What can she do to you?
Thick white steam billowed from the steamer on the fire. Wu Mei opened the lid and saw the rice inside was all over the place, clearly not properly divided. On the cutting board above the fire, half-cut potato slices lay in a haphazard pattern, their thickness uneven, revealing the impatience of the person chopping them.
Wu Meilai walked into the bedroom, put down the things in her hands, took out a pot from under the cupboard, poured out the rice in the steamer, sprinkled water on it and redistributed it, then went back to the bedroom to change the medicine for Liu Guiyan.
The woman on the bed tilted her head and couldn't move, so she could only reach out and struggle to rummage through the things she brought back.
frown.
"What are you buying sheets and blankets for? Clothes, shoes... What is this?" Liu Guiyan was holding a music box. She looked at the price on the base and gasped, "Over four hundred!"
She looked at Wu Meilai and said earnestly, "It's normal for a girl to buy some clothes and dress up when she grows up, but don't buy these things that look good but are useless. It's a waste of money."
She carefully put the music box back into the box and said, "I'll return it tomorrow."
Wu Meilai put away all the messed-up things and pursed her lips, saying, "Except for the sheets and blankets, the rest were given to me by Zhou Qianling."
She turned around and put the things in her bedroom before turning Liu Guiyan over to lie on her stomach.
Seeing that she had applied the ointment in a mess, Wu Mei came to complain: "Dad applied it on you like this?"
She went out and poured a basin of hot water, wiped the person clean, changed the medicine, and changed her clothes before picking up the basin to go out.
"Your dad said yesterday that the bank sent a text message saying that several hundred dollars were missing from his card. After much deliberation, he decided to link that card to you."
Wu Meilai didn't say anything.
"I'm keeping it for you because I'm afraid you'll waste it like this."
"Blankets and sheets won't cost more than a few hundred. Did you buy something as a return gift for the girl from Zhou Fang's family?"
Wu Meilai listened quietly and did not respond.
Liu Guiyan's voice gradually rose. "Adding in the losses from not opening the store, you've spent nearly a thousand dollars on this trip."
"mom……"
The more Liu Guiyan spoke, the more she felt she was being wronged. She scolded him, "She's from the city. She comes back for holidays to visit and enjoy the scenery. Don't waste your time with her and let your heart wander."
Wu Meilai lowered her eyes and didn't say anything back, considering her mother was still injured.
"Don't get involved with her anymore. She dresses so strangely that you might get sick..."
"Mom!" Wu Meilai squeezed the basin tightly and interrupted sternly.
"I'm a good teacher, what have you said to me?"
Seeing her daughter's angry eyes, Liu Guiyan knew she had gone too far and said softly, "I'm not saying that I want to slander her, but you can only know a person's heart through appearance. Even if she's a teacher, people's hearts are hidden. Otherwise, given our family's conditions, why would she get so close to you when she came here? What's her purpose, right?"
She continued, "I've thought about it again and again, and I don't think we have anything worth gaining. A few miserable lives are worth saving. Anyway, it's better to stay away from her. We don't want anything from her."
Wu Meilai retorted, "Do people have to have a purpose when they get along with each other? It's just a simple matter of catching each other's eye and making friends."
After saying that, she left and closed the bedroom door.
After slicing the remaining potatoes, Wu Meilai went to the fields to chop cabbage and radishes to make soup. After she prepared dinner for the family, she washed her feet and went to bed.
Rubbing her sore calves, Wu Meilai stared blankly at the music box spinning on the bedside table.
Amidst the soothing and elegant music, the lifelike ballet princess spins in the snow. The diamond crown on the princess's head is illuminated by the built-in colored lights, making it look like a dream, and it is difficult to distinguish between the real and the fake.
"Madam, madam, give me one."
"And me, I want one too. I want the princess."
"I want the blue rabbit."
"I'll take that first!"
“Whoever pays first gets it.”
"Wow wow wow that's mine..."
…
Wu Meilai was squeezed from the front of the stall to the back, where she stood on tiptoe to look at the small wooden box in the middle of the pile of toys.
Loud music and a spinning ballet girl with unclear features.
I feel itchy and want Wu Mei to come.
The little girl ran home in a hurry and shyly asked the woman who was doing housework for money.
Wu Meilai knew that it was her mother, but she had only met her a few times and was not familiar with her.
"Does anyone else have it?"
Liu Guiyan stopped wiping the table and asked with a smile.
"Well... my deskmate, the class monitor, the study committee member, the group leader, and Qianqian who loves to fart... all of them."
Liu Guiyan wiped her hands and pulled out a roll of red and green money from her trouser pocket. "How much do you want?"
"Seven pieces." Wu Meilai whispered, worried that her mother couldn't hear her, and then she raised her two little hands, one open, and the other with the index and middle fingers raised.
Liu Guiyan took out two bills and gave them to her. Wu Meilai was in the third grade now and knew that they were a two-yuan bill and a five-yuan bill, which added up to exactly seven yuan.
She took it happily, but heard a sound of wind behind her, and then with a snap, a cloth shoe hit Liu Guiyan's shoulder.
"If you have money to give to a girl, it's better to give your son some brain support."
Wu Baizi returned from a visit, the butt of his pipe banging against the threshold. Wu Han, beside him, sucked his thumb and chuckled. He accidentally stepped on his father's lame foot and was slapped hard. He spun around, then wailed and banged his head against the wall, thumping loudly.
Liu Guiyan quickly ran over and hugged him to comfort him. After he stopped crying, she explained to Wu Baizi, "It's been two months since I came back, and this is the first time my sister has asked me for something. Just buy it." She touched Wu Han's swollen face with heartache, "I'll take my sister with me, and bring back a box of Wahaha for my little one."
She tickled Wu Han, "Is it good?"
I felt relieved when I saw Wu Han giggling.
"That's right. Anyway, the money is earned by you, and I can't control it." Wu Baizi rolled his eyes to the sky, went into the house, carried out the pots and pans that had just been cleaned up, and started to eat some lunch.
Liu Guiyan pursed her lips and remained silent for a while before waving to Wu Meilai and saying softly, "Let's go buy some singing boxes."
Singing Box Box was the name she called it when describing it to Liu Guiyan, and it has lived in her heart for many, many years.
The ballet princess at the head of the bed has stopped moving. Her delicate facial features and graceful body movements are much more beautiful than the singing box shrouded in mist in my memory.
In the end, she failed to buy the music box, just a dozen seconds short. If she had asked earlier, if her father hadn't interrupted her, if her brother hadn't cried, if her mother had walked a little faster, she would have bought it.
“Almost getting it” is much more memorable than “not getting it”.
So when she saw the music box, she paused for a moment. It took only a few seconds for Zhou Qianling to notice it. She picked it up and said with a smile, "Do you like it? I'll give it to you."
"Why are you sending me?"
Wu Mei asked this when she came.
Zhou Qianling tilted his head, nodded his chin and thought for a while, then suddenly realized and chuckled:
"If you're happy, I'll be happy too."
As if her heart was hit by something, Wu Meilai curled up in the quilt holding the music box.
Why would you be happy if I am happy?
Wu Meilai didn't ask, the feeling of fullness in her heart made her unwilling to say more. A little more would be too much, a little less would be too little.
Not knowing what mood she was in, she flipped into Zhou Qianling's chat box.
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