I was dreaming again.
Let’s change it to the time when my dad took me to the amusement park and we lost the money on the way.
Dad bought me some maltose and said, "Tongtong, wait for dad here and don't go anywhere."
At that time, I nodded, not quite understanding.
Later, I licked the candy and continued to wait. Later, the candy was all gone, but Dad still didn't come back. I just felt cold and lonely.
It's really cold.
I shivered and tried to grab something to block the cold, but I couldn't catch anything, so I curled up into a ball.
At this moment, I heard a soft sigh that didn't sound real, and then suddenly a warm embrace came and picked me up.
I am confused about what is a dream and what is reality.
I just felt that it was an extremely comfortable and gentle embrace. Just when I was greedily wanting to curl up in it forever, I was put into a soft quilt.
I frowned in disappointment and fell into a dream again.
Just when I was getting anxious, an aunt came towards me and said, "Hey, isn't this Officer Tong's daughter?"
"Auntie." I seemed to know her.
"Where are the family members?"
"Dad went to look for something and asked me to wait here while Mom went to work." I answered honestly.
"I see," Auntie smiled, "your mother asked me to pick you up."
I couldn't see her face clearly in the dream. I couldn't see it clearly. I just remembered that she was holding my hand tighter and tighter. I wanted to shout but couldn't. I turned over desperately, and then I felt my body hanging in the air, and then I fell off the bed with a plop.
The floor is covered with wooden floors, so the noise seems a bit loud.
I sat up depressed, still a little dazed, and then I saw Mu Chenghe who quickly appeared at the door after hearing the noise.
I opened my eyes wide in horror and looked at the furnishings in front of me. At first I couldn't react where I was. After sitting up and looking around, I remembered that it was Mu Chenghe's bedroom.
"My bed is so wide, you can still roll down." He leaned against the door, looking helpless, no longer looking like the sick cat he was last night.
"Whether I roll off or not has nothing to do with the width of the bed," I muttered, "The beds at school are so narrow, and I sleep well."
He said with a smile: "That's because the school is paved with railings."
OK. I admit that I have a bad sleeping posture, I kick the quilt, sleep sideways, and drool, but I rarely fall under the bed, which is enough to show that this person's bed has bad feng shui.
But how could Mu Chenghe discover such a thing
I quickly touched the corner of my mouth when I remembered that I was drooling. Fortunately, even if there was any, it had dried up, and I prefer to sleep on my back rather than on my side, otherwise it would be terrible to leave evidence of my guilt on the pillow.
"If you don't want to sleep anymore, wash your face, brush your teeth and have breakfast." After he said that, he turned and left.
I rubbed my hair, threw off the quilt, got up from the floor, and went to the bathroom. I remembered that I fell asleep in the living room, how come I was in the bedroom when I woke up? Was I sleepwalking
I went to the bathroom and when I flushed the toilet, I saw a pool of blood. I was stunned for a moment, then I quickly turned my head to check my pajamas.
It was dirty as expected.
Suddenly I cried out in my heart that something was wrong.
"You're up? I made the bed." Mu Chenghe said outside.
"Wait a minute." I called hurriedly.
"What's wrong?" His footsteps outside the door seemed to pause.
After taking a shower yesterday, Mu Chenghe found his thick pajamas for me. Now my pants are not only dirty, but according to my usual experience, the sheets must be dirty too.
Oh my god…
I made a silent cry, and then immediately said to Mu Chenghe outside: "I need to sleep for a while." After that, I rushed out of the bathroom quickly, ran back to the bedroom, ignored Mu Chenghe who was standing there, turned around and locked the door.
I climbed onto the bed to check for evidence of my guilt. There was nothing on the quilt, but there was on the sheets! His sheets were light-colored, and I could see the stain right in the middle of the bed.
On the early morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year, I stared at it and experienced what tragedy was.
I calmed down and thought about it carefully. There are only three solutions:
First, I throw myself down from the 23rd floor. Thinking of this, I made up my mind, stood on the bay window sill and opened the window. The cold wind rushed into the room, making me shiver. Then I looked at the scenery downstairs and shivered even more.
Never mind, next method.
Second, I threw the sheets and pajamas down from the 23rd floor. But how could I explain to him when he came in and saw the exposed mattress and quilt? What if some kind-hearted person downstairs picked them up and posted a notice to claim them? Still no way.
Third, be honest. I wanted to cry but I couldn't say, "Teacher, I have my period. I can only trouble you to wash my pajamas and sheets yourself."
Mu Chenghe knocked on the bedroom door: "Xue Tong?"
"Ah?!" I responded in panic.
"Are you okay?"
"No… It's okay. Can I get some more sleep?"
"Then you continue to sleep."
He finally did something else.
I was in my bedroom, pulling my hair.
What to do? What to do? What to do
I wanted to bang my head against the wall.
However, every time at this moment, I would unconsciously remember Chairman Mao’s famous saying - Chinese people are not afraid of death, so why would they be afraid of difficulties
I forced myself to calm down and thought carefully, his washing machine was in the bathroom, so I immediately changed my bed sheets and pajamas and put on my jeans.
I thought about it, and to prevent him from guessing, I peeled off the pillowcase and quilt cover together and crumpled them into a pile. After finishing, I held the things and put my ear to the door to listen for any movement. After confirming that it was safe, I rushed into the bathroom at the speed of wind, turned on the washing machine, stuffed the things in, and then breathed a sigh of relief.
But what's next? Then a serious problem arises. I don't know how to use this kind of fully automatic drum washing machine...
I tried pressing the button that said "start", but nothing happened. I pressed a bunch of random buttons, but nothing happened. It wasn't until I realized that even the indicator light didn't light up that I thought it might be a power problem. Then I found the plug and plugged it in.
After a short, soft sound, the washing machine finally started.
I turned around and found that Mu Chenghe was standing at the door, looking at me with interest.
I grinned and said, "I was afraid that you might have mysophobia, so I washed everything you used yesterday." This is the most feasible explanation I can think of.
I don't know whether he believed it or not, but he kept his indifferent gaze on my face for two seconds, then walked towards me. I quickly blocked the way in front of the washing machine.
But he leaned sideways, trying to move towards the other side that I wasn't guarding.
I blocked that side again.
He glanced at me and stopped moving.
I felt guilty when I was stared at by that gaze, so I couldn't help but ask in a trembling voice: "Teacher, what are you going to do?"
He reached into the storage rack above the washing machine and took out a small blue bucket and asked, "I'll take the detergent. Did you add the detergent?"
"… No."
He pulled open the small drawer on the upper right corner of the washing machine, scooped two spoonfuls of detergent into it, and closed it. After he finished this series of actions, I started to guard this washing machine that was related to my lifelong reputation like a hen guarding her chicks.
"It will take more than half an hour. You can come out and rest for a while," he said.
I stammered out the most horrible answer: "I've never seen how a drum washing machine washes clothes, so I'm just studying it here."
Pretty stupid thing to say.
Zhao Xiaotang had always taught us that when we see something we don't understand, even if we are very curious, we should pretend to be disdainful. This is the only way to make people feel that we are unfathomable. Obviously, I didn't understand the essence of Zhao Xiaotang's words.
He said, "I'm going downstairs to get some stuff, do you want to take anything?"
I shook my head quickly: "No, no." You old man, just disappear as soon as possible. I don't want anything now, I just want to hang the sheets and leave here quickly.
Mu Chenghe didn't ask any more questions. He took his keys, changed his shoes and went out.
After a while, when I had finished everything, the man came back, carrying a large supermarket bag and two boxes of cold medicine in his left hand.
"You should take some medicine too. You fell asleep while sitting on the floor last night." He said as he walked into the house.
After putting some food in the refrigerator, he saw the milk and bread on the table and asked again, "You haven't eaten yet?"
I frowned and said, "I don't like bread."
I don’t know why, but suddenly a strange feeling arose in my heart.
He was still very nice to me, but I just felt that Mu Chenghe during the day was a little different from Mu Chenghe last night. It seemed that the way I held his hand last night was an illusion, and even the fact that he had a high fever and was struggling to hear me speak was also a lie.
After dawn, nothing changed.
The room was silent.
Neither of us spoke. He continued to go in and out, packing up the things he had just bought. I put the bucket of clothes back to where it was, washed my hands, and went back to the bedroom, ready to take my things home.
My handbag was on the bay window with my coat draped next to it.
At this moment, I saw something next to my handbag. It was a pack of menstrual products in a pink package for girls.
The moment I saw it, a burst of heat rushed to my head.
It was extremely embarrassing.
It turned out that he had already seen through it, but he kept silent. When he asked me what I wanted to buy, he probably meant to ask me if I needed this thing. But I was in a hurry and didn't understand what he meant.
I never imagined a single man going to a supermarket to buy it.
Every time Bai Lin and I go to the supermarket to buy sanitary napkins, we are particularly annoyed by the aunties or sisters who keep asking us questions like what kind you need, how much quantity you need, whether there is leakage, etc., and then recommend this or that to us.
Many years later, when I mentioned this incident to Mu Chenghe again, he said in a serious tone, "I forgot." He tried to brush me off with just these three simple words.
"Don't talk nonsense. How could you forget something so unforgettable with your memory? You remember things that the computer doesn't remember."
I refused to agree to anything and forced him to recall it carefully again.
He looked at me and said helplessly, "I didn't look at anything at the time. I pretended to buy something else, and then when I passed by that shelf, I just picked up two bags."
"Then what?"
"Nothing happened after that." He denied it completely.
"Impossible, you just said you took two packs, but I only received one."
"I made a slip of the tongue."
"Could it be possible that you used the other pack on another woman?"
"How can I have another woman?"
"That must be it." I turned my back and ignored him.
"Xue Tong?"
"Don't call me, it hurts my self-esteem."
"Okay," he sighed, "I admit that there is a sequel."
"And then what?" I turned around and asked with a smile on my face.
"And then... I came back." He said in a serious tone.
"… "
After New Year's Eve, time began to fly, and Liu Qi appeared one after another, either in person or by phone and text message.
I am usually a carefree person, but I can't say "NO". So every time Liu Qi shows up, I hide or make excuses to avoid him. Unfortunately, this person's perseverance is not something that ordinary people can match.
I couldn't tell him directly: We are not suitable, please keep your distance from me. Because apart from inviting me to dinner, going out, and asking me how I am, he didn't cross the line. If I'm not careful, it will make me look petty.
Fortunately, I have a good excuse—tutoring.
Among the three tutoring jobs I took, besides Peng Yu, there was a third grader and a third grader. Each of them had three and a half days of classes a week, and the levels of the three students were different. I had to read books and organize materials to prepare for the next day's teaching every time. So all together, it was even busier than when school started.
The most difficult girl to teach is a girl in the third grade, whose nickname is Youyou. She has learned a little bit in the children's class of Cambridge English before, and now she is learning a little bit in primary school. She is very distracted during class. She is small, and all her motivation to study can only be supported by interest, but she herself is not very interested in English. But her parents are the model of their daughter's success, and they hope that she will become a foreign language genius in one go. Youyou's mother would suddenly push the door open from time to time and ask us if we are thirsty and want to eat. In fact, I know that this mother just wants to see if I have made good use of my child's course and whether it is worth the twenty-five yuan an hour, so she always finds an excuse to come in and check.
That afternoon, I asked Youyou to copy letters. She fell asleep on the table while writing.
I called her two or three times, and she raised her head and rubbed her eyes tiredly.
"Teacher Xue, I'm sorry." She apologized carefully.
"What's wrong? Didn't you sleep well?"
"I practiced ballet for a long time this morning and I want to sleep."
"Are you still learning to dance?" I didn't know that, I just saw a piano in the living room and thought she was practicing.
Youyou nodded and immediately reported her winter vacation schedule to me: "Your classes will be held on Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons. You will go to the Children's Palace to learn ballet on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday afternoons. You will practice the piano in the morning and do homework in the evening. After the Chinese New Year, the ballet class has been adjusted and sometimes it will be moved to the morning."
After hearing this, I wanted to faint and almost said: Your parents have given you so much trouble.
But now I am also a teacher in front of her, I can't say anything careless, so I can only touch her head and say a universal educational phrase: "The adults are also doing this for your own good, so keep up the good work."
Now I realized that it wasn't that she was hard to teach and liked to play around, but that children really had limited energy.
Youyou raised her head and asked, "Teacher Xue, did you grow up like this?"
"Almost." I smiled.
At that time, I was in the third grade and had just moved to City A from a small county town in another province. My mother was afraid that I would fall behind other children, so she asked my father to send me to the Children's Palace to learn dancing and painting.
"You also study piano and ballet?"
"No, I learned folk dance and pipa." I said this and to prove it, I performed a Xinjiang dance neck movement in front of her.
She immediately smiled with her eyes curved: "I've seen our teacher do it too, and I want to learn it, but it's really difficult."
"It's not difficult to say. Let me teach you a trick. Stick your whole body against the wall, and then repeatedly think about touching your right ear to your right shoulder, and then touching your left ear to your left shoulder." I said and demonstrated it again.
Youyou was now in high spirits, stood up from the chair, ran to the wall, held a mirror and did what I just said a few times. But in the end, he gave up, sat back down and said, "Why do I feel like a duck's neck cramps when I move?"
I was amused. I always thought that this kid didn't like to talk much and never communicated with me, but I didn't expect that he was actually quite funny.
I added, "I have a cousin who is tall and even more miserable. She was sent to learn swimming. The first time she went to the swimming school, she said she was afraid of water and would not go into the pool no matter what. As a result, the coach picked her up like an eagle catching a chick and threw her into the water without saying a word."
Youyou stared: "What happened next?"
"Then?" I recalled the scene that my father had repeated countless times in front of me, and couldn't help laughing and said, "Then, she paddled hard, and after two or three strokes, she actually floated up. Then she learned to swim on the spot without anyone teaching her. When she climbed to the edge of the pool, she remembered to cry."
Hearing our laughter, Youyou’s mother pushed the door open again, and the conversation between Youyou and I stopped abruptly.
After her mother left, Youyou asked quietly, "Teacher Xue, did your cousin become an athlete? Will she participate in the Olympics?"
"No. I didn't become a dancer. Very few people can succeed."
"If that's the case, why does my mother insist on me learning it?" Youyou lowered her eyes.
I thought about it and said to her, "Mom and Dad have their own reasons. Sometimes when adults ask you to learn something, it's not necessarily to make you a dancer or a musician, but to make you more cultured and have more connotation, so that more people will like you in the future."
Youyou looked at me as if she understood something.
I blinked my eyes. "For example, there are two boys in Youyou's class. One is good at studying, good at sports, and can play the piano very well; the other one knows nothing and is poor at schoolwork. Which one do you think everyone likes?"
"Of course the first one." Youyou immediately said affirmatively.
"So, that's how others see you," I said.