Chapter 78
"baby."
The mother quietly opened the door and looked at the boy who was doing a test paper at the desk with headphones on: "Come out for dinner."
Fifteen-year-old Chi Ke took off his headphones, stopped calculating with his pen, turned around and spread out his five fingers: "Mom, you guys eat first, I'll finish this question in five minutes."
"Okay, hurry up, or the food will get cold." Mother closed the door with a smile.
Chi Ke was not displeased that his train of thought was interrupted. He reorganized his thoughts while twirling the pen with his fingertips and quickly completed the half-written formula.
He filled in his answers on the test paper, paused the timer, stood up and walked out.
"Will you starve to death if you don't eat for a while? You're not willing to wait for your son?"
Chi Ke paused while pressing the door handle, and then opened the door after a while.
When his mother saw him coming out, she stopped scolding him and waved at him, ignoring the silent man eating with chopsticks: "You must be tired from studying. Come and eat quickly."
Chi Ke nodded and sat opposite his mother - in the empty seat next to the man.
In September, when the new semester begins, students entering their senior year of high school can be said to be the focus of a family's attention.
The meal went on quite harmoniously. The mother asked about her son's health and studies, the father occasionally expressed his opinions, and the three of them seemed to be having a great time.
Until my father put down his chopsticks, stood up and left.
Chi Ke, who was sitting next to him, guessed that something like this would happen, and quickly moved his chair back to block it.
Sure enough, the mother whispered, "Sit down! My son usually lives in the school, and you also work outside. We finally have a chance to have a meal together. Can't we just talk?"
The father's way was blocked. Looking at his son who was silently supporting his wife, a hint of impatience flashed across his brows. He sighed and sat down reluctantly.
After everyone finished eating, mother asked father to wash the dishes.
My father was lying on the sofa with his phone, reading the news, and ordered, "Chi Ke, go help your mother wash the dishes."
Before Chi Ke could say anything, his mother suddenly got angry: "Why should you let your son go? He studies hard enough every day, but what about you? You do nothing all day long and just hang out outside! Not only do you not care about the family, but you don't make any money and you're just taking it away for nothing! Now you don't even want to wash the dishes, what else can you do? You're a waste, just waiting to die?!"
The father who had been silent all this time suddenly yelled in anger: "Didn't I want to make more money out there?! Didn't I want you and your mother to live a good life?"
"Making money? Having a good life?" The mother asked sarcastically, "What kind of good life do you mean? Losing more than 20 million in half a year? Being cheated out of selling my car and still working as a dog for someone else?"
"Can you please stop talking so harshly? What do you mean by being someone's dog? Do you think I should pay for it? I just didn't meet a good person! If it wasn't for that damned Old Qian, would I have paid for it?"
"Don't blame others for your own stupidity! What about before you got old money? Your old classmates, your colleagues, the group of bad friends you met on the way to Qinghai... who didn't cheat you? Have you learned your lesson? Isn't it because you just agreed to someone's request for the sake of face? How much is your face worth!"
The couple started arguing without paying attention to the people around them.
Chi Ke sat nearby, pinching his nose tiredly, but did not say anything to stop him.
He tried to stop it, but it was no use.
No matter what you say, his involvement will only escalate the argument and may even lead to greater conflicts.
It wasn’t like this before.
These quarrels became more and more frequent after the family went bankrupt.
My parents were classmates in junior high school and have known each other since childhood. After graduating from junior high school, my mother went to the city to attend high school. My father's family had no money to support him to continue his studies, so he chose to join the army.
Later, my mother failed to get into college and worked as a library administrator, where she met my father who had retired from the army. The two met again after a long separation and had more interactions. Their teenage friendship turned into love, and they soon got married.
At that time, many people's thinking was still stuck on the concept of "men work outside and women work inside". My mother became pregnant after marriage and quit her job to stay at home to take care of her husband and children, while my father worked even harder outside for the family.
Finally, when his son went to elementary school, his hard work paid off. He reaped the benefits of the times and earned his first pot of gold in life.
The quality of family life gradually improved, the parents were loving, and the son was obedient. For a long time, their family was the envy of relatives and friends.
But the good times didn’t last long.
When Chi Ke was in the second year of junior high school, his father was cheated in his business.
In total, they lost nearly 10 million yuan, and for a time, the whole family became gloomy.
The reason he wanted to do this business was because housing prices were skyrocketing. His father realized that their money was not enough to support his son to buy a house and a car in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou and live a carefree life, so he was determined to invest that money.
Naturally, my mother didn't support it.
She doesn't have such big ambitions. She just wants to put the money in the bank and earn interest, and live an ordinary life with her family.
But she couldn't prevail against her husband.
Thinking of her husband's achievements over the years, although she was hesitant, she still took out the money to support him.
I didn't expect to lose everything.
The two had a big fight.
After that, the times pushed up commodity and housing prices at a visible rate, and the industry that made my father a fortune was abandoned by the times and he has been unable to make money.
Seeing the household bills going in and out, he became more and more anxious. He tried every possible means and started several projects at once.
His mother always disapproved and argued with him every day, but unfortunately she could only stop him.
I didn't expect fate to be so clever.
Except for the one she blocked, all the other projects lost money.
The devastated father blamed his mother for the incident.
People who have lost their minds can say anything unpleasant, such as "women have no vision and don't know how to make money" and "why doesn't he have a wife who can support his career?"
The mother was also a hot-tempered person. She did not blame herself, but pointed at his nose and scolded him for being a waste who only blamed others.
That day, the two of them smashed everything they could in the house.
Chi Ke had just won the gold medal in an international competition that day and returned home happily. Unexpectedly, when he opened the door, he saw his mother hitting his father so hard that his head was bleeding.
His father was lying in a pool of blood, and his mother was kneeling beside him, helpless, looking at Chi Ke blankly.
Chi Ke's head buzzed and he tried his best to calm down. He immediately called an ambulance, went to check on his father's injuries, and took emergency measures with the help of the first aid knowledge he had learned in the summer camp.
Thanks to timely treatment, my father's life was saved.
After waking up, he saw his pale mother, sighed and said nothing.
The matter was just lightly disclosed by the two of them.
After being discharged from the hospital, my father went out to make money again.
But he never told his mother the specific content of his work again.
The mother's body was injured due to the quarrels during that period, and she had no chance to return to the workplace. She could only pray that her husband would come home and live a stable life, while focusing all her energy on her son.
She would tell Chi Ke every day: "Baby, you are all I have. You are the driving force for me to live."
His father, who worked hard outside, would also tell Chi Ke: "I am making money outside now so that you can have a worry-free future."
Chi Ke was very confused.
He did nothing, yet he seemed to be the culprit of all this.
But he was only a little over ten years old at that time and could not do anything but study hard.
His parents never told him the reason for their quarrels. All he heard every time was the two of them endlessly going over old grievances, and he didn't know how to interrupt and dissuade them.
After the experience of going to the hospital, the mother never hit her again, and the father also didn't hit her either, so the two of them used all the words they had learned in their lives to attack each other.
But verbal attacks are just as lethal as physical fights.
Love had long been worn out in endless quarrels.
But my parents never divorced.
My father became taciturn and increasingly decadent. In the beginning, he would occasionally send money home, but when it was discovered that he had borrowed money to send money home, he no longer had any spare money. He spent more than he earned on the so-called "big projects" outside every day.
The mother was depressed at home every day, and her eyes only brightened up when she saw her son.
She was unwilling to make friends and had no social skills. The thing she looked forward to most every day was waiting for her son to get home from school. She would sit next to him while he was doing his homework and complain about her husband's ruthlessness.
Chi Ke understood her and felt sorry for her.
Most of the time, he would listen quietly, listening to her recounting the good times in the past, listening to her complaining about the bad life, listening to her talk about her failed marriage, and giving comfort and response in time.
All the emotional value and comfort the mother received came from him.
So I became more dependent on him.
All her joys, sorrows, anger and happiness must be shared with him, and all choices must be based on his opinions. If his tone is a little perfunctory, the mother will panic and blame herself for doing something wrong.
Chi Ke had no choice but to study while balancing his mother's entire life.
He thought about whether it would be better for his mother to leave this marriage and go out to work, so he made this suggestion sincerely.
The mother said that she also longed for an independent life with work, but she had never made up her mind and had never taken any action to show it.
As for divorce...
"Did I tell you too much, causing you to misunderstand your father?" The mother bit her lip and said, "The conflict between us is only between the two of us. I don't want you to have a bad relationship with your father because of this. He is really working hard for you..."
Chi Ke was very confused.
It seemed like after all the blame, it was still his fault.
He was not born knowing how to handle interpersonal relationships.
If he receives negative energy for a long time, he will also get tired.
He wondered if their lives would have been better if he had not been born.
After all, if the mother hadn't been pregnant, she wouldn't have quit her job, the family wouldn't have had the pressure of raising a child, and the father wouldn't have had such a strong desire for money...
The junior high school students at that time were unable to solve this confusion.
So, under the guidance of his classmates, he tried smoking.
As a result, he was discovered by his mother the first time he started smoking. She went crazy at home and cried, saying it was no use. This made him feel stressed and the noise was so loud that the neighbors called his father. His father slapped him in the face as soon as he came home, scolding him for being unfilial and making his mother so sad.
Chi Ke had tinnitus from the slap in the face and could not hear anything. He only vaguely remembered his mother trying hard to stop her husband from hitting him again, and then she fainted from the mental stress and fatigue.
His parents stayed with him in the hospital all night. His father felt guilty and his mother blamed herself. After that day, neither of them mentioned the incident again.
Chi Ke naturally stopped smoking.
They returned to their previous life, his father still went out to work, and his mother still relied on him for everything in her life.
When he was on the verge of suffocation, he could only desperately tell himself that nothing must happen, otherwise his parents would collapse and not be able to live.
Fall down again and again, and stand up again and again to find a way out.
When he receives a lot of negative energy, he will find ways to enrich himself and replace messy thoughts with a sense of accomplishment that can satisfy and appreciate himself; when he cannot understand his mother's ideas, he will not try to understand them, but find solutions; when his father does not see hope, he will give his father hope, and earn a large scholarship, earn tuition waivers, and earn admission...
He believes there is a solution to everything.
He has to believe that there is a solution.
He must be strong enough to be able to distinguish right from wrong on his own.
Don't rely on external things and don't have any illusions.
Only you can save yourself.
This practice is useful.
Every time his mother mentioned him, she would feel gratified. Her mood would improve when she saw him. Gradually, she became willing to go out and share her joy with her friends.
After realizing that he could survive without financial support from his family, my father's obsession with getting rich eased. Although he still wanted to make a name for himself outside, at least he was not so irrational as to invest money everywhere.
But they still quarrel.
Every time we quarrel, we still bring up old issues.
However, when Chi Ke is around, they will restrain themselves a little.
For example, this time, the two of them were arguing in the middle of it when they realized he was still there, so they stopped talking and abruptly changed the topic to his birthday next month.
"Let's go traveling?" Mother said with a smile, "It would be great if the whole family could travel together."
She cares deeply about this family.
So no matter what, I will never take the initiative to file for divorce.
The father knew that he had neglected his wife and children for many years and felt guilty about it. He did not want to divorce and only wanted to make a lot of money one day so that he could give them a good life.
My father nodded and said, "Sure. Chi Ke shouldn't have classes on Sunday, so how about a self-driving tour?"
Actually, yes.
Competition class.
If you do well in the competition at the end of the year, you can be admitted to Peking University or Tsinghua University.
But this lesson should not be missed.
Even if he were to take the exam now, there would be no pressure.
The purpose of this trip was not his birthday, Chi Ke never cared about birthdays.
But this is the happiness that the mother wants and the compensation that the father wants.
So he nodded.
Both parents showed a look of relief.
At the time he thought he had made the right decision.
Little did I expect that during the seven-hour drive, the two people in the front seat would have another argument.
The father who was driving was in a bad mood.
Seeing that the two cars in front of him had an argument and stopped in the middle of the road, blocking the way, he couldn't help but opened the window and urged them twice.
After hearing from the younger driver that the other party was trying to scam him, he told the driver in a bad tone not to embarrass the young man.
The accused one looked over, and Chi Ke realized something was wrong.
"Dad," he whispered, "stop talking."
The father obviously did not realize the seriousness of the matter and was still blaming.
After the traffic police arrived, the two men finally went to the side.
Just when Chi Ke thought that the incident had passed without any danger, while walking on the night road, he suddenly found that the car behind him looked familiar.
When I wanted to remind my father, it was too late.
The rear-end collision came too suddenly.
The car rolled several times and fell into the lake.
At that moment, the father only had time to unfasten and lower the passenger window.
The rear seat window shattered during the roll, and Chi Ke's legs were hit and crushed by the car body. Countless pieces of glass and iron pierced into his right leg, leaving a horrific penetrating wound.
He ignored the severe pain in his legs and quickly got out. Before the car sank, he brought his unconscious mother to shore.
They went back to pull their father out, but neither of them had the strength to swim back.
He thought he was going to die, but his father pushed him.
When I lost consciousness and lay on the shore, I could no longer see my father.
However, when he woke up from the hospital, he received two pieces of bad news.
After learning that my father was gone, my mother committed suicide.
The driver died on the spot in the accident.
The police said that the man was a prisoner who had just been released from prison and was alone. In the end, no one could be held accountable for this tragedy.
The parents who had been bound together for a lifetime ended their grievances and hatred.
The prisoner ended his ugly life.
The doctor police finished their work.
It seemed that this accident left only Chi Ke behind.
Those who never fully owned anything, now have nothing.
…
Chi Ke could no longer remember how he felt when he woke up.
I can't remember the time I spent in a wheelchair, and I can't remember what supported me to finish high school with a broken bone and a fractured leg, and to get an offer and scholarship from an Ivy League school.
So many things happened in those two years, but it was the vaguest period in his memory.
His parents may not be perfect, may have shortcomings, may have many mistakes...
But they really loved him.
It is pure love, unconditional love based on blood ties. There is no need to compare it with anything else. Maybe the way of loving is wrong, but that is love.
His childhood was not all tragedy, there were also memorable moments of joy.
Even though his family relationship broke down later, he still sweated profusely on the playground, felt the speed of the basketball going into the basket, gave speeches with high spirits on the podium, and enjoyed the envious gazes of others when he received awards.
Chi Ke once thought that his feelings towards his parents were very complicated, and in fact, it was true.
He shed tears in front of his parents' coffins with no expression on his face the whole night, but he didn't know what he was crying about. He just wanted to cry, wanted to cry very much, and wanted to cry out loud.
But I couldn't cry out.
Later, the years of being alone were too long, long enough to make people forget too many emotions, leaving only longing.
In just twenty-six years of life, he experienced so much.
Separation between life and death is just one of them.
Chi Ke has pulled himself too many times, he understands the truth and knows what kind of mentality he should have to face it all.
He was able to talk about this incident very calmly, and his emotions did not change much, except that he would occasionally think about it and feel a little sad.
Chi Ke never needed comfort or sympathy.
So after Ji Qian knew about this, he didn't say much, but accompanied him to watch a movie and talked about the boring student days.
Finally, he grabbed his right leg that was covered with scars, kissed the dense scars with heartache, and said, "Thank you for your hard work."
The light kiss was very itchy. Chi Ke bent his knees to avoid it, stepped on his shoulders, and smiled: "I still prefer to listen..."
"I love you." said Ji Qian.
Chi Ke narrowed his eyes, slid his toes down to his chest, and stepped on that spot with a little force.
Sure enough, these three words are something I never get tired of hearing.
Ji Qian grabbed Chi Ke's thin ankle and pulled hard, and Chi Ke instantly went from sitting on the sofa to lying down.
He hesitated: "Still doing it?"
I was exhausted after working a day and just had lunch.
Ji Qian shook his head: "Go to sleep."
He would not delay Chi Ke's rest time because of this.
Her husband is so difficult to support.
But the brave little Ji is not afraid of difficulties. Even if it is difficult to raise a child, he wants to raise him to be healthy and live a long life.
…
On the last day of December, Ji Qian took Chi Ke to a place and said he wanted to give him a New Year's gift.
Chi Ke curiously sat on his co-pilot seat, watching the scenery outside the window change, and stopped at——
"A cemetery?"
Chi Ke raised his eyebrows.
Ji Qian opened the passenger door, bent down and made a "please" gesture.
Most people come to the cemetery feeling sad and upset.
The two people who had died once had completely different feelings from them.
The environment of this cemetery is very nice. Even in the deep winter, there are still evergreen trees and some flowers in full bloom that seem to never wither.
The two held hands and walked along the long bluestone path until they came to a blank stone tablet with no words on it.
Ji Qian placed a bunch of colorful flowers in front of the monument and said softly, "I think that things that cannot be forgotten should be placed somewhere."
Be it yearning, nostalgia, or memories...
This could be their tombstone.
It could be more than just the tombstones of the two of them.
Chi Ke lowered his eyes and looked at the bouquet of flowers whose colors were richer than a rainbow, and smiled softly.
There may not be another bouquet of flowers like this in the cemetery.
"Will we lie here together in the future?" he asked in a good mood.
"Not necessarily. This is just a temporary locker. When the time comes, we can take it out and take it away." Ji Qian put his arm around his waist and said with a smile, "We will sleep in your favorite place in the future. There are still 70 or 80 years left. Don't worry, just take your time to find it."
Chi Ke tilted his head and laughed.
After she had laughed enough, she turned around and kissed him on the corner of his mouth: "Thank you, I like this gift very much."
He thought that there was no one in the world who was more suitable for each other than them, and the gifts they gave were unusual.
ID card and tombstone...
This is something only they can do.
After giving out the unusual gifts, Ji Qian planned to ask for some more ordinary good fortune to celebrate the New Year.
"Three more hours." He said, "Going to the airport?"
"What are you going to the airport for?" Chi Ke was puzzled. "To send Leng Yunting off?"
Leng Yunting flew away at noon today, quietly and without telling anyone.
"Of course not." Ji Qian opened the electronic boarding pass on his phone, grabbed Chi Ke's hand and shook it, "Are you going to the United States for fun?"
Chi Ke thought for two seconds: "Get the certificate?"
Ji Qian: “…”
Ji Qian: "Is it so easy to guess?"
Chi Ke curled his lips: "Okay."
After agreeing, he added, "But this is too sudden. I haven't checked if there is any work that I haven't dealt with yet."
“No matter!” Ji Qian hugged him tightly, resting his head on his shoulder, and staggered out together. “Let’s deal with all the mess until next year. I want to get married, get married, get married, get married…”
Chi Ke laughed: "Do you hate getting married?"
"Yeah." Ji Qian was very proud, "I'm forcing you to get married. Are you afraid?"
"I'm scared to death." Chi Ke said calmly, "Before I change my mind, you should act quickly."
If Ji Qian wasn't a good citizen who abides by the law, is polite and knows how to stay safe, he would have driven over the speed limit after hearing these two sentences.
Chi Ke informed his assistant of the trip at short notice, quickly returned home to meet him to pick up the luggage, and then rushed to the airport in a hurry.
I don’t know why, but the road to the airport was particularly smooth this time.
Ji Qian's comment on this was: "God helped me force the marriage."
Chi Ke helped him change his words: "Let's elope."
One-sided love is called forced marriage, while complicity or elopement is more appropriate.
The two moved quickly and after arriving at the airport, they still had time to go shopping in the mall next door.
There is a very popular ice cream and lemon-themed dessert shop in this mall. Ji Qian has wanted to eat there for a long time but has never found the time to come.
Since both families had to queue up, Ji Qian had no choice but to split up with him.
When Chi Ke found the dessert shop with two cups of ice cream, he had just taken a number. He was holding the receipt in one hand and hanging it on his coat pocket, while holding his mobile phone in the other hand to make a call.
People passing by kept looking at him, probably wanting to go over and ask for his contact information, but since he was always busy, they never got the chance to talk to him.
Ji Qian suddenly became proud.
In her hand was a newspaper that she had bought to kill time while waiting in line. There was a piece of news on it with photos of the people participating in the meeting. Her husband looked particularly handsome in the photo.
The news content has nothing to do with Xingmian Entertainment or Zhenting. It is just a financial discussion meeting attended by young talents from various fields.
The Chi Ke in there is just Mr. Chi of Xuyuan, his lover, and Chi Ke himself.
Ji Qian folded the newspaper and put it in his bag, put on his sunglasses, and walked over with a swagger: "Handsome guy."
Chi Ke had just finished the call. He had already recognized the person's identity when he walked over. He said without even looking up, "No contact information."
Ji Qian: “.”
Ji Qian: "Can't Ji Qian join too?"
Chi Ke handed the receipt to the waiter and took the paper bag away: "Who is Ji Qian?"
Ji·Unhappy Version·Qian took off his sunglasses: "I don't know, I don't know him. What do you think? Does Chi Ke know him?"
Chi Ke handed the bag over and pinched his unhappy cheeks: "I think he knows her."
Ji Qian insisted: "Who is it?"
The cell phone buzzed.
Chi Ke took a look and said, "If we don't leave now, we will miss the plane."
Ji Qian was so concerned about this that he even went to the airport.
I went to the bathroom before boarding the plane, and when I came back I saw someone leaving Chi Ke with a cell phone in his hand.
He said sarcastically: "Do you know this?"
"A new media blogger who caught amateurs taking photos at the airport." Chi Ke glanced at him, "I didn't agree."
Ji Qian: “Oh——”
Chi Ke stood up: "Get on board——"
Ji Qian continued to be sarcastic: "That means you don't know him."
Chi Ke raised his eyebrows: "I'm in a hurry and don't have time to get to know you."
Ji Qian cleared his throat: "Where are you going?"
"What do you think?" Chi Ke held his hand with the ring on it, "Husband?"
“…”
Ji Qian slowly widened his eyes.
Fuck.
Ji Qian couldn't believe it: "What did you call me?"
"Don't you want to hear it?" Chi Ke asked back, "If you like it, your wife can do it, too."
It's just a name, nothing difficult to say.
He calls him husband because we are all men. It’s okay for Ji Qian to have other XPs. He doesn’t care and can change them at will.
"No, no, I'm happy to hear it, happy to hear it." Ji Qian's ears turned red, and he stumbled, "It's just, it's too sudden."
Now it was Chi Ke's turn to ask: "Husband, where are we going?"
Ji Qian led him and walked forward with his head down, trying to suppress the upturned corners of his mouth, but failed. He then looked around and while no one could see them, he quickly came to his senses and kissed Chi Ke on the corner of his mouth.
The brightly flashing signal lights at the airport were reflected in Chi Ke's clear eyes, illuminating a deep and unfathomable love.
Outside the window there was the roar of a plane taking off.
Ji Qian's voice, however, leaped into his ears more clearly than theirs.
"Go get married, husband!"
Chi Ke gently touched the corner of the lips that were warmed by the kiss with the tip of his tongue: "Hmm."
Go get married.
Go and make a vow of eternal love.
Go see tomorrow.
——［End of text］——
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