Chapter 11 Pomegranate
Chen Wan heard his voice and turned her head to look at Lin Yu. Her bangs were wet and stuck to her pale cheeks, and her pupils were dark.
Her gaze was distant and indifferent, returning to the look she had when they first met.
Lin Yu looked at her, not knowing what to say for a moment. After a moment, seeing her look away, he carefully asked, "Why aren't you asleep yet?"
"The thunder is too loud," she said.
Lin Yu nodded, scratched his hair, and asked directly, "It was quite noisy. You seemed to be in a bad mood. Was it just because of the thunderstorm?"
Chen Wan didn't say anything. He sat in the rattan chair and looked at him without comment.
Could it be that Chen Shan said something harsh to her?
Lin Yu pondered the sudden change in Chen Wan's attitude, and recalled the last time he accompanied Chen Wan to the hospital to see Chen Shan. At that time, Chen Wan didn't look so distraught. Why did she look so sad now that the father and daughter were reunited?
"Did your father say something to you?" He clutched the cup and asked carefully, lowering his voice. "Or did he hit you?"
"No, I didn't see him at all." Chen Wan said calmly, "When I got home, I only saw a key and a bank card on the table."
"You didn't see Chen Shan?"
Chen Wan nodded. "I didn't go to pick him up from prison, and he didn't want to see me again. Isn't this a matter of course?"
One doesn't want to meet, the other doesn't want to say goodbye, what a convention.
Seeing that she spoke so calmly, Lin Yu sighed secretly, but he didn't know how to comfort her.
The silence seemed out of place amid the noisy rain.
After a while, Chen Wan spoke first. She looked at the lemon tea in Lin Yu's hand and asked, "Why haven't you slept yet?"
Lin Yu came back to his senses, stared at the cup and said, "It's raining, the air is too humid and stuffy, I can't sleep no matter how much I toss and turn."
He himself didn't know why he felt so dazed today, but he couldn't figure out the reason.
Or perhaps the boundary drawn by that clue was one that he shouldn't cross.
Lin Yu asked her, "Do you want to drink it? I added honey. It's not sour, just a little astringent."
"No, thank you." Chen Wan's answer was serious, just like when he returned the money for the cake, without any emotion.
Lin Yu didn't say anything else. He followed her gaze and saw the pomegranate tree downstairs that was smashed to pieces by the heavy rain, with many fruits lying on the ground.
Looks lonely and pitiful.
"My grandfather planted that pomegranate tree the year my parents got married." Chen Wan suddenly spoke, pointing at the tree. "My parents love pomegranates, and my grandfather said that planting a tree can accompany a person throughout their lives. He hopes that my parents will have something they love throughout their lives."
Lin Yu looked at her quietly. Chen Wan's voice sounded wet, and he spoke neither slowly nor slowly.
"When I was a child, I always followed my grandfather to loosen the soil and fertilize this pomegranate tree, hoping to see it bloom and bear fruit soon. However, my grandfather passed away before the tree bore fruit, and since then, it has been my parents who have taken care of the tree."
Chen Wan tilted his head, still looking at the trees in the rain. "I lied before when I said my dad was addicted to love. Now it seems he was sincere at one point. He loves eating pomegranates, and my mother would peel them for him one by one. Actually, it's a very happy thing to have someone peel pomegranates for you. It's a trivial task that tests your patience, but my mother always does it with great pleasure."
"Later, my mother passed away. My father and I went to pick pomegranates from that tree, but there was no one to peel them for us anymore. The pomegranate seeds splashed with juice as I peeled them, and not a single one was intact. That's when I realized my mother had really left this family."
When Lin Yu heard this, his heart sank.
He had also experienced the sadness of the death of a loved one. In fact, this kind of sadness was not explosive. It always remained in certain minor trivial matters, and then at some point, because of some insignificant little thing, it would flood the calm mood like a flood.
"After that, my dad stopped eating pomegranates, and I didn't eat them either, because my mom said the juice wouldn't wash out of clothes."
Pomegranate juice also represents the memories her mother left for her. How could she possibly forget them, and how could she dare to touch them easily?
"Because my dad is busy with work and I have to go to school, without his careful care, the pomegranate tree isn't growing as well as it used to. The fruits are sour and astringent, and no one eats them anymore." Chen Wan said helplessly, "But every time it rains or snows heavily, my dad will put up a shed to protect it. Someone laughed at him and said that the fruit on the tree wasn't tasty and was useless, so it would be better to cut it down so it wouldn't take up space. My dad even had a fight with that person. Afterwards, he stayed alone in the room and cried for a long time looking at my mom's portrait, like a little child."
"Later, I learned a poem: 'There is a loquat tree in the yard, which my wife planted the year she died. Now it has grown tall and majestic.' Then I understood why my father was so sad every time he saw the pomegranate tree bloom and bear fruit."
Once a year, once a period, this longing is both short and long-lasting.
Chen Wan sighed and looked at Lin Yu, "He doesn't even care about this pomegranate tree. He really won't come back."
Lin Yu took a sip of water, leaned against the wall and looked at her with a serious look.
"When I was in elementary school, my parents were very busy and there was no one at home to accompany me, so they raised a golden retriever named Er Tiao." Lin Yu suddenly spoke, talking slowly and unimportantly.
"Two?" Chen Wan raised her eyebrows slightly. "Two in Mahjong?"
Lin Yu raised his hand and rubbed his nose. "Yeah, because I really liked watching people play mahjong back then." Seeing Chen Wan's indifferent look, he added, "I don't like it now. It's not very socialist."
Chen Wan raised his eyes, smiled, and asked him, "And then?"
"Erjo accompanied me from third grade to first year of high school, a period of ten years. But one day I came home and couldn't find it anywhere. I searched every corner nearby but couldn't find it."
Lin Yu raised his head and sighed, "I cried and made a fuss. My parents thought I was so unstable as a high school student. They thought I was just sad because the dog was lost. But I know I was just regretting the happy time I had lost. Er Tiao took away ten years of happiness between me and him. My parents comforted me at the time, saying that some things are over and gone, and finding it is just a thought."
There's a line in Eason Chan's lyrics: "Is love meant to be browsed or treasured, so that every day can be unforgettable?"
Many times people miss something not because it is so unforgettable, but because it carries their own emotions.
"But I never gave up. One day I really found it and I was so happy to take it home. But it wouldn't let me touch it. The doctor said it had a skin disease and that it was really old for a dog."
"Cats and dogs are very intelligent. When they know they're about to die, they'll avoid the people they care about and calmly wait for that day. Er Tiao died not long after, but I didn't cry. Instead, I felt regret."
"I thought that if I didn't find it at that time, it would be fine. That way I would always have a sense of luck, thinking that it must still be alive and waiting for me somewhere."
After Lin Yu finished speaking, he looked at Chen Wan quietly.
Some words only need to be said briefly. No matter how much you hear the truth, it is ultimately other people's perception.
If you feel that something is difficult to get over and hard to accept, then try to let it go, let the past go and let the future come.
"I liked other puppies later, and you didn't wear clothes stained with pomegranate juice, right? Life is like a calendar, turning a page every day. Don't keep yourself stuck in yesterday."
Chen Wan knew that he was talking about her being trapped by the past. Her closest blood relationship in the world had become a bondage, entangling her tightly and preventing her from moving forward.
"Isn't Erjo cute?" she suddenly asked.
Lin Yu paused, a playful smile in his eyes, "I should say it's quite silly."
When Lin Yu was a child, he would go to his grandfather's house in the countryside during the winter and summer vacations. Erhu was a clingy dog that always followed Lin Yu up and down the mountain like a little tail.
One time, Grandpa asked Lin Yu to dig potatoes in the field. Lin Yu buried some dog food in the field and led Er Tiao to find it. Then Er Tiao foolishly dug the soil following the smell of the dog food and turned out a lot of potatoes.
"Am I smart or not!" When he said this, Lin Yu revealed his true nature, grinning with his fangs and laughing freely.
Chen Wan nodded. "But everyone says golden retrievers are very smart. Hasn't it ever done anything very clever?"
"There is one thing, Er Tiao saved me." Lin Yu put away his smile, turned his face away, and scratched his hair.
He even argued before speaking, "In fact, most northerners you know are landlubbers."
Chen Wan's understanding of his rogue nature was renewed, but he still nodded good-temperedly and said helplessly, "If you say so, then so be it."
Hearing this, Lin Yu cleared his throat and said, "That must be it."
When Lin Yu was in the fourth grade, a student in the school unfortunately drowned, so the school decided to offer a swimming class so that students could learn an additional life-saving skill.
Lin Yu is a landlubber. Once he gets into the water, he is like a weight dropped into the sea, without even making a single bubble.
In order to teach him how to swim and avoid embarrassing himself in class, Lin's parents enrolled him in a swimming class at the Children's Palace.
On Saturday, Lin Yu, his parents and Er Tiao went to the Children's Palace to swim.
As a result, Xiao Linyu got cramps under the water and started flopping around with his claws and teeth bared.
The people around them just thought it was a child playing in the water and didn't take it too seriously.
"I was so anxious that I almost cried at that time." Lin Yu frowned, and his frightened look made Chen Wan laugh.
"In the end, who saved you?"
At this point, Lin Yu held the cup, looking embarrassed, "Er Tiao saved me, so the first swimming style I learned was the doggy paddle."
"Pfft." Chen Wan couldn't hold back and laughed.
Second: I have sacrificed too much for this family.
Seeing her laughing happily, Lin Yu tugged at his collar a little embarrassedly. His gaze wandered away, but he found that the heavy rain outside had stopped without him noticing.
Only the sound of water drops hitting other people's awnings occasionally made a snapping sound;
Birds among the branches shook off the raindrops and flew through the hazy mist.
"The rain has stopped." Lin Yu said.
Upon hearing this, Chen Wan also looked around. The night sky was much fresher, and even the dim light from the old street lamps downstairs was washed out and became much brighter.
"Um."
The atmosphere of talking about everything just now seemed to be taken away by the sound of the dripping rain, and the two returned to silence.
Chen Wan looked at Lin Yu. There was a faint shadow on his jaw, and his Adam's apple rolled slightly when he drank water.
This person is a mature man, but he tells her his childish stories.
"Lin Yu, do you still want Er Tiao?" Chen Wan asked him.
"Do you still want to eat pomegranates?" Lin Yu asked instead of answering, looking at her sideways, his wide eyelids slightly lowered, and a gentle smile appeared on his face.
Chen Wan also smiled, her eyebrows curved and her eyes clear, like a slightly crescent moon.
Lin Yu looked at the smile and was distracted, suddenly remembering a sentence.
"I originally turned my heart to the bright moon."
Atmosphere Reference
My thoughts: The two pets in the story are real. They are my family’s pets. They are stupid and silly. It’s true that I can’t swim. Hahaha. In fact, not all people in the south can swim!
The next chapter is about the college entrance examination. I racked my brains but couldn’t remember what was different about the day of my college entrance examination from any other day. It was just an ordinary cloudy day. I was so excited at that time but I can’t write about it now. Is this because I’m getting old?
Thanks to Baiqiehei, thanks to Sasa, thanks to Jiamei, thanks to Nian Nian. I am very slow in updating, I am very grateful if someone reads it. This work is not good, and I haven't written a good work yet, but I will finish it slowly.
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