Juliet Tower

An Jiayu stared blankly at Qiao Yumian's back as he staggered away.

Shock, annoyance, heartache, a jumble of emotions all woven together into a powerful sense of powerlessness... He didn't understand why he was being pushed away.

He stood downstairs for a long time, his neck was sore, Qiao Yumian's window didn't light up again.

——Be careful of the wound, don't touch the water, and don't eat anything.

He turned on the phone and left a word of advice before leaving silently.He didn't even have time to ask why you would rather let Han Zhuoyi accompany you than tell me when you were injured.

The phone was very quiet, and I didn't receive a late reply until the next afternoon. Qiao Yumian said: Xiaoyu, I'm sorry last night.sorry.

He didn't return, on the one hand because he had to go to the hospital to take care of An Zhen, on the other hand he was angry.

Around New Year's Eve, while Li Huiyun was in good condition, Qiao Yumian coaxed her to go to the hospital.I don't know if it was because she hurt her son, although she resisted this time, she did not refuse.

Yu Ying contacted the doctor early and waited in the hospital, Han Zhuoyi was also by her side, wondering if it was because Qiao Yumian was injured last time that she was worried about her mother going alone.

"It's okay. Don't be afraid, it will be fine soon. How old is your son? He looks so handsome..." The doctors and nurses who took Li Huijun to do various examinations were very experienced, coaxing and lying all the way.

According to Yu Ying's description, the doctor suspected it was Alzheimer.

Considering Li Huijun's age, early depressive symptoms, and a series of abnormal mental behaviors such as violent rage, hurting others, and stealing recently, Li Huijun had to do more PET-CT.

After all the tossing and tossing, Qiao Yumian didn't even feel that the year was over. It wasn't until she received the messy New Year's greetings that she realized that today was already the fifth day of the first lunar month. No wonder there were bursts of firecrackers bursting out of the window from the early morning. It could also be the sound of popping balloons.Everyone is welcoming the God of Wealth.

The diagnosis results have come out, and Lee Hye-jun was finally diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia.

It is a rare disease that he has never heard of. It is similar to Alzheimer's. Currently there is no treatment, and we can only try our best to delay the course of the disease.

Significantly different from other dementias, patients with frontotemporal dementia lose their sense of pleasure long before the onset of the disease, so they are often misdiagnosed as depression or other mental illnesses.

Thinking about it carefully, he has indeed not seen Li Huijun show positive emotions related to happiness for a long, long time.

There are traces of everything, but they don't understand it.It turned out that she didn't mean it, she lost her temper, scolded people, and later became taciturn, even stealing things, hurting people... This was not her intention, she was just sick...

The anti-theft door was unscrewed with a click, and Li Huijun would go out every time this time, stereotyped behavior is also one of the symptoms.

Qiao Yumian didn't stop her, but just followed her silently.

She can swipe her credit card, take the subway, arrive at Tamarix Street at a fixed time, get off the bus, and start shopping in the supermarket.When she stared at a place for a long time without moving, Qiao Yumian would take a long look at the price tag and pay in advance.

She wandered around the neighborhood aimlessly for two hours, rushed home before dark, and then got into the kitchen to cook a barely edible meal, usually a pot of spare rib noodles, and brought it to the table, silently waiting for her son to sit down Have dinner with her.

She didn't allow Qiao Yumian to step into her bedroom, where she hid her "stolen" spoils, many batteries.

Qiao Yumian took some time to go to the supermarket she frequented, and brought some unopened batteries.

He earnestly asked for help, hoping to return the goods that had just been stolen and had not yet affected sales.

He left his and Yu Ying's mobile phone numbers, and asked the boss to inform other employees to take care of Li Huijun differently. No matter what she stole, they will return it. If there is any damage, they will definitely pay, but don't call the police. Don't conflict with her, because school will start soon, and Qiao Yumian can't always deal with the aftermath.

Knowing that he is a single parent and a senior high school candidate, the supermarket owner readily agreed.

With one matter on his mind, Qiao Yumian squeezed onto the subway alone.

The Spring Festival holiday has long passed, the city had a short period of tranquility, and then returned to being noisy and crowded.

The faces of the adults around were more or less tired and irritable. Qiao Yumian didn't know why they were running around and tired, but he knew that he would soon become one of them.

When leaving the station, Qiao Zhe sent a new year's red envelope, only 888, which was even reduced by one digit compared with last year.

——Thank you, Dad.

He stood by the side of the road holding his mobile phone, hesitating whether to tell Qiao Zhe all this.

After all, the doctor had already vaccinated him, and Li Huijun's illness would only get worse day by day. Compared with those serious illnesses, the medical expenses were nothing, but the manual nursing expenses in the next few years, maybe more than ten years, would be the big one.

It would be great if he didn't go to such an expensive high school. These savings can at least relieve his urgent needs, so that he can go to college with peace of mind and don't have to think about financial issues so early.

Unfortunately, there is no such thing.

— Son, where are you?Do you have time?

Qiao Zhe sent him a voice message, and the environment was noisy.

--have.

Not long after he pressed the send button, the phone started vibrating.

"Hey, Dad. Happy New Year." It seems a little late to pay New Year's greetings at this time, but he has been struggling recently, and he really can't take care of some of these things.

"Aren't you at home?" Qiao Zhe asked, "Why is it so noisy, where did you go?"

"...I'll be there in a moment...you, how are you doing recently..." He was deliberating and didn't know how to speak.After all, Li Huijun and Qiao Zhe have no legal relationship at all, not to mention that one of them is married and has a new family.

But he desperately needs someone to help him.Qiao Zhe is his father after all, so...he shouldn't reject him, right?

"Okay...Son, I'm actually at our... KFC near your home. When will you arrive, Dad wants to see you."

Qiao Yumian hasn't seen Qiao Zhe very much since junior high school, so even though they have been separated for a year, they don't feel much.

But it's just another year.

But the moment he met the middle-aged man, he couldn't recognize the father in front of him for a while.

"Hey, you've grown up again!" Qiao Zhe patted him on the shoulder abruptly.

"...Dad?" He looked at his father with gray hairs on his temples in surprise. The man no longer wore crisp khaki pants and a clean sweater, but changed into a large navy blue sportswear with a black down jacket on top. His eyes were a little flinching , as different as before.

Qiao Zhe pointed to the store door and signaled him to go in, "It's cold outside, I'm used to living in the south, and I can't resist the cold. What would you like to eat?"

"...I'm not hungry, I'll have to..."

"Your mother is waiting for you to eat at home. I know. Then I'll eat something. I'm hungry." The man smiled more vicissitudes than the last time we met, the light in his eyebrows and eyes moistened by the second spring was eroded by something, and his face was fat There is a little bit of meat, and it is no longer related to the handsome character. It seems that everyone in the middle age is beginning to show oldness and a teenager grows up, all in the blink of an eye.

"...Dad, why did you come here suddenly..." Qiao Yumian was inexplicably uneasy.

"Do something." Qiao Zhe looked up at the menu, stepped forward and ordered a happy children's meal, and there were two package gifts in the corner of the tray he brought back, which were toys from the Big Big Big Wolf movie series.

He didn't know why, he looked up at the man who was devouring the hamburger in a few mouthfuls, downed another half glass of Mirinda in one gulp, and burped sloppily.

"Children's meals aren't worth it... If you're hungry, I'll help you find a coupon..." Qiao Yumian opened the webpage.

"It's okay, I'm full." Qiao Zhe pressed his phone, "I ordered it on purpose, take these two toys back... here, your sister..."

...Qiao Yumian shook her hand, and the phone landed on the table with a clatter.

Qiao Zhe took out his mobile phone, clicked on the photo album and put it in his hand. His nails accidentally scratched the wound on the side of his palm that had not been removed. They had been face to face for 15 minutes. The other party was always preoccupied and didn't even notice his hurt.

On the screen was an ugly baby with wrinkled orange skin and eyes that hadn't opened yet.

"Turn back, everything." Qiao Zhe couldn't help reminding him when he saw him staring blankly.

Although Qiao Yumian didn't want to look at it, he still stretched out his index finger stiffly and swipe the screen. After flipping through a few pictures, the baby was not so ugly, the skin gradually turned pink and white, and the eyes were opened, round and big, but not very bright .

"It looks like you when you were a child, eyes and eyebrows. The three of us carved them out of the same mold. The nurse said that this child will be beautiful in the future."

Qiao Yumian turned her head slowly, and saw her father smiling lovingly at a small mobile phone screen.

He couldn't empathize with him, and looked at the strange baby without any fluctuation in his heart: "When did it happen?"

"It's been more than six months. In fact, I had it before I went to the south, but you and Aunt Xu didn't know about it. After all, we are not young... I didn't expect her..." Qiao Zhe took back the phone, "I found It’s been four months since I was born, and your Auntie Xu has no children, so she thought she would keep her if she had one, and her name is Qiao Yining. Yiren’s Yi, Lemon’s Ning.”

Qiao Yumian lowered her head and counted the time. The last time she saw Xu Manman, her lower abdomen was flat without any ups and downs.

"I was born several weeks prematurely...the one who brought her back to see a doctor, her brain was injured." Qiao Zhe wiped the screen of the phone with his thumb, his brows became darker, "Your Aunt Xu didn't believe it at first, so she insisted on bringing her back to see, saying Xiao It is easy to misdiagnose in some places. It was just diagnosed at noon today."

The author says:

In fact, Xiao Qiao still wanted to struggle.