deep in time

Chapter 9 (3)
"I don't need your things." In my mind, Cheng Lichen's childish temper and cruel words with a contemptuous expression appeared in his mind. The eyes like a deer were shining with anger that he couldn't control. Why is it so difficult to serve a boy who looks good?But in the next second, Baili's rage burst out like a leaky balloon.

"I'm afraid of the smell."

The boy said in a hoarse, magnetic voice.

[Eight]
I'm afraid.

Probably fear is the most complicated emotion in this world, comparable to a certain kind of psychedelic drug, from which many things hidden in memory are derived, like the red letter spit out by a poisonous snake, in the dark heart The sea shone with a faint green light.

The eerie shots created by the movie, the hand of a classmate suddenly stretched out from behind when walking on the stairs, the maggots wriggling softly, seeing the fishmonger in the vegetable market cut a layer of blood with a knife on the ground...all can be attributed to into the "I'm afraid" category.

What impressed me the most was, of course, the dream I had not long ago.

In my dream, I was a seven or eight-year-old girl, wearing a red sweater and red elk wool gloves, holding her mother's hand in the playground, stopping in front of the spinning car, and saying loudly: "Mom, I Want to play this."

As soon as the voice fell, the mother who was originally very clear suddenly became blurred. I tried my best to grab it, but I couldn't catch anything. I could only watch my mother disappear like this.

"Won't my mother disappear if I don't say that I want to play spinning car?"——such weird thoughts are born.

He took off the woolen gloves of the red elk, and groped around with his hands, and all he encountered were sticky, liquid-like things.

Then woke up.

It was as if a piece of my heart had been gouged out. Sitting in a dark and silent house, I was overwhelmed by a great sense of fear.

I'm afraid.

I am afraid of losing.

The sticky fluid my fingers touched was nothing but endless tears.

A mother who has never been seen before is probably a "luxury" that I will never have in my life.

[Nine]
A white bird flies across the sea.

Passengers disembarked one after another at the pier.

Cheng Lichen was the first passenger to rush off the boat, stepping on the soft sand, his shoes made a puffing sound, and the feeling of heaving in his chest eased a little.

"Are you okay?" Baili asked sincerely with a hint of a smile.

The boy raised his head and looked at the sky, frowning in boredom. If it wasn't for Cheng Huihuang's "incentives", he swore that he would never set foot on this small island, and that feeling of reluctance kept growing in his heart. spread.

Baili had already taken the lead. Before departure, Cheng Huihuang's proposal to let Cheng Lichen go home with her really shocked her, but Cheng Huihuang's explanation made her feel relieved immediately.

——Let Ah Chen go to Yanlang Island, maybe he will be touched.

That's what Cheng Brilliant said at the time.What Cheng Huihuang didn't say was that it was his first time to visit Baili's house on Yanlang Island. The big man looked at the family with tears in his eyes.Cheng Huihuang is also a child of suffering parents. He understands this kind of suffering, but Ah Chen seems to have never felt this way.

Baili didn't think what would happen to the young master Cheng Lichen when he arrived on Yanlang Island, but since Cheng Huihuang spoke up, she didn't refuse.

Baili can't understand Cheng Lichen, "I can't understand his selfishness, he can't understand his domineering, he can't understand his self-righteous son-in-law style, he can't understand his extravagance", the box lunch bought on the street is unpalatable and unhygienic. He never cared about other people's feelings, and impatiently said "too noisy" to the aunts on the bus who were chattering non-stop.

Very good-looking (a bit like a young Louis Koo), with natural curly hair (which makes him more attractive), plays basketball well (has a screaming perfect teenage body), rich money (if the parents In short, the advantages are very obvious, so in X, even if they are always cold-faced, they are regarded as "prince-level" characters.

But equally, those shortcomings are uncomfortable.

His attitude towards his stepmother Song Lanlan is indifferent, even disgusting, and his relationship with his father Cheng Huihuang is stiff.

——For such a teenager growing up, the most painful thing is not whether he is not handsome enough, his grades are not good enough, whether he can buy the latest iPhone, but whether he has a complete and warm home.

[ten]
Jiang Xianhui was sitting in the shadow outside the house doing handwork.

It costs 28 cents to string [-] beads, and it takes three days to embroider a beaded dress, and you can get [-] yuan for processing fees.Every day, except for three meals, she spends almost all of her time with these handicrafts.

Her waist felt a little numb, but she didn't stop the movement of her hands, she still bent her body, bent her head and stared at the strings of small beads in her hands.

"Mom." An affectionate, crisp voice.

Suspecting it was an illusion, Jiang Xianhui raised her head subconsciously, and her daughter Baili, whom she had been thinking about day and night, walked in with a smile.

Behind the daughter followed a tall, handsome boy.

"This is Uncle Cheng's son, Cheng Lichen." Baili introduced.

Cheng Lichen didn't expect that this thin woman who was sitting on a small stool like a shrimp and doing handicrafts stood up abruptly when she heard her father's name, her face, which was so dark from the sea breeze, stretched out, and greeted him enthusiastically. Come over and grab his hand at once.

The middle-aged woman's cracked hands, as hard as eucalyptus skin shed, and her eager, grateful eyes.

The boy was awkwardly held by Jiang Xianhui, and said hello: "Auntie, hello."

"Okay, okay." Jiang Xianhui, who responded repeatedly, pulled Cheng Lichen into the room.

There are two bungalows built against the mountain, the walls inside are slightly ocher red, Cheng Lichen stood for a while before his eyes got used to the dim light in the house.

Two small bungalows side by side, about [-] square meters in total, the furniture is not much and old, and the latest electrical appliance is probably the TV set in the center.Maybe it's because there are some discarded fishing nets, firewood, hoes and other things piled up in the corner, so it doesn't look particularly empty.

Jiang Xianhui boiled water to make tea, a woman with a junior high school education and no experience of the world, with a unique simplicity in the countryside, she was at a loss when facing a junior like Cheng Lichen who was more than 30 years younger than her, and had no choice but to find topics It was something like "the academic performance must be very good", Baili went in and out, and looked at Cheng Lichen coldly, she was really afraid that the devil in the world would show impatience or even rudeness to his mother's nagging, but unexpectedly Unexpectedly, Cheng Lichen and Jiang Xianhui found a new topic.

"Auntie, do you have frostbite on your hands? I know that there is a kind of ointment that is very effective. I will bring it to you next time."

Jiang Xianhui's hands were rough due to years of hard work. The chilblains in winter grew new ones year after year without healing. In summer, purple-black cocoons formed, and in winter they would crack open again.

The boy said again: "Auntie, you have been doing handwork with your body bent like this. Your waist must be bad, right?"

The topic actually revolved around Jiang Xianhui's physical health.

Baili was a little surprised, standing by the door and looking at the boy, Cheng Lichen felt her gaze, raised his head and looked at her expressionlessly, then chatted with Jiang Xianhui again.

"Mom, is Dad coming back today?" The girl interrupted after taking a sip of hot water.

Jiang Xianhui shook her head and said, "I just went to sea yesterday, I don't know how long this trip will take." Then she explained to Cheng Lichen, "Baili's father was hired by a fishing company, and the trip to sea lasted at least ten days and half a month. "

Baili gave a soft "hmm", took his dark green schoolbag, unzipped it, and took out a plastic bag with the words "Ankang Pharmacy" printed on it. There were always a dozen bottles, large and small. Bottles and jars, she opened the drawer of the TV cabinet with ease, put the medicine in, and did not forget to turn around and remind: "Mom, this is Dad's medicine, remember."

Jiang Xianhui looked up at Baili, probably because Cheng Lichen was there, she opened her mouth, but she didn't say anything after all.

Baili stood up, turned around and entered the room, and after a while, he took a big wooden bucket, filled it with a lot of clothes, and carried it to the yard.

It was very hot at noon in summer. There was a large shadow on the side of the bungalow facing south. A green plant with oval leaves over one meter high swayed slightly in the sea breeze. Baili squatted on the ground, and the water from the faucet was splashing There was a loud noise, whirlpools turned one after another, one piece of clothing was wet, and washing powder was put on it, and one piece was brushed vigorously with a brush.

Cheng Lichen came out at some point, looking at Baili's back squatting in the shadows, it looked like a malnourished and underdeveloped cat, his hands were soaked red, and he was washing clothes one by one with his head buried.There is a small whirling tree next to it, standing here, you can look out to the sea, and you can see the blue sky when you look up—what a beautiful scene, but she doesn't have the leisure to appreciate it.The girl's eyes only fell on the piles of clothes piled up on the concrete floor.

——Your father is Baili's sponsor.Three years ago, Baili almost couldn't go to school because of lack of money. Your father's company happened to launch a sponsorship program at the junior high school where Baili was studying at that time. Baili was one of the eleven students.

——Your dad comes here every year before the Mid-Autumn Festival and Spring Festival. He is a good man.

——Baili can cook three meals for the family at the age of 12.

——Baili is a good child, she is a blessing to me and her father.

Between ears and eyes, people always believe what they see with their own eyes.Whether it was Jiang Xianhui gratefully saying "Your father is a good man" or "Baili is a good boy", none of it was as real as what Cheng Lichen saw with his eyes now.

A home that is impoverished, materially deprived, and seemingly abandoned by the world.

I have also seen various public welfare programs on TV, such as "African children who have been suffering from various diseases because they have not been able to drink clean water and only drink water from the ditch", "Walking ten miles barefoot in winter" Children in the western region who go to school", "The biggest wish is a mountain child with a new pencil case and a new textbook"... It's not that the ruthless boys usually see such programs, and their hearts will be filled with sadness and sadness. Overwhelmed by discomfort, but after the show is over, the emotions of "I'm so happy, can I help them?" will come up in the next few days, when I take out drinks from the refrigerator again and again, and play video games that pass the level one by one. Playing games, going to KTV to sing with friends, and gradually forgetting while playing on the court.

After all, those who are too far away from the city, even if they want to lend a helping hand, the next second they will be relieved by the excuse of "Actually, I don't have the ability to help them more".

But the boy did not expect that there would be a living Baili in his life.

"Help me."

"Okay." The boy blurted out almost without thinking.

"Pull the clothesline to the nail over the yard, um, the taller nail."

Baili instructed the boys to pull up the criss-cross clotheslines in the yard.

The sun at three o'clock in the afternoon was extremely fierce, and as soon as the gray-blue, black, and dark blue clothes were hung on the air, it seemed that water vapor was visibly evaporating with the naked eye.

The boy standing in the sun narrowed his eyes slightly.

——Those clothes that are hanging out are pilled, rough, and old. They are the kind of clothes that I dismiss, and even have the idea of ​​​​"Is this the clothes that people wear? It's almost tattered."

[eleven]
Three vegetables, one meat and one soup for dinner.

It was obviously much richer than the usual meals of this family, but Jiang Xianhui still looked at Cheng Lichen with a look of bewilderment, until the boy exaggeratedly cheered "Clam soup, I like clams best", Jiang Xianhui was obviously relieved Take a breath.

What surprised Baili even more was that when Jiang Xianhui brought Cheng Lichen to a room with only a yellowish electric light hanging on it, the boy sat down on the edge of the bed, took a deep breath, and said comfortably, "Wow, the sheets are as soft as the sea breeze." The smell of sunshine."

The boy's good-looking facial features are moist and soft under the orange light. "Politeness", "consideration" and "tolerance" are the words that keep churning in Baili's mind. They don't seem to be the same as Cheng Lichen in the school and the mansion on the 22nd floor of Yulong Bay. the same person.

"It seems to be changed for the better after being touched by magic", "In fact, he is not a bad person".

The heart that Baili had been hanging on finally fell, maybe it would be the same as Cheng Huihuang hoped, Cheng Lichen would be touched and realize the happiness he possessed.

(End of this chapter)