After hanging up the video call, Yang Zheng silently lit a cigarette.
He would do this habitually whenever he was in a bad mood.
I took a deep drag of my cigarette and started booking tickets on my phone.
The fastest way to get back to my hometown right now is by high-speed rail.
He quickly bought a second-class seat on the high-speed train to Tongning North Station, which departs at 12:15 a.m.
I checked the time again; it was only a little past nine.
It takes about two hours to get from Xiahuacun to Linjiang South High-speed Railway Station by taxi, which is just enough time.
From Linjiang South Station to Tongning North Station, it's over a thousand kilometers and will take a total of five and a half hours. He'll arrive in Tongning around 6:00 AM tomorrow. From Tongning North Station to his hometown, Qiongshan Town, it will take another two and a half hours.
If all goes well, he should be home around nine o'clock tomorrow morning.
"It's getting late, let's pack up and go home!"
Yang Zheng threw away the half-smoked cigarette in his hand and then went back to his room to pack his luggage.
When I go home in the summer, I don't really have much to bring, just two sets of summer clothes to change into, and some small things like documents.
A black backpack can hold almost everything you need.
After loading his things, he used a ride-hailing app to call a taxi, which was much more convenient and faster.
It's very troublesome to go to the village entrance to take the bus, wait, and transfer.
I'm afraid there won't be enough time.
A taxi has been arranged and will pick him up at the door in fifteen minutes.
While there was still some time, Yang Zheng went into the bedroom, opened a bag of sausages he had just bought, cut off a few, and threw them directly into the awning.
The remaining sausages were all placed in the corner of the awning.
The black stray dog lay in its kennel, staring blankly at him for a long time before finally starting to wag its tail slowly.
I feel like this dog is slowly starting to accept him.
Yang Zheng stared at it and muttered to himself, "I'm going home for a few days. If you don't have anything to do, don't wander around. Remember to look after the house for me."
The black dog's ears stood up high, and it stared at him with bright eyes, though it was unclear whether it understood him.
I sat in the yard for a while when my phone suddenly rang.
The taxi I called has arrived.
Yang Zheng immediately picked up his backpack, locked the main gate and the courtyard gate, and strode towards the taxi not far away.
Just as he settled into his car, he could clearly see through the rolled-down window that the black stray dog had somehow gotten up.
It stood inside the iron gate, slightly raised its head, and stared blankly at him.
"Go back! Don't wander around at night!"
Yang Zheng waved at it, and then the driver drove away.
Only after the taxi had completely disappeared did the black stray dog slowly run back to its den.
The yellow taxi sped along the wide, flat asphalt road, eventually merging into the neon-lit traffic.
Yang Zheng sat in the car, silent.
Thinking of his father's gaunt and sallow face, his heart grew even heavier.
Originally, he planned to wait a few more days before going home.
Because it was his first time consuming the exotic fruit, he was unsure whether it had any side effects.
More importantly, he was also afraid that the medicine was too potent and his father's weak body wouldn't be able to withstand it.
After all, he had just experienced the baptism of the exotic fruit and knew very well how painful it was after the effects of the fruit took hold.
It would be unbearable for a normal person, let alone a cancer patient whose disease has reached its terminal stage.
Sitting in the car, he kept thinking.
How can I trick my father into drinking this dark red, thick liquid after I get home?
To be honest, this stuff is really hard to eat and hard to swallow.
What worries him even more is that the effects of the exotic fruit vary from person to person.
After the black dog ate the strange fruit, it returned to normal in just half an hour.
He, a healthy adult man, swallowed the pulp of a strange fruit at once and was unconscious for more than three hours before finally achieving a complete transformation. I wonder if my father, with his weak constitution, could swallow so much at once.
To be on the safe side, should we reduce the amount for him?
How many times should I feed a single exotic fruit?
And if my father really is cured, how am I supposed to explain it to him?
If this gets out, how should I respond?
Suddenly, Yang Zheng realized that many problems couldn't be thought about too deeply; the more he thought about them, the more troublesome they became.
"Who cares! My father's condition is already like this; he's in so much pain every day that he can't even eat. Why should I care about anything else? As long as I can quickly alleviate his pain and let him live a healthy life, all other troubles are nothing!"
Thinking about this, his heavy mood gradually lifted.
An hour and a half later, he successfully arrived at Linjiang South Station.
Collect your ticket, have it checked, and then go through security.
Yang Zheng then entered the waiting room.
After waiting inside for less than an hour, an announcement came over the loudspeaker reminding passengers that they were about to board the train.
Yang Zheng picked up his backpack and rushed through the ticket gates as fast as he could, heading towards the designated platform.
At 12:15 a.m., the high-speed train from Linjiang South Station to Tongning North Station officially departed amidst a muffled rumble.
………………
The next morning, at 9:16.
Guihuahe Village, Qiongshan Town.
Yang Zheng stood by the roadside at the entrance of the village, with his back to the clear river lined with osmanthus trees, and looked up at a three-story house with brand-new tiles on the outside of the road. His eyes were no longer calm.
I'm finally home!
After taking a few deep breaths, Yang Zheng picked up his backpack and walked somewhat erratically toward his front door.
The front door was half open. My mother should be in the kitchen making breakfast for me right now, because I had already received several phone calls from her on the way to Qiongshan.
On a vegetable patch to the left of the house, under the deepest shade of a tree, a simple chicken coop was enclosed by a bamboo fence. Inside, a flock of brightly colored free-range chickens were pecking at the vegetable leaves on the ground.
Yang Zheng walked into the newly renovated house, which had been renovated less than a year ago. He looked around and found that it was very clean and tidy, just like when he first moved in.
It seems that my mother does a lot of cleaning and tidying when she's home.
He placed his backpack on the wooden sofa in the living room, preparing to go to the kitchen to greet his mother.
"I'm back!"
Yang Zheng had just looked up when he saw his mother, Xu Xiuqin, carrying a steaming bowl of noodles as she walked out of the kitchen in the backyard.
"I just finished talking to you on the phone and you're already home. The noodles are freshly cooked, eat quickly."
"Okay, Mom, you can put it on the table first."
Yang Zheng smiled and said, "I'll go see Dad."
Xu Xiuqin wiped the oil stains off her hands with her apron and said, "Your dad was very happy when he heard you were coming back. He kept urging me to go to the chicken coop to catch chickens and prepare them last night, saying he would steam them for you when you came back."
Hearing this, Yang Zheng felt a warmth in his heart and hurriedly said, "There are only a few chickens in total. It would be a waste to kill them. It would be better to keep them to make soup for Dad. Things are not like before. We are not short of food or drink now."
The mother and son chatted as they walked together toward the bedroom on the left side of the living room.
Even from a great distance, I could hear my father, Yang Baisong, turning over in bed.
Upon hearing this, Xu Xiuqin quickened her pace, and Yang Zheng also hurried inside.
Upon entering the house, I saw my father, with sunken eyes and a sallow complexion, clenching his teeth and trembling hands as he struggled to sit up.
"I've told you so many times, if you want to roll over or sit up, just call me. It's so uncomfortable to always get up by yourself, and you'll be in pain for ages..."
Seeing her father like this, her mother felt sorry for him and kept complaining.
Yang Zheng rushed to the bedside and carefully helped his father, who had become skin and bones, to lean against the bed.
His father's thin body trembled slightly from the intense pain, and Yang Zheng's hands, which were wrapped around his father's back, also trembled uncontrollably.
"Dad, are you comfortable leaning against me like this? Would you like to add another pillow?"
Yang Baisong gritted his teeth, hissing coldly, "No need to prop it up too high, just let me lie at an angle. I just took painkillers, it'll be fine in a bit, hiss..."
This is how it is for cancer patients with bone metastases. It's as if all the bones in their body have been eaten away by insects, and they simply can't withstand the patient's movements. Even the slightest movement causes excruciating pain.
I rely entirely on painkillers and pain injections to alleviate the pain.
For some types of cancer, once surgery is completed, patients can basically live like normal people, eating and drinking as usual, without it significantly affecting their daily lives.
But for someone like his father, suffering day and night, eating, drinking, and sleeping were unbearable, and even going to the toilet was an inhuman ordeal.
Taking too many painkillers can cause severe constipation.
Patients generally don't dare to go to the toilet unless they really can't hold it in anymore. So, in order to reduce the number of times they need to go to the toilet, they generally don't dare to eat or drink too much, mainly because they are in too much pain to eat.
Many people say that people who have bone metastases from cancer don't die from the disease itself, but rather from starvation, thirst, or pain.
The mother was taking care of the father, so she told Yang Zheng to go and eat the noodles first.
The noodles were topped with two poached eggs, which looked very appetizing, but Yang Zheng couldn't eat anything when he thought of his father's pained expression.
He ate a few bites with difficulty, then went back into the room and sat down next to his father.
At this point, the painkillers must have taken effect, and the father gradually felt less pain, his contorted face slowly relaxing.
My mother went out to buy groceries, saying that he was back and that she would invite his uncle, aunt, and other relatives over for dinner that evening.
Now only Yang Zheng and his father are left in the room, and it's rather quiet.
When the two of them are together, for some reason, they always have nothing to say to each other.
Perhaps it was because his father was always very strict with him from childhood that Yang Zheng always perceived his father as a very authoritative person.
Normally, the two of them rarely chatted unless they had something to discuss, and they couldn't really connect on a conversational level.
My father was a very hardworking and diligent person. He was an upright man who valued relationships very much. Therefore, his uncles, aunts, and other relatives all respected him very much.
Yang Zheng sat by the bed, quietly keeping his father company, saying nothing and not knowing what to say.
The father, too, lay calmly to one side, breathing slowly.
The two remained silent for a long time.
Suddenly, his father turned to look at him and softly called out, "Xiao Zheng!"
"ah……"
Yang Zheng looked up at his father.
At this moment, his father was silent for a moment, then suddenly said to him, "Xiao Zheng, I'm sorry!"
Yang Zheng was stunned for a moment, then his heart skipped a beat, "Dad, why...why are you telling me this?"
"It's nothing, I just feel really bad for you."
The father's eyes suddenly turned somewhat guilty, and after a long silence, he slowly said, "From childhood to adulthood, I have always been very strict with you, often hitting and scolding you. In fact, I know very well that you are much more sensible than other children."
“These days I’ve been thinking, from childhood to adulthood, it seems like I haven’t done anything for you. When you were little, you asked me to buy you toys, and I didn’t. You asked me to buy you ice cream, and I didn’t. You asked me to buy you storybooks, and I didn’t. Thinking about it carefully, as your father, I’m pretty bad.”
At this point, the father's eyes began to moisten. He paused slightly, then murmured, "I remember one time I finished work early and passed by your school on my way home, and I happened to run into you on your way out."
I think you were in fourth grade then. You had just come out of the convenience store next to the school with a popsicle in your hand. I remember it very clearly. I called out to you softly, and you were so scared that you secretly threw the popsicle under the telephone pole next to us.
You didn't do anything wrong, but the way you looked at me then seemed incredibly nervous, as if you'd committed some terrible sin. I didn't say anything, but I felt incredibly guilty. I never imagined you'd be so afraid of me. At that moment, I truly felt incredibly sorry for you!
Although many years have passed, I don't know if you still remember, but I remember it very clearly. You are a sensible and filial son, while I was not a good father.
After listening quietly to him finish speaking, Yang Zheng lowered his head and said in a slightly hoarse voice, "Why are you saying all this..."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com