Tang Ning's body was tense, and she did not respond to Su Anyun.
Su Anyun sighed and reached out to rub Tang Ning's head, as if he was comforting a clumsy child.
The residential building was very old and many of the lights in the corridor were broken. Su Anyun turned on the flashlight on her phone and walked up the narrow stairs holding Tang Ning's hand.
There are small advertisements everywhere beside the stairs, including locksmiths, infertility services, and house rentals.
Every small advertisement overlaps with Tang Ning's memory. They are all fragmented things in the small corners of his memory, very detailed. Tang Ning has been afraid of the dark since he was a child. He is really timid. He would feel so panicked that he wanted to cry when walking down the dark stairs alone. The more he walked, the more afraid he became. He had to have his mother hold his hand before he would walk.
Tangning grabbed Su Anyun's hand tightly.
He tried his best to remain calm and not show any abnormality.
The stairs to the fourth floor were very tiring to walk up, but Tang Ning felt like he had arrived there in no time.
Su Anyun took out the key from his pocket and opened the door. The room was pitch black, but there was a faint light on in the bathroom. Su Anyun turned on the light and changed into slippers skillfully. He saw Tang Ning standing stiffly in front of the door, so he naturally squatted down and helped Tang Ning change his shoes.
The sound of washing clothes came from the bathroom. Su Anyun lowered his voice and said, "Go to the room and change your clothes."
Tang Ning took a deep breath and tried to stay calm as he walked towards his bedroom. His room was very close to the bathroom and he had to pass through the lighted bathroom to get to his room.
The closer Tangning got to the bathroom, the more tense his muscles became. His nerves seemed to be stretched to a straight line. Just as Tangning was about to reach the bedroom, a woman's voice suddenly came from the bathroom, "Is it coming?"
Tangning uttered a "hmm" from the back of his throat.
"Did you have fun today?"
Tangning said with difficulty, "I'm happy."
The woman seemed to have noticed the problem with Tang Ning's tone. She didn't say anything else. Tang Ning stiffly opened the door and walked into his room. He closed the door tremblingly, his back pressed against the door panel. He slid down against the door as if his spine had been pulled out, and finally squatted beside the door.
The old house had very poor sound insulation, so poor that even the slightest noise could be heard. The woman's force in washing clothes suddenly increased, and it sounded like she was washing very hard.
Tang Ning hugged his head and buried his face in his knees. He knew that his mother was unhappy. She had taken the initiative to talk to him just now because she wanted to reconcile with him.
His fingers grasped his hair, causing a stinging pain on his skin. Tang Ning didn't know how long he had been sitting by the door. It was only when the noise from the bathroom completely disappeared that Tang Ning stood up with difficulty.
My legs are numb from squatting.
He looked at this familiar yet unfamiliar bedroom. The room was swept very clean by his mother. Whether it was the neatly folded bedding or the books arranged from high to low on the bookshelf, his room had not been decorated much. There was a pot of green ivy in the corner and a pot of cute succulents on the bedside table.
Flowers and plants can be seen everywhere in the house. These carefully cared-for plants are growing well. Tang Ning didn't know how much time and energy it took to take care of these flowers and plants. Later, his mother passed away, and most of the flowers and plants in the house withered in a very short period of time.
He took the pot of succulents to take care of it, and worked hard to raise it for a period of time, and finally managed to grow the pot of succulents.
Tang Ning fell on the bed, staring at the bright light on the ceiling. The light in his room was the brightest because his mother was worried that he would become nearsighted. His eyes seemed to be pierced by the light, and they felt sore and painful.
So tired.
I really want to just fall asleep like this.
But the bloodstained clothes had not been changed yet. If his mother found out that his clothes were stained with blood, there might be a lot of unnecessary trouble. Thinking of this, Tang Ning slowly sat up, took off Su Anyun's coat, picked up the pajamas folded on the bed and put them on. Tang Ning took the bloodstained clothes in his hand, found a black plastic bag to put the dirty clothes in, and finally pushed open the door carefully.
It was dark outside and the lights in the living room were off.
Tang Ning only dared to stick his head out. Just as he was about to walk through the door with light footsteps, he suddenly heard a strange sound from the darkness. It was very slight, and seemed to come from the kitchen. Was it a mouse
Tang Ning hesitated for a moment. He first looked at his mother's bedroom. There was no light from the crack in the door, but it was not yet seven o'clock, so his mother would not go to bed so early.
He looked at the guest room in his house, and there was no light either.
Tang Ning's heartbeat quickened. He didn't know whether he should go to his room or go to the kitchen to take a look.
There are definitely dangers in A-level copies, but so far he has not discovered where the specific dangers are at home. Logically speaking, the difficulty of copies increases day by day, and the first day is mostly safer than the later ones. If he does not explore now, he may have no chance in the future.
Thinking of this, Tang Ning held his breath and tiptoed towards the kitchen. He tried to be careful, but he accidentally kicked something in the dark, making a dull sound.
The movement in the kitchen suddenly stopped. Tang Ning wanted to retreat, but it was too late. The lights in the kitchen and living room came on one after another. Tang Ning stood under the lights, clutching the black plastic bag, at a loss.
"Xiao Ning." Su Anyun came over from the kitchen and smiled at Tangning, "I was just looking for you. Do you want a midnight snack? Mom has made some tonic medicine in the kitchen."
Tangning quickly said, "No need."
My mother's voice came from the kitchen: "He's full outside, why does he want to eat what I made."
The smile on Su Anyun's face remained unchanged. He pointed to the black plastic bag, which said "clothes".
Tangning nodded. Su Anyun took the bag from her and said to her, "You must be tired after playing outside all day. Go wash up early and go to bed early tonight."
Before Tangning could say anything, her mother's voice came from the kitchen: "He's the only one who goes to bed early? Why don't you go to bed in the morning?"
Tangning was so shocked that he couldn't say a word. He turned around and walked away in a panic, not wanting to bump into his mother.
Su Anyun and her mother chatted behind her. Su Anyun said, "Auntie, Xiao Ning secretly told me today that the food made outside is not as delicious as yours."
Tang Ning quickly walked into the bathroom and closed the door. He seemed to still hear the slight sound coming from the kitchen. Now that he thought about it, it seemed like the sound of chewing
But why didn't Su Anyun and her mother turn on the light while they were eating in the kitchen? What were they eating
As Tang Ning was lost in thought, he wet a towel with warm water and prepared to wipe the blood off his body. Although he had changed his dirty clothes, the blood stains were still on his body.
While doing this, Tang Ning didn't dare look in the mirror. He quickly wiped it and washed the towel. Then Tang Ning quickly opened the door and looked into his mother's face.
The woman was wearing a sexy nightgown and stood silently by the door.
Tang Ning's heart was about to jump out of his throat. His nostrils flared and he stared at his mother with wide eyes.
In this defenseless situation, he wasn't even sure whether he was more afraid or more eager to get closer.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Mom also stared at Tang Ning. Her beads moved in a circle, as if she was checking Tang Ning's dirty clothes. However, she only saw a pair of Tang Ning's dirty socks.
"I don't want you to wash my socks today, wash them yourself!" said my mother in a fierce tone.
Tangning quickly picked up the dirty socks and started washing them. He didn't dare look at his mother behind him. Under her gaze, the simple action of pouring the detergent made Tangning flustered.
Not only the movements of his hands, but also the thoughts in his mind were chaotic, and his breathing seemed to be chaotic as well.
A hand suddenly snatched the things in Tangning's hand, "Forget it, forget it, you are so clumsy, why did you pour so much detergent? Do you need so much detergent to wash your two socks? Go away, I'm going to go to the side, don't squeeze me..."
As the woman muttered, she started washing the socks that she had said she would never help with not long ago.
Tangning walked over with a confused mind. When she saw her mother, she said without even looking up, "You put the food on the table. I must finish it!"
What to eat
Tang Ning wanted to refuse, but his mother's tone was so harsh that he didn't know how to respond.
Is it the food that Mom and Su Anyun had just eaten in the kitchen? But it was night time now, and Mom wasn't watching him eat. He could pretend to have eaten the food, and then flush it down the toilet when no one was paying attention.
Did he really want to throw away what his mother had worked so hard to make
After Tangning came up with this plan, he felt even more confused. He took deep breaths as he walked to the dining area and looked at what was on the table.
An unopened bag of potato chips, a few pieces of chocolate, a pair of chicken wings and drumsticks from a brand that Tang Ning used to like very much, and a bottle of soda.
Mom's voice came from the bathroom: "Don't you just love to eat these junk foods? Eat something to fill your stomach when you're hungry at night. Really, you stay up late every day, so don't stay up too late tonight, got it?!"
Tang Ning stood in front of the dining table, staring blankly at the snacks that he hadn't touched for a long time. His eyes turned red and sour at that moment. The sour feeling enveloped his nose, as if his heart was hollowed out as well.
The nagging in the bathroom continued. My mother is always like this, nagging endlessly about a small matter.
In fact, he doesn't like to eat these snacks as much as before.
What he likes is the nagging that can only be remembered now.
"Tangning, do you understand?!" the woman shouted when she got no response.
Tangning's lips were trembling. The pain and heat in his chest could not be stopped and kept surging in his heart. He tried to speak in a calm tone, but the tone of his simple words was distorted: "I'm sorry, Mom."
I'm sorry, Mom, for always making you angry in the past.
I'm sorry, Mom, I didn't listen to your nagging before.
The noise in the bathroom stopped. Tang Ning was shaking all over, tears dripping from his eyes. He didn't know who he was talking to. Maybe it was the fake NPC in the bathroom, maybe it was the unspeakable memory in his mind, or maybe it was the person who would never come.
"I love you mom."