Chapter 185: Back to Reality 4

Ideals are beautiful, but reality is often very realistic. Zhao Lan woke up and opened her various media accounts. She received a lot of comments, most of which praised the beauties in the paintings, but no one knew the people in the paintings.

She scratched her hair and rubbed her eyes. At this time, a call came in.

It was her direct supervisor. He first asked about her physical condition, and then said that he heard that she had been discharged from the hospital and asked her when she could come back to work.

Zhao Lan sighed, and suddenly began to smile with envy. At the same time, she secretly vowed that sooner or later she would live a comfortable life where she could do nothing and have enough money to spend.

"I need to rest for another month." Zhao Lan thought to herself that she had to at least attend the gathering for discharged patients. "I was just discharged from the hospital and cannot work for the time being."

The boss got an accurate time, happily reminded Zhao Lan to have a good rest, and then hung up.

Zhao Lan walked out of the room. The house was quiet. Xiaoxiao and Xiaozhen were still sleeping. Standing on the balcony, she threw the clothes into the washing machine. Looking at the morning sunshine, she remembered what Yu Xiao said, that when she was in the hospital, she could only see the fake scenery outside the window.

Although she no longer remembered it, looking outside at this moment and feeling the wind blowing on her face, Zhao Lan still felt as if she was in another world.

There was nothing left at home except some rice and some red bean and dried dates that she had bought before. Zhao Lan cooked a pot of red bean porridge, washed her face, and went downstairs to buy breakfast.

Yu Xiao was awakened by the ringing of the phone. It was her mother who called. Yu Xiao's mother was very beautiful and capable. She was almost fifty years old but looked only about forty years old. She lived a very fulfilling life.

"Hello? Xiaoxiao." Yu Xiao's mother's voice was unusually gentle. "Why didn't you tell me that you were discharged from the hospital? Did you go back to your father's house? Or to your house in the city?"

To be honest, Yu Xiao seldom called her parents before. She would get annoyed when she heard them hypocritically asking about her well-being on the phone. What's the point of just paying attention? Why don't you take any real action? But this time, after leaving the hospital, after such a long time, Yu Xiao felt very calm when she heard her mother's voice again.

She said, "I'm at my friend's house. I'm fine now. You don't have to worry."

The mother on the other end of the phone seemed to sense the difference between her and before, and seemed to be happy with her rare relaxed attitude, so she said happily, "Oh, at a friend's house, that's good. You have just been discharged from the hospital, you need to rest well, and you don't have to go back to school for the time being. You should eat more nourishing food to replenish your body. Do you need money? If you need money, tell mom."

"No, I don't need money." Yu Xiao replied. Although she didn't object to talking to her mother now, she didn't have anything to say to her. She felt it was quite boring. She had just recovered from a serious illness and was living in a friend's house. She didn't even ask where her friend lived, nor did she say she would come to see her. She just asked her if she needed money.

This is also good. Yu Xiao really thinks so. At least they are willing to give money. Unlike some parents in movies, TV shows and novels, they are reluctant to give money.

She got out of bed and pushed open the door. As soon as she opened the door, she smelled a sweet smell. It must be that Sister Lan made something delicious. Yu Xiao's mood immediately improved. She said to the phone: "I'm really fine now. I will tell you if I need money."

"Oh." Mom seemed to have nothing to say, but she was unwilling to end the call so quickly, so she asked: "Does your dad know that you were discharged from the hospital?"

"I don't know." Yu Xiao's mind was no longer on the phone. She opened the lid of the pot and saw the boiling red bean porridge inside. Her stomach immediately growled.

"He didn't even know you were discharged from the hospital. How can he be a father? He hasn't contacted you yet? He doesn't even care about his own daughter..."

What followed was a series of fierce complaints and insults. Yu Xiao listened calmly. After she finished, she advised: "Don't be angry. No one can replace you if you get angry. I'm fine now. It doesn't matter whether he cares or not."

"How can you be indifferent? No, I must call him and scold him to death..."

Then the phone was hung up. Yu Xiao took a mouthful of red bean porridge. It was not very sweet, but very fragrant. She liked it. Just as she was about to wash up, she heard the sound of the kitchen door opening. She went out and saw Zhao Lan coming back with a bag of breakfast.

Seeing Yu Xiao, Zhao Lan said, "Get up, wash your face and have dinner."

"Hey!" Yu Xiao happily went to wash her face.

After washing her face, she used Sister Lan's skin care products. Yu Xiao looked at herself in the mirror. She was a little different from in the hospital. This was how she looked before entering the Sixth Hospital.

She touched her face and then her heart.

Ever since the nightmare took up residence in the mind of obsession and put the mind of obsession into a temporary sleep, she felt that her emotions belonging to a living person were gradually returning. She smiled at herself in the mirror. It felt so good.

Back in the living room, Zhou Xiaozhen had been woken up and was walking to the bathroom with her bald head. Seeing Yu Xiao, she said listlessly, "Sister Xiao, good morning."

"Good morning." Yu Xiao sat at the dining table. Zhao Lan had already prepared three bowls of red bean porridge. She took a fried dough stick and asked, "Any news about the painting?"

"No." Zhao Lan tore the fried dough stick into pieces and put them into the porridge, shaking her head and saying, "It's hard to find someone who lived so many years ago."

Indeed, Yu Xiao had no other choice.

"But I will keep looking." Zhao Lan scooped a spoonful of red bean porridge and ate it, her tone very firm.

Yu Xiao nodded, and Zhao Lan asked again, "We can only live to over 70 years old, right?"

"Yeah." Yu Xiao nodded again.

Zhao Lan's expression was a bit complicated. She counted on her fingers and said, "Now the retirement age has been extended. If I die at the age of 70, it means that I won't get a pension for a few years. Wouldn't that be a big loss for me?"

Yu Xiao: "..."

Good guy, Yu Xiao said, "You have already started to consider retirement?"

"If you want to live a good life, you have to make plans early." Zhao Lan thought and said, "No, I can't work until retirement. That means I will almost be working all my life. I have to set aside some time to do something I like."

Yu Xiao lowered his head to drink porridge and listened silently to Zhao Lan's plans for the future.

Zhou Xiaozhen walked out of the bathroom and saw Zhao Lan holding a pen and paper and calculating something.

"Are you calculating, Sister Lan?" Zhou Xiaozhen asked.

Yu Xiao said, "She calculates that it would be best to retire at a certain age."

"Ah?" Zhou Xiaozhen, who was only 18 years old, expressed her incomprehension, "Can I choose the age to retire by myself?"

"I really want to live another 500 years..."

Yu Xiao looked at Zhao Lan with a funny face, picked up the phone and saw that it was a call from Zheng Dongli.

"Hello?" Yu Xiao said in a good mood: "Uncle Zheng, have you eaten?"

"I have." Zheng Dongli said: "I just contacted some people, and most of them expressed their intention to attend this party. The time is set in three days, and the location is set in Beijing. Do you think it's okay?"

"Sure." Yu Xiao originally planned to go to Beijing because Brother Chuang's family lives in Beijing.

"Okay." Zheng Dongli said, "I'll let you know when the specific location is confirmed."

"Okay, thank you." Yu Xiao said from the bottom of his heart, "Uncle, you are such a good person."

Zheng Dongli laughed and said, "Actually, I wasn't like this when I was young. At that time, I had a nickname called Really Bad Guy..."

"It's settled!" Yu Xiao said excitedly after putting down his phone, "The gathering time for discharged patients will be set in three days, and the location will be in Beijing."

Zhao Lan immediately put down her paper and pen, "Then I'll book a flight for the day after tomorrow?"

"I want to go to Beijing in advance." Yu Xiao said, "Go to Beijing to find someone."

Yu Xiao and Zhou Xiaozhen have never been to Beijing. The two were born in the south and have been studying until now. They are not very diligent. They have never been to any city related to the north, let alone Beijing. Fortunately,

Zhao Lan has been there, and has been there many times.

After getting off the plane and walking in the airport, Zhou Xiaozhen kept touching her head uncomfortably. While touching her head, she asked Yu Xiao, "Sister Xiao, is my wig obvious?"

Yu Xiao looked at her and thought it was obvious. She didn't understand why Xiaozhen had to choose the most ladylike one when there were so many wigs to choose from. It didn't match her overall temperament. Although she thought so in her heart, Yu Xiao still said disobediently, "It's not obvious, it looks good."

So Zhou Xiaozhen immediately became confident. She was two different people with and without hair.

"Sister Xiao," Zhou Xiaozhen asked, "The bed brother you mentioned lived here for more than ten years. Could it be that the address he gave no longer exists?"

"Yes," Zhao Lan replied, "I checked online before leaving, and the community still exists."

"Oh, that's good." Zhou Xiaozhen nodded first, then asked, "What if his family members are no longer here? What if they have moved?"

Yu Xiao was confused by her question, and Zhao Lan said, "I think it is highly unlikely that they will move."

"Why?" Zhou Xiaozhen didn't understand why Sister Lan was so sure.

"Because the cost of moving in Beijing is very high," Zhao Lan said.

"..." Zhou Xiaozhen sighed, "That's true, but maybe his family also has many houses like Sister Xiao. By the way, Sister Xiao, I heard that you are going to have another house?"

"Yeah." After getting off the plane, Yu Xiao couldn't help but think of the friends he met in the hospital, and he was a little absent-minded about other topics. "My mother had a quarrel with my father, and my father felt bad, so he planned to help me buy another house next to the school."

Zhao Lan felt complicated after hearing this. Zhou Xiaozhen asked, "Will you still work in the future?"

"I'm working now." Yu Xiao said, "Have you forgotten? I'm the director."

"Good guy." Zhou Xiaozhen said, "I read a novel last night. The protagonist of the novel is from the National Dragon Team Ghost Hunting Department. Do you think there really is such an organization in our country?"

Zhao Lan thought about it seriously and said, "If there is, Zheng Dongli should know about it, right?"

"I don't think so." Yu Xiao said, "If there is, the country should pay attention to so many discharged patients suddenly awakening superpowers, right?"

"It's best if there isn't." Zhou Xiaozhen put her arm around Yu Xiao's shoulder, "If there really is such an organization, they will find out that Sister Xiao doesn't even have a heartbeat, and they will definitely take Sister Xiao away as a zombie."

Yu Xiao: "..."

When the three of them arrived in Beijing, it was already past three in the afternoon. They then found a hotel and had dinner. It was dark when everything was over. The hotel they were staying in was not far from the address of Bed Brother's home, and the three of them decided to go to the community together tomorrow morning.

Yu Xiao suffered from insomnia that night. Now she didn't need much sleep, and going to bed at night was a habit she had maintained for so many years.

She was worried and tossed and turned in bed. Finally, she decided to get up and go out for a walk.

She got dressed and strolled downstairs, and unknowingly came to the community where Bed Brother's home was. It was already past eleven o'clock in the evening. There were many people who were not asleep, but there were few people still strolling in the community. Yu Xiao stood outside and looked inside under the suspicious gaze of the community security guard.

Then she circled half a circle and jumped in from a place without surveillance.

Before he died, Chuang Ge handed her his cell phone as a backup plan, so that she could use his cell phone and his identity to be discharged from the hospital in case of any accidents. Yu Xiao became the director, and his kindness was of no use to Yu Xiao. He asked Yu Xiao to take the cell phone out to his family, but the cell phone could not be taken out of the hospital, and Yu Xiao failed to fulfill his request.

She wandered around the neighborhood like a suspicious person, feeling very confused. If she found Chuang Ge's family smoothly tomorrow, what should she say?

I am your son's friend?

This is not possible, because she was still a baby when Chuang Ge died more than ten years ago.

Just say, I am the daughter of your son's friend? Is this credible? Yu Xiao scratched her head in annoyance.

Just as she was scratching her head, she suddenly heard footsteps behind her. Turning around, several people were running towards her from behind, led by a man in his sixties with gray hair. As soon as the man saw Yu Xiao, he asked, "Excuse me, have you seen an old man wearing blue clothes, with white hair and very thin?"

Yu Xiao shook her head, so the people passed her and continued to run forward, shouting, "Dad!"

"Dad, where are you!"

Yu Xiao silently retracted her gaze. This community is not very big. She had just wandered around the community for a while, but didn't see any old people.

It's not good to continue wandering around the community like this, so Yu Xiao prepared to go back. After taking two steps, a voice of "Ouch" came from behind a clump of green plants next to her.

Yu Xiao leaned over to look, and saw an old man with white hair and age spots all over his face lying on the ground. She immediately turned back to look at the family, but they had already run far away.

"Grandpa, how are you?" Yu Xiao walked over to help the old man.

The old man was lying on the ground groaning, and Yu Xiao helped him up easily. Seeing that he was covering his leg, Yu Xiao reached out and touched the old man's leg, and knew that the bone was broken.

She thought to herself that she was in trouble. The elderly's recovery ability is not as good as that of young people, and broken bones are not easy to heal.

"Grandpa, I will take you to find your family." Yu Xiao said.

The old man shook his head, grabbed Yu Xiao's sleeve with one hand, and hummed something in his mouth. Yu Xiao said again: "Then I will call an ambulance for you?"

The old man was still humming. Yu Xiao observed carefully and found that the old man was a little unconscious. Maybe that was why his family was looking for him so anxiously.

Yu Xiao picked up the old man easily and put him on a bench beside her. This community is not big. If she runs at full speed, she should be able to catch up with the old man's family soon. Thinking of this, Yu Xiao said to the old man: "You stay here, I will go to find your family."

As soon as she stood up, she felt her sleeve being pulled. Looking down, the old man was shaking with pain but still holding her sleeve tightly with one hand.

Yu Xiao reached out to grab his hand, but heard the old man whispering in a crying voice: "Xiaobao, Grandpa is in pain..."

Yu Xiao gritted her teeth in worry and made a decision. She said to the old man: "You are lucky that you met me when I couldn't sleep..." As

she said that, she carried the old man on her back, and then returned to the place where she climbed over the wall, and jumped out of the community with the old man on her back.

The old man was lucky. Not long after leaving the community, Yu Xiao found a pharmacy, where she bought alcohol and cinnabar. Not long after that, she found a one-stop funeral shop, where she bought yellow paper and a brush.

Under the dim street lights on the roadside, Yu Xiao squatted on the ground and drew talismans, and the old man sat beside her and hummed.

She had drawn the healing talisman countless times, and the success rate was almost 100%. She quickly drew three talismans.

After sticking the talisman on the old man's broken leg, it turned into powder, and the old man's originally red and swollen leg immediately improved at a speed visible to the naked eye. After sticking the remaining two talismans on, the old man stopped shaking immediately and showed a comfortable expression.

"Do you know the way home?" Yu Xiao asked.

The old man stared at Yu Xiao with a pair of cloudy eyes and murmured: "Xiaobao, find Xiaobao..."

OK! Yu Xiao knew that she could not communicate with this old man. She packed up her things and prepared to send the old man back. When she was packing the cinnabar, she suddenly thought, could she use the healing talisman to heal the old man's brain? After all, the healing talisman can cure more than just injuries.

Thinking of this, she did so. In order to prevent the effect from being unclear, she drew ten talismans in a row, and then pasted the talismans in a circle on the old man's forehead.

The dust fell like snow, and Yu Xiao stared at the old man carefully.

The old man was stunned at first, then blinked, his eyes focused on Yu Xiao's face, and said in a trance: "Ni'er, why am I here?"

"Grandpa, do you know me?" Yu Xiao asked tentatively.

"You..." The old man stared at Yu Xiao carefully for a long time, shook his head and said: "No."

Then he looked around, "Where is this? Why am I here?"

"I'll take you home." Yu Xiao said and picked up the old man directly from the ground.

The old man was confused for a moment, then he gave a thumbs up, "Ni'er, you are so cool!"

The security guard of the community knew the old man. When he saw Yu Xiao helping the old man back, the security guard shouted, "You are back. When did you run away? I have been looking for you at home!"

The old man was also confused. He grabbed Yu Xiao with one hand and held his head with the other hand, "I don't remember..."

Yu Xiao asked loudly, "Where does he live?"

The security guard thought she was a kind person who was sending the mentally retarded old man home, so he gave her an address. Yu Xiao was stunned when she heard it, and she looked at the old man in shock.

The old man thanked Yu Xiao, "Thank you, Ni'er, you go home, I can go back by myself."

Yu Xiao finally came to her senses, and she asked softly, "Grandpa, do you know Mei Huaixin?"

The old man's cloudy eyes burst into light, and he said happily, "You also know my Xiaobao."

After he finished speaking, he was stunned, and two lines of tears rolled down, "Xiaobao... Xiaobao is dead, Xiaobao..."

over there The security guard had already called the old man's family, and the family hurried over. The white-haired man shouted from a distance: "Dad! Dad, why are you here..."

The security guard came over and pointed at Yu and smiled: "Look, this is the girl who brought Mr. Mei back." The

wrinkled woman who ran over hurriedly smiled at Yu and said: "Thank you, thank you so much..."

"Wuwu..." The old man's low sobbing sound came to his ears, and the white-haired man hurriedly asked: "Dad, what's wrong with you? Did you fall?"

"Xiaobao." The old man held the white-haired man's hand tightly, "Xiaobao is dead..."

The white-haired man was stunned, and then tears welled up in his eyes. He was clearly crying, but he smiled and turned to the woman beside him and said, "Look, Dad has remembered. He remembers things. The new medicine is really effective. He remembers things... and speaks clearly."

...

Yu Xiao was invited to the old man's house. The gray-haired man and woman were the old man's son and daughter-in-law. The old man had just been treated with talismans and was in good spirits. After crying, he still had the energy to look out old photos for Yu Xiao to see.

He pointed at the young man in the photo who was smiling freely and ostentatiously, and said to Yu Xiao, "This is my grandson Xiaobao. Ni'er, how do you know my grandson?"

Yu Xiao was stunned. The woman who brought the teacup to Yu Xiao asked, "Little Ni'er, do you know my Huai Xin?"

"Dad, you are talking nonsense again." The gray-haired man said, "Miss Yu is only 20 years old this year. How could she know Huai Xin? Huai Xin has been dead for 19 years."

The old man was also stunned. He began to wonder if he had remembered it wrong.

"Nier." The old man asked Yu Xiao seriously, "You really don't know my Xiaobao?"

Yu Xiao licked her lips and said hesitantly: "...I don't know him."

"Oh, I remembered it wrong." The old man raised his hand and knocked his head, "He has dementia and is useless."

"That." Yu Xiao asked casually: "Mei...what happened to Grandpa's grandson..." The

gray-haired man sighed, "Heart disease, it happened more than ten years ago. The medical conditions at that time were not as good as they are now, and it couldn't be cured..."

Yu Xiao wanted to find out where Mei Huaixin's tomb was, but didn't know how to start.

The old man said: "Let's go see Xiaobao tomorrow."

The couple was in a dilemma. The old man was too old and in poor health. It was not easy for him to go out, so they wanted to persuade him to stay at home and not go out. The old man said, "I am going to die soon. I want to bury my ashes next to Xiaobao. Is that ok?"

The couple was in an even more awkward situation. Where was there any empty space next to Xiaobao's tombstone?

Yu Xiao suddenly had an idea and immediately said, "I know a Yin Yang master who is very good at Feng Shui and is best at checking the Feng Shui of tombs."

The old man was excited when he heard it, "Really? Then could you help me check the tomb?"

The gray-haired man was speechless, "Dad, ashes are buried in cemeteries now, what's the Feng Shui?"

"The cemetery also needs Feng Shui!" The old man held Yu Xiao's hand, "Please."

"No problem." Yu Xiao said.

The gray-haired man couldn't stand it anymore and shouted, "Dad!"

Yu Xiao immediately said, "That gentleman is my friend, it's free."

"Did you hear that?" The old man glared at his son, "It's free!"

The gray-haired man immediately wilted and thought, "Whatever, it's fine this way, this way the old man won't keep clamoring to be buried next to Xiaobao all day.