343 The Twelfth Store
◎The last page of fairy tale.◎
The car window slowly rolled down, and Lu Yao glanced at the driver.
Gu Liangshi understood and asked the driver to get out of the car and wait.
Lu Yao didn't want to delay Gu Liangshi for too long, so he whispered, "If you could turn into a bush, a flower, or a tree in your last moments, what would you think?"
Gu Liangshi thought that Lu Yao had hurried over to tell him something important, but she asked such an incomprehensible question. Thinking that this might be the last time he saw this strange old lady, Gu Liangshi thought seriously for a few seconds, and suddenly a long-lost picture flashed through his mind.
He raised his eyes again, his cloudy eyes became clear, and his expression was a little nostalgic: "I want to become a loquat tree."
Lu Yao pretended to reach into his pocket to take something out, but in fact he quickly pulled off a corner of the shadow and pinched a small square card with the word "Yao" engraved on it.
She handed the black card like a keychain to Gu Liangshi: "If you really feel bored, take this card to a place you like, and your wish will come true."
Gu Liangshi lowered his eyes and stared at the small square card in Lu Yao's hand, not wanting to take it: "I am already eighty years old, a poor old man abandoned by society and time, don't really coax me like a child."
Yan Gui walked over holding a jar.
There was a cluster of emerald green Basil in the jar.
Lu Yao took the jar and put it into Gu Liangshi's hand, and then put the ink-colored square card on Gu Liangshi's skinny wrist.
The shadow seemed to be elastic, hanging loosely on the old man's wrist like a fashionable piece of jewelry.
Lu Yao looked at Gu Liangshi firmly and solemnly instructed: "Remember to take a look at the jar at midnight tonight, and then you will understand what I mean."
----
The car was driving on the road, Gu Liangshi sat in the back seat, and from time to time he looked down at the jar in his arms.
The smell of Basil occasionally touched his nose, and Gu Liangshi frowned slightly, a little disgusted, but the little curiosity left drove him to be patient.
It's just a matter of enduring until midnight. He wants to see what the old lady is up to.
Gu Liangshi completely forgot what Lu Yao said before, about being able to turn into a flower or a tree before death.
He has read such reports on the Internet. Some elderly people are too lonely and mentally disturbed, and have hallucinations. They meet with national leaders and have dinner with the richest people in the country... In comparison, Lu Yao's fantasy is just a little bizarre, and even reveals an indescribable simplicity.
Gu Liangshi thought of the serious look on Lu Yao's face when he said those words, and couldn't help laughing. The sudden severe pain in his abdomen made him no longer have the energy to think about what had just happened.
Back home in the county, Gu Liangshi asked the driver to leave, and went upstairs alone with Ping An.
"Ping An" is the name that Gu Liangshi gave to the robot.
After Ping An came home, Gu Liangshi dismissed the original live-in aunt and left all daily life and travel to Ping An.
The house was as quiet as a tomb, and Gu Liangshi's heart was as calm as a calm sea.
He likes his current life. If he had not been diagnosed with liver cancer, his dream of old age would be about to begin.
Gu Liangshi asked Ping An to put the jar on the coffee table and go get some medicine for him.
He has been taking painkillers recently, which no longer have much effect, and are just for psychological comfort.
After taking the medicine and relaxing for a while, Gu Liangshi felt sleepy and fell asleep on the sofa.
Ping An covered the old man with a blanket and stood by. The electronic eye occasionally scanned the glass jar on the table, scanning it once, and then scanning it again after a while.
Gu Liangshi did not sleep for too long. After just ten minutes, the pain pulled him out of his sleep, making him feel like dying.
It was just a matter
of waiting. Because he had a reason to wait, Gu Liangshi felt that this day was particularly long, as if a day was stretched into three or five days.
Waiting for midnight to come, Gu Liangshi began to unconsciously stroke the square plate on his wrist.
The square plate was not big, about 1.5 cm long and 1 cm wide, and it was warm to the touch, like a fine jade.
On one side was engraved a powerful word "遙", and on the other side it was uneven and difficult to touch.
Gu Liangshi raised his hand, turned over the sign and squinted to look at it, but still couldn't see clearly, so he asked Ping'an to help him get his glasses.
After putting on the glasses, Gu Liangshi recognized it at a glance. There was a loquat branch on the sign, and under the long leaves, there were several bunches of round loquats.
Unfortunately, the square sign was pitch black, and only the shape of the loquat tree could be seen, without a matching color.
Gu Liangshi couldn't help but think of some past events.
Once immersed in memories, time goes faster.
Unknowingly, it was late at night. Gu Liangshi couldn't hold on and fell asleep. He was awakened by Ping'an. As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw the nine-story pagoda planted in the jar trembling without wind.
Ping'an stood behind the sofa and helped him put on his glasses accurately.
The lights in the living room were bright, and Gu Liangshi's eyes were clear. He suddenly noticed that the shadow of the shaking nine-story pagoda on the table was a little strange.
The shape didn't look like a nine-story pagoda at all, but more like a butterfly flapping its wings to fly.
The nine-story pagoda in the jar trembled violently, as if trying to break free from its restraints.
Gu Liangshi clenched his fists and placed them on his knees, with a bit of anticipation in his tension.
"Bang--"
There was a sound like the lid of a can being opened, and the can in front of Gu Liangshi was empty. The cluster of green nine-story pagodas turned into a butterfly, flapping its wings and bumping around in the room.
Why is the most common cabbage butterfly in the countryside planted in a jar and shaped like a basil?
Gu Liangshi felt that his brain was not enough, and he also felt that he was hallucinating, and his heart was filled with fear.
At the critical moment, Ping An projected the picture she recorded with her eyes onto the wall.
Gu Liangshi was forced to watch the strange phenomenon of the basil turning into a cabbage butterfly again.
After several minutes, he woke up and fumbled for his phone, found the number in the address book, and dialed it with shaking hands.
The phone rang for eight or nine times before it was connected. The old lady's voice was nasal, and she was obviously woken up from her sleep.
Gu Liangshi didn't care so much, and asked hoarsely: "Who are you?"
Lu Yao lifted the quilt and sat up, turning her head to look out the window. The dark night was broken by the moonlight, and the ground was covered with silver frost.
She lowered her eyes, her heart was calm: "I am just an old lady in her seventies, dying. But I want to dedicate the last page of fairy tales to this hopeless world."
Gu Liang was trembling, and for a moment he did not understand Lu Yao's words, and for a moment he seemed to understand what she meant.
Lu Yao's voice continued to come from the receiver, like cool water, slowly and slowly brushing away the fear in his heart, and it seemed to inflict a heavier nightmare on his heart.
"I feel very sorry because there is no way to rewrite your ending of death, and I don't want to watch you being tortured by the disease and become emaciated. People's lives seem to be constantly pursuing results, but in fact they are just constantly experiencing the process. Life will eventually lead to the same ending.
"And I just want to provide some insignificant help for your final life experience. If you really hope to become a tree before you die, yesterday's promise is still valid. Mr. Gu, 80 years old, I don't know if you will be happy about this. I am not coaxing you like a child."
Gu Liangshi pressed his right hand tightly with his left hand, trying to control the trembling right hand, but it was in vain.
Not only his hands were shaking, but even his voice was shaking: "I need to... pay... what price? "
If all this is true, there must be some hidden trap.
What does Lu Yao want?
His money?
I don't know if it was his illusion, the voice coming from the other end of the receiver seemed to be suddenly much younger, and the only thing that remained unchanged was the always calm and composed tone.
"You don't have to pay any price. If you must want something in return, please enjoy your last moments."
Gu Liangshi: "After turning into a tree, can you still turn into a human again?"
Lu Yao: "What about the jar where the basil was planted?"
Gu Liangshi: "It's empty. The basil turned into a cabbage butterfly."
Lu Yao: "The cabbage butterfly didn't want to turn into a basil, so it restored itself when a new day came. Whether to continue to be a tree depends on your wish."
Gu Liangshi: "Why do you want to do such a thing? "
Lu Yao raised his hand to push the silver hair behind his ear and smiled: "Didn't I tell you at the beginning? I want to paint some other colors in this world with death as the background, which will not destroy the original tone of the painting, but also add some bright style. "
The moonlight in Tonghua Town is always very bright, making the countryside look like daylight, but it will not make people mistake the moonlit night for daytime.
The moonlight is not as bright and warm as the sun, and cannot completely drive away the darkness. Even its light is not its own, but it illuminates the way forward for travelers on the night road.
Only those who have walked in the darkness know that a moonless night is as dark as the deep sea, boundless.
Even if there is only a moment of weak light, it is enough to support them to take one more step forward.
Perhaps this step is the last step of the journey.
After completing this journey, the traveler will reach home and can finally sleep peacefully.
Gu Liangshi hung up the phone, lowered his eyes and stared at the empty jar on the table. After a long time, he stood up on his knees and told Ping An: "Pack up and call the driver over. I'm going to Anping. "
Anping is a rural town similar to Tonghua Town. Nowadays, few people know that Gu Liangshi's roots are in Anping. It
took Gu Liangshi 30 years to completely walk out of that backward town surrounded by mountains. He made money by doing business in big cities, bought a house in big cities, and never mentioned the past.
In old age, people miss their hometown but are afraid of it.
Gu Liangshi returned to the county alone, bought a small villa for retirement, hired a housekeeper and a driver, wandered around the city in his spare time, and occasionally went to the countryside to experience life. Avoid Anping alone.
When Bai Riluo asked him, what came to Gu Liangshi's mind was the loquat tree standing upright at the door of the old house.
It was an old tree, tall and straight.
Every year, the loquats bear fruit and turn yellow, which is a rare color in the memory of the young boy in that poor era.
Gu Liangshi had to admit that he was old and homesick, and he longed to have roots like a tree.
It took two hours to walk from the county seat to Anping Town, and another half an hour from Anping Town to Gu Liangshi's hometown.
The car finally stopped at a street that was connected to the On a road that looked very similar to the one in Tonghua Town.
Gu Liangshi asked the driver to pick him up in half a month, and then he slowly walked up the stone steps with Ping An in his arms.
The old house of Gu Liangshi's family had been demolished long ago, and the floor was sold to Guo Jia at a discount.
Under the cover of night, the surroundings were terribly quiet.
But Gu Liangshi was not afraid, as his childhood memories jumped on the ruins and yellow land.
It didn't take much effort for Gu Liangshi to find the loquat tree deep in his memory.
It was still so tall and had grown taller, with branches full of small and dense fruits. It
was like a light-colored egg yolk with a hint of azure.
Gu Liangshi looked up for a long time, and when the sky turned pale, he raised his hand to wipe the tears from the corners of his eyes, and finally remembered the purpose of this trip.
Seeing that it was getting light, Gu Liangshi found a place not far from the loquat tree and asked Ping An to clean up the weeds.
Gu Liangshi slowly walked towards the small piece of land that had been cleaned up, and muttered to Ping An: "If I really turn into a tree, you find a place to hide and wait, and don't let anyone find you. Wake me up in half a month. "
Gu Liangshi stood in the middle of the open space, gently stroked the ink-colored square on his wrist, and made a wish to become a tree.
It was completely different from what he expected. As soon as he made the wish, roots grew under his feet and penetrated deeply into the soil of the ruins of the house. His body became the trunk of the tree, his limbs became branches, and his hair became green fruits, sparse and as if malnourished.
Gu Liangshi couldn't help but sigh secretly. Lu Yao was really an old lady who was too straightforward. She kept her word. I have never seen such an efficient and law-abiding person.
He really turned into a tree. A
crooked tree with an almost dead trunk, but one or two branches still stubbornly kept their vitality and produced a few small green and yellow loquats.
Gu Liangshi suddenly felt that he had chosen the wrong neighbor. He originally wanted to live next to the "old loquat tree" in his childhood memory, but he didn't expect his tree to be so ugly. The old tree next door looked like a handsome young man in his prime.
Why was he slightly jealous?
The sun passed over the mountain top, and the dazzling light shone on the earth.
Gu Liangshi suddenly pulled himself out of his trivial thoughts. The situation seemed to be a little different from what he thought it would be like to become a tree.
Although he could not move around easily, the pain that tortured him from time to time also disappeared, and his dead body did not feel anything.
He was no longer as sensitive to pain, nor could he feel the weakness of his body, but he could feel the cool morning breeze gently brushing across his face, bringing with it the scent of loquats. Birds landed on him, chirping and combing their feathers.
He saw Ping An find a lot of bamboo leaves to cover his body, and squatted under a stone not far from him.
Gu Liangshi tried to bend the branches, and shook off two half-green fruits, one of which hit Ping An on the head.
The crooked and rugged old loquat tree trembled and trembled, as if it was amused by itself.
Gu Liangshi thought that turning into a tree before death, even a crooked tree, would be much better than lying in bed in numbness and pain waiting to die.
【Author's words】
Thanks to the little angels who voted for me or irrigated the nutrient solution during 2024-05-10 21:16:35~2024-05-11 22:43:01~
Thanks to the little angels who irrigated the nutrient solution: 68732632 25 bottles; Xia Xia loves strawberries 20 bottles; HIUby 17 bottles; Xiao Huang Xiao Huang I am Xiao Huang 13 bottles; Mo Mo, Xiao Wu Gu Mei, Bai Cai Cai Cai 10 bottles; No matter how old ≧▽≦* Happy 7 bottles; Sponge Baby's small biscuits, Wait a Xia Xia, You Qian 5 bottles; ☆ Brilliant as the stars ☆ 4 bottles; Take a sneak peek, Frost Vulture 3 bottles; I want to eat bear biscuits, 70940687, Glazed Tile, Taylor, Luo Xiyou, Mimi Mimi, 25813323, Kiss a Soft Candy, Make Your Wishes Come True with Luyao, Long Press the QR Code, Momo, Xiuxian Girl Art 1 bottle;
Thank you very much for your support, I will continue to work hard!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
No comments yet.