On the first day of the military training performance, the students were given extra dishes and fish, just like a farewell dinner. After dinner, everyone packed up their things because they would leave directly after the performance the next day.
Some children started to feel sad and pestered the instructors to chat, sing and talk. Others pestered the instructors to get their phone numbers and addresses. However, they had a hard rule that no communication methods could be left for the students, and their attitudes were very resolute.
The girls begged me to ask for it.
It was the first day of my menstrual period, and I had a severe stomachache, plus I had a cold and a sore throat. I was feeling uncomfortable alone, and I was also having a headache with such a large group of monkeys, when I received a call from Mu Chenghe.
I guess he was telling me he was home.
I smiled and said to the kids, "Okay, okay, I'll talk to you after I finish my call."
"Stop making noise, Teacher Xue's boyfriend is calling." A girl nicknamed Tangtang shouted, and slyly asked everyone to be quiet.
It would have been better if she didn't say anything, but after she shouted like that, a bunch of people started to make a fuss.
"Oh, our teacher Xue is not single."
"Tonight, many men are heartbroken."
"Teacher Xue, our hearts are bleeding."
I gestured for them to speak in a low voice and pressed the answer button with a smile.
"Okay, okay, stop arguing. The teacher and the master are going to be angry!" Tangtang shouted again.
Mu Chenghe just happened to hear the last sentence and asked, "Master?"
"Or do you want to call me Master's wife?" I asked back.
"I've heard people call me master's father-in-law before," he said seriously.
"What a mess." I couldn't help laughing, so I went back to the house and urged the children to go out.
"I remember that some people used to call me Grandmaster, but after two years, my status has dropped back to normal." After he finished speaking, he sighed quietly.
“…” This person is taking advantage of others and still acting like a good kid.
There was no way I could drive the group of students away, so I had to say a few words to them quickly and then hung up.
"Not corny at all." Tangtang, who had been eavesdropping, sighed regretfully.
"That's right."
"At least one kiss should be given."
"Get out of here in three seconds!" I lost my temper.
After the group of kids left, I looked at my phone again, wanting to ask him what he would do if he got scared at night when he was alone at home. But after thinking it over, I decided not to do it, put down my phone, and went back to watching their night training.
This last night was said to be the final night training for tomorrow's performance, but in fact it basically became each platoon surrounding their own little instructor and asking him to sing.
I turned around to get some mineral water and distributed it to each instructor. Then a group of people caught me.
"Teacher Xue also sings a song."
I smiled and shook my head, hiding behind a row, but unexpectedly, someone heard the noise and asked me to sing too.
Although I am a microphone tyrant, I couldn't afford to lose face in front of so many students, so I refused to do it no matter what. The more I refused, the more they made a fuss. At this moment, a sentry came in and shouted from a distance.
"Teacher Xiao Xue, there is someone outside the gate, saying that your family wants to see you."
There are rules in the military camp that outsiders are not allowed to enter or leave. So parents and relatives are not allowed to enter. You can only call in advance or call the counselor to see who you are looking for, and then you can go to the door to take a walk. If you can't find the student himself sometimes, there is nothing you can do.
This little sentry was very nice and familiar with me. He often helped me get things and even came to call me.
But his voice is too loud.
"Family members?" I muttered in a low voice, embarrassed.
What family do I have here
However, he had very good hearing and explained, "He said he was your relative, but I don't know who he is. Anyway, he's a man, in his twenties or thirties."
"It must be our master." A boy shouted.
"Boom" everyone laughed.
With a blushing face, I followed the little sentry around a corner and saw that it was indeed Mu Chenghe waiting outside the gate.
He stood in the darkness in front of his car, his figure tall and straight, like a green pine tree standing proudly in the cold, lush, ancient and noble. No matter what blocked its growth, it would raise its head slightly and continue to look upwards, standing straight and upright above the clouds.
He took a few steps towards me, and the light made his outline gradually clear.
I waved at him.
Seeing this, he nodded, and waited for me to approach with a peaceful smile, calm and gentle, like water and jade.
Originally, I was walking out of the barracks at a leisurely pace, but after seeing this scene, I could no longer remain calm and ran to his side.
However, having two people standing at the door is not a solution.
Zhang Lili and I were already familiar with the terrain in the wilderness, so I took Mu Chenghe with me to walk on the road.
There is no village or shop in the distance, and apart from the occasional truck passing by, there is no one. It is so dark, if Mu Chenghe was not here, I would not dare to go out of the door alone.
The two of us just strolled along the side of the road, side by side.
He walked outside and I walked inside.
His shoulders are much higher than mine, so we're not really shoulder to shoulder.
When I said this to him, my heart seemed to calm down again. Why did he tell others that he was my family member instead of my lover or boyfriend? The childishness rushed into my mind uncontrollably, and my stubborn temper began to flare up irrationally.
"Why don't you call first?" I asked.
"I called, but no one answered," he explained.
I reached into my pocket and found that I didn't have my cell phone with me.
"Do you have a cold?" he asked.
"Yeah, a little stuffy."
"Does your throat hurt?"
"It doesn't hurt."
"I should have brought you some medicine."
"We brought some common medicines. Besides, there is a school doctor." You don't have to be so kind.
"Then remember to eat when you go back home at night. If you don't feel well, go see the school doctor," he said.
"I know my own business." I interrupted him.
The more he cared about me, the more I felt that he was guilty, so I couldn't help but move away from him, leaving a one-foot distance between us.
"Xue Tong."
I agreed.
"Are you mad at me?" he asked.
"No." I denied it flatly.
"I came to you, and you don't like it?"
"no."
"What am I did wrong?"
"No."
He sighed softly.
I didn’t know if this person really believed what I said, so I stopped talking.
I felt even more aggrieved. Did I really mean I wasn't angry when I said I wasn't angry? Is his EQ really that low? Can't he see through a woman's mind? Doesn't he know how to reflect on himself? Can't he just comfort me
As I was thinking, I walked faster and faster, and inadvertently left him behind. Then my lower abdomen started to ache again, and I suddenly couldn't move forward.
He came closer and seemed to notice that something was wrong with my expression: "What's wrong?"
"My stomach hurts," I said.
"Then go back and lie down to rest, don't go forward."
"Yeah." I said.
"Go back the same way?"
"You can take a shortcut here and go through it to get there," I said.
He looked at the gravel road that was not paved with concrete and said: "I'll carry you."
I was surprised: "I'm not that delicate. Just walk slowly."
Before he could say anything, I stepped off the road, jumped over the gutter, and jumped onto the path over there. This series of actions made me feel a warm current flowing down from my body.
My lower abdomen was cramping and the pain was so severe that I could hardly straighten my back.
He rushed over, squatted down and said, "Come up quickly, I'll carry you." He seemed a little angry.
And I stood there motionless.
I thought we would be in a stalemate for a while, but he suddenly asked me, "Is it true that the more I feel miserable, the happier you feel?"
"I don't."
"Why didn't you?" Mu Chenghe said, "You clearly know that you are unhappy or a little unwell, and it makes me feel distressed, but you still insist on doing this."
"I just don't have it, no, no." I started to act confused.
"Xue Tong, if you hate me, you can use other methods to make me angry, but don't torture yourself." He lowered his head and said lightly.
"How could I hate you?" I retorted immediately.
He had a gloomy look on his face and did not respond to my question.
I immediately felt wronged: "How could I hate you? How could I? I just feel suffocated, and you are the culprit, so I feel uncomfortable when I want you, but... but seeing you feel uncomfortable, I feel like my heart is being cut by a knife, which makes me even more unhappy."
Before I met Mu Chenghe, I didn't like crying. But after saying this, I felt even more stupid and ridiculous. Thinking of the times when I deliberately said something to anger him, tears actually slid down in front of him.
Seeing this, he held me to his chest and murmured, "You were fine before, why are you crying? It's all my fault. It's all my fault. Whatever you say, I'm not angry, and I'm not upset..."
He abandoned all his previous attitudes and coaxed me gently, almost dotingly.
I have lived for more than 20 years, and no one has ever been so accommodating to me.
When I was a kid, my mother would get annoyed if I cried, and my grandmother would scold me for not living up to expectations. Unlike other children, I could get what I wanted by crying. Gradually, I stopped crying. So, I never used tears as a bargaining chip or a weapon.
However, it is completely different here with Mu Chenghe.
He hugged me tightly, as if my tears were his most fatal weakness in the world.
With the chirping of summer insects around him, he called me tentatively: "Xue Tong."
"What?" I said in a muffled voice.
"I've never carried you on my back before. Can you let me carry you?" he asked softly.
I hesitated for a moment, and finally nodded and stopped crying.
When I first lay on his back, my whole body was stiff, and I didn't even dare to breathe, for fear that he would think I was heavy. Later, I found that this worry was completely unnecessary, as he was much stronger than I thought.
Gradually, I lay obediently on his back, put my arms around his neck, and rested my head gently on his shoulder.
"Does it still hurt?"
"It hurts." Actually, it didn't hurt that much anymore, but the little devil in my heart insisted that I say that. Maybe it really came true. I felt very satisfied when I saw him worrying about me.
Although the gravel road was two or three meters wide, it was bumpy and there were no lights. He could only rely on the moonlight and the street lights not far away for illumination, so he walked slowly.
"Try to walk in the middle of the road. If you see anything dark, don't step on it. It might be a snake."
"Okay," he said.
"Did you grow up in the city and never walk through the mountains?"
"I have walked past him, but not often. My father always carried me on his back," he said.
When he mentioned his father, I couldn't help but put my face into his neck.
"Your dad must be an amazing father."
He was silent for a moment, then said, "No. Maybe he's a great man, but he's not a good father."
"Why?"
"A good father would not abandon his children like he did..."
I didn't say anything.
After walking a few steps, he added, "But it's not his fault. It's all my fault."
Halfway through the journey, he turned around and asked, "Does it still hurt?"
This time, I didn’t dare to be willful and answered honestly: “It doesn’t hurt anymore.”
When he heard the answer, he seemed to calm down and breathe a sigh of relief, but he had no intention of letting me go and continued walking forward.
I said, "Oh, I've figured out what I want to do. Next year I'm going to take the postgraduate entrance exam for the School of Translation and Interpretation. I think I'll sign up next month. Anyway, I can work here and study for the exam at the same time. It won't affect me and I can still make money. In the past, I always wanted to be a simultaneous interpreter. Even if I can't become one, I've tried so hard and I won't regret it in the future."
“Where there is a will, there is a way.” He smiled.
"I'll choose Russian as my second foreign language. I need you to review it for me."
"Okay," he said.
During the short night walk, I lay on his back, feeling the temperature and breath from another body, as if there was a kind of eternity between us.
I never knew how to address him. I used to call him teacher, but later I called him "you". When I was extremely angry, I even cursed him by his full name, Mu Chenghe. Some people around him called him Xiao Mu, while others called him Chenghe. He said his father called him Xiaohe.
Whenever Mu Chenghe called me, he used these two words together.
Maybe it’s because my parents rarely used any intimate terms with each other at home, so I always feel awkward using nicknames.
But at this moment, accompanied by the night and the breeze, I suddenly wanted to call his name.
After thinking it over, she finally called him softly, "Chenghe."
His steps seemed to pause slightly, and then he turned his head to the side and replied: "Hmm?"
"Chenghe." I called him again.
He didn't respond to me this time, but smiled slightly.
I had planned to go fishing with him on National Day, but it rained.
The rain fell from the first night all the way to the next day, drizzling and bringing a cool autumn feel to the air.
I really enjoy staying at home with Mu Chenghe in this kind of weather.
He always worked in the living room. I would not disturb him even if I was busy. Sometimes he would look at his postgraduate exam review questions, sometimes he would wipe the dust off the orchid leaves, and sometimes he would add water to his cup.
Even if you don't say a word, you will feel good.
However, a phone call broke the peace.
My aunt said on the other end of the phone: "Xue Tong, please come over. I'm afraid your grandfather...is not going to make it."
My face turned pale instantly.
Mu Chenghe asked: "What happened?"
"My grandfather is dying," I said.
He drove me to the hospital. On the way, the rain suddenly got heavier. I stared blankly at the windshield wipers swaying. While waiting for the traffic light, he glanced at me and remained silent.
When we arrived at the ward, only my aunt and grandmother were sitting in front of the bed.
Grandpa was lying on the bed, the breathing tube had been replaced by a breathing mask. The machine next to him was working with a drip. He was covered with a quilt, and his chest rose and fell with the rhythm of the compressed air from the ventilator.
When my aunt saw me come in, she said, "Xue Tong is here. Your cousin and uncle have gone to consult the doctor." After she said that, she glanced at Mu Chenghe behind me with a suspicious look.
Since I didn't say anything, Mu Chenghe just nodded slightly at her politely.
It’s not that I want to hide him, but I just don’t have the heart to care about these things at the moment.
My aunt said, "The last time I visited grandpa, I knew he wasn't in good condition recently. The doctor also said that his various organs were beginning to fail. In the morning, his blood pressure rose sharply again, and he had a second brain hemorrhage..." At this point, my aunt couldn't bear it and began to wipe away her tears.
Grandma was very calm and reached out to smooth Grandpa's hair.
At this time, my uncle and several cousins followed the doctor in white coats and gently pushed the door open.
The doctor walked up to the bedside, took out a small flashlight from his pocket, lifted up my grandfather's eyelids and took a look, asked the intern next to him to record various data, and then left.
The uncle stopped the intern and asked, "Is there really no hope at all?"
The intern said: "It's hard to say. We can't say there are absolutely no miracles."
My aunt said, "He has been lying in bed for five years. At that time you said there might be a miracle, but now it has been delayed for so long and still nothing has happened."
The intern said: "The hospital really tried its best, and the patient is so old..."
The room was silent for a moment.
The intern closed the notebook and wanted to leave.
A cousin asked, "What should we do now?"
The intern doctor replied, “Didn’t Doctor Zhang make it very clear just now? In fact, removing the ventilator is equivalent to death. In this situation, it depends on what you, the family members, think.” After saying that, he left.
Uncle took out a cigarette box and a lighter and was about to light it up, but was reminded by aunt and went to the balcony to smoke instead.
He took a few puffs and walked back.
Everyone else stood still.
There were only two chairs in the ward where grandma and aunt sat, and there were no extra ones. I stood there watching them talk, and then I wanted to find something to lean on. At this moment, Mu Chenghe patted my back.
I looked back at him.
He nodded at me, as if to say: I'm here, don't be afraid.
The cleaning lady on the floor came into the room to change the garbage bags. Seeing us standing in a room full of people with serious expressions, she asked a few more questions.
She said, "I have seen many cases like you in my years of work here. In fact, it is difficult for doctors to tell you directly. Even if you keep the elderly like this, it will cost a lot and he will suffer. In the end, he will not last for a few more days."
The cleaning lady pointed out the matter in just a few words.
My aunt said, "This elder sister is right."
Grandma tucked in the quilt for Grandpa and asked, "Do you agree if I decide on this matter?"
My aunt replied, "Mom, whatever you say is up to you. It's all up to you."