Rising like the sun

When he came out of the teacher's office, Lin Zhiye found that his father was clutching his arm.

"What's the matter?" He raised his chin to his father and asked coldly.

"It's okay, I fell when I came out of the company."

"What's the rush..."

Father Lin smiled, "Your class teacher is very strict on the phone, I thought something serious happened to you."

"Can you still drive?"

"Come here by taxi."

"Go back to work," Lin Zhiye turned and left, and took another look at his father's pale face, "Go to the hospital if you don't feel well."

During evening self-study, Lin Zhiye received a message from Meng Sheng, saying that he had to go directly to the hospital after school and asked him and Li Yu to go home first.

Just as Lin Zhiye was about to reply, he received an unfamiliar call.He came to the bathroom and started, and there was a cautious woman's voice: "Lin Zhi... Lin, your father has a broken arm, why don't you come and see him after school?"

Thinking of his father's pale face, he wanted to ask if it was serious, but as soon as the words came out of his mouth, it turned into: "Didn't you break up?"

"Ah, yes, we are indeed separated, and all contact methods have been deleted," the woman explained quickly, "I learned from my colleagues that he was injured because he made an appointment to play today. ... I took the initiative to contact him! Don't make a mistake—"

"Which hospital?" Lin Zhiye interrupted her impatiently.

After Meng Sheng greeted his younger brother, he and Lin Zhiye came to the orthopedic ward on the same floor not far away.

"328, right?" Meng Xing checked the room number as he walked.

"Yes." Lin Zhiye pushed open the door.

This is also a double room, the other bed is empty.Father Lin was leaning against the head of the bed, with his right hand hanging on his chest, covered with a thick plaster cast, and a bowl of beef noodles was placed on the small table, emitting a steaming aroma.

"Uncle Lin, how are you doing?"

Father Lin stared blankly at Meng Sheng's bald head, and waited for a few seconds before answering: "It's okay, I can have surgery after the swelling subsides in a few days, and I can be discharged from the hospital in a few days after surgery."

There was a X-ray film on the bedside table. Lin Zhiye picked it up and looked at it. It was a little more serious than he imagined. The bone in his forearm was like a tree fork that had been cut with a knife. It must be very painful.

"You are stupid enough." Lin Zhiye said softly.

"It happened to fall on the corner of the step, and I was crushed by myself. I didn't expect to break a bone."

"Eat quickly." Lin Zhiye looked at the bowl of beef noodles.

"No hurry, no hurry." Father Lin fiddled with the chopsticks clumsily with his left hand, "By the way, Meng Sheng, why did you shave your head?"

Meng Xing sat down on the empty bed, bent over to tie his shoelaces, and said, "My brother suffered a bit of a head injury, so I'll accompany him—oh shit!!!"

Meng Sheng jumped three feet high like a spring, stepped back two steps and sat down on the ground, pointing under the bed in horror.

A woman crawled out with disheveled hair, straightened her hair, and muttered with a flushed face, "I'm sorry, I'm leaving now. I was just about to leave when I heard you talking in the corridor..."

"Elder Sister! What are you doing with the cat? This is a hospital, it's so scary!" Meng Xing reassured himself in shock.

Lin Zhiye suddenly realized that the woman was probably feeding her father just now.Otherwise, how could a person with an inconvenient right hand choose to eat noodles with chopsticks?

"Hey then, leave quickly after feeding." Lin Zhiye pulled Meng Sheng out of the ward, wandering the corridors like a hospital ghost.

Meng Xing carefully exposed half of his eyes, peeping through the glass, and saw the woman picked up noodles and blew them, handed them to Father Lin's mouth, and picked up another piece of beef.There was a great satisfaction and happiness on her face, as if she was the one who was eating, and that food was the most delicious in the world.

Meng Sheng waved to Lin Zhiye and asked him to come and see.

Lin Zhiye glanced at it with disdain.

"She really likes your dad."

"how do you know?"

"It's the same expression when you look at me."

Lin Zhiye made a "cut", "So I'm so tired... What's wrong with my expression?"

"This expression means I like it, don't you like me?"

"That's it." Lin Zhiye said firmly.

"Li Yu looks at Li Xin, Li Xin looks at Li Yu, and my father looks at Aunt Man, and Aunt Man looks at my father, all with this expression... This is liking, very, very liking." Meng Xing said firmly.

"Congratulations, great scientist Meng, you have probably summed up a theorem."

"hey-hey."

"Then according to your theorem, do you think my dad really likes her?" Lin Zhiye approached him and asked softly.

This is a proposition... Meng Xing hesitated.

"My dad, a scumbag, is quite popular with women." Lin Zhiye's voice was full of disgust and hatred.

Meng Sheng hurriedly changed the subject: "This morning, I heard you were being scolded."

"Ah, our homeroom teacher is very angry, don't worry about it." Lin Zhiye suddenly frowned impatiently, "How can you feed them one by one, you can't feed them until midnight."

He pushed the door open and said to the woman, "Go, give it to me."

The woman backed away obediently, put on her bag and smiled, "Then I'll go home first."

"Be careful on the road." Father Lin followed his gaze.

Lin Zhiye didn't even look at the woman, picked up a big lump of noodles, and brought it to his father's mouth.

Father Lin took a big mouthful, chewed and then coughed, choking a section of noodles out of his nose, seeing Meng Sheng's puffed cheeks trying to hold back a smile.

Lin Zhiye laughed, then straightened his face again.

"Ye Zi, you haven't smiled at Dad for several years." Father Lin smiled.

"Come and feed him." Lin Zhiye waved to Meng Sheng, then got up to make way and sat far away.

Meng Sheng had no choice but to take on the task of feeding his "father-in-law" in embarrassment, and forced a smile, which looked weird with his bald head.

Father Lin looked at him, smiled and said, "Your head is a bit dazzling."

"Aren't you hooking up with her again?" Lin Zhiye asked loudly.

"...No, really not, we haven't been in touch all this time, we are just friends now."

Li Yu and Li Xin were also "ordinary friends," Meng Xing thought.

After the bowl of noodles was finally finished, Meng Sheng was so embarrassed that his head was covered with sweat, like a dewy fruit.

Knowing that Meng Sheng's younger brother was also here, Lin's father proposed to visit.When they entered, Meng Zhuo was sitting on the bed playing with toys. Father Meng and Aunt Man stopped talking and looked at Father Lin fixedly.

Lin Zhiye seemed very reluctant to say the friendly word "Dad" in front of his father, but introduced awkwardly in a way that modern people almost no longer use: "Uncle Meng, Aunt Man, this is my father."

Father Meng froze for a moment, then said to Father Lin with a smile on his face, "This is Zhuojing, this is a puppy, and that... Xiongtai Guigeng?"

After a while of awkward chat, Father Lin went back home, Father Meng bowed slightly and said, "Come again, Brother Lin!"

"Uh, ah, okay." Father Lin responded with a little embarrassment

"Oh, I forgot, I thought it was in the store!" Father Meng laughed, "If you come to sit at my house in the future, we will be considered in-laws."

Faced with such a bold and unrestrained Father Meng, Father Lin opened his eyes wide in shock, and said after a while, "I am usually very busy with work, thanks to Meng Xing who took care of my son... I have caused you trouble."

"Your father is very interesting." After returning to the ward, Lin's father said to Meng Sheng.

"He's good at chatting, the barber."

"When did you tell your family?" Father Lin paused, "The matter between you and Ye Zi..."

"During the Chinese New Year... I said it." Meng Sheng felt his bald head a little hot, and he absolutely couldn't say something like "playing with your son on the table and being caught on the spot".

Father Lin nodded, "I think they accept it quite well."

"Well, it's so..."

Lin Zhiye walked around his father's hospital bed and found that there was everything to eat and use, "Is there anything missing? I'll go buy it."

"It's not missing, who...has already bought it." Father Lin was a little out of breath.

Lin Zhiye stopped talking, stood by the window and looked at the canopy of trees outside, the night made them black with green.

Father Lin probably didn't know what to say, he was silent, and the atmosphere suddenly froze.

Meng Sheng also remained silent for a moment, and then said, "Uncle Lin, what else do you want to eat, let me feed you?"

The silence made his mouth a little awkward, sounding like "do you still want to eat shit".

Father Lin shook his head, "I won't eat."

"Then you have a good rest...I'm going to accompany my brother," Meng Xing said to Lin Zhiye's back, "Ye Zi, call me when you leave."

Then, Meng Sheng escaped from this eerie room.

The entire ward was reflected in the glass windows, including the figure of the man.Lin Zhiye watched steadily, and suddenly, the figure on the window spoke: "Ye Zi, wash an apple for me."

Handing the wet apple to his father's left hand, Lin Zhiye sat by the empty bed, still looking at him through the mirror-like glass window.The man took a bite of the apple and looked sideways at the window. The eyes of the father and son met through the glass.

"Why do you want to fill in the single on the membership of the golf club?" Lin Zhiye said lightly.

"I don't want to participate in those family activities... I just want to turn it into a place that has nothing to do with family at all." The voice of crunching and chewing the apple stopped, "I don't know, the club will give you money to increase the renewal rate. Single clients arrange for coaches of the opposite sex.”

Lin Zhiye snorted coldly, "You don't spend money in vain, if it is arranged for you, you can make the best use of it."

"At that time... my body and most of my spirit were not derailed."

"How much is that small part? Is it one percent? Is it possible to calculate the percentage of cheating?" Lin Zhiye turned his head and stared at his father fiercely, "But my mother is [-]% dead."

"It's not that you alone can't bear this kind of result," the man drooped his head, "what else do you want to know?"

"According to what you said, do you regard me and my mother as your burden?"

"No, never."

"Then why did you..."

"Have you ever had the urge to leave the whole world behind?" After a long silence, the man gave another reasonable answer, "My work pressure is too great, and I need to find a place to rest that has nothing to do with my family. But... I love your mother, always have."

"Anyway, no one is here, so what you say is what you say."

Lin Zhiye didn't want to ask anymore.Everyone talks nonsense about people who are no longer alive, because there is no need to be responsible, just a little bit of fear at night.