Chapter 66
The small northern city has remained the same in recent years, with demolition and construction everywhere. It is lively but also lonely. The liveliness is that you can chat animatedly with anyone you walk on the street, but the loneliness is that there is no change.
There are bankrupt heavy industrial factories everywhere. The factory buildings are overgrown with weeds but have not been demolished. The big black chimneys have not emitted smoke for many years. They have been eroded by the sun, rain and time. Like old people who have suffered a lifetime, they are silently guarding there waiting for the return of their children from afar.
The same is true in the urban area. The tube-shaped buildings were demolished and rebuilt into high-rise buildings, but they ran out of money halfway through the reconstruction, so the project was abandoned. Big holes were opened in the rough walls, and steel bars were still sticking out there, with dark holes. At night, it looked like a cement monster with a big mouth.
An advertisement for "Qingzui" lozenges from 2000 is still posted on the remaining broken wall, but the words "Strive for development and prosperity" written in red paint have become so faded that they are almost invisible.
Not to mention the vegetable market outside the community. A few years ago, it was said to be dirty and messy and affecting the cityscape, and it needed to be rectified. However, after a long time of rectification, the stalls were separated by a layer of iron sheet, and tiles were laid on the cement floor. The white tiles were dirty and sewage flowed everywhere when stepped on. It was even dirtier than before, so dirty that there was no place to step.
The old walnut cake shop at the back of the vegetable market has been in business for the third generation. The ten-year-old Hu is not good at studying, but he can collect money and give change very skillfully. The glass cabinet where the peach cakes are placed can be said to be a veteran of three generations. The cracks are patched with layers of yellow tape, and two words are written on it with red pen: "Peach Cake". It is just the same peach cake. It has never been improved or upgraded, but the business is still booming.
The small restaurant next to the Taosu shop is also doing incredibly good business. Several workers from Yanji followed the construction team all the way here and have been staying here for half a year. They come here early in the morning as soon as they open their eyes. Three of them order two dishes and a bottle of Red Star Erguotou, take a seat, drink all day, eat peanuts, and watch the TV in the store.
"It's been a while since this Jiang guy was arrested, and he's still talking here. Isn't he showing off enough?" The man in the gray vest took a sip of wine with a look of disdain and put it down with a bang.
He could hold his liquor fairly well, so the alcohol didn't show on his face, but his companion next to him was already tipsy. His face was as red as pig liver, his eyes were bloodshot, and he was peeling peanuts while giving a greasy smile: "What are you showing off? It was only with the help of an old woman that we caught this guy?" As he spoke, his red eyes drifted towards the kitchen.
This small restaurant just opened this year and is located at the very back of the vegetable market. The business is still so popular. On the one hand, the food tastes good and the portions are large. Even if the vegetable market is dirty, this restaurant is still clean and bright. On the other hand, and the most important reason, is the proprietress.
The proprietress is less than 30 years old, but maybe because of her hot-bloodedness, her hair is a mixture of black and gray. At first glance, she looks like an old woman, but she doesn't dye it or put on makeup. She wears a headband to hold her hair tightly, leaving only her forehead exposed. Her eyes are not very good, and she habitually squints to see things, but she loves cleanliness and is afraid of dirtying the food in the pot, so she has to wear a mask when cooking, and it is inconvenient for her to wear glasses. Only when she sits down to settle the bill can you see a pair of gold-rimmed glasses on her nose, frowning like a forgetful old woman, pressing the calculator, muttering to herself, and staring blankly from time to time, as if she has forgotten the previous sentence after reading the next one.
But even so, the old man's eyes still drifted to her uncontrollably. A pilling royal blue acrylic sweater looked like a Chanel haute couture sweater on her. She had a slender waist and skin as icy as Chang'e in the moon.
"I tell you, the one who killed the old woman surnamed Jiang might be her." The man's bloodshot eyes were glued to the proprietress's chest, and his chin kept lifting towards the TV.
This man, when he's incompetent, he's always gossipy. Eight out of ten of his sentences are insults to women: "Just as Jiang died, a vixen popped up right here. How could it be such a coincidence? Even the police officer named Jiang couldn't catch him, so how could a woman catch him? Humph, that would mean she'd be holding onto his lifeblood!"
"Tsk, stop talking nonsense here!" The man in the gray vest scolded in a low voice and quickly glanced at the kitchen. There was only a wall between the kitchen and them, and there was a food pick-up window on the wall. It was so close that if the cooking noise wasn't too loud, the boss lady would definitely hear it.
But even though he cursed, he was still curious and secretly glanced at the tile wall next to the fan. There was a photo of the person responsible for food safety on the wall, and below it was a name: Zhou Nianxing.
"They say the woman's surname is Zhou, and she's from Northeast China..." Gray Vest was a little unsure. "But the Three Northeastern Provinces are so big, how can you be sure she's from here? Besides, the Jiangs are incredibly rich. Even if they're dead, a lean camel is still bigger than a horse. How could his lover come here to cook for us?"
The greasy man wanted to comment on the beauty of the proprietress, but suddenly he felt a loud noise behind him. He turned around and saw a table of men. They were not dressed in anything special, just short-sleeved shirts and long pants, but the sense of oppression was very strong. A man with his back to him slurped the last mouthful of fried noodles, picked up the briefcase on the table, unzipped it and took out his wallet. When he opened it, there was a police badge.
He slowly took out a hundred-dollar bill and stuffed it under the bowl, "Boss, here's the bill." The other people at the table also opened their wallets, took out money and put it on the table. A quick look showed that they were all police badges. The greasy guy had no other skills except for insulting women, and he was stunned for a moment.
The man in the gray vest was also dumbfounded. He saw the plainclothes policeman with his back to them turn around, hug the greasy man's bare chest with a smile, patted him twice, and whispered: "Brother, if you have nothing to do, watch the legal channel more often to see if spreading rumors and slander is against the law." He patted him hard again and said, "Be careful what you say." After that, he got up and walked out.
A table of grown men filed out, and the small restaurant was suddenly empty. The proprietress heard the commotion, stopped cooking, and ran out. She saw the money on the table and was so anxious that she rushed to the door without even taking off her apron and yelled, "Feng! Why did you give us so much money? Take it back!"
The person walking in front turned around and waved at her, saying with a smile: "I have a bad memory and forgot to bring money. Just consider it as paying in advance!"
"Tsk, oh..." The proprietress sighed with narrowed eyes. Then she turned her head and remembered something. She hurriedly shouted into the house, "Tiantian, Tiantian!" As soon as she finished speaking, she saw the door curtain opened and a little boy ran out. He was chubby and dark, carrying a small schoolbag. He ran over and smiled at her with his big white teeth, "Mom!"
The proprietress opened the freezer, took out a few bottles of Bingfeng and handed them to him, then touched the back of his head and said, "Hurry and take them to your Uncle Zhao and Uncle Wang!"
Tiantian nodded heavily and said, "Yes!" Then he ran out. The boss's wife was worried and followed him, shouting, "Slow down! Pay attention in class this afternoon. Do you hear me?"
"I know, Mom!"
Tiantian ran out with a smile, but was "intercepted" as soon as he ran out. Several big men picked him up, let him ride on their necks, and spun in circles on the spot, making Tiantian giggle.
"How about going to Zhao's house on Friday night for some Coke and some chicken wings? As usual, I won't tell your mom!"
"Did you hear that we're going to Daddy Wang's house on Saturday? We're going to the flower and bird market!"
"good!"
Tiantian sat on the man's neck with such happiness that her little face turned red. She smiled shyly, and her ears felt warm. But she still called "Uncle Zhao" and "Uncle Wang" with propriety, because her mother said that dad should not be called casually, and her "dads" seemed to be used to it.
The men, both big and small, chatted and laughed all the way to the police car. The man carried him into the police car, sat him down, fastened his seat belt himself as he was familiar with the route, and after sending him to kindergarten, they happened to go back to the police station.
The kindergarten that Tiantian attends is actually a classroom in the teaching building of a primary school, called a preschool class. In recent years, the adults have gone to other places to make a living. Even if the children's parents are around, they are busy getting up early and going to bed late. Children aged four or five who are not yet of school age are placed here to learn to recognize words and arithmetic. But the main purpose is to ensure that there is someone to take care of the children, so the teachers of the preschool class are all teachers who are about to retire. They usually teach the auxiliary classes once a week, and use their free time to teach these preschool children something casually, such as a short essay with a sentence.
Father's Day is coming soon, and today's short essay will revolve around the topic of "Dad".
It was Tiantian's turn. Tiantian stood up, put his hands behind his back, looked at the blackboard seriously and said, "I have a father, he is an English..."
The female teacher wearing reading glasses on the podium frowned when she heard the grammatical error, "Yuan Tiantian, what do you mean by I have a father? How many fathers do you have?"
The classroom suddenly erupted in thunderous laughter. The little girl sitting next to Tiantian laughed so hard that her eyes went blind. She held her chin with her hands and looked up at Tiantian. The air was filled with pink bubbles.
Tiantian's face turned red with shame. He lowered his head, bit his lip, and thought for a while. When he raised his head again, his eyes were shining like stars, and he said loudly: "My father, he is a hero!" The last row burst into laughter again: "Hahahaha! Hero! What hero! Yuan Tiantian, you are bragging again! You don't have a father!"
The teacher on the podium suddenly looked up, and a glare transformed into a piece of chalk that flew over. With years of martial arts training, the "flying knife" hit the forehead of the little boy in the last row who was still laughing wildly. He shouted at him: "Zhang Zixuan! You have a father? Is this all your father taught you? Look at your handwriting, and then look at Yuan Tiantian's handwriting! And you still have the nerve to laugh here!"
The classroom was quiet. The teacher adjusted her glasses and her eyes softened as she looked at Tiantian. She studied his face for a moment, then lowered her head to look at the textbook spread out on the podium. She said softly, "Tiantian's sentences are very good, but you need to pay attention to your grammatical errors in the future. Please take a seat."
…
After school, Tiantian would run out of the classroom and see his mother waiting for him outside the school’s iron gate, waving at him. His mother was wearing a blue dress and standing in the crowd, smiling. She was the most beautiful one.
Tiantian held his mother's hand and skipped on the way home. In the setting sun, the willow trees were blown by the wind, gently brushing against the tips of his mother's hair, which was as elegant and fragrant as his mother's hair. His mother held his little hand, just smiling, not saying a word, as if she was thinking about something very sweet. Tiantian didn't know why his mother always liked to take a detour and always liked to walk across that bridge, but he was willing to take a detour with his mother so that he could spend more time with her.
They were standing on the bridge looking into the water. He would stick his little head out and his mother would retract her head, then suddenly pop it out again. Every time this happened, the whole bridge would echo with Tiantian and his mother's laughter, and even the surface of the water would ripple.
When we got home, Mom became busy again. She put on an apron to pick vegetables and cook dinner. Tiantian took the garlic mortar and sat at the dining table behind Mom to help her pound the garlic. Tiantian and Mom still lived in a half-renovated tube building. Mom said that was where she was born and where she grew up with Dad.
Tiantian finished pounding the garlic, jumped off the chair, ran to the water dispenser, poured a full glass of water, and then carefully brought it to his mother, "Mom, drink some water."
"Thank you, Tiantian." Mom said. She was cleaning the stove with her back to Tiantian. "Is Tiantian unhappy today?"
Tiantian is a quiet child who keeps everything in his heart, but his mother always knows what he is thinking. Sometimes she doesn’t even need to look at him to know.
Tiantian lay on the stove, lowered his head and thought for a while, then said sullenly: "Mom, Zhang Zixuan said I don't have a father."
"Haha." Mom laughed, "Where would you come from without your dad?"
Tiantian was silent, resting his chin on his little hand. He thought for a long time before speaking: "He also said that my father is not a hero..." He stood on tiptoe, carefully observing his mother's face, "Mom, every child knows the heroes in the textbooks, but my dad is a hero, why don't any children know it?"
"What is a hero, Tiantian? A hero is someone who does heroic things and doesn't care whether anyone remembers it or not." Mom said. The setting sun shone on her face so gently that even the dust floating by the window looked like golden light.
"As long as we remember Dad and remember that he is a hero, that's enough."
Tiantian looked at his mother for a long time, lowered his head, and tried again to erase the gradually blurred shadow in his mind.
…
Time just flows by, autumn goes and winter comes, and the New Year is almost here again.
The Xingyue Restaurant was still bustling, but as the New Year was approaching, there were not many people around at two in the afternoon, and most of the food was left over. Zhou Nianxing was reluctant to waste it, so he set up a table and sat in the restaurant, scooped out the leftovers, and ate them with wraps.
"Sister Xingxing, I'm going back first."
A little girl came out from the kitchen. Her name was Diandian. She was smart, quick-witted and bold. She was from Sichuan. Zhou Nianxing hired her to help him. When it was busy, she helped serve dishes and collect cash. But now that the New Year was approaching, Zhou Nianxing asked the little girl to go back early.
"Okay, go ahead. Be careful on the road." Zhou Nianxing smiled. "Bring me a jar of the chili sauce your mother makes when you come back. I love it."
"Okay!"
Diandian was about to go out, but as soon as she reached the door, she frowned and shouted, "Hey! Didn't you see the sign at the door? We're closed! Don't come in!"
"Let him in." Zhou Nianxing looked calm as he picked up a piece of shredded pork with green peppers with chopsticks and placed it on the pancake crust.
Diandian looked at the proprietress, then warily looked at the person at the door, and moved aside to let him in. However, his face was too scary, and she was worried, so she decided not to leave and went to the kitchen alone.
But the man was not at all ashamed of his appearance. He walked in with a swagger. The leather of his old jacket was cracked, and his muddy leather shoes were so dirty that their original color could not be seen. He did not care at all. With a swish, he pulled out a chair and sat opposite Zhou Nianxing.
"I've been doing pretty well lately." He threw the briefcase in his hand onto the table, smiling recklessly on his scarred face.
"Yeah." Zhou Nianxing seemed too lazy to pay attention to him. He just looked around with a smile and smiled when he saw the photo on the tile wall. "Hey, Zhou Nianxing, that's a good name."
He turned to look at her, "But I'll still call you Zhou Yue."
"Whatever you want."
"Nothing much." He scratched his ear and smiled. "I just came to say thank you. Ms. Zhou is such a noble person. She used all the state award to support poor students. It would be wrong not to come and say thank you."
Zhou Nianxing took a big bite of the pancake, his cheeks puffed up like a hamster, "You're welcome."
"I want to apologize to you too. I didn't expect you to do that..." The man stopped laughing, sat up straight, looked at her, and said seriously, "I admire you. I really admire you."
"Don't." Zhou Nianxing swallowed his food and waved his chopsticks. "I'm just a singer. I've only ever followed the masters my whole life. There's nothing to admire."
She lowered her eyes to look at the long shadow on the cement ground. "Whatever he does, I will do."
The man didn't say anything after hearing this. He put one hand on the back of the chair behind him and looked at her silently.
"Comrade police officer, you came here just to see an old woman eating?" Zhou Nianxing rolled up the second pancake calmly, stuffing it bulging with scrambled eggs and tomatoes.
The man chuckled, "Your father Zhou Tiancheng and I were born in the same year, and you're telling me you're an old woman?"
Zhou Nianxing shrugged nonchalantly, "Then what are you doing here?"
The man looked at her expressionlessly, letting time pass, until she also sensed something and slowly stopped moving, with her eyes lowered. The hand holding the wrap stopped in mid-air, and the oil and soup flowed out, dripping onto the table.
"He's awake."
These three words are as ethereal as smoke and as annihilation of heaven and earth.
The man finally relaxed, looking up to the sky with a long sigh, and tried to put on a nonchalant tone and laughed, "I've been awake for several years, but I just didn't tell you. You should thank the crocodiles raised by our General Jiang for their good diet and for not eating carrion. He was attracting flies at the time, but the crocodiles didn't want to eat him. And you should thank Xie Jun for helping him and dragging him into the cave."
He looked at her. She was still holding the pancake. The boiling oil poured down her sleeves and filled her arms, but she seemed not to feel it. She stared blankly at the food on the plate. She slowly opened her mouth and bit, chewed, bit, chewed... Her mouth was full, and the food residue overflowed from her mouth, but she didn't know how to swallow it.
He couldn't look at her anymore, lowered his head, and said, "What I needed at that time was a warrior who would die. Knowing that he was alive, you couldn't bear to die. People who can't bear to die can't achieve success."
He raised his head and looked at her frankly. "There's nothing I can do about it. The state apparatus. As long as I'm alive and breathing, I'm going to nail those drug dealers. You can sue me, report me, whatever you want. I'll admit it, but I have to say these words today."
"The first time I saw you, I knew you would be more useful than the stars. You were the one I wanted to use the most from the beginning."
"But that brat Xingxing..." He shook his head helplessly, "He said he would commit suicide if I dared to push you to Jiang Huai. I promised him that, but he didn't believe me. He rushed to Jiang Huai himself, afraid that if he was a step late, I would give you to Jiang Huai. He didn't even have all the skills he needed, but he dared to work for that old guy, crawling out from the pile of dead bodies again and again."
The man lowered his head and gently brushed the dust off his trouser legs. "But if I'm not mistaken, you and Jiang Huai should have already had that kind of relationship when he left. I wonder how he felt when he saw it."
"God's will or human will?" He smiled sadly on his ugly face. "Maybe it's both."
"I don't want to tell you, emotionally or logically." The man tilted his head and stared at Zhou Nianxing coldly, "But I'm an outsider. I can't make the decision for him."
"It was his own decision."
The woman stopped moving completely, with the half-sliced pancake stuck in her throat. The oil and soup flowed all over her arm and the table, and her chest was also wet. Her face was as pale as a death, and her eyes were staring blankly ahead, like a fish that had been dead for several days.
"When he first woke up, the doctors tried everything. They showed him all kinds of pictures of people, objects, and scenery, but nothing worked. Until one day, when a child in the hospital came to see Black Cat Sheriff, he suddenly stood up and walked over to look. No matter how I pulled him away, he wouldn't move. Later, I showed him old photos of his parents and his family, and he responded. He would laugh, touch, and call mom and dad. Later, he remembered things in Guangzhou before he was six years old, and then he even remembered the knowledge he learned in junior high and high school. Now he is just like a normal person. He can even drive a car, and ordinary people have no problem talking to him..."
The man paused, pursed his lips, and after a long pause, he made up his mind and said, "He just doesn't remember you."
"I don't remember anything that happened to me after I was six years old, including you as a person."
"Let's show him your photos, photos of you as a child, photos of you in school, photos of you now..."
The man shook his head slowly.
"I don't remember."
There was dead silence. Diandian, standing at the kitchen door, leaned against the door frame and looked at the proprietress. Her face turned pale with fear. She didn't dare to call her or touch her, for fear that if she called her, she would fall to the ground and die.
The man lowered his eyes and stared at the plate of scrambled eggs with tomatoes with Zhou Nianxing. After a long moment, he suddenly smiled and said, "Let me tell you something funny. Xingxing told Zhou Tiancheng that he was born in December 1989, right?"
"Ha!" He laughed casually, "No matter how small a man is, he has to act like a big man in front of the little girl he likes."
"August 28, 1995, the day he first came to your house..."
He looked up at her, "That was also his fifth birthday."
"He's not a day older than you, but he raised you all by himself."
The man could no longer bear the heat in his eyes and rubbed his hair fiercely. "Oh..." He closed his eyes and resisted the urge to sob. When he opened his eyes, he smiled at her and said, "So let's leave the decision to him."
"If he remembers you and is willing to come back to you, he will come back to you even if it means crossing mountains and rivers."
"If he forgets you, let him go."
The man stood up, grabbed his bag, and walked out. When he reached the door, he stopped, turned his back to her, and whispered, "As a state machine, I've said everything I need to say."
"What I'm going to say next has nothing to do with the country or the people."
The man turned around and knelt on the ground facing Zhou Nianxing.
"Uncle apologizes to you two children."
After saying that, he kowtowed three times on the ground, until his head was broken and bleeding. He stood up and smiled at Zhou Nianxing, "Don't worry, I will also get my retribution." He pointed to his head and said, "I will apologize to my wife and daughter when I get to the underworld."
"My name is Liu Jianye," he said with a cool and heroic smile, "If you can remember it, remember it. If you can't, just forget it. Take care."
After saying that, he turned around and strode away towards the sunset.
In the sunset, the small restaurant was filled with the loud crash of tables and chairs collapsing and the screams of a young girl at the top of her lungs: "Sister Xingxing! Sister! Sister, what's wrong with you? Don't scare me!"
…
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