At this moment, a pair of old and worn hands tightly connected the two young guys.
The performances of both "father and son" are wonderful.
Che Ziming broke free from the old lady's hand and said with tears in his eyes: "Grandma, please wake up! We are brothers!"
The old lady raised her hand and slapped him, "You have no respect for your parents! Why did your father give birth to a thing like you?"
"I..." Che Ziming's eyes turned red with anger, "You are kidding me, how can we look alike! It must be your son!"
Upon hearing this, the old lady grabbed the broom standing by the door and said, "You ungrateful thing, you are trying to sow discord between your grandma and your dad! I will beat you to death today, you little bastard!"
The car turned around and ran into the yard, with such skill that it was heartbreaking.
"I'm so convinced!! Okay, okay, you two are the same! He's your son, I have nothing to do with either of you, okay?!"
The old lady ran and swatted, her hand holding the broom shaking with anger: "Sure enough, I knew you came to our house to cheat people! I will bring you to justice today on behalf of the police comrades!"
"Ah!" Che Ming raised his head and ran wildly: "Dad, save me, Dad, please get out of the hospital soon!"
Xie Lan was deeply shocked.
"Do we really not need to stop them..." he asked weakly.
“No need.” Dou Sheng walked in and found a stool to sit on. He also grabbed a handful of melon seeds and said while eating them, “Don’t stop me. You’ll get used to it after a few times. Sit down and watch the show.”
Xie Lan hesitated, "No need to stop it?"
"Yes. Although grandma is a bit confused, she is very healthy. The secret is that she takes care of her grandson every day."
"… "
An old man and a child were running around in circles in the yard. The old lady passed by the bucket, threw away her broom, picked up the mop handle and continued to chase them.
Xie Lan looked around, silently took the sharp axe from the tool rack, and hid behind Dou Sheng.
Dou Sheng's hands trembled and the melon seeds scattered all over the place. He picked them up while laughing.
"Oh, you're up so soon today?"
When Xie Lan turned around, Dai You and Yu Fei had both arrived, carrying a bag of vegetables.
Yu Fei was always shy, and raised her chin to greet the passing cars. Dou Sheng grabbed a handful of melon seeds and asked, "What's wrong with you? Why are you dressed like this?"
"Video idea, no problem." Dou Sheng divided the remaining melon seeds between the two of them. "Everyone's here, hurry up and cook."
Dai Youyi glanced at the pot of dumpling stuffing and said, "Six people, there are dumplings, so let's make four dishes?"
Dou Sheng hummed, "Let's divide the work."
The cat-and-mouse game between Che Ziming and the old lady paused, and they both leaned against the courtyard wall, panting.
"Three stir-fries and a stew." Dou Sheng said, "I'll make fried eggs with tomatoes, braised pork with eggplant, and minced pork and greens. Dai You will make some potato ribs. Yu Fei... just stay in the yard. The car will take care of grandma tomorrow."
Several people nodded, having no objection to this division of labor.
"What about me?" Xie Lan quickly glanced at the remaining ingredients, "I can fry the fish and make a beef pie."
After he finished speaking, the yard fell eerily quiet for a while.
The old lady who was panting just now stopped panting and asked hesitantly, "What is beef pie?"
"You should come and help me." Dou Sheng said quickly, "I have a lot of dishes to prepare and I'm too busy to handle it."
"Oh, that's fine too." Xie Lan nodded in agreement, a little regretful to see the beef in his eye bags.
Although the house is old, it is kept clean and the sundries are neatly sorted and organized.
The kitchen was inside, with only a stove and a shiny black wok on it.
Dai You skillfully took out a pressure cooker from the cupboard and said, "I'll go outside and make it. You can use the kitchen."
"Yeah." Dou Sheng turned on the faucet and rolled up his shirt sleeves a few inches. "Xie Lan, come here and wash your hands."
There was quite a bit of rust on the faucet, and the thin water pipe was exposed. When it was turned, the whole rack shook. But the water from such a thin pipe was very strong and splashing.
Xie Lan also rolled up his sleeves, "Do you often come here to cook?"
"There are always three or five times a year when Che Ziming's father runs a small restaurant. During the holidays, the butcher goes home, so he has to drive more than 100 kilometers to get the meat. If he can't come back at night, we will accompany Che Ziming to take care of his grandmother."
Dou Sheng said as he wiped the pot with a paper towel and carried the vegetables and meat to the workbench, "Can you wash it?"
"Sure." Xie Lan picked up the basin beside him and said, "Do you want to wash all of these?"
Dou Sheng hummed, "You wash the vegetables, I'll wash the meat."
There is a lot of food, including eggplant, green vegetables and tomatoes, but it is very quick to wash them, unlike washing meat, which does not get your hands covered with grease.
Dou Sheng gave the basin to Xie Lan to use first, then found a peeler and started peeling potatoes.
That slender, fair wrist was just within Xie Lan's peripheral vision. Occasionally, when he turned the potato over, the wrist bone would move slightly.
"You're going to rub this tomato until it's bald." Dou Sheng suddenly said.
Xie Lan came back to his senses and discovered that the tomato in his hand had broken its skin and the red soup was being washed away quickly by the running water.
Turn off the water quickly and put the injured and "bleeding" tomatoes aside.
Dou Sheng took it to the chopping board and started cutting. "It's easy to get distracted just by cooking. Let's put on some music."
"Okay." Xie Lan took out his cell phone. "What do you want to hear?"
"Whatever." Dou Sheng smiled, "Or maybe a violin? Just pick whatever you like."
Xie Lan then randomly picked a playlist of violin music and put it aside.
The sound of water washing vegetables is very loud, and the sound of the violin is faintly heard in the water, which is a bit playful.
"By the way, have you ever thought about what to name the cat?" Dou Sheng asked casually.
Xie Lan thought for a while, "Just call me Mimi?"
"Mimi already has a cat meow." Dou Sheng said with a click of his tongue, "How about calling Wutong?"
Xie Lan paused, "You seem to like Wutong very much."
“Yeah.” Dou Sheng took the washed vegetables and said, “Phoenix trees have a lonely temperament, and they are very romantic when they bloom. Oh, yes, do you know what romance means? It’s roman…”
"I know." Xie Lan rinsed the peeled potatoes under the tap and lowered his eyes and said, "My mother said it's hard to grow sycamore trees in the north. As long as the temperature drops a lot in the spring here, they won't bloom for the whole year and will be lonely. So every time they bloom, it's a surprise."
Dou Sheng put the knife on the chopping board, raised his eyes and smiled: "So, if it blooms this year, let's record a short video?"
Xie Lan was slightly stunned when he heard this. "Are you asking me what I think of this idea?"
Dou Sheng smiled and said, "I'm asking if you want to join us."
"Oh." Xie Lan turned off the faucet, "Okay."
After the dishes were prepared, Dou Sheng heated the oil in the wok. Without even wearing an apron, he relied on his long arms to stand a little further away from the wok and used a spatula to stir-fry the dishes.
Chinese food is fumes-heavy and full of fanfare. It was like fireworks going off in the kitchen, completely drowning out the sound of the violin.
Dou Sheng seemed to be in a good mood. He had a relaxed smile on his face while cooking, which quietly separated him from the "misguided teenager" persona created by this outfit.
Xie Lan thought for a while before remembering that there were pork ribs. He picked up the plate and said, "I'll send it to Dai You."
"The potatoes too." Dou Sheng muttered, "You haven't come to get the vegetables for a long time."
Dai You wasn't cooking at all.
The pressure cooker was placed on the table without being plugged in. Che Ming and I were sitting side by side on a small stool in the corner, both looking autistic.
Yu Fei sat in the rocking chair at the top, rocking silently.
The old lady pointed at Yu Fei and scolded Dai You, "Your father is so old! He can't even open his eyes, why don't you take care of your son? Why do you still worry about him?!"
"?"
Xie Lan was stunned.
The room was silent for a while. Dai You sighed, pulled his hair and said to the door: "I'm sorry, Dad. I will keep Che Ziming under control in the future. If you dare to let you leave the chair again next time, I will definitely beat you up."
Xie Lan: “?”
The old lady's eyes widened and she turned to Che Ming, "What about you!"
Che Ziming's eyes were filled with dead air. He stood up and bowed to Dai You first, "I'm sorry, Dad. I was wrong."
His thick skin blushed with shame. He took a deep breath, stiffened his neck and bowed to Yu Fei, "I'm sorry, Grandpa. You should sit on the big stool. I'm a cheap little kid. From now on, I will sit on the small stool... No, I will squat on the bed directly from now on."
Xie Lan was dumbfounded.
Yu Fei slumped in the rocking chair, bowed twice, and after a long time, he sighed.
"Xiyan." She turned around and called Che Ziming's grandmother by her given name, "Children and grandchildren have their own blessings. Stop lecturing us and let us cook quickly."
"You're right, we got it wrong, let's go cook!" Dai You immediately stood up, grabbed Che Ziming by the collar, and whispered in his ear, "Run! Go mix the dumpling stuffing."
Che Ziming stood up dejectedly, "I'm tired, let's cook the rice instead."
"That's fine." Dai You patted him gently on the back of his neck, "Go out and get some fresh air."
The old lady said she was tired, and she and Yu Fei sat in a rocking chair across the table, both drowsy.
For a moment, Xie Lan really felt that the two looked like an old couple. Their temperaments could not be said to be very similar, but they were exactly the same.
"Hey, is there any garlic in the kitchen?" Dai You asked in a low voice.
Xie Lan said, "Wait a minute, I'll go look for it."
Dai You glanced back at the old lady and picked up the pressure cooker. "I think the beans are done. I'll go to the kitchen and do it."
Only after leaving the room did Dai You let go of the voice and let out a long sigh.
"This time, grandma's illness is more serious than before. In the past, there were at most two generations of father and son, but today is the first time that the role of grandfather appears."
Xie Lan asked, "Is there any reason?"
"She's probably panicking because her real son is gone." Dai You sighed. "Alzheimer's is a troublesome disease. She's actually very healthy, but she's just confused. There's no cure for it. It's been years."
There was no garlic left in the kitchen. Dou Sheng was a spendthrift. He only had two cloves left and was too lazy to find a bag to put them in, so he just fried them into the dish.
Xie Lan was speechless when faced with the stir-fried vegetables topped with a layer of garlic slices.
Dai You said coldly: "The nearest vegetable shop is at least one kilometer away on foot."
"It's okay." Dou Sheng put down his sleeves. "We've become familiar with the neighbors. Xie Lan and I will go borrow it."
On the way out, Dou Sheng had to pass through the old lady's room. He saw two people sleeping with their heads tilted back in the chairs. He paused with a complicated expression.
"What's going on?" he asked in a low voice.
Xie Lan was silent for a moment, "It's a long story."
Dou Sheng: "Try to tell it?"
"Che Ziming's father is Dai You, and Dai You's father is Yu Fei." Xie Lan said, glancing at Dou Sheng's twitching mouth, "You seem to have been... thrown out of the family."
"That's called expulsion from the family tree." Dou Sheng sighed and couldn't help laughing, "Okay, I guess Dad will feel better when he comes back from the hospital."
Xie Lan took a while to react before nodding.
I was already a little dazed. When Dou Sheng said "Dad", I had to think for a while before I could figure out who he was talking about.
It was time for every household to cook and eat. The sky was getting dark and there were only a few old lamp posts in the alley. The light from the bulbs was a little weak in the night.
Dou Sheng walked in front. The black skull on his jeans was not very clear in the darkness, but the dirty gray shirt was still eye-catching. The few light-colored highlights on his hair also lost their neurotic temperament, and only appeared a little deserted in the night.
He had a straight frame, and his shoulder blades protruded slightly under the thin fabric of his shirt, rising and falling as he walked. He passed by a lamp hanging on the wall, and the bulb just went out. He reached out and gently moved the wire, bringing back the faint light.
Xie Lan always felt that Dou Sheng, who was not chatting and laughing in front of others, had a kind of lingering loneliness. Today's outfit made that feeling even stronger in the night.
"Watch your feet." Dou Sheng suddenly turned around and said, "All the bricks are broken."
Xie Lan hummed, "You should be careful too."
"I'm very familiar with this area." Dou Sheng smiled and curled his lips. "I came here frequently for a period of time a few years ago. I know every brick and every neighbor here. Borrowing seasoning or garlic cloves is no big deal."
However, the disgrace came quickly.
The little girl at the neighbor's door looked alert when she saw Dou Sheng.
"Who are you?" He looked up at the dirty marks on Dou Sheng's clothes, then looked at his hair, and took two steps back.
Dou Sheng was stunned for a moment, "Brother Douzi, come and borrow two cloves of garlic."
The little girl pursed her lips tightly and stared at him with wide eyes.
Dou Sheng: "Huh? You don't know..."
"mom!!!!!"
A scream almost sent Xie Lan away.
"Mom!! There's a hooligan!" The little girl turned around and ran into the house, her sharp screams cutting through half the alley.
A man from the neighboring household pushed the door open and came out. It was an old man. When Dou Sheng saw him, he was also stunned.
He smacked his lips for a long time and asked uncertainly, "Beans?"
Dou Shengsheng opened his mouth helplessly and said, "Ah."
"Why have you fallen again?" The old man sighed and closed the door, mumbling halfway through the door, "These kids are too easy to go bad nowadays, I'd better not treat them at all."
There was also an old lady's voice inside, "Why do you care so much about other people's children?"
Xie Lan looked at Dou Sheng's gradually disappearing expression, and suddenly felt that the vague feeling of worry in his heart disappeared, and he smiled twice.
"What are you laughing at?" Dou Sheng turned around and said fiercely, "Don't provoke hooligans, or you'll get beaten up."
Xie Lan asked, "What does she mean by hooligan?"
Dou Sheng sighed, "It's someone dressed like me."
Xie Lan laughed out loud again.
In the end, it was Xie Lan who borrowed half a head of garlic and gave the dying potato ribs a new life.
It was already eight o'clock when the four dishes were finally served. The old lady had just woken up from a nap and looked a little dazed at the table full of steaming food.
"Grandma, let's eat."
Che Ziming stuffed the chopsticks into her hand and said, "I just called my dad. The surgery is scheduled for tomorrow morning. It's not a major operation, but your blood pressure is unstable. You have to stay in the hospital for two or three days for observation after the surgery."
Grandma fiddled with the chopsticks back and forth, neither nodding nor turning her head, and it seemed unclear whether she had heard anything or not.
Five people sat around a square table, Xie Lan and Dou Sheng squeezed to one side, and suddenly no one spoke.
Xie Lan had never come into contact with AD patients, but he instinctively felt that this sudden silence was not good.
Although it was a bit absurd to have such a noisy incident of mistaking someone for someone else like in the afternoon, it was better than suddenly not speaking now.
The old lady ate her meal in silence, like a well-behaved child. She took turns picking up the four dishes, not missing any of them.
Dai You nudged Che Ziming with his elbow and whispered, "We have to stay tonight."
Before Che Ziming could refute, Dou Sheng hummed, "I've already told my mother."
"Me too." Yu Fei sighed, "I'm so tired. I'm too lazy to go back. I'd better go to sleep."
Che Ziming was silent for a long time, his eyes a little red, and he nodded slightly.
"Thank you." He said in a low voice.
Dou Sheng patted him on the shoulder.
The meal was relatively quiet. Che Ziming tried to change the topic several times, but the old lady ignored him. She seemed to have only the food on the table in her eyes. She had a big appetite and ate the whole bowl of rice by herself.
The old lady ate slowly, so the five boys were waiting for her. As soon as she put down her chopsticks, Che Ming breathed a sigh of relief, stood up and said, "Grandma, let me pick up the bowl."
"Put it down." The old lady's tone suddenly turned cold.
The car suddenly stopped moving.
The old lady looked up at him, then glanced at Yu Fei, Xie Lan, Dou Sheng, Dai You one by one, and finally returned to Che Ming's face.
"Who are you?" She clenched her hands in vigilance. "Why did you suddenly appear in front of me? Where is Che Jun? Where did you hide my son?"
Che Ziming's shoulders shrank unconsciously and he smiled dryly, "Grandma, you are confused again. My dad is in the hospital."
"Nonsense!" The old lady suddenly got angry, snatched the enamel plate with food in her hand and put it on the table, then turned and walked out, "I have to go find my son."
"Grandma!" Che Ziming immediately chased after her.
Xie Lan and the others also stood up. Dou Sheng and Dai You quickly ran to the gate and blocked it. Yu Fei and Che Ziming together held the old lady.
No one dared to use force. They all pulled her sleeve lightly with one hand and held her hand with the other.
The old lady turned around and suddenly held Xie Lan firmly.
Xie Lan froze.
The hand was dry and rough, full of wrinkles, but the palm was warm.
"Mingming." The old lady warned Xie Lan in a trembling voice, "Go find your father. Ah, don't let these people stay here. We are worried about them."
Xie Lan was stunned for two seconds. Before his brain could react, he instinctively said "Okay."
But he soon realized that the old lady's train of thought had taken a wrong turn again, so he quickly stretched out his other hand, gently stroked the back of her hand, lowered his eyes and said, "Grandma, I'm sorry, Dad has gone to school."
Yu Fei and Che Ziming stared with bated breath.
Xie Lan said calmly, "I did very badly on the Chinese test this time, so the teacher called my dad."
The old lady frowned and thought for a while, "You are not good at Chinese again? You were not good at Chinese when you were little. You are good at math, right?"
Che Ziming's brows trembled when he heard this, and he turned his head away and forced himself to hold back his tears.
Xie Lan glanced at him and hummed, "My dad is angry and wants to kill me. Can you let me not come back today?"
"ah?"
The old lady was stunned again. After a while, she suddenly turned her head to Yu Fei and asked, "Dad, what do you want to do?"
Yu Fei nodded immediately, "Yes, I took a very thick stick, thicker than a telephone pole."
Dou Sheng rolled his eyes at the gate, cleared his throat and said, "It's not that exaggerated, it's about as thick as a rolling pin."
Xie Lan didn't understand what a rolling pin was, so she lowered her head and said softly, "Grandma, I'm a little scared. Can I go to your room to sleep tonight?"
The yard was very quiet for several minutes.
The silence turned off the only voice-activated light bulb in the courtyard, and everyone stood in the dim night. Dou Sheng, who was standing by the gate, turned his head and looked at Xie Lan's soft profile in the dim light and shadow.
Xie Lan held the old lady's hand, patted it gently, and stroked it softly.
After a long while, the old lady finally replied, "Well, come and sleep if you want to. Your father is really not a good guy. How can he beat his own son like this?"
As she spoke, she was about to grab Xie Lan and go back to the house. When she turned around, Xie Lan quickly pulled his hand back. Yu Fei immediately stepped back, and Xie Lan grabbed Che Ziming with his other hand, completing the handover in an instant.
The old lady walked into the house with her grandson, lifted the door curtain and turned her head.
Che Ziming even held his breath.
She cleared his face, hesitated for a moment, and did not shake his hand away.
"You just came back?" She suddenly asked in surprise, "Didn't your dad say you went to play games with your classmates this afternoon?"
The yard was silent for a few seconds.
Che Ziming's mouth twitched, and he swallowed hard with tears and hummed.
"Ah, you're almost going to college, stop playing with those things." The old lady sighed, "Are you hungry? Grandma, go make dumplings."
Dou Sheng came over and said calmly, "Okay, the dumpling filling is in the refrigerator and hasn't been seasoned yet, so you can do it."
The old lady turned around and glanced at him, "Douzi is here too, with so many students here. Wait, I'll pack it for you."
As she spoke, she suddenly became energetic and hurried to the kitchen in her cotton slippers.
Several boys followed. The old lady was very skillful, knowing where the seasoning jars were. She mixed the dumpling stuffing in a short while, took out a dough board from the cupboard and started kneading the dough.
"Mingming." She turned around and called to Che Ziming, "There are shrimps and scallops that you like frozen in the refrigerator. Take them out for grandma."
Che Ziming choked up again. Just as he was about to say something, he opened his mouth and burped loudly.
"belch-"
I'm trying to hold back my tears.
The old lady chuckled, "Are you hungry or not?"
"I'm hungry. I'm really hungry." Che Ziming quickly went to look through the refrigerator. "Grandma, wait for me. I'll roll the dough with you."
"What nonsense! You can't roll a ghost. It will be broken into pieces when you cook it later." The old lady pushed him, "Go back to your room and do your homework. Where's your dad?"
"cough."
Dou Sheng cleared his throat.
Che Ming paused, "My dad went out to buy supplies, so the market was closed. I had to go to Z Village by myself. Then the highway out of the city was closed, so I took a small road. The car broke down on the way, and now I'm waiting for the insurance company to repair it. The insurance company also has to take a small road. Anyway, it will take three days to get back on the road after the car is repaired."
The other three almost laughed out loud, only Xie Lan and the old lady were stunned.
Xie Lan even suspected that he had taken a Chinese listening test.
After a long time, the old lady got around before Xie Lan did. She nodded and said, "Okay, then you can eat the meals cooked by grandma these few days, and you are not allowed to eat takeout."
"Okay." Che Ziming nodded vigorously.
Several people breathed a sigh of relief. Dai You waved his hand, and all the irrelevant people left the kitchen.
Xie Lan and Dou Sheng walked to the yard and pulled two small stools to sit on. Xie Lan stretched out his legs and relaxed facing the cement bricks.
I was actually very nervous and had to lie in Chinese. I was tongue-tied just now.
"Don't be nervous, this is how the disease works." Dou Sheng suddenly whispered, "Alzheimer's patients tend to be confused every time they wake up, but they can usually be cured if they are comforted. To be honest, the old lady's disease is not very serious. She is very clear-headed about six or seven times out of ten times I come here, and sometimes she can even talk to me about the news. It was mainly because Che Ming said the wrong thing today that I realized that I shouldn't have said that Dad was in the hospital. Being hospitalized is a negative psychological suggestion, and the old lady gets even more confused when she is nervous."
He spoke these words in a low voice, as if he was explaining things to Xie Lan, or as if he was comforting her.
Xie Lan didn't actually understand it all. When his mind was blank, his hearing level dropped sharply. After a while, he nodded randomly.
There is an indescribable feeling.
It was heart-wrenching, but also a little warm. The old lady's mind was quick to change, sometimes wrong and sometimes right. When she was wrong, she would point at Yu Fei and ask Che Ming to call her grandpa, but when she was right, she would always think about Che Ming's love for shrimp, his good math but poor Chinese, and that he should play less games as the college entrance examination was approaching.
Just like Xie Lan's mother, when she was seriously ill, she was still worried about the strong winds in London in spring, so she made sure to wear a scarf and a high-necked sweater when she came to the hospital.
"Some people really have innate healing abilities." Dou Sheng suddenly said.
Xie Lan was stunned, "What is healing?"
Dou Sheng said, "It can help people get out of their bad moods. People will always fall into darkness, and they need a ray of light to lead them out. It's good to be led out."
Xie Lan seemed to understand a little bit, but also a little dizzy.
I am not very good at analyzing metaphors, and You Dou Sheng's words seem to be deliberately beating around the bush and are not clear.
After pondering for a while, he finally grasped the key point, "What about you? Have you ever fallen into darkness before?"
In the dim night, Dou Sheng turned his head and closed his eyes.
"Yes." He said in a low voice.
Xie Lan hesitated, "Then you..."
"But I am a lucky person. I encountered light, worked hard, and slowly came out of it."
"oh."
Xie Lan breathed a sigh of relief, thinking of how Dai You and Che Ziming had mentioned many times that Dou Sheng's grades had plummeted and then rebounded. She was actually curious, but she didn't want to ask, she just thought that maybe one day Dou Sheng would take the initiative to talk to her, after all, they were now pretty good friends.
Not necessarily. Dou Sheng has many friends, and we don’t know if he will make them all very good friends.
But I regard Dou Sheng as my good friend.
Xie Lan sighed and murmured: "Light..."
"What's wrong?" Dou Sheng asked.
Xie Lan thought for a moment and said, "I don't think I've ever encountered that."
"No." Dou Sheng raised the corner of his lips slightly, "That's normal. Have you ever memorized "Writing on the Wall of Xilin Forest"? "
Xie Lan was stunned. "What wall?"
"Written on the wall of Xilin." Dou Sheng retracted his gaze, looked at the cement bricks outside the courtyard, and said in a very low voice, "Perhaps you yourself are a ray of light."
"What?"
The voice was too soft for Xie Lan to hear clearly. He frowned and said, "Can you speak louder? It's not easy for me. Are you deliberately bullying me again?"
"It's okay if I can't hear clearly."
Dou Sheng smiled, stood up and rubbed his head again.
Xie Lan frowned and dodged, staring at him.
"I'm just saying, I advise you to quickly learn "Written on the Wall of Xilin Forest". Even elementary school students can recite it."
Dou Sheng stood up and walked into the house, saying calmly, "I don't know the true face of Mount Lu because I am in it."