In the second week after Li Chuan returned to Kunming, he received several huge packages from Switzerland: his usual medicines, various stationery, and clothes for the four seasons. Then we had to make a trip to the post office almost every week or two, with cutlery, books, sheets, wheelchairs and chocolates. Li Chuan's grandmother even sent a single sofa that Li Chuan often used. We kept bringing back packages of various shapes under the curious eyes of the staff. Things were piled up in every corner, and the wheelchair was stuffed directly under the bed on the first day of unpacking.
When he used to work, because he often held meetings, negotiated and met with clients, Li Chuan used prosthetics eight hours a day. For people with high amputations, it is a matter of perseverance. His body would sweat profusely, and if he accidentally fell, he would be in danger of breaking a bone. However, as long as he can stand up, Li Chuan will never use a wheelchair. He said being in a wheelchair made him look like a disabled person.
I was slightly embarrassed when I heard this. Li Chuan then corrected that he was disabled, but he didn't want to look disabled.
I continue to be embarrassed.
Li Chuan said that although he had accepted his appearance for so many years and knew that some things were inconvenient to do, he didn't like to receive special attention or special care, even if it was revealed unconsciously in his mouth, it would make him uncomfortable. He just wants to be an ordinary person, and he just wants everyone to treat him with a normal heart. And I, Xie Xiaoqiu, is a bad example in this regard.
On the third day after he came back, he had a high fever due to acclimatization, and I sent him to the hospital, feeling so nervous that it was the end of the world. Li Chuan went home after taking a dose of fever-reducing injections, and refused to be hospitalized. He didn't dare to stay too long in the hospital for fear that I would collapse.
I said my nerves were not that fragile, but he still spent the night comforting me. Tell me that his condition has improved a lot and there is no sign of deterioration so far, so I can rest assured. Then he explained to me one medical term after another in detail, and showed me commonly used medicines. Still, I had two sleepless nights.
I was more afraid of Li Chuan dying in my arms than he was leaving alive. From that day on, Li Chuan started calling me "Honey".
The second package we opened was full of Li Chuan's clothes: suits, ties, shirts, T-shirts, jeans, shoes, underwear...socks. I guessed that it might be that Ji Chuan and René turned Li Chuan's closet upside down, stuffed everything into this cardboard box that was as big as a small refrigerator without looking at it carefully.
All the clothes were taken out and piled up on the bed.
"Li Chuan," I sighed, "China is a big textile country. I don't understand why your brother still sends you clothes. It's not like you can't buy them here."
"A big textile country? Why don't I know?"
"You should know about the Silk Road, right?"
He paused and said, "Honey, I don't buy clothes casually."
"That's a lot to buy—"
"I always buy one thing at a time. Every piece of clothing here fits well, and more than half of it is tailor-made. Especially the trousers."
"It's not difficult. Isn't there no tailor in Kunming?"
"There are tailors in Kunming, but I don't like being measured."
"Heh, you also said that you don't have the temper of a young master—you are very bourgeois!"
I haven't lived with Li Chuan for a long time in the past ten years. The days we lived together did not exceed one month, and we lived in well-equipped hotels and apartments. We have never lived in such a dark old building with dirty walkways.
Li Chuan started cleaning the first day he arrived here. Every day, I have to wash dishes, pots, pot covers, and even soy sauce bottles. Then wipe the table, mop the floor, wash the toilet, and take out the garbage. I jokingly called him a "sweeper". He said that the word actually exists in German, called "utzteufel" (to sweep away the devil). Li Chuan also expanded the scope of cleaning to the entire corridor on the first floor, which was well received by the neighbors.
Li Chuan has an astonishing balance ability. He can stand upright on one leg independently for a long time, with his head held high and his chest held high, without moving. You wouldn't even guess he had one leg if you didn't look at his lower body. Li Chuan said that he was an expert skier and was almost encouraged by his coach to participate in the Paralympic Games. At that time, he only wanted to be an architect, so he gave up.
Speaking of which, I asked him: "Didn't you study economics? Why did you change careers again?"
The answer was beyond my expectation: "Because of my brother."
"Your brother?"
"After the operation, he was worried that I would not be able to take care of myself in college, so he decided to transfer to Chicago. The University of Chicago also has a department of architecture. I thought about it, and it was better for me to transfer than other transfer schools, so I went to Harvard."
"Ah...Harvard!" I remembered the famous movie "Love Story", "Have you ever chased a girl
"I didn't have much social life in the first few years," he said. "The school work was so overwhelming that I studied until the wee hours of the morning."
"Do you want to work so hard?"
"The head of the department is an old friend of my grandfather, and I don't want to embarrass him too much."
"Hey Li Chuan, look at your experience, no matter what you say, it can be regarded as an inspirational film!" He twisted my ear, "Such an outstanding inspirational young man, but you wrote it into a vulgar romance!"
I laugh out loud.
Freeing up the only chest of drawers in the bedroom, I stuffed my clothes into cardboard boxes.
Li Chuan stopped me: "Hey, that's not what I meant."
"Your clothes are so expensive, you have to store them carefully. My clothes are cheap, and you can put them anywhere."
"No, half for one person, or buy another wardrobe tomorrow."
"Don't buy it, the house is too small to fit in. Then half of each person."
Sitting on the bed, we spent more than an hour folding each piece of clothing into tiny pieces and stuffing them into drawers bit by bit.
After a while, Li Chuan stood up and looked for his crutches. I went to the living room and handed him the pair of elbow crutches he often used.
The pair of titanium crutches were custom-made according to his height. Black handle, natural titanium luster, light as nothing but extremely hard. I weighed it in my hand, compared it again, and suddenly found a big problem: "Hey, Li Chuan, you see, you also have counterfeit and shoddy products in Switzerland! The lengths of these two crutches are different!" I couldn't help it. Wronged for him, "Did you not find out after using it for so long? Do you still have the invoice?"
In fact, Li Chuan has several pairs of such crutches. When he first met him, he used this brand. I handed them to him many times, but I never cared about the length.
"Come on, honey," he took out a piece of paper and a pen, "let me teach you the basics of crutches."
I sat next to him and saw him draw a small figure on the paper: "I'm missing a leg on my left side, so when I stand up, my center of gravity will shift to the left, right?"
"right."
"My shoulders also tilt to the left."
"right."
"In order to maintain the center of gravity and the comfort of walking, the crutch on the left will be slightly higher." After finishing speaking, he tapped my head lightly with the crutch, "so it's not fake or shoddy."
I was stunned and asked, "Has it always been like this? Has your crutch been this way since the day I met you?"
"yes."
"And I never found out?"
"It's normal, you don't use crutches."
"At least it shows that I am a very careless person!"
"I didn't say that..."
"No wonder you ignored me for so many years!"
"not like this… "
"I'm careless, I'm a fake!" Suddenly I cried.
"..."
"Honey—" He pulled me up from the bed and hugged me tightly, "No one in the world is more qualified than you." Then he began to swear: stay with me forever, live a long life, grow old together, live in this life Never separate... h, h, h...
Li Chuan is not a person who likes to swear, especially he doesn't like to make promises about uncertain things. But once he found that I was out of control and swearing was a last resort to comfort me, he began to repeat these rambling sweet words. Whispering in my ear with a raving low voice, like a Buddha singing. I will be peaceful and quiet in this Buddha singing, and restore my nature. I gradually believed that Li Chuan's decision to resolutely leave me nine years ago was correct. I'm far less able to handle emotional crises than I thought, although I'm far better at avoiding them than I thought.
"Tell me, Li Chuan, when you were diagnosed with cancer, did your father ever hide the truth from you?"
"No," he said. "He told me right away. He also told me that the five-year survival rate of this disease is only 30 percent."
I sighed: "You were only seventeen years old at that time, and your father was so sure that you could bear the truth?"
"Maybe my father thought I was tough. If it was my brother, he would consider hiding some of it."
I crossed my arms: "But, you think I can't bear the truth?"
"... You are here again."
"Because I'm a woman, and women are emotionally fragile creatures."
"Women are also strong."
"But I'm not strong?"
He looked at me, not knowing how to answer.
"Where am I not strong?"
"..."
"Give me an example?"
"For example, I have already said goodbye, and you have written a thousand letters?"
"This is strength, perseverance is strength."
"e on."
"This shows that my nerves are extremely tough, no matter how you shake me, you can't shake me off."
"..."
"So you were wrong, you should have told me the truth then."
He touched my face, thought for a while, and suddenly said: "Since you want to know the truth, then I will tell you something."
"Say it."
"Someone called me yesterday, and you answered it, right?"
"Yes. He speaks German which I do not understand."
"He's my doctor."
My face turned pale immediately.
"I had a chest x-ray before I came to Kunming. I found three small spots in my lungs. They suspected that there was metastasis, but they were not sure. They had to wait six weeks for another chest x-ray..."
I stared blankly at him, my brain went blank, and I couldn't breathe for a moment. Then I fell straight down.
When I woke up, I found myself lying in Li Chuan's arms, with a strong spicy taste in my mouth: it was wine, spirits.
I looked at him in confusion, and he pointed to the Erguotou on the table: "I believe that your extremely tough nerves are not fainted, but your head is fainted."
Then my tears started to fall, and I looked at him tremblingly: "Is this true?"
"Of course not." He sighed, took out his cell phone, and made a call, "This is my attending doctor, he can speak English, if you don't believe me, ask him yourself."
Li Chuan's doctor is Herman, and he explained Li Chuan's current condition to me in English with a strong German accent. He said that although Li Chuan's body has not returned to the ideal state, it has improved a lot compared to last year. No new transfers were detected. But he also said that for patients like him, the possibility of metastasis exists at any time. So, Just live with it.
Just live with it.
I looked at him worriedly and didn't speak for a long time.
"Honey, are you better?" He held my face and smiled flatteringly, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have made such a big joke. You really fell down with a bang. I thought you could hold on A few seconds. Are you still dizzy? Want to drink something? I'll get you some juice."
"Wang Lichuan... how dare you play tricks on me!"
Hearing my roar, he picked up his crutches and sprinted to the kitchen.
Li Chuan brought me the juice in a sealed bottle, and I took a big gulp to suppress the taste of the wine in my mouth, and then I asked persistently, "The doctor said you're fine, why did you die when you were pregnant?" You have to spend two hours in the bathroom? Is there something new?"
Li Chuan gets up early, and I like to sleep in. We never competed for the bathroom before. Now that he's back, I think we need more time together, so I started waking up early too.
Here comes the problem.
"OK, the following is my report. I get up to take medicine, go to the bathroom for 2 minutes, then shave for 7 minutes, brush my teeth for 2 minutes, take a shower for 30 minutes, come out to comb my hair for 5 minutes, and get dressed for 5 minutes. I think about it What did you do? Oh, yes, someone said that the earring was broken. I repaired your earring for 30 minutes. I was so focused on it that I accidentally dropped the other earring into the sink. In order to get the earring out, I used … dunno, about 40 minutes—”
"Do you know that you are nagging?"
"I haven't finished talking, let's continue. I went out to buy soy milk and pancakes, but I forgot to bring your wallet. I asked the boss if he accepted Swiss francs. The boss said he was afraid it was a counterfeit note, and said that he could credit you if he knew you. He asked me if What kind of pancakes, I said the average is fine. But he said Wu Dalang pancakes are the best. I asked him who is Wu Dalang, and he said that Wu Dalang is a character in "Water Margin". I said I had heard of "Water Margin" ", why don't I know Wu Dalang? He said that if I don't know Wu Dalang, it means that I have never heard of "Water Margin". I said that I have heard my girlfriend talk about "Water Margin", but she never mentioned Wu Dalang. He was angry Well, I said that your girlfriend is either a liar or a foreigner. I said she is from Yunnan, but he didn’t believe me. He suspected that I had stepped on a few boats. He also said that next time you come to buy soy milk, he must ask clearly... "
"Did you say you were tired?"
"... Then I came back and met the old lady next door on the way. She said that the soya-bean milk in that shop was mixed with water, so it is better to grind it yourself, and recommended the Joyoung brand soya-bean milk machine to me. I said that I would definitely buy one..."
"Please stop talking, I'm going crazy!"
"Then tell me, why don't I know there is Wu Dalang?"
"Well, the story I told you is not "Water Margin", but "Jin Ping Mei"."
"There is no Wu Dalang in "Jin Ping Mei"?"
"Yes, but I didn't mention it. If you mention it, you will think that Pan Jinlian is a bad woman."
"Is she bad or not?"
"Well, well... Li Chuan, our motherland's culture is extensive and profound, and this alone is enough to write a doctoral dissertation. Now, let's not discuss this, let's go shopping together." I patted him on the shoulder, "In the future you You can do whatever you like in the morning, don’t report to me.”
The vegetable market is not far away, it takes 20 minutes to walk there. We walked east along a side street, Li Chuan was not wearing a prosthetic, and I accompanied him with a shopping bag. I kind of miss the old days when he walked with just one cane and we could hold hands like a couple in love. Now he uses two crutches, and I tried to hold his arms, but found that this would only hinder his movement. I can't even get too close to him because people with crutches need more space than normal people. So, live it it. Learn to adapt. I am already very satisfied to be able to live with Li Chuan, I can't get everything. We walked for about ten minutes, and when we passed a fruit stand, Li Chuan stopped suddenly.
I thought he was going to buy fruit, so I said to him: "Let's buy it when we come back. Think about it, if we buy it now, we have to carry them to the supermarket, store our bags, and then walk back with them. How troublesome it is."
He didn't answer, just let go of one hand and put his arms around my waist naturally. He hugged me tightly, with his chin resting on my forehead. He used to like to rub his chin on my forehead, especially when there was stubble, as if he wanted to write on it to make me itchy on purpose. I looked up and looked at him in surprise.
His hand hung down, found mine, held it tightly, looked down at the fruits on the stand, and asked, "Are these Fuji apples?"
"Well... yeah." I said absently.
I am enjoying this moment of bliss.
Li Chuan is back, I can't believe it's real. Subconsciously clasping his hand, subconsciously leaning on his chest, subconsciously listening to his heartbeat, I need many signs to prove his existence. Our palms were sweaty, and we were tangled together wetly. I was startled for a moment, and my body couldn't help shaking.
"What's wrong?" He held me up, "Uncomfortable?"
"I don't know." I leaned against him, my back drenched in cold sweat, "I suddenly had a dream."
"You?" He frowned, "did a dream in broad daylight?"
"right."
"What did you dream about?"
"I dreamed...I dreamed we were standing together...buying apples."
He gave me a frustrated look, convinced that what I said was human and not nonsense, sighed, wanted to say something, finally closed his mouth again, and just hugged me tightly.
The proprietress came over to say hello: "Good morning, both of you! This is the newly arrived Red Fuji. It is big and fresh. If you want it, you can get it cheaper." The proprietress is more than twice my size and is wearing a bright sweater. There are a row of gold rings on her fingers, and a heavy gold necklace hanging on her chest.
Li Chuan picked out the biggest one among them: "Can I just buy one apple?"
The proprietress was stunned for a moment, then nodded: "Yes. This is quite big, I have to weigh it. Forget it, you can take the two yuan."
He took out his wallet and handed her a hundred dollars.
"Yo, such a big bill? Don't you have any change?"
We said in unison: "No."
"Then please look after the stall for me. I'll find someone to change it."
"No problem, don't worry."
She went for a long time, and I didn't speak, still leaning on Li Chuan in a daze. After a while, Li Chuan asked in a low voice: "Honey, are you done with your dream?"
"No... not yet."
"Okay, miss, your expression just now is enough to shoot the opening credits of a romantic drama. Then, this is it." He acted like a girl holding her cheeks and looking forward to the future.
I was amused: "Really? No way! Am I that naive?"
Li Chuan looked at me, then at the sky, and sighed deeply: "God! hat have I done to this oman... (God, what have I done to this woman...)"
I pretend to be angry. He hurriedly said, "I will serve tonight."
The proprietress gave us a lot of change.
"Excuse me, is there a sink here? I need to wash this apple." Li Chuan asked.
"It's in the store. It's not convenient for you to walk. Let her wash it." The proprietress stared at his legs, her eyes and words were very straightforward.
"No, no, of course I'll wash the apples." Li Chuan went to the store to wash the apples, and I stayed at the stall waiting for him. The proprietress looked at me with a half smile: "He really takes care of you."
"yes."
"He's really good-looking," she added.
"agree."
"Will you marry him?" she asked suddenly.
"meeting."
"Will your parents agree?"
The answer is complex, but in short: "Yes."
She suddenly took out her handkerchief and sobbed: "There was a man who was so kind to me before, and I married someone else for money. Woo... Woo... I have never regretted it like today!"
I quickly hugged her.
For ten minutes she wailed on top of me, tears soaking my shirt.
When Li Chuan came back from washing the apples, the proprietress was still crying. He felt puzzled, so he gestured to me and asked in English, "hat happened?"
I looked at him helplessly and whispered to comfort the sad woman.
In the end, she finally calmed down, and we shook her hand and said goodbye. Li Chuan stuffed the apple into my hand: "Two women are a romance film, no matter if they know each other or not. Kunming, you are really a city full of emotions!"
"Don't say that, people just think of sad things."
"You eat this apple."
"What kind of apple is good to eat?"
"Doesn't this give you something to do on the road?" He smiled wryly, "Otherwise you'll just be daydreaming, and sooner or later you'll fall into the ditch."
Before Li Chuan came back, I often went to the supermarket on East Street, mainly to buy instant noodles. After Li Chuan came back, I never went there again. Because he likes to buy vegetables in the morning, saying that the vegetables in the morning are fresh. He also learned how to make pasta, downloaded a lot of recipes from the Internet, and made me fried buns once.
We bought some vegetables and fruits. Li Chuan's diet is bland and strictly controlled, while my taste is very heavy, and I don't like anything spicy or spicy. In order to save him from having to cook a dish that only I eat every day, I also learned to be light. But he insisted on buying some peppers. It is the kind of sea pepper that Sichuan people like.
As a result, Li Chuan was stopped by an aunt in her fifties at the place selling peppers.
She first stood aside and looked at Li Chuan, and after a minute, she walked in front of us with a serious expression. I think my aunt is very familiar, I must have seen it somewhere, but I didn't recognize it after much deliberation. But the sad expression on the aunt's face still stunned us.
Her lips trembled, and she asked, "Little brother, how is the situation over there? How is everyone?"
Li Chuan was holding a pack of chili peppers, looking at her, a little confused: "Auntie, what are you talking about... Where is the situation?"
"Wenchuan. You just came back from the disaster area, right? How's the rebuilding going? Our neighborhood committee donated a big cart of winter clothes. I don't know how to help, so I donated 500 yuan. My hometown is Sichuan. , one of my nephews is also crippled, committing crimes... He is about the same age as you, and has not yet married a wife. Little brother, seeing how energetic you are, you are recovering pretty well!"
This is where and where!
I stood there, petrified.
Li Chuan, oh Li Chuan, why did you have to buy that chili to make people mistake you for a Sichuanese
Of course Li Chuan knew about the earthquake, and we all made donations. I just remembered that this aunt works in the neighborhood committee. At that time, my household registration was in Beijing, and I had applied for a temporary residence permit with her.
I glanced at Li Chuan, his expression was very strange. That awkward look you only see on foreigners.
Li Chuan looked at me and asked me for help, but I spread my hands, unable to help. what can I say? Am I going to say that you have misunderstood the person, aunt? This brother's disability is not caused by the earthquake, but because he has cancer
Saying that would certainly not intimidate her, but it would certainly intimidate me. Because I am very allergic to the word "cancer". If I could, I would never mention it for the rest of my life.
After a few seconds of stalemate, Li Chuan coughed lightly, then extended his hand generously and cautiously, shook hands with the old lady, and said to her sincerely:
"Auntie, thank you for your concern. I thank you on behalf of the people in the disaster area."