"Qingqing, I haven't seen you for many years. How are you doing? Look at me, I'm just talking nonsense, but you seem to be doing well." The expression on Zheng Meng's face was a mixture of shame, embarrassment and helplessness. Qiao Qingqing looked at her quietly without saying anything.
She did not ask Zheng Meng why he was here, nor did she ask whether he still wanted to see the doctor. She just looked at him quietly with a calm expression, so that Zheng Meng could not tell anything from her face.
The atmosphere was very awkward.
Zheng Meng smiled bitterly: "I really didn't know it was you. I heard from Xiaopeng that he had a colleague who could treat injuries and was quite good. He called you Sister Qing, and I didn't think much about it. If he knew it was you -" Would she not have come? Zheng Meng found that she couldn't give an answer.
Seeing her standing there awkwardly, Qiao Qingqing still didn't say anything.
Zheng Meng stopped talking, her eyes darting around, her feet moving constantly, but she didn't leave in the end. After an unknown amount of time, Zheng Meng's eyes finally settled on Qiao Qingqing's face, and she asked, "Can I sit down?"
Qiao Qingqing then lowered her eyes and said, "Sit down."
Zheng Mengru was pardoned and sat opposite Qiao Qingqing. She looked at Qiao Qingqing's face and felt that this best friend whom she had not seen for many years was still as beautiful as before. They both wore patched old clothes and had sweat stains on their faces and hair from the summer heat, but Qingqing looked better than her. This beauty did not refer to her appearance, but to her spirit.
"Qingqing, are you still angry with me?" she asked cautiously.
Qiao Qingqing shook her head: "It's all over."
Zheng Meng's eyes were red: "Qingqing, I was wrong. I shouldn't have disobeyed you and Wenwen back then. Du Jie--"
Qiao Qingqing raised her hand to stop her, interrupting Zheng Meng's crying.
"If you want to continue to treat your injuries, I will help you. Don't say anything else. I don't have extra emotions to consume your negative emotions. Maybe Wenwen and I were happy to listen in the past, but Wenwen has been gone for many years, and I no longer have that heart. Please stop."
"..." Zheng Meng's tears flowed down, and she said after a while, "I'll see."
Afterwards, Qiao Qingqing did what she said and didn't ask any extra questions. Seeing that she wanted to be cured, she treated her ankle which was left with sequelae from a previous sprain, and finally gave her five plasters.
"It will probably be fine after it's pasted." Qiao Qingqing said businesslike, "Xiaopeng should have told you about the reward."
Zheng Meng dragged the bag of potatoes over and silently placed it at Qiao Qingqing's feet. Qiao Qingqing counted them and nodded: "That's enough. If there's nothing else, you can go back. I need to rest."
Zheng Meng bit her lip: "Qingqing."
Qiao Qingqing stood up and made a gesture to see Zheng Meng off, so Zheng Meng had no choice but to leave.
The next day at work, Xiao Peng found an opportunity to chat with her: "Sister Meng is quite miserable, her husband is a piece of shit--" Qiao Qingqing interrupted him just like she interrupted Zheng Meng yesterday. She didn't want to hear about Zheng Meng's experience. They were already strangers.
Xiao Peng was a little at a loss. He had been working with Qiao Qingqing for half a month, and this was the first time that Qiao Qingqing had shown such coldness.
"I'm not targeting you, but I haven't been friends with Zheng Meng for many years. I'm not interested in anything about her."
"Sister Qing..." Xiao Peng originally wanted to help Zheng Meng plead with Qiao Qingqing, but he was stopped just as he opened his mouth. Seeing that Qiao Qingqing's face was very cold under the light, not at all as gentle as usual, Xiao Peng swallowed the rest of his words.
Meeting Zheng Meng was just a trivial matter for Qiao Qingqing. The other party had long become a thing of the past in her life, and the past was the past.
Her work went very smoothly, and a month passed in a flash, and it was her turn for vacation.
There were many crossbowmen in the Pingshan Community Security Team who came from the new community like her, and Qiao Qingqing went home with them.
They encountered robbers on the way, but luckily, they were archers themselves, and they immediately fought back after noticing the robbers. The darkness blocked their vision, but they were all members of the crossbow team who survived the crow hunting, and experience was far more important than vision. Qiao Qingqing and another companion shot two arrows, hitting the enemy's body in the darkness, and two screams came out in the darkness.
"It's the crossbowmen! Retreat!"
The lights shone everywhere, and the companion breathed a sigh of relief: "Those people ran away."
"I've heard that this road is very dangerous, and people are often robbed here. The security team attaches great importance to patrolling this road—"
As they were talking, the security team came over from the other side on patrol, and behind them was a long line of pedestrians heading to Pingshan Community. They walked most of the way with trepidation under the protection of the security team. When the two sides met, the captain of the security team on this road came forward to inquire. Seeing that they were carrying a large amount of luggage (salary) and quivers tied around their waists, he knew that they were the crossbow team returning home on leave.
"You don't need an escort, do you?"
Qiao Qingqing discussed with her companions and reached a consensus, so Qiao Qingqing replied: "We just encountered robbers, but they didn't take advantage of us. You can go and don't worry about us."
The team leader breathed a sigh of relief and said with a smile, "That's good. Be careful. The street lights on the road ahead have been damaged by the robbers. When you pass by, pay attention to the lighting and don't get attacked. We will escort this group of pedestrians to Pingshan Community first."
The teams staggered and continued to move forward.
Three hours later, Shao Shengan and his companions also came to this road. When passing the damaged street lamp, he put on his headlamp, climbed up the lamp pole in a few steps, took out tools from his backpack and started to repair the street lamp.
His companions exclaimed: "How can you climb so fast? Are you born in the year of the monkey?"
"Sheng An, can you also repair street lights?"
Shao Shengan held a wrench in his mouth, wrapped his legs around the lamp pole to stabilize his body, and looked up to remove the stitches without answering.
His companions shone their flashlights upwards to help him find the way.
Ten minutes later, the street lights above flashed twice and the lighting was restored.
When Shao Shengan slid down from the lamp post, he was greeted by a fist from his companion. His companion gently hit his shoulder with his fist and joked with a smile: "I didn't know you could do this!"
"I used to be an electrician. Come on, let's keep going." Shao Sheng'an said nothing more and took his bicycle back from his companion.
The group continued on their way, the street lights behind them making their shadows very long.
I haven't been home for a month, so I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried about my family. Qiao Qingqing was eager to go home, and her heart beat faster after entering the Ping'an community. She opened the door to the corridor, climbed the stairs, and came to the sixth floor. She took out her key, paused for a few seconds without unlocking the door, and raised her hand to knock on the door.
After one, two, three times, someone in the room raised his voice and asked, "Who is it?"
The voice was full of energy, and Qiao Qingqing laughed when she heard it: "I, Qingqing."
"Oh, Qingqing is back!" The door was quickly opened, and Shao's mother pulled her hand with a smile, "You are finally back, are you tired or thirsty? Come in quickly!" She bent down and picked up Qiao Qingqing's luggage.
"No, I'll carry it myself."
How could Shao's mother agree? She first pulled Qiao Qingqing in, quickly grabbed the luggage and bicycle, and brought everything in.
After entering the house, she started to boil water for Qiao Qingqing to take a bath: "Sister Zhi and Feifei are feeding the chickens upstairs. They will be down soon. Take a bath first and give them a surprise later!"
"Mom, is everything going well at home these days?"
Shao's mother stuffed firewood into the coal stove and quickly replied, "It went smoothly! It went very smoothly! Twenty-one more chicks were hatched this month, and they are all fat and strong. All the hens lay eggs every day, some lay one a day, and some lay three or four a day. It couldn't be smoother. Some of the roosters are getting a little old, and Sister Zhi said she will slaughter them when you and Sheng An come back and let you store them. Oh, and those eggs...bad guys? No, our Ping'an community is quite safe. There are security teams patrolling every day, and we can't even see the shadows of those cult members. And there is no acid rain at this time, so we are not afraid of them. It was really scary when it rained before..."
When Qiao Songzhi and Shao Shengfei came downstairs, there was another excited and joyful hug.
Qiao Qingqing went to take a shower first, Qiao Songzhi and Shao's mother cooked, and Shao Shengfei lit the fire. He asked expectantly, "Will my brother come back today?"
Mother Shao thought for a moment and said, "They should be back today, right? They went to work on the same day."
"Is Dad coming back?"
"Your father came back last week, he definitely won't be back today."
Soon, Qiao Qingqing finished her shower and came out. She had only taken a shower twice in the dormitory in the past month. The impact of the high temperature in those days had not been eliminated, and acid rain had exacerbated the water supply difficulties. To this day, water resources are still in a relatively tight state. After taking a refreshing hot shower, Qiao Qingqing touched her long hair and wiped it clean with a towel.
When she came out of the bathroom, the aroma from the kitchen hit her nose.
This is the taste of home.
She smiled and went to the kitchen: "What are we having for dinner tonight?"
"There are scrambled eggs with green onions, stewed chicken soup, braised chicken with sauce, and spicy stir-fried cabbage!" Qiao Songzhi and Shao's mother killed a rooster and prepared it. Shao Shengfei shouted, "Sister! I plucked the feathers! I pluck them quickly and well!"
A warm current flowed through Qiao Qingqing's heart. She praised Shao Shengfei and asked, "Mom, have the higher-ups distributed any supplies in the past month?"
"It was distributed twice. The stuff wasn't much, and many people were arguing around the supply truck," said Shao's mother.
Qiao Songzhi immediately understood what her daughter meant: "There are canned meats in the supplies we distributed. Don't worry, we haven't treated ourselves badly when you are not at home."
"You should also kill the chickens we raise at home. Don't keep them until we come back. Kill them and eat them when they are ready to be eaten."
Mother Shao understood and said with a smile, "Don't worry, we eat eggs every day. Look at our faces, they are well nourished by eggs! Okay, go into the house and take a rest first. I'll let Feifei call you when the food is ready. Go ahead, go and lie down for a while."
Qiao Qingqing went to lie down in her mother's room. The room was filled with her mother's scent, which gave her a sense of security. She lay down with her arms and legs spread out, feeling as if she were floating in the clouds, and soon fell asleep.
An unknown amount of time had passed before Shao Shengfei knocked on the door and called her, "Sister! It's time to eat!"
She opened her eyes: "Okay, I'll be right out."
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