63 Grandma Ouyang
Zhang Chenling was stunned for half a second before she came to her senses and looked at the young man in front of her who was being pulled by the old lady and called "husband".
The well-mannered little boy was wearing a white T-shirt and sweatpants, with a headband on his forehead and a basketball in his arms. It was obvious that he had just returned home after playing basketball.
Looking closely at his face, he seemed somewhat familiar, perhaps we had met before in the alley.
"I'm sorry, my grandma treats you as my aunt!" The little boy smiled helplessly at Zhang Chenling, looking very polite.
"It's okay," Zhang Chenling also smiled and gestured forward, "Are you living in Simen?"
"That's right!" The little boy bent down to pick up the small aluminum pot on the ground and blew away the dust on it. "I might have forgotten to lock the door when I went out just now, and grandma ran out. Luckily I ran into her this time! The last time she got lost, I called 110 to find her!"
Holding a basketball in one hand and a pot in the other, she said, "Grandma, let's go home!"
The old lady pouted and said coquettishly, "Take my hand and walk with me!"
The little boy had no choice but to dunk the ball into the pot. He freed his hand and took the wrinkled little hand she extended to him. "Let's go home!"
The old lady's other hand was still tightly tugging at Zhang Chenling, "Daughter, let's go home together!"
The palm of his hand was like a branding iron, warming Zhang Chenling's wrist. She was a little greedy for this warmth and said to the little boy, "I'll go with you to take grandma home!"
Turning around, she saw Xu Zhiqian still covering his head and groaning not far away. She couldn't help but scold him, "Hey, stop screaming. Aluminum pots are light and won't kill anyone! I'm taking grandma home now, you should go back too!"
Xu Zhiqian suddenly shut up.
The little boys took the lead, and the three of them, holding each other's hands, walked into the four innermost doors.
Their house was on the first floor. Walking into the living room, Zhang Chenling was stunned by the scene before her and couldn't help but blurt out: "Oh my God, why are there so many things in your house?!"
Plenty, but not messy.
In the living room, countless cardboard boxes, books, newspapers, magazines, bottles and jars, mattresses and clothes... are neatly stacked up to the ceiling. The gaps between the items are filled with colorful plastic bags, fitting tightly like floor tiles.
Unlike Uncle Qian's house which is dirty and messy, these items have obviously been scientifically organized and appear to be in good order.
"My grandma has hoarding disorder and doesn't like to throw things away," the little boy whispered to Zhang Chenling, "plus she keeps mistaking people for each other. These are all symptoms of Alzheimer's."
"I see!" Zhang Chenling suddenly realized and lowered her voice to match his. "But your house is quite clean!"
The little boy shrugged, "I have obsessive-compulsive disorder. I feel uncomfortable seeing things too messy! So I secretly tidy them up while she's sleeping!"
Noticing that grandma was glancing at him, he immediately cleared his throat and loudly thanked Zhang Chenling: "Thank you for helping me send grandma back! My name is Li Yuan, and my grandma is Ouyang Cuifen. The neighbors call her Grandma Ouyang, and you can call her that too!"
"My name is Zhang Chenling, you can call me Sister Ling!" Zhang Chenling responded with a smile.
"This is a mess! How can he call me sister? You are obviously his daughter!" Grandma Ouyang interrupted. She had already sat down on the only chair in the middle of the living room. She looked very authoritative, like a god in charge of the garbage dump.
Her gaze lingered on Zhang Chenling for a moment, and she smiled and said, "Daughter, you're home so late, are you hungry? Ask your dad to make you a bowl of noodles?"
Zhang Chenling chuckled.
Li Yuan shook his head helplessly, bent down to put the basketball on the ground, and walked into the kitchen with the pot. "She has regarded me as her grandfather these days. Sometimes she calls me old man or dead old man! Occasionally she calls me son. Only at very rare times does she remember that I am her grandson! The treatment of being a son and a grandson is almost the same. Being a husband is a bit harder!"
He turned on the faucet to wash the pot and continued to chatter away, "This is the pot we use to cook noodles at home. It's also my grandma's secret weapon. She's used it to attack delivery drivers, couriers, water meter inspectors, the neighborhood committee lady, and even passersby... Of course, I was the one who got beaten the most!"
He had a mischievous look on his face, smiled at Zhang Chenling, wiped his hands, and walked out of the kitchen.
He came to Grandma Ouyang's side and stroked her head, smoothing out her flying white hair. "Don't worry about whether others are hungry or not. Are you hungry? I'll get you some vitamin bread."
Grandma Ouyang touched her stomach and said, "I'm full now. I won't eat anymore. Son, you eat first. Eat more for breakfast so you can have more energy for work!"
Li Yuan looked hopeless.
The scene in front of her was so funny that Zhang Chenling suddenly became curious and wanted to ask where the adults in his family had gone. But then she thought it was inappropriate to pry into other people's privacy, so she swallowed her words.
"Huh?" Li Yuan looked towards the corner of the living room and muttered, "Why is the eternal lamp broken again?"
Turn around and walk over.
Following Li Yuan's gaze, Zhang Chenling discovered that in the corner of the living room, there was a dark cabinet hidden behind a mountain of debris.
Driven by curiosity, she followed over.
It turned out to be a Buddhist shrine! There was a bronze Buddha statue on it, and a few photos behind it.
Li Yuan bent down and fiddled with it for a long time before finally lighting the lamp.
Two clusters of dark red lights illuminate the Buddha statue and four faces: an elderly man, a middle-aged man, and two middle-aged women.
Everyone looks very kind.
But this did not prevent Zhang Chenling from feeling nervous.
She folded her hands, trying to soothe the goose bumps on her arms.
Li Yuan remained calm as he introduced his family to her. "My grandfather passed away a long time ago. I was too young then and don't remember what disease he had. My aunt was single all her life and died of lung cancer two years ago. My parents worked in the same unit. Last year, they went on a team-building trip to Guangxi. The bus overturned on a winding mountain road, and everyone on board was killed."
Zhang Chenling gasped, "Then you don't have any other relatives? Grandma Ouyang doesn't have any brothers or sisters?"
"Yes, she has a younger brother who developed dementia five years earlier than her!" Li Yuan told the story as if jokingly. "This disease might be hereditary. I might also develop dementia in the future."
"You old fool are the idiot!" Grandma Ouyang heard their conversation and pointed at Li Yuan and cursed, "Your whole family is idiot!"
Li Yuan curled his lips, ignored her, turned around and went back to the kitchen, picked up the small aluminum pot, opened the overhead cabinet and pulled out a bag of instant noodles, "I'm hungry, let me cook you a bowl of noodles!"
"Do you always eat this? It's not nutritious enough!" Zhang Chenling walked over and asked with concern.
"I ate before playing basketball!" Li Yuan smiled. "This is a snack. Just a quick bite. I usually eat this after evening self-study."
"So you're still in school?"
"I'll be a senior at the start of the school year!"
No wonder he has such a childish face, he is actually a child!
Zhang Chenling couldn't help but feel compassionate: "So you and grandma are dependent on each other? Who takes care of your food, drink, toilet and urination?"
"No one cares! But people have to survive anyway!" Li Yuan's tone revealed a maturity that belied his age. "My parents and aunt left some savings, and the community also helped us apply for subsidies. My grandma and I usually have enough food and drink, and occasionally we can even have a better meal. But this money is only enough for living, not enough to send grandma to a nursing home... I think when I get into university next year, I will go out and work part-time to earn money, and then send her to a nursing home!"
As Li Yuan spoke, he tore up some instant noodles and threw them into the small pot. A burst of fragrance filled his nose, but his expression darkened. He turned to Zhang Chenling and asked, "Do you think I'm unfilial for having such thoughts?"
"No, no, no!" Zhang Chenling firmly denied. "It's already very difficult for a high school student like you to endure all this! And you're right. You should send grandma to a professional care facility. That's the responsible thing for her!"
Li Yuan was as happy as if he had received praise from a teacher, "Thank you for understanding me!"
But his expression suddenly became serious. "Actually, I am also racing against time. Grandma's illness is getting worse. I don't know what she will look like in a year."
He gently stirred the noodles with his chopsticks. "Before, she just often forgot who she was and who I was. She'd forget to put salt in the dishes, forget to turn off the lights when she went to bed, forget how to get home when she went out... But recently, she even forgot how to go to the bathroom. One day, when I came home from school, I saw feces and urine all over the floor... I had a complete breakdown!"
Upon hearing this, Zhang Chenling also rolled her eyes.
"Oh right! She even forgot how to take a shower!" Li Yuan became more and more excited as he spoke. "A few days ago, I wanted to help her wash, but she scolded me badly, calling me an old scoundrel! She even hit me with a washboard! I don't understand. How could she turn into an old scoundrel so quickly when she was affectionately calling me husband just a second ago!"
When talking about taking a bath, Zhang Chenling became enthusiastic. In fact, she had just smelled a sour smell on Grandma Ouyang's body, like a mixture of sweat and urine, but she didn't dare to say it out loud.
Now that Li Yuan had offered it, it was perfectly natural for her to follow suit. "I can help with the bath! Grandma can walk freely, so she doesn't need a bathtub. She can just sit on the small bench in the shower!"
"Sister Ling, are you serious?" Li Yuan's eyes lit up when he heard that, as if he had seen a savior.
"Of course!" Zhang Chenling smiled awkwardly. "It's a little late today. How about I come over tomorrow at noon to help her wash?"
As soon as I entered the house, I saw Ni Yue lying dead on the sofa.
There was an eye patch on his eyes.
Water flowed down his face, soaking a large area of the sofa cushion.
Zhang Chenling walked over and took a closer look. She found that the tip of her nose was red. She was surprised and asked, "Cousin, what's wrong with you? Are you crying?"
Ni Yue took off the blindfold, revealing a pair of swollen, tearful eyes, and a red nose. "Why did you come back just now? I've already cried for several rounds!"
"Huh? What's going on? Tell me!" Zhang Chenling squeezed in and sat down at her feet.
Ni Yue glared at him with swollen eyes and said angrily, "My anchor is gone! My wallet is empty too!"
"Anchor? Wallet?" Zhang Chenling recalled the conversation between the two sisters that day, and then thought of the scene of Ni Yue and Chen Yuang arguing on the side of the road tonight. She was shocked: "Did the nurse break up with you? And even ask you for compensation?"
Then he started to wonder again, no way, Chen Yuang doesn't look like that kind of person!
"No!" Ni Yue shook his head and denied it. "I didn't explain it clearly. I was the one who broke up with Chen Yuang! My mother asked for the money!"
Zhang Chenling was more concerned about money. She asked curiously, "Your mother? Aunt Wu? Why would she ask you for money?"
"Just half an hour ago, when I just walked into the house, she called me and said that Ni Ying was playing games and secretly used up tens of thousands of yuan on her bank card! She only realized there was no money in the card when she was paying for something today, so she asked me to borrow 30,000 yuan to make ends meet!"
"Thirty thousand?" Zhang Chenling's jaw nearly dropped to the ground. "Do you have that much money in your pocket?"
Ni Yue curled her lips. "You know I'm pretty poor! I only have a little over 10,000 yuan in cash, so I had to temporarily lend her 20,000 yuan in consumer loans! However, what makes me most sad is not the money, but her attitude. It's as if taking money from me is her due!"
As she spoke, tears began to stream down her face again. She had thought she had weathered many storms and had matured and grown, but she had never expected that today, she would be easily defeated by her most beloved family member.
Zhang Chenling quickly took out a tissue to wipe her tears.
At this moment, no one could empathize with this feeling better than her - using one's hard-earned money to give blood transfusion to an ungrateful family of origin is more painful than being stabbed by a knife.
"My love life and family life are a mess!" Ni Yue grabbed a tissue, covered her nose, and sobbed. "How could my life script turn out like this?"
"Hey, life's a long journey! It's not time to make final judgments yet!" Zhang Chenling quickly comforted him, "Actually, I'm in the same boat as you. Everything is a mess... But luckily, we have careers. Careers will never betray us. Careers are our anchor!"
"Career is our anchor?" Zhang Chenling said a lot, but only the last sentence was heard by Ni Yue.
She held back her tears and murmured, "Career is our anchor..."
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