In the early morning of the first day of the new year, Yang Zhengming drove to pick up Tao Xi and went to a cemetery on the outskirts of the city. Last night, Tao Xi told him that he wanted to sweep Fang Sui's tomb.
The cemetery is in the middle of a landscape, the sky is still early, and the white fog envelopes the silent and uninhabited cemetery. Tao Xi followed Yang Zhengming for a long time before reaching Fang Sui's tomb.
This was the first time Tao Xi saw his mother, across a tomb.
After Yang Zhengming saw Fang Sui, he walked not far away, leaving Tao Xi alone to speak to Fang Sui.
Tao Xi placed a bunch of white roses in front of the tombstone, and the snow-white petals were still stained with dewdrops. He squatted down and looked at the tombstone, reaching out and stroking the lettering on the cold stone tablet.
The photo of the spike above the tombstone was replaced not long ago, and a pair of beautiful eyes gently watched everyone who came here to see her. The people who came to see her grew old year by year, but the people in the photo always stopped in that pattern. age of age.
Tao Xi watched quietly for a long time, as if looking at the mother in the photo, he said softly, "Mom, I'm here to see you, can you see me?"
In the cemetery, the wind and birdsong could only be faintly heard, and after a long time, he continued to say to the tombstone:
"Mom, I'm home."
"Grandpa and grandma are very good to me. I had dinner with them last night, and grandma cooked a lot of dishes for me."
"Grandma said that I like drinking the rice wine she made as much as you, so I drank an extra bowl, if only you could drink it too."
"I'm doing well now. I have someone I like very much, and he likes me very much. I came here for him, and he took me home."
"I'm learning painting with Grandpa Qiao. He always said that he has a very good female student. I know it's you. In the future, I will make him as proud of you as I am."
"Mom, thank you for always blessing me in the sky."
"I miss you so much, I wish you a happy life in heaven."
The fog gradually dissipated, and the light golden sunlight passed through the shallow white fog. Tao Xi stood up from the tombstone, and finally slowly bent down towards the tombstone.
On the way back, both father and son were a little silent. Yang Zhengming was driving the car. This time he didn't turn on the music. Tao Xi kept looking out of the window. After being silent for a long time, he suddenly asked Yang Zhengming:
"Why Taoxi Bay?"
On the way here, he had a general idea of why Fang Sui left his family through Yang Zhengming.
He could only know that many years ago, Yang Zhengming was still Fang Zuqing's proud disciple. Because his parents died early, he was taken care of by his teacher, and he secretly had a relationship with the teacher's daughter. It could be a happy story, but it ended up like this.
There is no hatred, no betrayal, everything is just a tear in the name of love, which drives Fang Sui at the center of the vortex to a desperate situation. She is pregnant with her lover's child, and she is dedicated to giving him life but is not allowed by her parents, even the best Friends also turned her away for help, and finally her lover also chose to retreat and escape.
People who have always been obedient, once they become stubborn, there may be no turning back. Fang Sui, who was desperate, went to Taoxi Bay and never came back.
But why Taoxiwan
Tao Xi asked Yang Zhengming this question, but the car gradually stopped on the side of the road. He saw Yang Zhengming lowered his head, his fingers clenched tightly on the steering wheel, and the muscles on the back of his hands were hideous, as if he was enduring great pain and remorse.
After a long time, he opened his mouth and his voice became hoarse: "I used to like photography, and I photographed the scenery of many places. She... She likes the peach blossoms in Taoxi Bay the most. I promised to accompany her to sketch there in the future."
Those photographic works also attracted the attention of Taoxi Bay for a short time, and they are his most proud works.
Later, when they were anxiously looking for Fang Sui, they found all the places Fang Sui might go to, but he never thought of this place. He forgot the look Fang Sui yearned for at that time, and he also forgot his perfunctory promise at that time.
After listening to Tao Xi, he was silent and did not speak.
He thought that his mother was in Taoxi Bay, and she must have expected Yang Zhengming to go there, but until the end of her life, she could not wait for the person who brought her home.
"I'm sorry." Yang Zhengming said suddenly, looking at Tao Xi with red eyes, "I didn't go to Taoxi Bay to find her, and I didn't go to Taoxi Bay to find you later."
Tao Xi didn't respond to Yang Zhengming, he pressed down the car window and looked out the window, the cold wind from the mountains poured in, but something seemed to be blocking his chest, which still made him uncomfortable.
He has heard too many sorry, but no matter how much he is sorry, it will not change his mother, nor the seventeen years he has missed.
And Tao Xi, the name that Guo Ping took down at will, seems to be a prophecy, and it also seems to be a life imprint on him as a joke of fate.
After that, on the way back, the father and son didn't say a word.
Tao Xi returned home alone, and when he entered the door, he saw Lin Qinhe standing by the sofa in the living room and looking at him. He was wearing a gray-blue sweater and holding a book in his hand. Obviously, he had been reading here and waiting for him to come back. .
Tao Xi changed his shoes and walked slowly to Lin Qinhe. He didn't say anything, and Lin Qinhe didn't ask anything, just reached out and hugged him into his arms.
He buried his face in the soft and warm sweater on Lin Qinhe's shoulders, leaning all his weight on Lin Qinhe's arms, and took a deep breath, like a returning bird that finally hid in the nest after the wind and the rain, he felt the pain in his chest. A little dull.
"Do you want to go out for a bike ride in the afternoon?" Lin Qinhe asked.
Tao Xi nodded, he really didn't want to be bored at home.
The weather was very good that day, and it was a rare bright sun in winter. They rode their bicycles to many places in Wenhua City. Lin Qinhe took him to the elementary school, junior high school, and even kindergarten where he attended.
When they arrived at the kindergarten, just in time for the children to leave school, Tao Xi and Lin Qinhe stood abruptly at the door, and there were many parents who came to pick up their children, frequently looking at these two eye-catching young people.
A grandma stood beside Tao Xi and asked him, "Are you here to pick up your brother or sister?"
He casually said nonsense: "Come to pick up my brother, the kindergarten senior class."
Grandma came to be interested and said that her granddaughter was also in Taipan, what was her name Yunyun, and said that Tao Xi was so good-looking, and she was sure that her younger brother was also good-looking, so she asked Tao Xi's brother's name, maybe she and her little granddaughter still knew each other. Woolen cloth.
Tao Xi thought about it, smiled, and said, "It's Lin Qinhe, did your granddaughter mention it when she got home?"
Lin Qinhe, who was sitting astride the bicycle, immediately turned his head and glanced at Tao Xi.
"Oh, the name is also nice, but I haven't heard my granddaughter say there is such a child." Grandma sighed with regret, and asked Lin Qinhe next to Tao Xi, "You are here to pick up this handsome guy too. Brother or sister?"
Lin Qinhe nodded expressionlessly and said, "Pick up my brother." After she finished speaking, she didn't wait for her grandmother to continue her questioning, and continued solemnly, "In the kindergarten class, my name is Tao Xi."
Tao Xi was overjoyed, smiled at the grandmother and said, "Our two younger brothers are in the same class."
"It's so good, the brothers have such a good relationship, and the younger brothers can grow up together and have each other's company." Grandma finished enviously, and suddenly heard her granddaughter calling her, so she hurried to pick up her granddaughter.
The two quickly took the opportunity to ride their bikes away. On the way, Tao Xi couldn't help laughing. Lin Qinhe glanced at him several times. He didn't know where he jumped, and suddenly asked Lin Qinhe:
"Hey, you're so smart, why don't you skip grades?"
He thought that with Lin Qinhe's IQ, it would not be a problem to skip four or five grades.
Lin Qinhe didn't keep up with Tao Xi's jumping thinking, and said, "A teacher suggested it in elementary school, but my mother didn't agree."
"Fortunately, you didn't skip a grade." Tao Xi clicked his tongue, and looked at Lin Qinhe with a bright smile in his eyes, "Otherwise, how would I go to the kindergarten class with you."
Lin Qinhe smiled when he heard the words, thinking that fortunately, Tao Xi didn't continue to ask why Luo Zhengyin didn't agree with him skipping grades.
As a result, in the next second, Tao Xi suddenly said to Lin Qinhe with a serious look: "I'll wait for your mother to feel better in a while, and I'll go visit her."
He knew that Luo Zhengyin was treating and recuperating in the sanatorium, and probably knew that she had relapsed because of her background.
Lin Qinhe's fingers holding the handle of the bicycle twitched. He didn't expect that Tao Xi would offer to see Luo Zhengyin. After a few seconds of silence, he finally said, "Okay, she also wants to see you very much."
It wasn't until dusk that the two of them rode slowly along the green road by the river to go home. Tao Xi was almost unable to ride, and his feet were very difficult, but he saw that Lin Qinhe was still riding smoothly and easily in front of him. Very.
He was a little unconvinced, stepped on the pedals hard to catch up, panted slightly and said to Lin Qinhe: "I will take you to Taoxi Bay to climb the mountain in the future, you will definitely not be as good as me."
Lin Qinhe looked at Tao Xi's face that was a little red due to sweating, the corners of his lips lifted slightly, and said, "Physical strength will not change because of different places."
Tao Xi stopped the car and put one leg in place. He always felt that what Lin Qinhe said meant something, but he couldn't figure out what Lin Qinhe was referring to after a while.
At this time, Lin Qinhe, who had already ridden a distance, stopped, turned the front of the car to look over, and waited for him with his back facing the twilight of the river.
Tao Xi looked at the picture for a few seconds, stepped on it hard, and rode to Lin Qinhe's side.
The end of the New Year's Day holiday means that there will be no other small long holidays before the final exam, and there will be another ranking class after the final exam.
Even students in the second and first classes of Wenhua No. 1 Middle School are inevitably nervous about the final exam. Tao Xi also devoted himself to preparing for the exam.
Bi Chengfei shared an exclusive gossip with Tao Xi, saying that Xu Ziqi and Yang Duole from the second class had dropped out. After listening to his sister-in-law Bi Aoxue, there was an entry in the file, and it was estimated that he would follow him for the rest of his life. relation.
Tao Xi only said that he didn't know. Bi Chengfei was very curious. He had seen Yang Duole's father come to deliver things to Tao Xi several times. Could it be that he still didn't reach an agreement with Tao Xi in the end
It didn't take long for the final selection results of the CAC competition to come out. Tao Xi lived up to expectations and won the first prize in the country. It was the best result after the storm. He used the bonus to invite his classmates to dinner on weekends. He thanked the classmates for giving him. support.
A group of high school students who were about to be tortured crazy by reviewing, Hu Chihai, drank a meal and then made a noise in the KTV all night. The boys didn't have parents and teachers to take care of them. They ordered more than 30 bottles of beer. Tao Xi wanted to drink it. , but Lin Qinhe didn't allow it, he stuffed a bottle of peach soda into his hand and drank it until he sighed.
The heating in the private room is very strong, the rotating colored lights are turned on by someone who does not know, the colorful halo is dazzling, the restless air is mixed with the smell of beer and juice, and the noisy laughter of young people is loud and vivid.
Tao Xi was in a trance for a while in the hustle and bustle. He remembered that at this time last year, he should have been wrapped in an old cotton-padded coat with no lint. Hua No. 1 Middle School broadcasted his homework, and the idea that supported him at that time was very simple, that is, to broadcast the moon thousands of miles away on the screen.
At this moment, he looked at the classmates of Wenhua No. 1 Middle School who were dancing wildly in front of him, and then looked at the handsome young man beside him. He was wearing a pair of wireless headphones, looking down at the tablet in his hand with his slender fingers on the tablet. Write something, as if you are not in a KTV but a library.
Tao Xi couldn't help but put his head close, and saw that it was the TOEFL English composition that he was forced to write by Lin Qinhe last night, and next to it was the dense red correction notes, the number of words almost caught up with the text.
"...Mr. Lin, you might as well write another one for me." Tao Xi said in a suffocating manner.
Lin Qinhe was blocked by Tao Xi's head, he raised his hand and squeezed Tao Xi's chin and pushed it aside, and continued to annotate the last sentence in a serious tone: "Fan Wen has been written, you can refer to it. "
"...?" Just as Tao Xi was about to say something, Bi Chengfei and the monitor suddenly put them on the bar from the sofa, and a microphone that Bi Chengfei had just spit on was stuffed into his hand. , "Sing one! Sing one!"
Tao Xi was in a good mood, so she ordered a song and sang it. It was an old English song, "FlyMetotheMoon". I heard it and liked it before and wrote it down.
His singing skills are sloppy, and he is very satisfied because he has a good tone and simple tunes, and no one cheers and cheers.
Lin Qinhe finally stopped reading the altered composition beyond recognition. His usually stern face was half hidden in the dim light, and his eyes fell on him through the colorful halo, focused and soft.
After singing, Tao Xi sat back next to Lin Qinhe again, and was about to ask him how he was singing when he saw that Lin Qinhe was still writing on the tablet in his hand.
"Mr. Lin, if you change your homework at my party, I will confiscate your tablet."
Tao Xi said feigning anger, and leaned over to look again, only to see that on the tablet was not his broken composition, but a new canvas with a beautiful handwritten English sentence on it:
"YouareallIlongfor.AllIworshipandadore."
It's the lyrics he just sang, the next line is...
Lin Qinhe handed the tablet in front of him, looked at him out of the corner of his eyes, and said casually, "You want to send it to you."
Tao Xi took the tablet and looked at the English lyrics on it, blushing a little.
After a whole night of fussing, Tao Xi and Lin Qinhe went home together after sending a group of drunks into the car. He was still excited, humming the song he sang all the way, and even climbed into bed after taking a bath. , nestled in Lin Qinhe's arms and took out his mobile phone to count his bonus.
The prize money for the first prize is very generous, and there is still a lot left. Tao Xi talked about what to add to the family and Lin Qinhe, what to buy for grandparents, and what to buy for teacher Qiao Henian...
Lin Qinhe wrapped Tao Xi with one arm and flipped through the book with the other hand, occasionally responding a few times.
After thinking about it, Tao Xi suddenly became quiet, as if thinking about something.
Seeing that Tao Xi was silent, Lin Qinhe lowered his head and glanced at Tao Xi's mobile phone screen, and found that he was staring at the weather in Wenhua City in a daze.
He raised his hand and squeezed Tao Xi's earlobe, and asked, "What are you thinking about?"
Tao Xi regained his senses, turned around and straddled Lin Qinhe's lap, and said, "I'm thinking about my sister. I don't know if she actually received the things I bought for her last time."
The last time it was a cold wave, he bought a bunch of things to keep warm in winter and sent them to Guo Ping, including Tao Le and Guo Ping.
At that time, he didn't know Guo Ping was sick.
Lin Qinhe knew that Tao Xi was thinking more than his sister Tao Le. He reached out and wrapped his arms around Tao Xi's waist, took some into his arms, and asked tentatively, "Do you want to go to Hannan Hospital?"
The last time I met Tao Jian in the hospital, Tao Jian asked Tao Xi to have time to see Guo Ping, but Tao Xi never went, but Lin Qinhe knew that Tao Xi had this thing in his heart.
Tao Xi rested his forehead on Lin Qinhe's shoulder, grabbed a piece of Lin Qinhe's pajamas with his fingers, and said after a while, "I didn't want to see her, but I just thought that some things might need to be resolved."
Lin Qinhe wrapped Tao Xi's fingers holding his pajamas into his palm, and said for him, "Go and see."
No matter how long the road ahead is, there is no need to look back.