She was once a young girl, full of longing for the future.
She was once innocent and carefree, and looked forward to her married life.
"I have a tall, handsome husband who loves me dearly, and a well-behaved, sensible, lively, and studious child." When Sun Lifang was still young, Haiyan would find some novels collected from a recycling station, and spend an entire afternoon engrossed in them on the table.
The book is filled with a vast world of martial arts, filled with joys and sorrows, and is the subject of the young girl's chattering narration.
As a child, Sun Lifang listened to her older sister, who was six years her senior, describe Peach Blossom Island and Spirit Sword Mountain, and dreamed that such a wonderful place truly existed in the world.
I've forgotten what it was like back then; the only thing I remember is the girl's bright, sparkling eyes and rosy cheeks.
Where is this woman now, so ravaged by life?
Feeling a pang of sadness, Sun Lifang looked away and gazed out the window.
It felt like a huge rock was pressing on my heart, making it hard to breathe.
This feeling is like the story "Young Runtu" that we learned in elementary school.
When Lu Xun met his childhood friend again, the once lively and vigorous boy who used to hunt hedgehogs under the moonlight, now, after all these years, addressed him with such unfamiliarity as "Master," it was a bittersweet moment.
Throughout history, have the same relationships and the same scenarios led to the same ending?
Sorrow transcends time and space. Sun Lifang remained silent, but Haiyan handed her a note, asking Sun Lifang to take her to "this place."
Which place?
To be honest, Sun Lifang has a terrible sense of direction. When driving, she tends to stick to one route and loses her bearings after a few turns.
The address Haiyan gave her, along with the street and alley names, were ones that Sun Lifang had never heard of before.
“I’m here to visit relatives. My brother works here, and he asked me to come and see him.”
Just then, Sun Lifang left her phone number, and Haiyan thought, "I've never traveled far before, so I'll bring the kids over to play and meet their uncle and grandmother."
As he spoke, he stroked the back of Su Tao's head.
Haiyan, who was taking her child on a long trip for the first time, was very well prepared. She was worried that her brother's family wouldn't have their own blankets, so she brought towels, toothbrushes, blankets, and everything else she could use.
"What if my sister-in-law is unhappy?" Haiyan not only prepared everything, but also thought of everything. "I'll come and stay for a few days and bring some soybean paste that they like."
You can't go to someone's door empty-handed.
Back home, fermented soybeans paired with golden-brown, shiny fried bread—even if you didn't eat anything else, just these two things, Haiyan's brother could eat three pieces.
Su Tao was carrying a large bucket of soybean paste; you could still smell it when she got in the car.
Hearing Haiyan repeatedly ask, "What if my sister-in-law is unhappy?", Sun Lifang interrupted her directly, saying, "Your brother sent you here, what could possibly upset her?"
That's funny, Haiyan paid for Hehe's tuition!
She used her dowry and her first marriage to support her brother's university education and help him settle down in the city.
What makes her so humble?
The person who made the sacrifice felt embarrassed and apprehensive. Sun Lifang said, "If I were you, I would have cut ties with them long ago."
Of course, it's fine to think these things in your heart, but it's still not good to say them out loud.
To be honest, Sun Lifang never understood why Haiyan still needed to contact Hehe.
Why are you still so attached to your family who used you, abandoned you, used you as a stepping stone, and completely disregarded your life and death?
Having met for the first time in many years, Sun Lifang had no right to say such a thing.
How can you just reopen old wounds?
Driving for a while and then stopping for a while, Sun Lifang kept opening the car window to ask the people next to her for directions, asking them if they knew which way to go from the address on the car.
It was not easy to finally find the right direction.
The intersection is too narrow; cars can't get in.
The place was winding and had at least a few dozen households. Sun Lifang thought it would be better to have someone come and pick her up, otherwise, "with so much stuff, it would be difficult to turn back once we got inside."
Why bother with that trouble?
Sun Lifang asked Haiyan for Hehe's phone number, "Have him come out to pick you up, you two sit still."
Don't rush.
Haiyan seemed to be a person with low self-esteem, afraid of causing trouble for others. When she heard Sun Lifang say this, she wanted to get off the bus, saying, "I can do it, I can do it myself."
He carried the load on a shoulder pole, afraid of embarrassing his brother if he got off.
Hehe is considered to have married into the family, as his wife owns a house in Shanghai and is from a big city. Haiyan is afraid that if she calls her brother, her sister-in-law will hear and be unhappy.
Upon hearing this, Sun Lifang was furious and wished she could shake this silly girl awake.
"Why are you afraid? He's the one who asked you to come, okay?"
She's grown older but not smarter. It's clearly her brother who owes her, but Haiyan makes it seem like she's taking advantage of him.
The weaker you are, the easier it is to be bullied.
Perhaps because she had been brainwashed so much, Haiyan felt that her contributions were a matter of course.
Perhaps she resisted, but the voices around her told her that she was wrong.
So, over time, Haiyan has forgotten, "If it weren't for my brother, you should be the one going to university."
With such good grades, getting into university is more than enough.
Where would it be the turn of the teens and twenties?
Sun Lifang couldn't change such deeply ingrained ideas in a short time, so she changed the subject and asked Haiyan, "Don't you feel sorry for your daughter?"
There was a huge vat of soybean paste, weighing about fifty pounds, and the little girl was carrying a large schoolbag on her back and a large glass jar in her hand.
Aren't you tired?
Every mother feels sorry for her child, and Haiyan stopped what she was doing when she heard Sun Lifang say that.
Her daughter, standing beside her, looked at her hesitantly.
Su Tao was a sensible girl; her hand hurt, but she wouldn't say anything.
When I picked it up, I saw a bright red line in the middle, and my arm ached.
The little girl asked her mother, "Should we call our uncle and ask him to come pick us up?"
Su Tao didn't understand why her mother hesitated. "Isn't my uncle a very nice person? He said he would buy me a doll."
On the phone, my uncle always said this—
He said, "When you have time to come to Shanghai, I'll take you to a fancy restaurant and buy Tao Tao a pretty dress and a bunny doll."
The endless promises made the innocent girl's heart soar.
Like her mother, she thought her uncle was a very good person. Her maternal grandparents also missed them very much, but they had to take care of their little brother, so they didn't have time to come back to see them.
Such a good person, we're all family.
So why did the mother hesitate?
Seeing her mother hesitate, Su Tao blinked and reached out to take Sun Lifang's phone.
“I called my uncle; I remember his number.”
As he spoke, he quickly started pressing the buttons.
Before anyone could stop her, Haiyan's parched lips moved, but she couldn't utter a word.
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