As Mr. Liu expected, Fu Jia and Lele got along well, and there were no problems for three days.
The couple packed their bags in peace and prepared to go on a trip.
Fu Jia deliberately asked for a half-day leave. First, she took Lele to the kindergarten, and then rushed to Mr. Liu's house. She went up and down three times, carried all the couple's luggage into her car, and drove them to the airport.
"Fu Jia, won't you delay your work?" Teacher Liu asked worriedly.
"Don't delay." Fu Jia said, "I rarely ask for leave, but occasionally I'll be fine for half a day."
In the summer heat, Fu Jia climbed the stairs three times in a row in order to help them carry their luggage, sweating a lot on the forehead. Mrs. Liu looked distressed. After arriving at the airport, she went to the store to buy a box of ice cream. She gave it to Fu Jia and said, "If you are not busy going back, let's eat something cool to relieve the heat."
Fu Jia took the box of ice cream and smiled: "You take me as Lele."
Mr. Liu held the tissue in his hand and wanted to wipe his sweat with his own hands. She often thinks that if she met Fu Jia when she was a child, she would definitely adopt him. If Fu Jia was really her son, she wouldn't be like now, wanting to care about him, but because of affection.
"In my eyes, you and Lele are the same." Teacher Liu handed him the tissue, "You have to take good care of yourself and Lele during the week I'm out, you know?"
In fact, she has no position to say this to Fu Jia. In the past seven years, she has given Fu Jia very little help, and Fu Jia has always taken care of herself.
Fu Jia nodded in response.
Teacher Liu was reluctant to say goodbye to him and went to check-in with her husband.
After more than ten hours of flight, she arrived at her destination. A friend came to the airport to pick her up and her husband. The three of them hadn't seen each other for many years. They were still as close as they were many years ago, and they chatted warmly in the car.
"Mr. Liu, you and Lao Tang have brought too much stuff, how can you two old guys move?" the friend asked jokingly.
Teacher Tang answered before Teacher Liu, "I don't think that you haven't returned to China for so many years, and you haven't tasted the taste of your hometown, so I brought it here for you and your daughter and son-in-law."
Teacher Liu also said, "Don't be polite to me. My students drove us to the airport, and he moved everything."
"What student?" The friend laughed. "There are not many students with such conscience now, but you are also a conscientious teacher. It is not surprising that some students are sincere towards you."
Teacher Tang glanced at Teacher Liu and said, "What conscience, she has been partial to this one for so many years, or because he has a good relationship with Qi An."
Teacher Liu gave her husband an eye knife and explained to his friend: "Don't listen to his nonsense, even if there is no Qi An, I will only be partial to this one. Speaking of which, do you remember Qi An, he is Qi Bing's son ."
"I remember." My friend said, "How could I not remember Qi Bing's child. He was a baby when I was in China. Qi Bing took him out to play once, and we never saw him again. If she was..."
Once a person gets old, it is easy to plunge into memories. The shock and resentment at the beginning have now become regrets and regrets.
The three fell silent at the same time, and did not mention Qi Bing again.
A few seconds later, the friend took the initiative to change the subject: "You must have never thought that even if you don't tell me about Qi'an, I will tell you about him. Although I haven't seen him in these years, I know that his family is a What, didn't my daughter graduate with a Ph.D. a few years ago? Now she's working in his company."
"What?" Teacher Liu sat up straight and asked anxiously, "Are you serious?"
Her friend was amused by her eager look: "Of course it's true, why are you so surprised? Haven't you contacted him all these years? You were the dean of his high school back then, and you would show it off to us from time to time."
Teacher Liu hesitated for a moment, then shook his head: "We cut off contact seven years ago. How is he doing now, is everything okay?"
"I don't know the specifics. He is a senior executive of the company. My daughter has only been working for a few years, but my daughter said that his work is very rigorous and serious, and it seems that he is dying to work overtime, so she has to work overtime every day."
Teacher Liu was a little stunned.
In seven years, she actually contacted Lu Qi'an once, only once. It was also in the year Lele came to her that the vice-principal and vice-principal of No. 6 Middle School were successively dismissed, and the leadership changed to a new team. She was the only one who survived unscathed and was elected as the principal by the school. She admitted that she was incompetent and refused to do it. She received an unfamiliar phone call that night.
It was Lu Qi'an who called.
She held the phone in disbelief and excitedly asked him about his situation over the years, but Lu Qi'an just asked her, "Why don't you want to be the principal?"
Teacher Liu was completely shocked, and did not expect his participation in the change of No. 6 Middle School. She explained to Lu Qi'an why she didn't want to be the principal, but Lu Qi'an did not force her.
At the end of the call, Lu Qi'an was silent for a while, and asked softly, "Is Fu Jia okay?"
If Teacher Liu hadn't listened to his voice attentively, he might have missed this sentence. Lu Qi'an's tone was too light, more like a sigh than a question.
At that moment, Teacher Liu's eyes reddened, choked up, covered the microphone with his hand, and took the phone away.
What else does she not understand
Lu Qi'an has always treated Fu Jia in a unique way.
Even an outsider like her gradually understood.
"I haven't contacted you for seven years..." my friend sighed, "Maybe he was abroad, busy with studies and work, and didn't have time to contact you. His father was very strict, and Qi Bing was the same back then. He was too strict. But you also Don't be sad, he should contact you soon, my daughter told me last month that Qi An has returned to China, and he is returning to settle in China, and all his work has been transferred back to China."
Teacher Liu opened his eyes wide and stared blankly at his friend.
Teacher Tang saw that something was wrong with her and asked, "What are you doing?"
Teacher Liu looked at her husband, a little overwhelmed. For seven years, she had been looking forward to Lu Qi'an's return, thinking about asking him how he had been all these years. But when this moment really came, the first thing that came to her mind was Fu Jia.
She took out her phone tremblingly and said, "I... I don't know, he actually came back. I want to call Fu Jia, but, I... "
Teacher Tang held her hand and said, "Calm down, we just arrived at our destination, and it's not too late to call him when we settle down."
Teacher Liu stubbornly pushed his hand away and called Fu Jia.
It was already evening in China, and Fu Jia answered the phone and listened to her asking him what had happened recently. Fu Jia thought she was worried about Lele at first, and kept reassuring her that she would take good care of Lele. Teacher Liu still hesitated to say something, but couldn't say anything.
After ten minutes on the phone, Mr. Liu didn't say anything clearly and hung up in confusion.
Fu Jia put down the phone and frowned slightly.
"Finished?" Seeing him ending the call, colleague Gao Xing came over with two cups of coffee, "Let's go to the balcony to chat for a while."
"What happened?" Fu Jia asked.
Gao Xing smiled and said, "At ease, don't be a soldier, just a little private matter."
Fu Jia inexplicably took the coffee and walked up the balcony with him.
"Look at your circle of friends, are you helping your teacher with children recently?" Gao Xing asked.
"Yeah." Fu Jia nodded. He posted a photo of Lele eating breakfast at his house in his circle of friends. Teacher Liu liked it very much and urged him to post it several times a day.
"Recently, my wife has been urging me to take my children out to play, and scolded me for not taking children. This weekend, let's take the children to the park to play together. I can relax with my daughter."
Fu Jia frowned and looked at him, thinking that his invitation was strange and nothing unreasonable.
He thought that Lele Kindergarten was on holiday on weekends, and he didn't know how to take him all day, so he agreed.
Gao Xing smiled and rolled his eyes, "Then I'll thank you first."
At nine o'clock in the morning on weekends, Fu Jia and Gao Xing's family met at the park entrance. It doesn't match Gao Xing's description, his wife is gentle and kind, not like someone who can scold her husband, and he himself is not as good at raising children as he said. He is proficient in taking care of his daughter, even more proficient than his wife.
With the doubts in his heart, Fu Jia squatted down and said to Lele, "Say hello to my sister."
Gao Xing's daughter is still a little baby who can't speak, lying in a stroller blowing bubbles.
Lele lay on the side of the stroller, stared curiously at her chubby face, and said hello to her.
Before entering the park, Gao Xing's wife went to a nearby store to buy a lot of snacks. She gave Lele a rainbow marshmallow and said with a smile, "Every child who comes to the park will buy marshmallows to eat, do you want Lele? "
Beautiful rainbow marshmallows, the first convenience store at the exit of the subway station is selling them.
Fu Jia remembered.
Lele's eyes lit up and she looked up at Fu Jia. Fu Jia smiled and said, "Take it, thank you auntie."
Lele took the marshmallow: "Thank you auntie!"
Gao Xing's wife patted his head and praised him for being polite.
A group of five walked into the park. Fu Jia saw a store on the roadside selling cartoon-shaped balloons, so he bought two, one for Lele and one tied to Gao Xing's daughter's stroller as a gift for cotton candy.
Gao Xing pushed the stroller, and his wife followed him closely with a parasol in one hand and his arm in the other. They are a close-knit family, even the shadows are superimposed on each other.
Fu Jia lowered her head and saw that Lele's white and tender face was flushed from the sun, her forehead was sweating, and her fine hair was all stuck to her forehead. Knowing that he didn't think about it, he let Gao Xing's family go first, while he returned to the store where he bought the balloons and bought Lele a sun hat.
After putting on the sun hat, Fu Jia led Lele to rest in the shade, and wanted to wait for the redness on his face to fade before going to Gao Xing.
Lele was sitting on a wooden chair dangling his feet, holding a balloon in his left hand and a marshmallow in his right, eating all the time. The marshmallows are so big that even adults feel too big, and children are even more difficult to eat. The candy sticks to his mouth, he stretches out his hand to wipe it, one in his left hand, the balloon runs away, he wants to pull it, and one in his right hand, the marshmallow falls off.
Lele: …
He pursed his lips and wanted to cry. Looking up, I wanted to pull the balloon hanging on the branch, but I couldn't touch it, so I squatted down and wanted to check the marshmallow.
Fu Jia stopped him, patted him on the back and coaxed, "If Lele doesn't pick it up, it's fine if you drop it. Uncle will buy another one for you. You should be able to get the balloon back. Uncle, give it a try, okay?"
Lele hummed, but didn't cry.
Fu Jia stood up, looked up at the string hanging from the balloon hanging on the tree, stood on tiptoe, and reached for it.
The sunlight filtered through the lush foliage, casting mottled tree shadows on his face.
There has never been a more dazzling moment in this life.
One hand stretched out higher than Fu Jia, and lightly held the string of the balloon and pulled the balloon down.
The man was standing behind Fu Jia, very close, but not close enough. The breaths of the two blended together for a moment, and then dissipated like smoke in the next moment.
Lu Qi'an took the balloon down, handed it to Lele, and asked, "Is this yours?"
His voice was cold, Lele was a little afraid of him, lowered his head slightly, and timidly reached out his hand to take the balloon, not daring to say thank you.
Lu Qi'an turned around and looked at Fu Jia. Compared to looking at a four-year-old child, his eyes were much softer when he looked at Fu Jia.
In fact, he wanted to give the balloon to Fu Jia.