Dig graves and dig out ghosts

Chapter 40

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"That's great, great!" The aunt rubbed her hands, pushed Lin Yan on the chair, and babbled a lot, Lin Yan finally understood what he needed to do.

In Room 607 of the Cardiovascular Ward lay a blind elderly widowed man, surnamed Liang, who was hospitalized with heart failure and had been in a coma for more than two weeks. The old man’s financial situation is very bad, and he barely maintains the treatment with money from charity organizations. Before that, his wife came to the hospital every day to take care of him, but the torrential rain for several days has caused a more serious burden on the patient’s wife’s already poor health. Five days ago, he came to the hospital He died of a heart attack on the way, and the patient was taken care of by community volunteer organizations in turn.

"Young man, when you came, the uncle just woke up and was in need of someone. I immediately regarded you as a student who came to take care of the patient." The aunt said, "The patient in this room has a very good relationship with his wife. If you know the news of his death I'm afraid I can't hold it anymore, you can pretend to be his wife later as I said, and you can hand over whatever the uncle wants, don't reveal your secrets."

Lin Yan couldn't help but smiled wryly: "Then there's no way to hide it, blind people can hear voices even if they can't see. Is it possible that I haven't spoken all the time?"

"Hey, his wife is dumb, and he couldn't speak at all. When he was still alive, he heard Mr. Liang chattering in the room alone. One of them couldn't see and the other couldn't speak. The relationship is very good, nurse. I look envious." The aunt lowered her voice and approached Lin Yan, "The old man is in good spirits now, just now he said he wanted to eat oranges, but the doctor said that he was bedridden for a long time, and he was most afraid of suddenly getting better for no reason. This is going away quickly, and burned his life away. Let's see the world again."

Lin Yan weighed the bag of small oranges that his aunt gave him, nodded and said yes, stood at the door of the ward, looked in through the glass, and asked in a low voice, "Do you have any children? They look older than my grandpa." .”

The aunt suddenly smiled ambiguously, and made a silent gesture: "I tell you, please keep your voice down, Uncle Liang's wife is a man like him, and he is the rabbit master in our local language!"

Lin Yan raised his head reflexively, then quickly turned his face to cover up.

"Tsk tsk, I heard that both of them have never been married in their entire lives. When they were young, they were often looked down upon by others. It's not easy. Once his wife leaves, he will be left alone."

"Go in later, walk and take things slowly, the old man can't see, his ears are good, don't let him hear the young man." The aunt said with her eyes to signal him to get ready, and told him worriedly: "Sick Drowsy is not very recognizable, let's fool around day by day, the old man doesn't have many days left."

Lin Yan originally only wanted to deal with it and leave after helping, but at this moment, he was touched by the whole story of the incident, nodded his head twice, and said seriously: "Don't worry, leave it to me."

There was a special "old man's smell" in the ward, the smell of medicine, cotton cloth, faint decay and the smell of old wooden furniture, reminding Lin Yan of his grandfather's old house in the country. The room was cleaned very clean. There was a white enamel crock with Chairman Mao written on it on the bedside table. Next to it was an old green plastic thermos pot. The broken cattail leaf fan was covered with an old-fashioned black soft leather book. People have a bad memory when they are old. , Often rely on writing to remember things.

Apart from that, there is nothing else on the table, it is simple and old, and it can be seen that the patient's financial situation is very ordinary.

An old man in his seventies was lying on the hospital bed, with an oxygen tube inserted into his left nostril, his wrinkled face was serene, his hands folded outside the quilt, and when he heard someone coming in, he called out softly, "Hongsheng is here."

The old man did not turn his head when he spoke, but looked straight ahead. Lin Yan observed it when he walked around the end of the bed. He had no symptoms of cataracts. Apart from being absent-minded, the old man’s eyes looked the same as those of ordinary people, with optic nerve problems and blindness. For a long time.

The sky outside the window was covered with rain clouds that looked like cotton wool, the whole room was gray, and the rain stopped and fell.

Lin Yan didn't dare to speak, so he slowly pulled out a chair and sat down beside the hospital bed, put the bag of oranges on the bedside table, and picked up a larger one in his hand.

"It's going to rain for a while, so bring a raincoat when you come, so you don't get drenched."

Lin Yan nodded silently, his eyes circled around the ward, resting on the back of the old man's bark-like hands, waiting.

The old man didn't expect to receive any response, so he continued on his own: "The quilt at home needs to be dried, and it rains a lot in summer, so it's moldy in the house."

"Have you fed the cat? The two of us stay in the hospital every day. I don't know if we are hungry or thin."

"I seem to have slept for a long time, and I dreamed that you came to see me, just like when I was young, standing by my bed in that suit for a long time, silently, so many nurses looked at you and didn't leave , I am an old man, don't be ashamed."

There was a shy look on the old man's face, that ravine face seemed to be younger, and the sallow sickness was dispelled a lot. It was probably the soul of his dead wife who came to bid farewell. Lin Yan felt his heart being grabbed by a hand, his eyes were unconsciously covered with mist, and he turned his head to look out the window, as if he was being illuminated by the gloomy sky.

After pouring the water for the old man, Lin Yan began to peel the oranges, carefully picking off the white veins of the orange petals. The orange peels were collected and prepared to be placed on the window sill to dry out the smell. Lin Yan carefully handed the orange petals to the old man's mouth, and the old man was stunned. After a while, I opened my mouth to swallow it. Because my teeth were not good, I slid it to the back of my cheek and chewed slowly with the toothpaste.

"It's quite sweet, and you can still buy oranges this season."

After peeling off the orange petals one by one, the old man couldn't chew the thin skin of the orange petals, so Lin Yan carefully peeled off the pulp. The old man was very obedient and ate slowly. Lin Yan felt that the daylight was extraordinarily quiet and warm, and couldn't help imagining a scene where his old self was lying on the hospital bed decades later, and his old lover was staggering, and he bought a bag of oranges for him, and sat by the bed for a while. The petals are peeled off for him to eat, the years are cloudy but the eyes are not cloudy... the lonely time, the lonely time together...

Love should be like this, two young and romantic teenagers met in the wilderness under the sun, and one said to the other: "Let's go out into the world together." So they walked hand in hand, through a long journey and life, seeing all Flowers and scenery, laughing and laughing all the way or complaining to each other, but they always support side by side and never leave... until the face of the beautiful boy is filled with a gully, the tall and straight man is bent over by the years, and the setting sun drags their shadows. I couldn't walk anymore, so I dressed cleanly, lay on the bed hand in hand, and said that we should die, and then we died together, like a pair of geese returning from the south, following each other from the beginning to the end.

Unknowingly, his eyes turned red again.

The ward was exceptionally quiet, except for the regular sound of rain and the fresh scent of oranges. After eating a whole orange, Lin Yan took out his bag to get another one. Hearing the rustling of the plastic bag, the old man suddenly spoke, quietly. Said: "Let him go."

Lin Yan raised his head all of a sudden, covered his mouth and did not speak.

"Don't pretend, I've spent my whole life with Hongsheng, you can't hide it from me, others can't hide it from me."

"Who are you?"

Lin Yan put the oranges back into the plastic bag in frustration. He felt that what he did was impeccable, and he didn't say a word from the beginning to the end. How could he be recognized

"My name is Lin Yan." He whispered, "Your wife can't come due to something, I'll do a favor and come back in a few days."

The old man smiled calmly, "looked" at the ceiling for a while, and said slowly: "Don't lie to me, I know, he will never come again."

There seems to be a certain feeling between the lovers who have been together for a lifetime. The old man turned his face towards him, knowing that he could not see, but Lin Yan still felt two sharp eyes fixed on his face. After a long silence, he was finally discouraged. Said: "How do you know?"

"I woke up and he didn't come, and I asked you to pretend to be him, why else..." the old man said slowly, his face showed a strange calmness in the gloomy sky, like a pool of stagnant water, without waves. There was no sadness, as if he was just quietly explaining a fact that had nothing to do with him. Lin Yan couldn't understand it. He always felt that it should be grief, pain, unable to restrain himself and other strong emotions, but the silence in the room made people flustered.

"You didn't suffer, did you? When he left." The old man said lightly.

"No." Lin Yan said, "I heard from the doctor that it was a sudden heart attack."

The old man was silent for a while, "The old guy missed the appointment and said he was going to die after me, so he still went ahead of me in the end." After speaking, he began to laugh, and two lines of muddy tears flowed down his cheeks.

Lin Yan was a little at a loss. He felt that he should say something comforting, but all words were futile in the face of life and death, so he grabbed the plastic bag and said in embarrassment: "Do you still eat oranges? I will help you peel the oranges."

Chenguang is lonely and silent.

The old man didn't answer, he lay back quietly under the quilt in a daze, and said for a while, "Go back, I'll wait by myself."

Some sadness can only be endured and digested alone until it becomes part of bones and blood. Lin Yan tiptoed out of the ward, closed the door gently, and listened for a while with his ear on the door. The room was very quiet, as if there was no people live.

The next day, Weiwei was discharged from the hospital smoothly and was taken home to recuperate. Yin Zhou helped to pack and pack things. Lin Yan accompanied his uncle to complete the formalities. After finishing the work, he returned to the ward. Weiwei had already changed out of her hospital gown and was wearing a T-shirt The shorts sat on the edge of the bed, dangling his legs, and the slippers knocked against the railing of the hospital bed. Seeing Lin Yan enter the door, he turned his face away. Uncle was a little embarrassed and reminded her to thank Xiao Lin. Weiwei just glanced at him coldly and asked if the ring was still there

Lin Yan was stunned for a moment, thinking of Tiffany crushed by Xiao Yu, he shook his head.

When Weiwei left with her bag on her back, she didn't look back once, and she didn't say a word to him again. This story is over here.

Lin Yan still came to the hospital every day, picked up some fresh oranges when passing by the supermarket, and turned directly into the old man's ward in the corridor on the sixth floor. The old man surnamed Liang liked him very much, and after slowly accepting the news of his wife's death, he began to have sex Chatting with Lin Yan, Lin Yan felt that the old man's health was improving. After a ward round, he chased him out to inquire about his condition. The doctor took off his mask and said that you are a family member? Prepare for the funeral for the old man.

Lin Yan was a little disappointed. He walked into the ward and tried to put on a smiling expression. He told the old man that the doctor said he was recovering well and that he should be discharged soon.

The old man was very silent that day. Lin Yan tucked up the quilt for him. When he was about to go back, the old man suddenly stopped him. His old face faced the window behind Lin Yan, as if he was listening carefully to the sound of rain. Don't worry, just sit down for a while, and I'll tell you about Hongsheng."

Memories are old photos, stained a dull brown-yellow by the time, the old man is called Liang Qing, blind from birth, abandoned by his biological parents at the gate of the orphanage. When he was eleven years old, the old dean saw that no one could adopt him, so he sent him to a school for the deaf in the town to learn Braille. It is said to be a school for the deaf, but it actually brings together many handicapped children, mentally retarded, blind, autistic, deformed, and children who cannot run and jump like ordinary children gather here, express and communicate in different ways, isolated from the world. In the circle, there is no discrimination and exclusion. They lick each other's wounds, warm and embrace each other.

Liang Qing is an introverted child who likes to sit on the only swing in the school and contemplate the colors of the sunset. Although he has never really seen the colors, for him the world is just day after day and night, until a man named Zhang Hongsheng people appear.

Hongsheng is a young teacher newly hired by the school. He is gentle and handsome. He wears a pair of gold-rimmed glasses and always smiles quietly at the children. He was born unable to speak, but he can use sign language and Braille proficiently. He has read many books. Seeing that Liang Qing didn't like to talk to people, he found an opportunity to approach him, hoping to bring this child out of loneliness.

He told Liang Qing many stories in Braille. Liang Qing said that Hongsheng was his eyes and he was Hongsheng's voice.

In Hongsheng's third year at school, they were together, sneaking, carefully avoiding everyone's eyes, using their mutilated bodies to perform complete love and subtle sweetness, until one day, the principal passed by the classroom after class, impartial Yi came across a scene of two people kissing. Unexpectedly, Hong Sheng was expelled because of his unhealthy behavior, and Liang Qing chose to drop out of school.

"I was sixteen years old that year, and Hongsheng was twenty-four. We had no relatives, so we simply rented a house to live together. Because I was in love with a student, or a male student, no school would hire Hongsheng again. We were very poor, and the place where we lived It often leaks rain, sleeps on the bed boards I picked up when I can’t afford to get out of bed, and often divides one meal into three meals. He said he must support me, work around if he doesn’t have a job, collect waste, pick up garbage, and do the most tiring and hardest work. I earn very little but never let me help. Once I couldn’t stand it anymore, I sneaked out to find the master to learn massage. He couldn’t find me when he got home. He was so anxious that he walked street after street and knocked on doors from door to door. .”

The old man closed his eyes gently, immersed himself in the memories of the past, "When I found the store, I saw that I was serving water for the master's feet, and he couldn't help dragging me out. It was the New Year's Eve, and it was very cold. I was afraid that he would get angry. I was shivering from the cold, crying while walking, Hongsheng couldn’t coax me, so he bought me a bag of oranges with all the money he had.”

"Candy oranges are expensive in winter, and he is not willing to eat any of them."

"He kept asking me to tell others that I was his younger brother, but no matter how well we concealed it, the neighbors still found out. When we went out, children threw stones at us and gathered on the side of the road to call Mr. Rabbit. Hongsheng is such a man with a pen , Fighting desperately for me, people scolded me, he couldn't speak, he was sweating, when I touched it, there was water in my hand, there was sweat and blood, and now there is a long scar."

"I don't know how I got through it now, but at that time, no matter how hard it was, I was really happy. I was happy from the bottom of my heart. The things outside the door had nothing to do with the two of us. He made porridge and put the rice for me to drink soup. I can’t see it, but I can actually hear it.”

"When he sleeps, he must hold my hand and write in my palm, saying that he wants to live like this for the rest of his life."

"I joked that he said how long a lifetime is, and he got anxious about things that didn't make sense, and insisted on being serious with me."

"Later, life got better. I could eat enough, and no one chased and scolded me when I went out. The two of us lived and got old before we knew it." There was a satisfied smile on the corner of the old man's mouth, like his lover when he was young Still standing in front of him as if he never left, "Life is actually quite short, no, it's going to be over in a hurry."

"He always said he would die after me. If he dies first, I'm afraid no one will take care of me." The old man raised his head and whispered softly into the air: "Hongsheng, don't think that I just lie to me once in this life and I don't care about it. I'll settle accounts with you after we wait, we're not done yet."

The old man spoke quietly, and Lin Yan listened quietly, his hands trembling slightly, and an orange fell to the ground after he missed it.

The old man didn't ask the reason for the voice, but continued to ask, "Do you know how I guessed that you weren't his on the day you came?"