Chapter 134 Happy New Year
On New Year's Eve, the south city finally had a bit of winter feel to it, and people on the street put on coats or padded jackets...
Not far away, the northern country also welcomed heavy snowfall across the entire northern territory.
People say that the heavy snow this winter came late. In January, when a group of people from Shanchong were in Altay, they watched people who stayed in Chongli crying and screaming every day, as the temperature in Chongli was minus thirty degrees Celsius...
Finally, the snow started to fall more in February, as if God was taking care of the office workers who couldn't enjoy the snow season.
It should snow heavily during the Chinese New Year, so that the atmosphere of the New Year can be created.
When Shan Chong made the video call, Wei Zhi was lying on the ground mopping the floor on the other side of the phone.
Ms. Yang squatted on the side, tilted her head to look at the ground, and instructed her, "There's still some dust on the left side. Oh, what are you mopping? You're such a big person, but you can't even mop the floor properly." Wei Zhi was so embarrassed by her words that she threw the sackcloth and said, "I won't mop it anymore. Ask Dad to do it. If he can't be called, do it yourself!"
"What's the point of keeping you?" Ms. Yang grabbed the linen cloth and wiped off the dust that she couldn't get rid of no matter how hard she directed. "Don't hang up the video, let Shan Chong see you, you can't even clean the floor properly!"
"He's not with me just to get me to clean the floor!"
"What does he want?"
"I don't know, do you think I'm cute?"
"What's so cute about that! I think she's just possessed by a ghost!"
"Why don't you have confidence in your own child?"
"Because no matter how good-looking a child is, if he becomes disabled, you have to accept him."
While Ms. Yang was mumbling, the person on the other end of the phone had already returned to the room, holding the phone and walking on slippers, and threw himself back on the bed.
There is no heating in the south in winter. The little girl is wearing thick lambskin pajamas. In contrast, the man on the other side, who is wearing a white short-sleeved T-shirt, has snow falling outside the window.
He seemed to be sitting on a sofa, with the noisy sound of a TV in the background and children running and screaming. It seemed that many people came to his house to celebrate the New Year, including many aunts and uncles.
"You have a big family?"
Wei Zhi asked.
The man smiled when he heard this, turned the screen of his mobile phone, and showed her what was happening in the restaurant.
The open round table was sprinkled with a thin layer of flour, and on the edge were several wooden chopping boards with several balls of kneaded dough on them, as well as an iron basin filled with dumpling fillings.
A group of middle-aged women were standing by the table, making dumplings and chatting.
At this moment, one of them seemed to sense something and raised his head, looked over, and asked, "What's wrong?"
The little girl on the screen suddenly stood up and said "Ah" like a little schoolboy, "Hello, Auntie, Happy New Year" and turned the phone screen back to look over the top of the phone. She said calmly, "Nothing, I was video chatting with my girlfriend. I heard it was lively here... Let her take a look."
At the dining table, the middle-aged women were stunned for a moment, then laughed.
"Oh my, Ah Chong already has a girlfriend!"
"Sure, Wenhui, your son can keep up with the main force without making any noise!"
"Last year, you said that you might not have grandchildren until you die. I told you that it was too early... Children and grandchildren will have their own blessings."
"Hello, little girl, happy new year!"
They also laughed without holding back.
Shan Chong glanced at his phone and saw that his girlfriend on the screen had buried her head in the quilt.
The tips of the ears that are exposed are all red.
He also laughed softly.
Shan's mother put down a dumpling and lowered her eyes: "Shan Chong, where is your sister? Tell her to stop hiding in the house playing with her phone and come out to help make dumplings... It's already late, I have to go cook soon, your aunt can't make dumplings here!"
Shan Chong sat there without moving. He turned his head and looked at a small table not far away. A young man in a black T-shirt was supporting his chin with one hand, fiddling with a Lego toy surrounded by a group of little kids... Shan Chong's cousin was holding a roof and trying to hide behind him. He hissed and patted the back of the kid's hand.
"Dai Duo, did you hear me?" The man stretched out his long legs, "Go call Shan Shan."
Inside the phone, Wei Zhi was shocked and his eyes widened instantly: "Dai Duo is here too?"
The man raised his lips in disdain: "He was always here... Wang Xin went out with my dad to buy cigarettes, otherwise he would have been here too."
As the two were talking, not far away, Dai Duo asked without even looking up: "Can't you see you're busy?"
Shan Chong: "What are you busy with?"
Single mother: "Aduo is taking the kids out to play, I'll let you go."
Shan Chong: "I video chatted with Wei Zhi."
The single mother said "Oh" and turned to Dai Duo: "You go."
Dai Duo: “?”
Dai Duo: "It's great to chat with my girlfriend!"
Shan Chong: "That seems to be what my mother meant. If you are not convinced, find one yourself."
Dai Duo shoved the Lego blocks he was building into the hands of the kid next to him while cursing. He stood up, tugged at his clothes, and turned toward Shan Shan's room door with an expressionless face.
The door of the room was closed and I didn't know what the person hiding inside was doing.
This person is always mysterious. No one knows what she is doing hiding in the room and she doesn't like to play with children. The children also know not to bother her... Dai Duo was used to it. He stood up and walked towards her door. When he reached the door, he stared at the tightly closed door for a while.
Dai Duo has always been a person of little quality.
So he won't knock on the door or anything like that.
Just like entering my own room, I had no worries. I put my hand on the doorknob and twisted it casually. The door creaked open a crack, and the unique fragrance of shower gel and steam filled my nose...
This fragrance that had nothing to do with the living room made the young man slightly startled, but he quickly returned to his initial perfunctory attitude and said "Hello" to the dark crack of the door.
Then the door opened.
The only light in the room was the fluorescent light reflected from the snow outside the window through the gauze curtains, shining into the house. The girl was sitting on the bed, and because she rarely went out to bask in the sun all year round, her body was as white as snow.
At this moment, she was bending over with her hands behind her back, and buttoning her bra with a "click".
The moment the door opened, she turned around blankly. Her fair face, which had just finished a shower, was still rosy from the hot water. In the light from the window, one could still see the fluffy peach-like hair on her face.
The thighs and below were buried in the pile of white bedding.
The quilt was changed on the morning of the New Year, so it was now piled loosely aside. All I could see was the area where my calves should have been, which was now sunken and there was nothing there.
Reflected in the girl's black and white eyes, the boy bent over and leaned halfway into the room, his expression frozen in the impatience of the previous second...
Frozen.
Three seconds later, the door slammed shut with an earth-shattering sound.
…
No one knew what had just been found at the end of the corridor.
When Dai Duo sat back at the table with an expressionless face, Shan Chong raised his eyelids and said, "Remember to pay for the broken door." However, for the first time ever, the former did not talk back.
He lowered his head. When a little kid holding a messy thing of unknown origin reached out to him and said, "Uncle Aduo, look at what I put together, is it quite correct?", he took it without even looking at it and pressed it on a foundation that had already been put together in the shape of a pond.
Shan Chong raised his eyebrows: "That looks like a cigarette holder, right?"
Dai Duo was stunned for a moment when he heard this, then he picked up the thing in his hand and took a look at it.
Shan Chong changed his sitting position and asked, "What are you doing? Did Shan Shan scold you?"
Dai Duo didn't say anything, but when he heard the word "Shan Shan", he used a little force on the fingertips that were pinching the Lego toy combination keys, and with a "snap", the parts that were originally pieced together were crushed into pieces.
Sitting on the sofa, the man raised his eyebrows and was about to say something when the door of Shan Shan's room opened. A neatly dressed girl came out in a wheelchair and came to the table with an expressionless face.
Dai Duo put down the Lego in his hand and looked at her as if she were a powerful enemy.
Shan Shan thought for a moment and said, "I want to eat ice cream. It's snowing outside and the roads are slippery. Can you go with me?"
Not far away, Shan's mother scolded her for eating ice cream when it was almost time for dinner, but Shan ignored her and just stared at the person in front of her.
Single mother: "Don't bother Xiaoduo all the time. You know it's snowing outside. If you really want to eat something, ask your brother to buy it for you."
Shan Shan lowered his eyes and bit his lip. He rarely disobeyed and lowered his head and muttered, "I want to choose for myself."
It was New Year's Day, and who could bear her groaning like that? Dai Duo hesitated for a moment, then, under the suspicious gaze of Shan Chong not far away, he stood up and pushed her to the door.
Then, when Shan Shan opened the door, the person standing behind her wheelchair was silent for a moment, took his scarf from the coat rack in the hallway, and threw it carelessly on her knees.
The two went out.
Shan Chong's home is on the third floor, which is not very high. Shan Shan usually uses a wheelchair to go out. She sits there and waits for her family to take the wheelchair downstairs and then carry her down...
Maybe she always thinks she is a nuisance to others. Although she doesn't say it, she is actually very concerned about her weight. When other girls eat snacks and desserts, she says she doesn't like it.
...Actually, what little girl doesn’t like sweets?
When Dai Duo picked her up, he found that this person was really that light. She was wearing a simple prosthesis that was hidden in her pants to make her legs look less defective. The prosthesis was quite heavy, but the total weight was just this light.
When she was picked up, she naturally put her hands on his shoulders, with the rest of her face hidden in her scarf, and said nothing.
Dai Duo glanced at her and felt very embarrassed.
After leaving the community, they found a street stall and bought an ice cream. It was snowing in the sky. Shan Shan held the ice cream in her hand. She was not in a hurry to eat it. Dai Duo pushed it back to her without complaint and stared at the ice cream in her hand all the way.
When I returned to the bottom of the unit building, half an hour had almost passed.
It was freezing outside. I opened the nearly frozen iron door and pushed the wheelchair inside. The young man followed me in, lifted the hood of his sweatshirt, and asked in a deep voice, "Did the ice cream melt after keeping it all the way here?"
Upon hearing this, Shan lowered her head and squeezed the ice cream in her palm. It wasn't completely melted, but a little soft... The packaging bag made a "whistling" sound in her hand, and she heard him sneer behind her: "You are such a fucking annoyance."
He is a very unreasonable person and can never say a single sweet word.
Hearing his sarcastic remarks, Shan Shan didn't get angry nor did he argue with him as usual. He held the ice cream in his mouth and called out his name, his voice a little hoarse.
Dai Duo said "hmm" nonchalantly and asked her what she was up to.
She was sitting in a wheelchair, half of her face hidden in the shadows, listening to his questions. She finally raised her face and tilted her head slightly to glance at him.
Then he narrowed his eyes slightly.
The Shan family genes are there. Shan Shan is good-looking. When he smiles, he can crush most of his peers. It’s really no problem. But his eyes are dark and hollow…
Dai Duo looked at her expressionlessly, listened to her smile, and said in a casual tone -
"Daiduo."
She spoke slowly.
"You must feel uncomfortable after seeing that just now, right?"
she said.
"I'm sorry."
As soon as he finished speaking, the entire staircase fell into silence.
How quiet is it?
Apart from the sound of falling snow outside the corridor, there was no sound of breathing. The north wind blew on the frozen iron gate, making a creaking sound that was harsh and lonely.
The expression and emotion on Dai Duo's face disappeared all of a sudden - even if there was a hint of sarcasm and impatience at the beginning, now there was no expression on his face at all. He stood there with his hands hanging naturally at his sides, looking at her with his eyes downcast.
The young man had a feminine look, not an approachable person. He was usually mean, but when he was not mean, he actually exhibited the same coldness as his master and senior brother Shan Chong.
The invisible force spread out in all directions.
Shan Shan was serious, and it was rare that he didn't have any intention of playing tricks or other thoughts. He just told this story very seriously... How should I put it? It's not like he hasn't been to public places before, and those eyes -
Numb.
Sympathetic.
Curious.
disgusting.
Even friendly...
In fact, she hates them all.
Normally, she didn't say anything, and the people around her didn't seem to take it seriously, treating her like an ordinary person, but in fact, they cared...
She cares that the person she cares about sees her imperfections.
It wasn't a terrible thing, but I just couldn't lift my head. It was all over my body, and it felt like ants were spreading from the missing parts to the entire body like a tide.
Hearing his silence, she also became irritated. She frowned, turned around, and just as she said "Let's go" in an annoyed tone, suddenly, the wheelchair was turned around -
She was startled.
With his back against the backrest, he looked at the person in front of him blankly and nervously. He supported himself on the armrests of the wheelchair with both hands, bent down, and stared at her expressionlessly.
With its back to the light, it was like a leopard waiting for an opportunity in the grass at night, its eyes focused and cold.
"Shan Shan, are you sick?"
His voice was cold.
"If a normal girl is seen without clothes, will she say sorry?"
Trapped between his wheelchair and his arms, the girl blinked, and in a daze, her moist black eyes gradually lit up.
"It's not an apology - I lost my temper, let me apologize." He said, "You can slap me, but you can't say -"
The words haven't been finished yet.
With a "pop" sound.
A soft palm slapped the side of his cheek, knocking his face to the side...without any force, and he was stunned.
The tip of his tongue touched his cheek, and his eyeballs trembled slightly in his eye sockets due to shock. After a while, he seemed to come to his senses, slowly turned his head, lowered his eyes, and looked at the person sitting in the wheelchair.
Shan Shan stared at his palm in a daze.
After a while, she turned around, looked him in the eyes, and asked blankly, "Is that so?"
Dai Duo closed his eyes, the veins on the back of his hand that was holding onto the wheelchair twitched, and after a long while he uttered a "hmm" sound through his nose.
"Does it hurt?" she asked.
Dai Duo picked her up from the wheelchair, walked up to the third floor in one breath, lifted her up and asked her to press the doorbell. When the doorbell rang, he whispered in her ear: "Why didn't you ask if it hurt when you beat me? Why were you so cruel?"
…
The door opened and warm air blew in my face.
The house was still as bustling as when they left, and the kitchen was crowded with people.
Shan Chong took over Dai Duo's position and was fiddling with the unfinished Lego blocks. Wei Zhi was directing him on the phone how to put them together. Hearing the movement, the people inside and outside the phone screen both raised their heads and looked at Dai Duo.
Shan Chong asked, "What happened to your face?"
Dai Duo bent down, took the scarf off Shan Shan's neck, hung it up, and said expressionlessly, "He fell and rubbed his face against the wall."
Shan Chong ignored him, looked at him deeply, said "Oh", and continued to work on his puzzle with his head down.
When the sun sets and the Spring Festival Gala begins, it is time for the New Year's Eve dinner. There is one table for adults and one table for children. A dozen people in the room are crowded around the table, and all the relatives and friends are there.
Fresh and hot dumplings were also served in advance.
Everyone took a bowl and shared a few. On TV, the Spring Festival Gala had just started. The first program was always a song and dance program, with singing and dancing, and it was very lively...
Outside the window, the crackling sound of firecrackers has never stopped since dark.
Everyone sat together. Wang Xin had just picked up two dumplings and stuffed them into his mouth. After chewing them twice and before he swallowed them, he saw his mother, who was sitting diagonally opposite him, put down her bowl and raised the cup in her hand.
Everyone looked at her.
I saw the woman who had been smiling since the afternoon. Her smile did not change much at this moment. She raised the glass in her hand slightly, stood up, and gave a toast like this:
I wish my son a safe and smooth start to the new year, and may all his wishes come true and he get off to a successful start.
After he finished speaking, everyone who was chatting at the table fell silent.
Enough of the joking.
Those who were eating stopped eating.
The soup spoon was still in his hand, and half of the soup had been spilled.
Shan Chong had been chatting with his wife on WeChat with his head down. Now he raised his head and looked over there in confusion.
He found that all the relatives and friends at the table were looking at him. Dai Duo replaced the Coke with white wine with an expressionless face. Wang Xin had a dumpling stuffed in his cheek, and his cheek was bulging, staring like a frog.
Shan Chong: “Ah?”
The wine glass in the single mother's hand gently touched the bottom of the cup in the single father's hand beside her.
There was a soft "bang" sound.
The sound of a bell awakened everyone from their daze. Suddenly, everyone realized what was going on. They stood up and raised their wine glasses... In the chaos, Shan Chong also had a glass of wine stuffed into his hand. He was confused and listened to the laughter of the people around him.
“Can I win a gold medal?”
"Fuck, why do you only care about the gold medal? Do you know anything about skiing? The brand is all that matters!"
"Don't put pressure on the child. This is just the beginning."
"Come on and practice hard, Chong and Duo. Oh, our family has produced two Olympic athletes who will bring glory to the country... Take a photo with Auntie later, I'll post it on WeChat Moments!"
"Peace is a blessing, Ah Chong, you must remember this."
"Cheers! Cheers! Happy New Year!"
The various noises were really a mess.
But every word of it reached his ears exactly.
"After this drink, you will be a professional player next year. Quit smoking and drinking... Aduo, I wish you realize your dream in Beijing."
After drinking a glass of wine without leaving a drop, the air around me seemed to suddenly rise by one degree, as if the ceiling was rising, and it was as if everything became unreal.
It seemed like he had gone back many years, except that at this moment the TV was not playing "Unforgettable Tonight" but something like "Spring Returns to the Earth". Amid the festive music, Wang Xin put down the dumpling he had been holding in his hand and said, I seemed to have forgotten to set off firecrackers.
Shan's father said "yeah" and said it was true.
The two middle-aged men went to drag the firecrackers from under the sofa, and when they got them out, they called Shan Chong and Dai Duo to go downstairs to set off the firecrackers.
As night falls, there is a special smell of ice, snow and sulfur in the air outside. This smell can only be smelled during the Chinese New Year.
Milky white smoke floated in the air. Shan Chong set up the firecrackers, Wang Xin took out a cigarette and lit the fuse, and the two of them ran back, covering their ears.
Running back to the unit building, Shan Chong stared at the firecrackers being lit not far away. There was a crackling sound, and some of the exploded waste hit the door of the unit building, making a noise, and some of it bounced onto his face.
He was in pain and turned around to complain to Wang Xin why he didn't ask him to put the firecrackers farther away. But when he turned around, he found the greasy middle-aged man hiding in the shadow of the corner of the apartment building, covering his face with the cover of firecrackers and crying.
Maybe he was regretting that the bowl of dumplings had to be left to cool before he finished it.
The string of firecrackers was set off as smoothly as ever.
In the whole yard, the sound from the Shan family was probably the longest and brightest.
After the last firecrackers ended, Shan Chong's cell phone in his pocket vibrated. He picked up the phone and said "Hello" in a hoarse voice. On the other end of the line, the little girl's voice was lively -
"Isn't there a ban on fireworks in the north? Shan Chong, please set off fireworks for me at twelve o'clock! Ah, I heard the sound of firecrackers, it's so atmospheric, are you setting off firecrackers at home? Let me see, let me see!"
Chirping.
Like a little bird jumping up and down on a branch.
The man listened to the person on the other end of the phone clamoring to hear firecrackers and watch fireworks, and sneered, "Hmm," and said, "I'll buy it for you after dinner."
In my ears, Dai Duo complained, "It's freezing, I'm going back to my room." The girl on the other end of the phone responded sweetly, paused, listened carefully to the man's movements for a while, and said, "Then you should eat more."
"good."
"Buy more fireworks, too."
"OK."
"Shan Chong."
"Um?"
"Happy New Year... Yeah!"
"Um."
Holding the phone, looking outside the apartment building, the man curled his thin lips slightly as he saw the white snow shrouded in moonlight and smoke.
"Happy New Year."
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