma's eyes, Wu Zhicuo felt sad for a while, and couldn't help reaching out to touch the corners of her eyes: "Mom, there is a kind old lady."

"Haha," Huang's mother leaned on his son's hand with a happy face, "Yes, Wu'er has grown up when Mom is old!"

When Huang's mother said this, Wu Zhicuo suddenly felt very guilty. It seemed that he hadn't cared about his mother for so many years, and the years had inadvertently left scratches on the face of her great beauty. .

"Mom," Wu Zhicuo sat across from Huang's mother, and for the first time said in such a mature and responsible tone, "I won't leave this time, I plan to stay here."

"Don't you want to go?" Under the morning light, Huang Ma's expression was still so peaceful, "Well, don't go, just stay, the outside world can only be seen after all."

"Ah."

This morning is very quiet and warm, so that any wound can be buried silently without being disturbed.

After breakfast, Huang's mother laundered the school uniform that was going to be changed tomorrow for Mianmian, and Wu Zhicuo was doing small chores beside her.

"Wu'er, go and dry your clothes."

"Okay." Wu Zhicuo took out a basket of clothes.

Wu Zhichao subconsciously looked towards the distance of the balcony while drying the clothes. What surprised him was that the opposite side had not changed for so many years—a series of buildings in the form of descending steps spread into the distance. It widened, and at the place where the building gradually ended, a cliff-like mountain rose steeply, and the small ruined temple still stood on the top of the mountain.

"Wu Er, Wu Er."

Huang's mother called Wu Zhizhuo twice before she came back to her senses: "Mom, what's the matter?"

"What are you looking at so obsessed with, come in."

"Ok."

When Wu Zhicuo came to the living room, he saw Huang Ma flipping through several notebooks and taking out a few bank cards from a small leather bag.

"Mom, what are you doing?" Wu Zhicuo sat beside Huang's mother and leaned forward to read her notebooks.

"Wu'er, have you thought about what to do next?"

"I plan to take a look in a few days."

Huang Ma turned to look at him: "How about opening a bakery?"

"Bakery?" This Wu Zhichao had never thought about it.

"Actually, I thought about it a long time ago. You are not too young to be outside for a long time. If it weren't for..." Huang Ma paused suddenly, avoiding what she was going to say, "In short, last time I plan to let you stay at home, let's set up a shop next to the school and make bread."

Huang Ma's proposal is really good, and it is also the best choice for them: "It's just the principal..."

"You don't have to worry about this," Huang's mother smiled and put the bank card and small notebook in front of Wu Zhicuo, "The money you sent me this year, some money I occasionally saved from odd jobs, and other things from my hometown The direct subsidy for growing grain and the like are almost enough here and there.”

Wu Zhicuo looked at the things on the table with tears in his eyes, what kind of existence is his mother, who thinks of everything for him.Just this morning, Wu Zhicuo felt self-blame towards his mother for the second time as a child. He always thought that sending money home as much as possible was to take care of and worry about his mother, but his mother saved it for him.

"Wu Er?"

"what?"

"Why are you in a daze? What do you think?"

"Well, that's fine."

Huang's mother showed a gratified expression on her face, as if she was very happy to help her son: "Well, you don't need to hire a pastry chef."

Wu Zhicuo understood that his mother had worked in a bakery for several years back then, and with her culinary talent, she only said that she hadn't taken any special exams, so her skills were no problem at all.

"When I was bored in the past few years, I often researched new flavors of bread for your younger sister, so I can try it."

"Ah."

"Then let's do it," Huang's mother showed a resolute expression, "I will go to the bakery shop early today with my bank card and notebook to renovate. I will screen a few raw material suppliers and book the bakery early."

Huang's mother urged Wu Zhicuo, but she couldn't dispel her enthusiasm, and the two of them took a little preparation and then acted separately.

The winter weather here this year is not bad, the sun is very warm and there is little wind.Mama Huang walked into the alley on Qingshiban Road, her smiling face dimmed.The first call she received about Wu Zhichao was from Shang Mozhi, and Huang Ma knew all the inside story on the phone, and the second call about Wu Zhichao was from Gao Rui. In the description, she knew how painful her son was.Wu Zhichao didn't tell her about these things, and she was holding on in front of her, but she was distressed but helpless, the only thing she could do was help him forget.Keep him busy, let him be so busy that he has no place to think about it at all, as if it never happened to be covered up by existing things and finally disappeared in the dust of time...

It is true that this month, Wu Zhicuo is so busy that he leaves early and returns late. There are also decoration problems, raw material docking, and political review.

"Brother—" Mianmian's voice yelled from the kitchen all the way to the living room, and then stopped as he sat down on the sofa, "Try the freshly baked croissants!"

Wu Zhicuo sat up from the sofa and dropped the hot compresses from his eyes, looked at the hot croissants on the plate and took out one: "Well, this time it smells so good."

"That's right, the fermentation time is different with the addition of milk this time, and it's baked when the flour is at its best!"

"Hey, I didn't expect that Mian Mian could bake bread."

"That's right." After being praised so much, she became even more proud, "What a talent this lady is, no matter how much she studies for a month, it's probably [-]%."

"You two brothers and sisters, go to sleep with me after tasting, you have something to do tomorrow! You get up for school at six o'clock, and Wu Er's store opens tomorrow morning, so don't make any trouble for me!"

Wu Zhichao and Wu Zhichao looked at each other, each of them picked up a croissant bag and ran to their own room while agreeing: "Oh!"

Huang Ma came out of the kitchen and saw the two little boys running away, she couldn't help but shook her head and smiled, in a daze...it was back to the same way many years ago.

Wu Zhicuo is very excited to finally open the store after a busy month.The ordered flowers also arrived. When Wu Zhicuo was laying out flower baskets outside, someone suddenly handed over a bouquet of flowers, pink roses?But he didn't make an order. When he turned his head and saw the face of the flower holder, he was really stunned, and he didn't speak for a long while.

It was the flower holder who spoke first: "Xiao Wu, congratulations on opening the store, and wish you a prosperous business."

Wu Zhicuo looked at the person in front of him and shouted those two words in disbelief: "Brother Qi?"

"Hmm," Qi Ji smiled, "I thought Xiao Wu didn't know me anymore."

"How...how could it be," Wu Zhichao's eyes were wet as if he had seen a relative he hadn't seen for a long time, "Oh my god, Brother Qi, why...how are you here? How do you know...Oh my God."

Wu Zhicuo became a little incoherent with excitement.

Qi Ji reached out and touched Wu Zhicuo's head: "Xiao Wu is still so cute, why does he look like he's about to cry?"

"No...no," Wu Zhicuo hurriedly wiped away the tears that hadn't fallen, "It's really, really unexpected."

Wu Zhi couldn't help sighing: "Brother Qi, when did you return to China, and why did you come here!"

Wu Zhicuo had a lot of questions, but Qi Ji didn't answer any of them: "Could it be that your first guest was turned away?"

"Oh," Wu Zhicuo finally came to his senses, "Come in, please come in and sit in the store."

Qi Ji walked into the store and looked left and right, not without admiration: "The decoration is really good."

"Haha," Wu Zhichao went to pour a cup of hot milk, "Brother Qi, sit down."

When Qi Ji sat down, Huang Ma also came out from inside, looking at the familiar faces of the two: "Wu Er, is this your friend?"

"Uh-huh."

Qi Ji also asked: "Who is this?"

"This is my mother?"

"Oh," Qi Ji hurriedly stood up from his seat, and said politely, "So it's my aunt, hello."

"Hello, hello," Huang's mother hurriedly brought out a plate of freshly baked buns, "Sit down, sit down! You're not a local, are you?"

"Yes, Auntie," Qi Ji said while helping to pick up the bread, "I used to be Xiao Wu's senior at work, and I have a very good relationship. I heard that he opened his own shop, so of course we want to celebrate."

"Hey, that's a long-distance visitor," Huang Ma sat down with a smile and said, "I came here on a special trip. Such a long journey must be tiring."

Qi Ji smiled and said: "Fortunately, I haven't seen Xiao Wu for a long time. I really miss him."

Speaking of which, Qi Ji looked at Wu Zhicuo, feeling at a loss for what to do with his gaze: "Mom, I'll go in and look at the bread in the oven."

"You child, people come to see you from a long distance, so don't spend time with the guests."

But Wu Zhicuo had already run into the kitchen. To be honest, he was not able to face Qi Ji as if nothing had happened. After all, he once said something more than a friend to him.And...Qi Ji's arrival is like a breeze stirring the originally calm lake surface, making the person who I thought I had forgotten and didn't care about resurface...