On the day my father was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's, two things happened.
The first is to diagnose herself, and the second is that Lin Zhaoxi learned that the campus male god she had a crush on for many years is about to go abroad for further study.
Regarding his father's Alzheimer, Lin Zhaoxi actually had a premonition. She and her father have tried the reliable and unreliable detection methods on the Internet. So when the doctor pronounced the sentence, the father and daughter didn't feel a thunderbolt, they just felt—
Everything in the world can happen to anyone, no big deal.
And with this sentence, the second matter is really no big deal, Lin Zhaoxi has always been very clear about the distance between herself and the male god.
Before she said this, she and her father were sitting in a noodle shop next to the hospital. Her father was secretly raising his hand, ready to ask the waiter for another fried pork cutlet.
It just happened to be noon, and the rainy day was full of water vapor, and the noodle shop was even more steamy.
Lin Zhaoxi bit her chopsticks, and sharply asked: "Accountant Lin, your fatty liver agrees with you?"
In order to change the subject, the old student looked at the golden pork chop in front of her, and pretended to be sad: "Dad wants to remember the aroma of the pork chop."
That tone of voice was particularly out of tune, purely teasing her. Lin Zhaoxi was angry and funny, no one would make fun of her dementia.
Thinking of this, her eyes suddenly turned red, she quickly lowered her head and sniffed, pretending that the noodle soup was too spicy.
Outside the window is the lively street near the hospital, vehicles and pedestrians shuttle back and forth in the rain curtain. The sycamore stands silently, water drops fall from the leaves one after another, everything is misty, like a very light impressionist oil painting.
Lin Zhaoxi looked at the noodle bowl in front of her.
Snow-white noodles sunk in red oil, served with emerald green scallions, she watched for a while, then heard her father say that.
—Everything in the world can happen to anyone, no big deal.
This sentence is very true, but the situation is still uncomfortable.
"Then what should I do?" Lin Zhaoxi pondered for a moment before asking.
"Your old father has raised you until you graduate from a bachelor's degree. You have to stand the test of society alone."
"I haven't graduated yet."
"Our family has several million deposits, plus five apartments!" Mr. Lin was afraid that she would misunderstand, so he hurriedly added, "Of course, these are all mine."
Lin Zhaoxi: "..."
"Look, what's mine is mine, and what's yours is yours. My face is my face, and your face is your face.
Mr. Lao Lin took out his long chopsticks from the chopsticks bucket, knocked on the side of the bowl, and after a crisp ding, he continued to teach, "Then my illness is my illness, and your life is your life. These things are relatively independent and not too interactive."
Hearing this, Lin Zhaoxi looked up at her father in disbelief.
Lao Lin was wearing an old man's undershirt today, and when he spoke, he was calm and breezy. But thinking of the days when their father and daughter lived together for so many years, Lin Zhaoxi suspected that there was something wrong with her ears.
"Your illness is your illness, and my life is my life?"
"Isn't it very reasonable?"
Mr. Lao Lin was very proud of this sentence, but Lin Zhaoxi couldn't help interrupting him: "But isn't your life messed up because of me?"
This is something that can be explained clearly in one sentence, but it has troubled Lin Zhaoxi for many years.
She is 22 years old.
She was just born 22 years ago. The old Mr. Lin sitting in front of her gave up going abroad to continue studying mathematics for her, and chose to be her father to raise her alone.
If it is the evening after 6 hours. At that time, she already knew that the male god Pei Zhi was going to study abroad, and the school was still the one his father had given up. She must have marveled at this subtle contrast in her life.
But now, she just choked on Lao Lin's next words and couldn't eat the tonkatsu.
"What can I do? The national law stipulates that I must support you." Mr. Lao Lin said so.
That's the end of the topic.
For so many years, from tears in the second stage to now asking casually, she doesn't know how many times she asked the same question, but the answer she got was always so simple and crisp.
Although specifically, there are a lot of questions here. For example, why did her mother not want her so cruelly, or why couldn't her father take her abroad together, and why didn't her grandparents help
But honestly none of that matters. Because for twenty-two years, their father and daughter have depended on each other for life, which is the reality in the world.
For this kind of reality in the world, their father and daughter unanimously raised the Coke in their hands and drank a glass.
Mr. Lao Lin took a sip of Coke as if he were sipping tea, put down the can, and asked, "Then do you dislike your father's illness?"
Lin Zhaoxi gulped down half a can, looked at the energetic middle-aged man in front of him, and hiccupped: "How is that possible?"
"Well, then it's no big deal, really."
After finishing speaking, Mr. Lao Lin picked up the tonkatsu she ordered with his chopsticks and took a big bite.
Lin Zhaoxi could only watch helplessly.
It was obviously a huge matter, but it was made as if there was no rice at home, so it was as simple as going to the small supermarket downstairs to buy another two catties.
People who have glimpsed the real world probably really don't care about these things.
The author has something to say:
It is probably a text that travels back and forth between reality and the past many times in a fast-travel style, and will not be reborn immediately.