The original guard
As soon as Zhang Tianyi asked the question, everyone in the ward reacted differently.
Even the most taciturn Gao Liu subconsciously repeated: "You three siblings?"
How come you can grasp the key points so accurately at this time?
But now is not the time to dwell on this. I was overwhelmed and hurriedly said that I would explain everything to everyone later. My heart was pounding and I asked Zhang Tianyi what he meant. Goose bumps appeared on my arms.
I recalled a lot of past events.
Why we never lie is a question I have never had any doubt in the past twenty years.
It may sound strange to say this, but for me, not lying is just like other basic morals in life. It is something that has been ingrained in my mind since I was a child.
If you stop someone on the street and ask him if he can refrain from murder or arson, avoid pornography, gambling, drugs, smoking and drinking, and be more polite and kind to others, many people will probably find it baffling, but will still naturally answer that they can do it and will not feel that it is difficult.
Well, our family education is better, and we just require ourselves to be honest with others and not lie, which seems to be a very normal thing.
In fact, there are many similar "rules" in our family, but none of them are out of line. Many times, they are just a natural extension of a certain open-minded and tolerant atmosphere.
For example, my brother Zhang Tianyi, as the oldest child in the family, took my mother Zhang Can's surname. When we go out, we don't like to say "we are the Xu family's children", and we assume that no one in this family is subordinate to my father.
For example, my younger sister Xu Ping is not in good health. Sometimes she will feel tired just by chatting for too long or standing outside for too long. But at home, whether it is housework arrangement or a family meeting to discuss something, the three of us children will participate. At most, we will lend a hand when Ping Ping is overwhelmed and help her wipe her sweaty face.
She would only play games for 20 minutes before she had to take a nap to relax. Our family never stopped her from playing games "for her own good". After the cassette was inserted, the three children would always take turns playing with one health bar each. Whoever's character died would take over. In fact, Pingping was always the most careful and the best at playing games.
We all got up secretly in the middle of the night and read comic books under the covers with a flashlight. We covered for each other. Sometimes we couldn't get up the next day because of this, and then we would be scolded, get up with sleepy eyes, eat breakfast, and continue to sleep together.
Pingping was afraid of the cold and always liked to curl up in the arms of the two older kids like us. When we were sleeping, with our eyes closed, we would habitually reach out and tuck her feet back into the bed.
My mother once said that in this family, she didn't want anyone to be special, and in her heart every child should be treated equally.
I remember one birthday, I went to the kitchen to help and took two slices of tomato to eat secretly. My mother didn’t shy away from saying it. She squatted down and said to me seriously: “Pingping’s condition has worsened.”
I stood there, at a loss as to what to do.
She wiped my forehead, her eyes were a little red, but she still said softly:
"I don't intend to hide this matter, but Ranran, you have to promise me that we will live our lives the same way from now on. Pingping should have a childhood like an ordinary child, not become a fragile glass doll that is carefully worshipped.
I don’t want her to look back and feel that she was always different from other kids.”
"I know this is hard and sad. But my dad, Xiao Tian, and I, will all try our best to do it, okay?"
My memory of that time is very vague, probably because I was still young. I am not sure what we said later that day, and I don’t know if I understood the meaning of those words at that time.
Looking back now, I think my family made the right decision.
Later, when Pingping's health rapidly failed and she gradually became bedridden and trapped in a small room for a long time, the smiles on her face became less and less, and she gradually became silent and calm.
But when there are some trivial things at home, Pingping will naturally ask if she needs help.
She raised her pale little face and told me: "Being sick hurts, but I don't feel resentful."
"Of course, I am a happy child because I have nothing to resent. Right?"
At that time, I probably cried loudly, hugged my thin sister for a long time, and felt endless shame and hatred in my heart.
Why did Pingping fall ill? Why did she have to bear this pain?
We were born from the same mother. It is said that I was born just a few minutes earlier than Pingping. When we were young, we looked so much alike, almost like we were cut from the same mold.
In this case, my health, my childishness, the joy I am accustomed to in life, all the future I could have...all this was taken away from Pingping by fate, being particularly stingy and harsh to her, but letting me go indifferently. Why on earth?
I felt like a thief, a traitor who had escaped alone from a terrible disaster.
Pingping just kept her face close to mine, and as we exchanged body temperature, she said softly:
"Of course, I actually had a very scary idea."
"I've thought about this. If health can be borrowed, maybe I'm not that sensible. I would take it from you or anyone else without hesitation. Even if it's my parents, I might still selfishly choose myself first."
"Am I a bad boy?"
I couldn't answer, so I could only break down and cry, shaking my head vigorously.
At that moment, with tears in his eyes, Zhang Tianyi, who was only eleven or twelve years old at the time, stood at the door and looked at us silently.
I almost fainted from crying, and asked Zhang Tianyi for help, asking how I should answer.
After a while, I seemed to hear him say in a sad but calm voice, I don't know who he was answering:
"It's never a mistake to be alive."
The vague memory suddenly became clear at this moment, and I remembered the source of "Don't lie".
At the beginning, Zhang Tianyi was the one in the family who insisted on not telling lies.
Pingping and I were more accustomed to the fact that the three of us had to agree on everything. In the naivety of childhood, we seemed to find it fun to imitate our brother step by step.
Zhang Tianyi said helplessly that the two of us were like little yellow ducks learning to walk. When we saw what others were doing, we would just follow them and quack behind them.
Pingping and I were very confident. We made a face, turned around and bargained with my father for more pocket money, saying that we wanted to be honest and good children in the future, so we must be greatly encouraged.
...But why did Zhang Tianyi insist on doing this at that age? When did he start to force himself not to lie, which deeply affected his behavior and could not be changed until today?
Is it just because the older children set a good example?
It doesn't seem so.
I thought about it for a long time, and finally an extremely vague memory emerged in my mind.
It was because Zhang Tianyi did something wrong once. He poured out Pingping's medicine.
For the first time, my parents got furious, feeling sad and disappointed, and asked him why he did that.
Zhang Tianyi's reaction was very strange at the time, he just answered:
“You can’t eat it.”
This obviously cannot be a reason.
That day, a doctor who smelled of disinfectant and seemed to be our neighbor was also at home. He said very patiently:
"It is not advisable to avoid seeing a doctor. You are a grown-up child now, how can you stop your child from taking medicine?"
I hid in the room, feeling worried when looking at the empty medicine bottle, and quickly racked my brains to think of how to stop the fight and stop my parents from being angry.
Maybe I was too focused and didn't hear what Zhang Tianyi explained, but a familiar voice rose up in the living room and shouted angrily:
"Don't lie!"
I was startled and immediately ran out of the room, shouting, "No, no!"
I didn't know what I didn't want, and I glared at the doctor anxiously, only to see an identical small medicine bottle in his pocket.
The doctor seemed kind, but he gave me a very bad impression.
Pingping was still sleeping in the room. Pingping and I looked very similar, and the child had not yet developed. The doctor made a mistake and took me for Pingping. He reached out and touched my face, and smiled in a friendly manner:
"You just don't take medicine?"
This is a very strange question. He had just criticized my brother for selling drugs and accused him of lying without any reason. Now he made it sound as if Pingping was hiding from the drugs.
I am used to making trouble, and I am used to seeing some relatives who are not happy with our family tradition and are always being weird. Therefore, I am still confused about other things, but I am very sensitive to this kind of words that are just looking for a reason to blame, and I immediately feel unreasonable malice.
No, he was not concerned about Pingping's illness at all. He just wanted to find a way to make Pingping take medicine no matter what.
My mother also frowned, sensing something was wrong, and immediately blocked his hand:
"Don't touch children."
The doctor's expression suddenly changed, and he smiled hypocritically, "I want to be close to the child."
I shook my head and took a step back. "I don't like you." I turned to look at my mother. "My brother must have a reason."
I said it seriously, and Zhang Tianyi looked at the doctor firmly and repeated, "There is something wrong with their hospital."
“You can’t take the medicine.”
"Dad, Mom." He spoke almost word by word, with a fear that even I could hear, "I know I can't find any legitimate reason. But I promise that I will never, ever tell a lie at home. Please, believe me."
The mother was stunned for a moment, then became serious: "Okay."
She made eye contact with my father, and my father immediately stood at the front, said with a cold face that he had something to do at home and would not entertain her today.
Before the doctor could say anything else, my parents picked up the broom and chased him out without hesitation and closed the door.
At that moment through the door frame, I must have seen it correctly, the doctor's eyes were full of resentment.
From that day on, the family changed hospitals and treatment plans for Pingping, and threw away all the expensive medicines they had bought with great effort, without any regrets.
I quickly forgot the discomfort that the doctor brought me, and instead huddled with Pingping to discuss whether the new medicine was bitter and whether it made me sleepy after taking it.
The only ripple that incident left in the family was that Zhang Tianyi seemed to have firmly remembered his vow never to lie, and he actually kept it for ten years.
My parents seemed to have had a long talk with him about this. I don't know what they talked about, but after a long afternoon, it seemed that everyone in the family had tacitly accepted this new rule. After Pingping and I started to imitate him, even my parents tried to follow suit.
It's strange, as if there was suddenly an extra rule in the house, which made us tacitly agree to never hide information from each other, and following it would bring a certain security.
“That person actually came here several times later.”
Zhang Tianyi suddenly asked, "Do you still remember the dream you told me about when we were little?"
I felt a chill on my back, and immediately remembered the afternoon in my dream that was filled with the smell of fish and tobacco.
Wait, I thought about it and got a little chilly:
"My parents put a bed board outside our crib at that time, and we slept so cramped... Were they doing this to keep an eye on us?"
Zhang Tianyi’s answer made me gasp. He said that the man had been wandering in the corridor outside our house.
Sometimes he would squat there all night, smoking, with cigarette butts scattered all over the floor at our door.
One time, my father got up at night and was surprised that the lights outside the corridor had dimmed. He looked through the peephole and found an eye blocking the peephole and peering into the room in a sinister manner. He didn't know how long it had been watching.
"It's not the smell of fish from killing fish. The smell of blood that lingered in the house that day was because Dad had a fight with him and was injured."
Zhang Tianyi said, "You were still young at the time, and you may have forgotten this for self-protection. But that man seemed to be crazy, laughing all the time, and his hands were covered in blood after his head was smashed. He also smeared a bloody handprint on the door, and then rushed over to hug you.
When you were struggling, he realized that there seemed to be traces of another child in the house, and he had made a mistake.
He wanted to break into the room to find Pingping, but was blocked. He suddenly laughed and screamed and said he would find someone else. Then he turned and jumped from the balcony. At the height of the fifth floor, no one could react, and he fell to pieces. I still remember that he was staring at your face when he jumped. "
"You and I were all covered in that madman's blood, so mom used a lot of detergent that day and washed all the clothes of everyone in our family. She asked us to do our homework in the living room, and she kept patrolling the windows, fearing that someone would break in."
"We called the police, but we were afraid that the madman had accomplices, so my father stayed in the kitchen with a kitchen knife, chopping the chopping board all day. The noise could be heard throughout the corridor. People upstairs said they heard footsteps approaching our house more than once, but they hesitated and left in the end."
I felt cold all over: "Are those people really doctors?"
Zhang Tianyi shook his head, his face turned cold:
"That lunatic has a sworn brother, whom you know."
"My name is Wang Yongfu."
He took out a still new piece of iron from his arms and handed it to me. When I saw it, a chill ran down my heels to the ceiling.
It was a Foghorn Town Hospital badge that was almost identical to the one Wang Ping was wearing.
My mouth felt bitter, and my memory came back to me. I remembered my parents who always slept next to our little bed during that time, and I also remembered that small room.
How could I forget that particularly abnormal period of time?
At that time, the door of our small bedroom was replaced with a security door that ordinary people would use outside their front door, and the windows were all nailed with iron plates. The heavy iron blocked the prying eyes from outside, and the glass on the peephole was always covered with gray tape, intentionally or unintentionally.
During that entire month, there was often a night light on by our bed late at night, and my father and mother would often wake up in the middle of the night, walk to the window and stare out quietly.
"Of course, it's no coincidence that you were chosen by the post and walked this path."
Zhang Tianyi said softly, "Long before you encountered the ghost story, the bedroom in our house full of iron plates was the first sentry box you and Pingping had, and mom and dad were the original guards."
"It's not that the sentry box chose you by chance. It's that you had been following similar rules for a long time and obtained corresponding protection. That's why the sentry box was attracted to you at the moment of birth, and finally took shape with your help."
"Just as Xu You, Gao Liu, and Wild Cat were gifted with strange abilities by the ghost story in advance, you were also gifted and marked, and were targeted by a trap that was waiting for you in the future.
It was that ability that gave you your first protection in the ghost story, allowing you to avoid contamination in that small shop. That was also why you happened to run into the out-of-control and crazy Zhou Tingmao and were almost torn to pieces by him. "
"The sentry box originally belonged to you and Pingping."
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