Are there any side effects?
By the time the family finished eating, she had washed the dishes and cleaned up everything, it was already eleven o'clock in the evening.
At night, the wind and snow came again. The wind chimes hung on the eaves by my aunt-in-law made soft sounds in the evil wind, which seemed far and near, in waves, like the soul-calling bells of the Black and White Impermanence.
Wu Meilai curled up in the quilt and turned on her mobile phone again. The light reflected on the surface of her eyeballs.
Why don't you reply?
She typed in the input box: Why didn’t you come?
The cursor jumped a dozen times in the pupil.
send.
Talk to me, anything.
--
Thousands of miles away in Yanzhou, in a dark and empty flat.
The woman put one hand in her pocket, leaning against the sofa, holding a thin cigarette between her slender fingers, and the spark almost blended with the fireworks outside the floor-to-ceiling window.
The cigarette burned out, and the woman tapped it with her index finger, and the ash fell into the jar.
The retro clock is almost eight o'clock.
Ding Dong.
Boxing Personal Trainer-Xiao Jiang: Sister Wang, please do me a favor.
He chuckled and made a video call, which was connected almost the next second.
Wang Xiaoli raised her eyebrows, but before she could say anything teasing, she saw the puppy with red eyes, and even the hair on top of his head was slightly bent.
"Sister Wang." The child's voice had become somewhat distorted by the electromagnetic waves. Wang Xiaoli relaxed her brows, leaning casually on the armrest of the sofa, waiting for the next words.
"Please help me check on my grandfather. The hospital called..." She raised her hand to wipe her eyes, and the picture shook slightly.
It turns out it's not distortion, it's nasal.
Wang Xiaoli stood up, changed her shoes in the entrance hall, put on her windbreaker, and then asked, "Which hospital?"
Her voice was neither hurried nor slow, even indifferent, but it strangely soothed Jiang Chunmei.
"The Third People's Hospital."
After hanging up the phone, Jiang Chunmei lowered her head and scratched at the cover of her phone. Including her third aunt, there were seven people in the room, all sitting around the fire, watching her silently without saying a word.
Zhou Qianling raised his hand and touched her head, stroking it gently with his thumb. The coarse hair that usually pricked his hand was now soft.
"Fortunately, Uncle Wang hid in time. Good things will come to those who are lucky." Zhou Fang comforted.
Two drops of rain fell on the phone case.
Jiang Chunmei: "I don't know how to tell grandma yet."
"Wait a minute, grandma has a bad heart." Zhou Qianling suggested.
"Um."
The cell phone vibrated and Jiang Chunmei quickly turned it on.
Sister Wang: The drunk driver died despite rescue efforts. Your grandfather is still in a coma, but the doctor said his vital signs are stable and he will probably wake up tomorrow.
Wang Xiaoli thought for a while and typed two words: Don’t cry.
It would have been fine if she hadn't said it, but once she did, Jiang Chunmei couldn't stop crying. She stood up and was about to walk back to Yanzhou at night, but was stopped by Zhou Qianling.
"Have a good night's rest and leave in the morning."
Jiang Chunmei choked and sniffled, but finally listened to Zhou Qianling and went to bed.
But tonight was destined to be a restless night. Jiang Chunmei hugged her pillow, held Zhou Qianling's hand, and sobbed as she talked about her parents' divorce, how her father died a few years later, and how it was her grandparents who raised her...
Zhou Qianling knew all this, but he still listened patiently. At the end, Jiang Chunmei held Zhou Qianling's hands, pressed her hands against her forehead, and kept confessing and saying sorry.
Zhou Qianling sighed, bent down and gave her a gentle hug, "Don't come here without saying a word next time. That incident has nothing to do with you. It's my own problem."
People with high moral standards always take all the blame on themselves.
The next morning, Zhou Fang repeatedly warned outside the car window: "Don't rush. Remember to rest during the journey and drive slowly."
"Okay, I understand, Auntie. I'm leaving." After venting all night, Jiang Chunmei turned back into that sunny puppy. Of course, the main reason was the good news sent by Wang Xiaoli. Her grandfather woke up at 4:30 in the morning.
The car slowly drove away. Zhou Fang called out to her daughter, who was about to return home, and asked, "Didn't you say you would return home after offering sacrifices to the ancestors?"
She had asked Zhou Qianling to come back yesterday to ask this question. She thought Jiang Chunmei was there, so they followed her car back. She could vaguely predict that Zhou Qianling would refuse.
Before I could ask the reason, the hospital called.
"Are you..." Zhou Fang paused, choosing her words carefully, and asked cautiously, "Not fully recovered yet? Or, are there any side effects?"
Zhou Qianling's yawning stopped abruptly. Half a second later, he patted his lips, stretched lazily and walked into the house. "Okay, I'm fine now. Don't worry."
"Is Xiaoling's cold still not healed? It seems he hasn't coughed anymore." Lin Yue interrupted.
However, the woman who always answered questions just smiled politely and said nothing.
--
It was already the third morning when Wu Mei came to see the news about Zhou Qianling.
Zhou Qianling first explained why he hadn't been to the store, then asked why it wasn't open yesterday. It was two o'clock in the afternoon, Zhou Qianling had just finished catching up on his sleep, and Wu Meilai had just closed the store when she arrived.
Seeing that she didn't respond, Zhou Qianling asked her again at five o'clock if she was angry and whether he could go to her house to find her.
At that time, Wu Meilai was busy with the New Year cleaning and naturally did not see the news.
After that excitement passed, Wu Meilai's eagerness to talk to Zhou Qianling had faded a lot. She simply explained why she didn't see the message and that she was going into the city today.
This time the other party replied quickly: Wait a moment.
Seeing this, Wu Mei came to apologize to the chartered car driver and squeezed out of the overloaded space.
Zhou Qianling didn't make her wait long. Almost as soon as she sat down by the pool, he arrived, dusty and exhausted. His coat was untied, and his scarf was only half-wrapped, the other half trailing behind him.
"I want to go too." The woman stood by the pool and straightened her messy hair.
Wu Meilai reached out to put the scarf on her, then she remembered that she still had the one she had before.
After a little thought, I decided to return it another day when I have time.
"What are you going to do? It's very far away."
Zhou Qianling was stunned by the question. She had no idea what she was doing. She just came here because she heard that people were going into the city.
"What are you going to do?"
"Buy New Year's goods."
"I'm also buying New Year's goods."
“…”
"Oh." Wu Meilai stopped talking, sat down, bent her knees, and put her hands in her knees.
Zhou Qianling curled up his fingers and wanted to say, "I'll cover it for you," but considering that he was ignored yesterday, he didn't dare to act rashly at this moment.
One of them sat and the other stood, and the atmosphere was silent.
Zhou Qianling thought she would be ignored like this forever, until Wu Meilai called the chartered car driver to pick her up again, and then she became close to Wu Meilai again.
The reason, of course, was the constant stream of people pushing their way in. Originally, the two of them sat on either side of the back seat, but as more and more people came, she moved closer and closer to Wu Mei, eventually being squeezed into her arms.
hey-hey.
Zhou Qianling turned around and sniffed Wu Meilai's shoulder again.
"Are you born in the year of the dog?" Wu Meilai laughed.
"No, you smell like oranges and I'm carsick."
Well, there was no reason for Wu Meilai, who was used as a motion sickness remedy, to push her head away.
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