Only Wing

This year is a rare warm winter.

It wasn't until the end of January that the southward cold air mass arrived in S City.It had been snowing outside the window for three hours, and the roofs and treetops were mottled.The double-glazed windows keep the cold out, but it doesn't seem to stop the color of the snow from spreading.

The white floor, the curtains, the white hospital bed, and the pale woman.

This was the No. 11 day when she was in a coma. With a tube in her mouth and a needle in her hand, she lay motionless on the hospital bed, like a prop dummy for first aid teaching.The only thing that can prove that she is still alive is the life monitoring device on the side and the catheter with a bloodstain under the bed.

The young man sitting beside her was wiping the corners of her mouth little by little with a cotton swab, occasionally wetting her chapped lips with cotton swabs.In the wastebasket next to the bed, half a barrel of cotton and cotton swabs had been piled up thickly, but he was still repeating and repeating.

He wanted to wipe away the smell coming from the woman's mouth.If she was still healthy and awake now, she would definitely not want to smell this terrible smell from her mouth.Blood, corruption... that is, the smell of death.

On the bedside table is a bunch of red carnations that have been placed for a long time, dark and shriveled, like hearts that are no longer healthy.The water in the vase that hasn't been changed for a long time also faintly smells of rotting plants.

It's time to change the water, the young man thought numbly.He was about to stand up when a gust of north wind suddenly blew outside the window, making the window lattice rattle.When the young man turned his head, he saw the bouquet of red flowers on the bedside table fell to the cabinet with a "plop", and the petals were smashed to pieces.

Suddenly, the sharp alarm of the heart rate monitor sounded in the room.

Chu Jia opened his eyes in horror, and heard the alarm on the phone next to his pillow. He fumbled and glanced at the screen, only to realize that today is Sunday.

It's Sunday...that's right.

Over the years, as long as he temporarily relaxes and escapes from busy study or work, nightmares will come and haunt him like a shadow.But the content of the dream is only one kind over and over again——

The night before my mother died.

After the wastebasket next to the bed was filled with cotton swabs and cotton, the mother was miraculously awake for a brief moment, but unable to speak because of the tube in her mouth, Chuga never knew what she wanted to say that night. What is it, but he will never forget the tenderness in the last trace of her gaze as she stared at him.

Losing that tender feeling is heartbreaking.

If the same nightmare happens too much, Chuga will also wonder whether he is suffering from PTSD, but he never thought of seeing a doctor or seeking help from drugs to solve it, but unconsciously , chose a more everyday approach to healing.

Quietly, the wooden door of the bedroom was pushed open.

Accompanied by a soft cry, a mass of heavy objects accurately jumped onto the end of the bed, and then unscrupulously stomped on Chuga's legs all the way to his stomach.

"Amy..."

Chu Jia stretched out his hand helplessly to push, and sure enough, he touched something fluffy and warm.

This motley cat was picked up by his students from the trash can in front of the apartment two years ago, and it was the naughtiest of a litter of four.Although Chuga had seriously given it a name, when it came time to call it, it always blurted out the most common name.

At this moment, hearing the master's call, Ami stepped on her stomach and climbed onto her chest again, then raised her snow-white right paw and patted Chuga's cheek lightly like a fist.

"Don't make trouble."

The drowsiness hadn't subsided completely, Chu Jia rubbed the soft fur on Ami's back with one hand, while vaguely wanting to sleep back into the cage.However, the force of continuous slaps on the face cannot be completely ignored.

He had no choice but to stretch out his hands and hug the cat aside, then get out of bed, put on his slippers, go to the living room, open the sealed bag of cat food, and pour it into the cat bowl.

Ami quietly squeezed from between his legs to the side of the bowl, and began to enjoy her own breakfast. The sound of chewing made the master subconsciously touch her stomach.

Looks like he can't sleep.

Chuga sighed, and glanced across the corridor at the kitchen opposite the living room.

This is the bachelor apartment he rented, a small one-bedroom and one living room, just outside the back door of his father's university.Today, he is also a small lecturer in the Chinese Department of this university, without any privileges, and even voluntarily gave up the teacher's apartment provided by the school in order to avoid suspicion.However, being a single family also has the advantages of being a single family, at least you don't have to worry about your every move will be inexplicably passed on to your father's ears.

After finishing his elective course last night, he went to the night shift cafeteria to pack a porridge with preserved egg and lean meat, which was just right for breakfast.He walked into the kitchen and threw the packing box into the microwave to heat it up, then turned around and picked up the toothbrush by the sink to wash up.

The mirror of the sink was polished every day, and now it reflected a slightly tired face.The once youthful immaturity has been replaced by maturity and elegance. He smiled at the mirror, but there was no smile in his curved eyes.

A little too fake.

He changed several angles and wanted to continue practicing. When he turned to the right, he saw the circle of scars hidden at the root of his forehead hairline.

The craniotomy was almost a decade ago, and the fears and doubts of the time are hard to recall now.The identities of the two men in black with strange backgrounds have not been investigated until now. The object taken out of Chuga’s head was taken away by the police for investigation, and it was only a rumor that it was some kind of tiny sensor built into the brain. It will have a certain inducing effect on the cranial nerves.

Based on the object's age, it can be concluded that it was implanted in Truga's brain when he was young.It can be further inferred that it should be before he came to the Chu family.

Was it in an orphanage, or when they were with their biological parents?

In the year after the operation was completed, he asked his parents more than once to visit the orphanage where he was adopted, but time and time again, he was rejected.

The father first said that the orphanage had been relocated, but also said that he couldn’t remember clearly. When he found out that Chu Jia was secretly looking for information about the orphanage in H City, he became furious and asked him if he couldn’t wait to go back to his biological parents.

Chuga also explained, but it didn't have much effect.He was not a fool, and soon realized that his father's anger was just a bluff, and the ultimate purpose was to dispel his idea of ​​looking for his life experience.

However, the more his father obstructed him, the more curious he became, and he secretly fought wits and courage for a year. When the relationship between father and son reached freezing point, his mother's death suddenly shattered everything completely.

Your mother was killed by the two of us.

These words of his father cut deeply into Chu Jia's heart.

For a long time, whenever he thought of doubts about his life experience, he would involuntarily think of this sentence.

At the end of the third year after the mother passed away, the father remarried.The other party was an omega woman ten years younger than him, with a pair of 13-year-old alpha twins.

Chu Jia has a younger brother and younger sister, but she doesn't feel the warmth of a big family.During the years when he was in college, he always lived in the student dormitory. After that, he only went home once a year during the Spring Festival.Even so, he knew that his father's eyeliner was still in the area of ​​his life, and after graduating from graduate school, he still obeyed his will and stayed in school to teach.

Until now.

Chuga reached out to touch the soap for washing his face, but felt a hard metal in the soap box.I took it out and saw that it was the fake engagement ring I bought and put on myself to avoid a blind date when I was 26 years old. It was an imitation style of a famous brand, and now it has begun to oxidize and change color.

He originally thought that he would wear this fake ring and live a lonely but peaceful life for the rest of his life.Unfortunately, there is no absolute peace in this world.

At the age of 27, his father saw through his disguise, and then the seniors in the school suddenly began to match him up for him.All alternate girls and boys are betas, without exception.

When Chu Jia politely declined the eighth blind date, the young stepmother sent a photo of her distant relative, a 24-year-old beta woman with gentle eyebrows and eyes.

"Marriage is to live with a partner. Young couples come to stay together, don't be too idealistic."

Chu Jia knew that these words were not thought up by her stepmother.

The mobile phone placed on the cooking table vibrated twice, and the screen lit up a short message, which was sent by the beta woman.

Yesterday evening, Chu Jia asked her out for dinner on Saturday as a matter of routine.She, who has always been very polite, never replied, until this morning.

"I'm sorry, I had something to do at home yesterday. Is it okay at noon today?"

Chu Jia smiled at the usual polite but unfamiliar words, thinking that his attitude towards her was exactly the same.

Two people who have no emotional basis and no instinct to reproduce, just come together for warmth.How ridiculous, how sad.

He smiled wryly again, picked up his mobile phone and quickly sent a reply, agreeing to meet at a restaurant with a good reputation at noon.