In "I and the Altar of Earth", what Yang Fan remembers most is the beautiful girl that Shi Tiesheng met.
Shi Tiesheng said that he saw her when he first came to this garden that afternoon fifteen years ago.
At that time, she was about three years old, squatting on the path west of Saigū, picking up "little lanterns" that had fallen from the trees.
There are several large pear trees there. In spring, they will bloom with clusters of small and dense yellow flowers. After the flowers fall, they will produce countless small lanterns that look like three leaves embracing each other.
The little lanterns are green at first, then turn white, and then yellow. When they are ripe, they fall all over the ground.
The little lanterns are so exquisite that adults can't help but pick up one after another.
The little girl mumbled to herself as she picked up the little lanterns.
She has a beautiful voice, not shrill as is common among women of her age, but rather mellow.
Shi Tiesheng was puzzled. Why did such a young child come to the garden alone
He asked her where do you live
She pointed at something at random and called her brother.
A boy of about seven or eight stood up from the thick grass along the wall. He looked at Shi Tiesheng and saw that he didn't look like a bad guy, so he said to his sister, "I'm here."
After saying that, he bent down again and started catching some insects.
Finally, he caught a mantis, a grasshopper, a cicada and a dragonfly to please his sister.
For two or three years, Shi Tiesheng often saw them under those big pear trees. The brother and sister always played together in harmony, and they gradually grew up.
After that, Shi Tiesheng didn't see them for many years.
He thought that the brother and sister were both in school, and the little girl had also reached school age. She must have said goodbye to her childhood and would not have many opportunities to come here to play.
This is a very normal thing and there is no reason to take it too seriously. If Shi Tiesheng had not seen them in the garden again one year, he would have slowly forgotten about them.
It was a Sunday morning, a sunny but heartbreaking morning. After many years, Shi Tiesheng met the beautiful girl again.
He pushed his wheelchair to the big magnolia trees. It was the season when the ground was covered with small lanterns.
At that time, Shi Tiesheng was struggling with the ending of a novel. He didn't know why he wanted to give it that ending, nor did he know why he suddenly didn't want it to have that ending.
So he ran away from home, hoping to rely on the tranquility of the garden to see if he should give up the novel.
He had just stopped the car when he saw a few people not far ahead teasing a young girl, making strange gestures to scare her, chasing her and intercepting her while shouting and laughing.
The girl ran around in panic among several big trees, but she did not let go of the skirt that was wrapped in her arms. Her legs were exposed, and she seemed unaware of it.
Shi Tiesheng finally realized that the girl had some intellectual disabilities, but he still didn't recognize who she was.
He was about to drive forward to rescue the girl when he saw a young man riding a bicycle quickly coming from a distance.
Seeing the young man, the guys who were teasing the girl ran away.
The young man parked his bicycle near the girl, glaring at the guys who were fleeing in all directions. He panted without saying a word, his face as pale and gloomy as the sky before a storm.
At this time, Shi Tiesheng finally recognized them. The young man and the girl were the brother and sister from that year.
He almost screamed in his heart, or wailed.
The young man walked towards his sister, and the girl loosened her hand, letting her skirt fall down. Many of the small lanterns she had picked up fell to the ground and spread out at her feet.
She was still as beautiful as ever, but her eyes were dull and lifeless.
She stared blankly at the group of scattered guys, and at the emptiness as far as the eye could see. It was impossible for her to understand this world with her intelligence.
Under the big tree, the broken sunlight was dotted with stars, and the wind blew the small lanterns all over the ground, as if countless small bells were ringing dully.
The brother helped his sister onto the back of the bicycle and took her home in silence.
"Xiaoyan can't see, and she's been through this before. If her eyes are not cured, she will experience similar things again in the future." After telling the story of the brother and sister, Yang Fan stopped telling the story of "I and the Altar of Earth" and said this to Wang Shenhai.
Wang Shenhai stared ahead, lost in thought.
After a long while, his eyes darkened: "If it were you, you would choose to give her your cornea without hesitation, right?"
Yang Fan did not answer immediately. He hesitated for a moment before saying, "If I had a terminal illness now, I would."
Before Wang Shenhai could say anything, Yang Fan said, "The main thing is that I feel that I have gained enough, and it is time to give something back to society, so that I can feel at ease."
"So those rich people, billionaires, like to do good deeds in a high-profile manner. Do they have something to hide?" Wang Shenhai laughed.
Yang Fan shook his head: "I don't have any money."
Wang Shenhai nodded.
Yang Fan added: "I just have too many girlfriends."
"I understand. You don't have to keep saying it." Wang Shenhai felt a little depressed.
During the following conversation between the two, Yang Fan would reply to messages on his phone from time to time.
Even received several phone calls.
"Are they all your girlfriends?" Wang Shenhai asked after another call was hung up. Sitting so close, he could clearly hear the voice coming from Yang Fan's cell phone. There were different female voices on several calls.
"Yeah." Yang Fan sighed: "You were slow to reply to my messages, so you called me to ask what I was doing."
Liu Qianqian and Liu Yueyue are fine, but it’s the same with Aunt Thirteen tonight.
Wang Shenhai felt much more relieved and said, "Yang Fan, I think you deserve four girlfriends, seven is also fine, three is a bit too few."
"Then I'll think about it again." Yang Fan said.
Wang Shenhai was speechless: "Forget it, stop harming good girls and let those poor singles go."
Recently, he always dreams about the past when he sleeps.
There is my hometown from my childhood, where everything comes to life in spring and leaves fall endlessly in winter.
The economy of the north seemed to be concentrated in Yanjing, and the rest of the place was very depressed. Countless fellow countrymen from the Northeast traveled thousands of kilometers to the south to make a living and settle down.
The Northeast is now vast and sparsely populated. Compared with the South, where there is a village every three miles and a town every ten miles, it is too deserted.
Everyone calls for building their hometown, but without the resources, many people return and then run away again.
The hometown cannot accommodate the body, and the foreign land cannot accommodate the soul.
Those who leave home to struggle carry too many expectations and dreams, and carry too much love and responsibility.
Some people struggle in the business world, while others drift in the officialdom.
In the end, many people suddenly discovered that they had a new home in a place that was originally unfamiliar to them.
From then on, only when I talk about my hometown with others, I will squint my eyes and fall into happy memories. At this time, I am more energetic than ever.
"I have let a lot of single guys go, and I have a clear conscience," said Yang Fan.
Glancing at Yang Fan, Wang Shenhai said, "Indeed, if you had been more high-profile in college, I don't know how many girlfriends you would have harmed who are now lying in the arms of other men. You are very kind."
"Thank you for the compliment, I deserve it." Yang Fan said with a smile.
Wang Shenhai also laughed: "I finally believe that you have three girlfriends. With such a pretty face and such a thick skin, you are unbeatable in the world. Few girls can refuse you."
"It's not that great." Yang Fan said, "Luck and fate. One of my girlfriends was introduced by the landlord. I couldn't flirt with her on the street. I didn't have a chance to show my charm. She disappeared without a trace. Opportunity is very important."
"Yes, it's fate and opportunity." Wang Shenhai thought of his first love, whom he also met by accident.
Due to their common interests and hobbies, the two met in a forum that they both visited for the first time.
After adding friends, the two discovered that they were from the same city and even the same school.
Finally, they gradually developed into lovers.
A few nights ago, Wang Shenhai dreamed of returning to Jinhai at that time, and taking his girlfriend for a walk on Tianta Lake in winter, walking on the frozen Haihe River, and even to the remote Duliujian River. From this side of the river, they held hands and strolled on the wide river surface, walked to the center of the river, walked through the reeds, and reached the other side.
The four seasons are really wonderful. In winter, I wrap myself in a thick down jacket and enjoy the freezing cold.
In the summer, wearing short-sleeved shirts and shorts, and wearing sandals, sitting on the street, watching the long white legs running rampant, it is a feast for the eyes.
As they were sitting and reminiscing about the past, Yang Fan saw an old lady passing by carrying two baskets, so he went up to her.
The basket was full of fruits. It was obvious that the old man was running a mobile fruit stall, with a QR code payment card hanging around his neck.
"Try it, it's very sweet." The old man picked a lychee for Yang Fan.
The price of lychees is not that expensive now, only four or five yuan per pound.
I remember when it was first launched on the market, it was often sold at 20 yuan per pound.
People who are greedy and eager to eat will buy it impatiently to taste the fresh, sweet and crystal clear lychee flesh.
In Guangxi Province, there is a lychee tree that is more than 1,500 years old. The fruit it produces is sold at 888 yuan per catty, or 68 yuan per lychee, but it is still in short supply.
After tasting the lychee, Yang Fan looked at the kumquats and longans in the basket.
The old man immediately picked one for each of Yang Fan and handed it to him.
After tasting, Yang Fan bought a bunch of each.
When scanning the code to pay, Yang Fan saw that the payee was the name of a fruit shop, which contained a person's name.
The old man was probably carrying fruits out of the store to sell for his son. Some stores are not in good locations and therefore have very few customers.
"Is it okay to eat these fruits?" Yang Fan asked, returning to the flower bed, sitting down and placing the bag of fruit between the two of them.
Wang Shenhai smiled and said, "What else could be the problem? I even want to eat some poison to see if I can fight poison with poison."
"You have to believe in science, don't rush to seek medical treatment or eat anything you want." Yang Fan opened the bag and said, "Eat it. If you can't finish it, take it back."
"You definitely can't finish them all, why buy so many?" Wang Shenhai wasn't polite either. He picked a lychee, broke the skin, revealing the fresh and crystal clear flesh.
"I didn't tell you to finish it." Yang Fan also picked a lychee.
Su Shi once said, "If I could eat 300 lychees a day, I would be willing to live in Lingnan forever."
This Lingnan delicacy will change color and taste once it leaves the branch, and is very delicate.
But its deliciousness still makes it a deity.
However, in Su Shi's poem, three hundred is an imaginary number, not a real number.
Many people were deceived and thought they could really eat 300 pills at one time.
Not to mention three hundred pills, if you eat fifty or sixty of them, you might get a sore throat that very evening, not even the next day.
From the perspective of Chinese medicine diet therapy, lychees are sweet and warm in nature. If you eat too much, it can cause red and swollen eyes, oral ulcers, sore throat, and fever in the five hearts.
After lychees came into the market this year, Yang Fan bought them many times, but he never let Guoguo eat more than three at a time.
He once ate lychees, and halfway through the meal, he discovered that the air he exhaled was scalding hot.
This kind of fire is not the kind that Thirteen can put out.
The fruit was not finished in the end, so Wang Shenhai took the remaining part back.
Yang Fan took another part home.
"Then, Xiaoyan's commuting to and from school will be left to you from now on." Before leaving, Yang Fan, who was sitting on an electric bike, said to Wang Shenhai, who was also sitting on his electric bike.
"Okay." Wang Shenhai nodded: "I will resign tomorrow, there is no need for any work handover. The day after tomorrow..."
Halfway through his speech, he remembered that the day after tomorrow was the weekend and that the resignation procedures might not be completed yet, so he said, "You can resign next Monday. I've decided that I will ride my bike to pick up Xiaoyan from now on, instead of walking."
Yang Fan has told Xiaoyan's mother that he has found a young man who is temporarily unemployed but in urgent need of money to take Xiaoyan to and from school.
It's too easy for a person like him to deceive Xiaoyan's mother's trust. He can just make up all kinds of stories and cheat.
So now in Xiaoyan’s mother’s eyes, Yang Fan is a very loving and rich person.
"I suggest you walk a few times holding Xiaoyan's blind stick," said Yang Fan.
"Why?" Wang Shenhai asked puzzledly.
Yang Fan looked at her like an idiot: "I haven't gained Xiaoyan's complete trust yet, so I don't dare to mention the car ride to her. Do you think you are very charming?"
Wang Shenhai is still a little confused.
"If she walks, Xiaoyan is sure that there will be no problem with her route and dares to go with you. But if she takes a car, she can't be sure!" Yang Fan said, "Listen to me, don't mention taking a car for now, get familiar with her, and wait until she trusts you, then ride a bike to pick her up."
"Oh, so that's how it is. I was wondering why you didn't ride your bike to take Xiaoyan tonight, but walked instead." Wang Shenhai suddenly realized.
Afterwards, the two parted ways.
After returning to the community, Yang Fan stopped his electric bike, put the fruits on the bike, and went into a pharmacy.
He strode out with his head held high, having bought a box of balloons with confidence and in broad daylight.
Aunt Thirteen didn't care about this. She didn't care whether he used balloons or not. If he was pregnant, she would ask him to go with her to get the marriage certificate, and then she would hurry up to arrange the wedding.
Of course, Yang Fan didn't want to have to watch Shisan without being able to eat so soon.
Balloons, use them.
When he got home, Yang Fan didn't hear Guoguo crying.
The mother and daughter are very harmonious. One sits on the sofa in the living room to take care of her skin, while the other sits on the floor to play.
Seeing Yang Fan coming back, the little girl immediately ran up to greet him, brought him slippers, and shouted, "Dad, I miss you."
"I miss you, too." Yang Fan said with a smile, "Were you good in school today?"
Guoguo tilted his head, thought for a moment, and said, "Good boy, the teacher praised me."
"How did you praise it?"
"The teacher praised me for my strength. I was able to hold back the entire class by myself."