Habit

After Ji Rongyu finished his three-month group work, he went home, took a shower and had a good sleep. When he was awakened by the new round of sunshine, he got up, packed his luggage, did laundry and cleaned the house.

The weather last month was so changeable that he had to ask his grandfather to send all the long, short and thick clothes at home to the crew, so now there are a lot of clothes to wash.

In addition, a winter had just passed, so he simply took down all the sofa covers, curtains and sheets in the house and washed them thoroughly. The washing machine hummed for four turns without stopping.

After a few busy and peaceful days, it was Qingming Festival.

It was rare that there was no rain during the Qingming Festival this year, so Ji Rongyu and Ji Guanghui went back to the village together to visit the graves. One of them carried a backpack and the other carried a bag, and they found the other members of their family as if they were familiar with the route.

My great-grandfather and great-grandmother had been sleeping here for many years, and then Ji Rongyu's parents were also buried with my grandmother on the dirt hill in this village. A yellow mud road connected the top of the hill to the bottom of the hill, and if it rained, you had to wear rubber shoes.

After a year, this long-quiet hilltop had many new plants, quietly accompanying its original owner. Most people didn't like having grass or trees growing on their ancestors' graves, so Ji Rongyu saw a family of three from next door carrying hoes and shovels. After a sweaty tidying up, they placed a circle of artificial flowers around the grave.

But Ji Rongyu's family didn't care about that; as long as the plants didn't damage the tombstones, they were allowed to grow wild. Anyway, my great-grandparents and my mother used to like to grow some flowers and vegetables at home, and when Ji Rongyu was eleven, he did think about bringing some vegetable seeds to spread, but his grandfather didn't let him, saying that eating them wasn't popular down there.

The grandfather and grandson fetched a bucket of water and wiped the tombstone and the tomb carefully. Then they took out the stewed chicken with mushrooms and bamboo shoots, braised pork chops with green onions, and steamed dumplings with corn, water chestnuts and shrimps that Ji Rongyu had freshly prepared early in the morning from the insulated box and arranged them in a row.

As soon as the dishes were served, Ji Guanghui ate one herself.

Now that there was food, he also needed enough money. Ji Rongyu squatted down, took out a small incense burner from his bag, placed it in front of his father's grave, and threw a stack of gold ingots into it.

"Dad, long time no see. My work has been going well recently and I've made a lot of money. I'll open an account for you and secretly transfer some money to you. You can keep it for smoking and drinking, and spend it as you like without anyone knowing."

Then he took out a larger incense burner from his bag and placed it in front of his mother's grave.

"Mom, are you still arguing with my dad often? I don't know if you two are getting divorced. If you want to, then go ahead. My dad has some private money now, and he won't die if you don't care about him. If you have time, do more cross-stitching, or go out shopping, sunbathe, or travel. It's up to you. Don't be angry with him."

Another large string of gold ingots was thrown in, and after burning them, he took out the third incense burner.

"Grandma, if my dad still talks back at you, don't hit him. He'll run faster than you. I'll tell you his bank card password. You spend all his money, then you can dream to grandpa and ask him to help you beat him. My grandpa can still lift a mop."

After sending the money to grandma and great-grandpa and great-grandma, Ji Rongyu stood up and said, "Grandpa, do you have anything to say? Do you want me to make room for you?"

"What else can I say? I've already said it." Ji Guanghui used a small wooden stick to poke the stove to confirm that it was all burned out. "Okay, let's go back."

"When did you say that? Why don't I remember?" Ji Rongyu cleaned the three incense burners with the remaining water in the bucket, stacked the big one inside the small one, put them in a plastic bag and stuffed them back into his backpack.

Ji Guanghui said, "You must have forgotten how young you were back then. I walked them for a long way when they left, and I almost drooled from talking so much."

Just after he came down the mountain and returned the bucket to a villager he knew, he heard a burst of crackling firecrackers from the mountain. It sounded quite close to his home. Ji Rongyu thought, well, it was all in vain again.

On the way back, Ji Rongyu looked out the window. Because his grandfather had just mentioned the funeral, Ji Rongyu also remembered the days when his parents had just passed away.

When his father was delivering food to his mother, he encountered an accident at the factory, and both of them died on the spot. Ji Rongyu received a large compensation, but the money in his bank account was not enough to support his child, who was still in elementary school. So his grandfather moved out of the village where he had lived for most of his life and came to take care of him at home.

Everything that happened after his parents' death was taken care of by his grandfather. Ji Rongyu actually didn't remember any of the details.

His chaotic thoughts became clear again. It was the day when he had slept for several rounds in the room with the curtains drawn, and his grandfather picked up the mop to do a thorough cleaning.

He heard the noise and came out of the locked room on his own initiative for the first time. His grandfather looked at him, raised something in his hand and asked him if he wanted to keep it.

Ji Rongyu nodded of course.

Grandpa said, "Then pick some. Your parents left in such a hurry that they didn't even have time to say a few words to you. If you want to leave something behind, keep these."

So Ji Rongyu walked around the house and looked at the lace covering the refrigerator and microwave. He washed them and put them away. Seeing the flowers on the balcony dying due to neglect, he pulled out the flowers and threw them away, leaving the flowerpots in their original places.

A jacquard blanket with a white background and blue flowers has been sitting on the sofa in the living room for many years. When he was little, he loved kicking his legs in his sleep, so his mother would wrap him from neck to ankle with a folded blanket. In the summer, his father would play hide-and-seek with him, covering both of them with the blanket on a bamboo mat in the living room. Later, the blanket was tucked away under the closet in his room. If I were to take it out now and measure it, I'd imagine it's no longer long enough to reach his height.

It wasn't until evening that they finally finished packing what they could. Ji Rongyu cried heartily until he could clearly feel how hungry he was. Grandpa said, "Let's go. I've been looking around your neighborhood these past few days and saw a new Cantonese restaurant outside. Your eyes are red, you must be getting a sore throat. I'll take you to eat some tortoise jelly."

The bowl of tortoise jelly was shiny black. Ji Rongyu took a bite and it was so bitter. His expression was even uglier than when he cried at home. He forced himself to take two more bites, but he really couldn't stand it. It was really too bitter.

Grandpa said, "Oh, it's just a bowl of tortoise jelly. How bitter can it be? Don't waste it if you bought it. Let me eat it."

Then grandpa took a bite and spit it out, and Ji Rongyu looked at him and laughed.

Grandpa said, "Let's go. We don't need this, but we can afford to waste it. Let's go eat at another restaurant."

That’s great! Over a bowl of tortoise jelly, the grandfather and grandson discovered that neither of them liked to suffer, and now they can live a good life again.

Ji Rongyu went back to school as usual, but when it came to parent-teacher meetings, his grandfather would come instead of his parents.

But even though they depended on each other, they had never said anything soft to each other directly. Perhaps it was for this reason that Ji Rongyu was used to this restrained way of dealing with things. He couldn't think of how to fall in love vividly or confess his love sincerely. He couldn't imagine the scene of either confessing himself or being confessed to, so even when writing novels, he could only write dry love scenes.

Although he had strong impulses and unwillingness, and had grabbed a person on the tricycle and then pushed him away, but when the time came, Ji Rongyu always had to go home.

It’s very quiet when I go home, and being quiet is very comfortable.

He was always the most used to this.

After visiting the graves, Ji Rongyu turned on his computer and continued writing his unfinished novel. While writing, he remembered something and took out the notebook in his bag where he recorded his inspirations during field trips.

He flipped through the book casually and accidentally turned it over, and found that the notes Lu Xinyang had written in the notebook he borrowed that night were actually written in this notebook.

The first line at the beginning is Director Gao Jian, male, mobile phone number X, the next line is Wen Zhuo, male, mobile phone number X...

It was something that could be solved with the mobile phone address book, but he insisted on writing it himself. Ji Rongyu didn't know what Lu Xinyang was trying to do.

He read it carefully and turned to the second page to find that there were even animal actors. Lu Xinyang even remembered to register each dog and marked their performance areas, such as police dogs or guard dogs.

Finally, I turned to the third page, which was all about Ji Rongyu. His address, phone number, birthday, zodiac sign, blood type, family and other relatives were all written down, as well as his favorite food and the color of his favorite clothes.

Ji Rongyu slammed the notebook shut, thinking to himself what was the point of this guy writing that bunch of crap, he would just bring it back to him after he finished writing it.

Then the notebook was slammed shut many times. Ji Rongyu stared at the black words on the white paper in a daze for a long time. When he came to his senses, he looked at the document with only a few lines of words written on the computer. He felt that he could no longer think about Lu Xinyang. The current business was more important.

The real thing is...well...Oh, by the way, think about how to write this plot.

Well, now his protagonist has something very happy going on, and he writes about laughing. But how should that person laugh? A broad smile? A huge grin? Laughing his teeth off? No, that's not right.

Ji Rongyu closed the document in a bad mood, and the next second he clicked it again to confirm whether he had saved it. After confirming, he breathed a sigh of relief and saved it again before closing the computer.

Silence. This room might be the quietest place in the world right now, but this had nothing to do with Ji Rongyu. His heart was in a mess. He stood for a while, walked for a while, and even put his hands on the table to deliberately make noise.

What happened? Ji Rongyu began to feel restless. How could he not be able to calm down even when he was alone at home? He couldn't get used to this.

At this time, he heard three even knocks on the door outside, and he didn't know who was coming.

Is that Ke Yule? But she seems to be painting in a studio lately, so she shouldn't be available. Or did Grandpa forget his keys? That's not right, Grandpa should be taking a nap right now.

He went to open the door with a mess in his head, and then the mess jumped out of his mind and transformed into Lu Xinyang, standing in front of him and saying happily: "Long time no see! I'm here!"

Ji Rongyu thought he was hallucinating, but it wasn't an hallucination, so it was a surprise.

But he was most unwilling to be surprised by this, so his expression even looked a little angry: "Why are you here again!?"

Lu Xinyang said confidently: "Why can't I come again? I'm your best friend!"

"What do you use to calculate it? How long have we known each other?"

"Of course not," Lu Xinyang said, "It's about the time we can spend together in the future."

After saying that, he pushed Ji Rongyu into the house and closed the door as if he were the host.