Chapter 13 Your Useless Dad
The moment the typhoon landed, my heart felt wetter than ever before.
——"Zhen Hao Diary"
When Zhen Hao was walking towards the front yard carrying an empty bucket for feeding the ducks, he ran into Grandma Zhen.
"Grandma, you're up so early." Grandma Zhen has loved them since they were young, and the two sisters have a good relationship with her. "Why don't you sleep a little longer?"
"I'm getting old and can't sleep that much." Grandma Zhen glanced at the empty bucket in her hand, then glanced towards the main room, and said meaningfully, "You're nothing like some people. They don't act like mothers at all. They're still sleeping at this hour. Can their children grow up on their own without eating?"
It was obvious who she was talking to by deliberately raising her voice.
He Yunlian has always been at odds with Grandma Zhen, and even the neighbors can see it, let alone her own family.
After saying this, Grandma Zhen continued to teach Zhen Hao, "You're still growing, so you should sleep a little longer in the morning. Leave things like feeding the ducks to your mother. It's really unbecoming of a daughter-in-law to not behave like one!"
Even in front of her granddaughter, Grandma Zhen did not hide her dissatisfaction with He Yunlian.
Zhen Hao had long been accustomed to it. It seemed that the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law had been a problem since ancient times. Not only was it played out tirelessly in TV dramas, but it was even more outrageous in real life.
He Yunlian obviously heard what Grandma Zhen was saying, and her voice was a little higher than usual: "Old lady, eat when you need to, sleep when you need to, don't worry so much."
As soon as she finished speaking, a gust of wind blew over.
The wind blew the tall longan trees in the front yard, as if it was going to uproot them.
The Zhen family's house is still a traditional old house in Fujian City, with red walls and red tiles. Before the rain came, the wind blew the tiles out of place, making rustling sounds.
The typhoon is about to make landfall.
"Abang, go get the bucket and collect the rainwater." Grandma Zhen also heard the movement of the tiles and hurriedly instructed Zhen Hao.
Hearing grandma calling her nickname again, Zhen Hao said in dissatisfaction: "Grandma, don't call me by my nickname."
"Okay, okay, don't scream." Grandma Zhen smiled and patted her on the back. "Be good, get a few more basins and buckets, and ask Amei to help."
"My poor little vegetable seedlings, which have just grown, are going to be in trouble," said Grandma Zhen with some regret. "And the pumpkins that have just produced small fruits..."
Shaking her head, she walked to the vegetable garden to see if she could do anything to reduce the wind damage.
Zhen Hao looked at his grandmother's light steps, but for no reason he felt an invisible pressure weighing heavily on the old lady's shoulders.
She hurried inside, wandered around several rooms, and sure enough, she saw a tile on the roof of a side room had shifted, a ray of light streaming straight through the gap. If it rained, it would become a string of beads, dripping continuously.
Zhen Hao placed the washbasin in his hand just below the gap to collect rainwater.
"Sister, there is also one on the roof of the hall." Zhen Mei's voice came from not far away.
"Coming." After making sure that the placement was not offset, Zhen Hao ran towards the hall.
After the two sisters checked the whole house, they returned to the kitchen to prepare breakfast.
Zhen Hao's brows never relaxed, she had no appetite at all.
The weather she most anticipated and feared was finally coming.
She was looking forward to it because there were typhoon holidays, but the prerequisite was that she was at school; as for fear... there was no need to say more, the tiles above her head that could be blown away at any time were enough to explain where all her panic came from.
How can she feel at ease when she doesn’t even have a safe place to shelter from the wind and rain?
Under the damp eaves, witnessed the damp childhood of two girls.
At 2:00 PM, Typhoon Chili, the 18th typhoon, made landfall along the coast of Youlan County, Tainan City, before crossing Taiwan Island and making a second landfall along the coast of Min City, reaching typhoon strength upon landfall. Several provinces are affected by Typhoon Chili, and rainfall is expected to continue to rise over the next 24 hours, escalating flood control levels.
The two sisters had just finished watching the news to learn about the latest typhoon trends when the screen of the old color TV went completely dark.
There is a power outage.
Zhen Hao is no longer surprised.
Power outages are a must during typhoon days, and she would feel uncomfortable if they continued uninterrupted.
She listened to the dripping of rain in the side rooms and the hall, and for the first time it felt like a beautiful melody, somewhat hypnotic.
The room at Jutou is now where the two sisters live, but strictly speaking it does not belong to them.
Grandma Zhen has three sons and two daughters. Except for the youngest son, all the other children are married.
The Jutou room is the bedroom of Zhen's youngest son, the uncle of Zhen Hao and her sister. He is away on business all year round and only comes home for a few days during the Spring Festival.
There was a power outage, strong winds and heavy rain. Zhen Hao and Zhen Mei sat at the door of the room, watching the rain fall from the patio, drop by drop, jumping on the ground and then falling back.
Fortunately, this typhoon did not cause any substantial damage to Min Town, which is located inland from the coast, and what Zhen Hao worried about did not happen.
She always had nightmares on typhoon nights. She dreamed that the roof of her house was blown off by the strong wind, and heavy rain poured down, burying her whole body under the muddy water. The strong feeling of suffocation enveloped her eyes, ears, mouth and nose, but no matter how she struggled, it was of no avail.
Unable to surface, unable to wake up.
There is always a reason why humans are afraid of something. Zhen Hao is afraid of rain and water.
Fear of rain and water are both related to human life, and are tragic past events that she does not want to recall.
Everything will eventually clear up, but the dead will never come back.
On Sunday, the wind stopped and the rain subsided, and a rainbow hung high in the sky. However, Zhen Hao was in no mood to admire it. Instead, like every weekend, he meticulously wiped the table where his grandfather's tablet was placed.
After doing all this, she would stand in front of Grandpa Zhen’s portrait for a long time, letting the memories wander and letting the tears flow.
"Grandpa, I'm going to school and I will work hard." Zhen Hao said silently in his heart before leaving.
The school arranges evening self-study on Sundays, from 7pm to 10pm.
She would have to leave home around 4:30 to have enough time to catch up.
Seeing that it was already four o'clock, He Yunlian showed no intention of giving Zhen Hao living expenses, and she couldn't help but feel anxious.
She didn't like the feeling of passively waiting, helpless and powerless.
In another twenty minutes, she would go to the banyan tree to meet Yan Yunshu and the others.
She could only bite the bullet and find He Yunlian: "Mom, this week's living expenses..."
He Yunlian glared at her impatiently and started complaining, "Living expenses, living expenses, all you talk about is money! Why don't you ask your useless dad for it?! I haven't sent a penny home this month, and I have to feed three of you by myself. I really don't know what sin I committed in my past life to have to marry your damn dad!"
Zhen Hao clenched his fists tightly, listened to her scolding with red eyes, but couldn't utter a word.
My father Zhen Dongcheng has been making a living in other provinces all year round. To put it nicely, he runs a small business, but in fact, it is difficult for him to even support his family.
Zhen Hao has always been aware that her family is not well off, but she is determined to change her difficult life through studying, so she grits her teeth again and again to deal with any difficulties that may arise.
"Mom, I'm almost late for school..." Faced with He Yunlian's complaints, Zhen Hao chose to filter them out and only fight for what he wanted. "Can you give me twenty yuan first, please..."
Twenty yuan is Zhen Hao's living expenses for a week, including three meals a day and drinking water, as well as money to deal with any possible unexpected situations.
For example, repairing a bicycle puncture tire.
She would use twenty dollars to bear all the regular or irregular events in life.
Thirteen-year-old Zhen Hao, due to the difficulties of life and the gap in conditions between him and others, developed a desire for success and money at an early age.
"Take it, take it!" He Yunlian roughly stuffed the twenty-yuan note into Zhen Hao's hand, with only disgust on her face, nothing else.
Zhen Hao tried hard to ignore her expression, tightly clutching the slightly worn banknotes, biting his lip and saying, "Thank you, Mom. I'll go to school first."
After she walked away, He Yunlian said something behind her, but she didn't want to listen anymore.
There are some things that will make you feel better if you don't listen to them.
Because he needed living expenses, Zhen Hao was delayed for a few minutes and arrived under the banyan tree at 4:35.
This was her first time being late. Seeing that she looked a little unhappy, Zhou Chunrui asked worriedly, "Okay, are you okay?"
Zhen Hao shook his head: "I'm fine. Where's Yunyun?"
Speaking of Yan Yunshu, Zhou Chunrui also felt strange: "Among the three of us, you two have the best sense of time, but today you two are both late."
"Maybe something delayed us. Let's wait a little longer." Zhen Hao glanced at the time on the MP3 player. "It's still early. There's no rush."
"Well, this is the only way." Zhou Chunrui sat on the bicycle seat, bored and reached out to pull a banyan leaf above his head.
After being washed by a heavy rain, the leaves were shiny green, with crystal water droplets on them, which slid into her hands, feeling cool.
"Okay, I got a few new nice songs. When we get to school, we'll ask the store owner to help us download them!" Zhou Chunrui made small talk while waiting.
"Okay, I'll listen to you." Zhen Hao didn't have any special preference for listening to music. She just liked the feeling of isolating herself from the world with the sound of songs.
"Why hasn't Yunyun come yet?" Zhou Chunrui kept looking back the way they came. "Could something have happened?"
Among the three of them, only Zhou Chunrui had a pager cell phone, but she forgot to charge it and couldn't call Yan Yunshu's home phone.
Zhen Hao also became a little anxious.
"It's already five o'clock. It's so anxious." Zhou Chunrui was obviously becoming uneasy.
Zhen Hao speculated, "Maybe Professor Yan drove her to school."
Yan Yunshu's family is a rare family in the area that owns a car. They did not give her a mobile phone because Yan Shi believed that it would affect his daughter's studies.
"It's indeed possible." Zhou Chunrui nodded in agreement and suggested, "Then let's go first? Maybe Yunyun has already arrived at the school."
Zhen Hao agreed: "Let's do this first."
The two people who failed to wait for Yan Yunshu rode their bicycles one after the other, and pedaled towards the unknown distance under the embrace of the wind.
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