The sinister world is constantly raining heavily, and the closed windows and doors separate the home from the stormy outside world.
An orange table lamp was lit in the quiet bedroom. On the narrow window sill, there was a pot of cactus, a small glass bowl filled with water, and a small white fragrant flower floating in the bowl.
Yin Xian scratched his head.
He got a package, peppers
Funnyly opening the paper bag, he counted carefully, and there were seven peppers in total: one crooked, two small and flat, three thin and long, and one round and strong.
As usual, Yin Xian focused on the words she had scratched out: Be careful when eating, I think it's quite spicy!
Because of her words, he even wanted to put some more chili to taste.
but…
Yin Xian single-handedly picked out the plump, round pepper, looked left and right, the more he looked at it, the more he liked it.
The potted cactus on the windowsill was picked up by Yin Xian. He looked at it, then at the pepper, and made up his mind.
The green cactus was uprooted by him and thrown into the trash can.
Peppers take the place of cactus and have a new home.
The ingenious Yin Xian took out the seeds from the peppers and spread them evenly in the potting soil.
"Okay, you can grow up here obediently in the future." He watered it intimately.
The unteared label on the outside of the small clay pot read the words "cactus". Yin Xian picked up a pen and changed it to "fairy pepper".
The fairy pepper settled down and grew quietly.
This rainy season when Yin Xian was 17 years old suddenly became less difficult.
He picked up his books again, participated in morning self-study and evening self-study, and never missed any tutoring class.
After school, he squeezed his way through the bustling crowds to eat a bowl of noodles at a noodle shop before returning to his dorm to water his plants.
The knife in the pen holder is no longer used for anything other than sharpening pencils.
Yin Xian patiently waited for the fairy pepper to grow into a pot of very hot pepper.
He communicates with "Little Fairy" every day.
Sometimes they speak long and sometimes short.
They haven't met, but she cares about him more than his relatives and spends more time with him.
Before the end of the whole rainy season, knowing that she likes sweets, Yin Xian put a stick of milk-flavored ice cream in the envelope.
Before the rainy season in Dashan, Wang Jiexiang got a stick of ice cream from her pen pal "Dao".
When it was delivered to her, it was still fresh from the freezer.
Milk ice cream!
The best milk flavor ever!
Wang Jiexiang has always wanted to eat.
There are small shops in the town for sale, but one is too expensive to sell, and it is impossible for their family to buy it.
She politely asked in the letter: [Can I really eat it?]
He replied: [Yes.]
Wang Jiexiang is so happy.
She unwrapped the ice cream and poured it into a bowl.
The white ice cream is like a piece of tofu made of milk, exuding a cold mist and the aroma of mellow milk.
She swallowed hard, still reluctant to eat this delicacy by herself, and chose to ask her mother to eat with her.
My mother was busy collecting the dried tea in the yard, and said, "It's going to rain soon, and it will come soon."
So Wang Jiexiang held two spoons and lay down in front of the dining table, looking at the ice cream with full of anticipation.
"What's this?"
A hand descended from the sky, and took away her bowl.
Wang Jiexiang raised her head and saw grandma's face.
The old man had drooping bags under the eyes, and his mouth protruded slightly. When he was unhappy, his whole face was tense, and he stared straight at people with hanging eyes.
Wang Jiexiang didn't understand why she was so afraid of grandma.
Her body shrank back unconsciously, and her voice trembled.
"It's for eating..."
Outside the house was cloudy, and a torrential rain was brewing.
A bolt of lightning strikes, the sky and the earth light up for a moment, and then go dark again.
The bowl was thrown on the table, and grandma asked her coldly, "Where did it come from?"
Rumbling thunder exploded in my ears.
"From, from..." Wang Jiexiang was so drunk by her, he hesitated and said: "It was given by others."
"Others? Who is so kind?"
She grabbed her collar and slapped her with the other hand: "Did you steal my money to buy it?"
"No, I haven't."
"mom!"
Wang Jiexiang's nose was sour, and she whispered towards the yard for help.
"Mom, help me..."
"Thief, bastard..."
"Bitch, liar..."
Grandma spat on the floor, slapped her and cursed her.
"You don't know? You don't have a mother anymore."
Dark house, heavy rain falls.
Without lights, the whole world has no lights, and the mountains don't speak.
Wang Jiexiang cried, crying louder.
Her face was swollen, her tied hair was thrown loose, and the rubber band fell out of nowhere.
A boy's cry came from inside the house.
He cries with her.
No mother.
You have no mother.
Wang Jiexiang hates it.
Her hair was loose, and there were tears, saliva, and snot on her face.
She stared at her grandma with dark eyes, and she yelled at her sharply, like a trampled cat.
"But my younger brother has ice cream!"
Wang Jiexiang clenched her lips stubbornly, her teeth were shaking, and her body was shaking.
She stared, with tears rolling in her eyes, refusing to fall.
"My brother has ice cream, every time."
She asked, "Grandma, why can't I have one?"
Grandma picked up her ice cream bowl and brought it to the room to comfort her crying brother.
She said lightly, "Because you are a woman."
This is real.
Wang Jiexiang bit her finger, her shoulders trembled, and she laughed uncontrollably.
These are the real ones.
The heartbreak is real, the swollen face is real, and the fact that I have never eaten ice cream is real.
Yin Xian, what kind of shoddy spiritual world is this
Everything he thought was ridiculous.
Wang Jiexiang's 16 years old, Wang Jiexiang's youth...
Never went to high school, didn't have a mother, never rode a bicycle bought by my father, and never ate ice cream bought by my grandma even once.
There is no magic, no one says she is beautiful, no one gives candy or ice cream, no one becomes Yin Xian's pen pal.
Youth just passed away.
She has nothing, accomplished nothing.
This is her youth.
"Incense...incense..."
Mother's voice was on the left, she beckoned her to come, and showed her with a smile, the sky blue round neck thin sweater she newly knitted for her.
The cry of the younger brother is on the right, and the pen and paper that can write letters to Yin Xian are on the right.
Wang Jiexiang is located in the middle of the two voices.
She clearly knew that as long as she ran to hold her mother's hand, she could stay and not leave.
Then it’s okay, go back to the beginning of this world, wear a new sweater to go to high school, nestle in grandma’s arms and act like a baby, listen to mom’s breathing and nagging, be laughed at by her for not growing up, and be gently tucked in by her .
But she stood up and walked to the right.
"Fragrance..."
She was dragged by that call, turning her head three times a step, the pain was as if a piece of flesh had been plucked out of her heart.
The conversation by the creek that day is still in my ears.
She said that she wanted to stay with her mother all the time, and vowed that she would never marry in the future and would never like others so much.
"How can you control what you like." Mom said.
Wang Jiexiang wiped away her tears, sat down at her desk, and picked up a pen and paper.
She wrote for a very, very long time, scribbling and changing, and there was only one sentence left in the end.
[Yin Xian, it would be great if I could start my life over again. It's too hard, let's never meet again.]
After the sent letter disappeared, she went to her brother's bed.
He stopped crying now and was eating ice cream with relish. Grandma squatted beside him, serving him and wiping his mouth.
The boy was just naughty, and when he saw her coming, he made an ugly face at her.
Her mother is good-looking, and Wang Jiexiang's face shape and eyebrows are more inherited from her father, so her younger brother is more like her mother than she is.
He has long eyelashes, delicate eyebrows, and plump lips that are 100% like his mother.
This kind of similarity, instead of arousing Wang Jiexiang's love, made her loathe him even more.
It was a reckless crime.
"Scrap." The younger brother imitated grandma and called her that.
The angrier Wang Jiexiang was, the more complacent he was.
The little devil used his mother's beautiful face to make ugly expressions and speak harsh words to her.
"Give me back the ice cream."
Wang Jiexiang reached out to grab his bowl.
"Go away, go away," the younger brother twisted his body and patted her hand: "The ice cream is mine."
"My boyfriend bought it for me."
She calmly said to him one word at a time: "It's mine."
Grandma was upset, and stood up with her hips crossed, making decisions for her brother.
"As an older sister, will you let your younger brother? Whoever it is, what's wrong with giving it to your younger brother?"
Wang Jiexiang was too lazy to talk nonsense with them, so she took the bowl with brute force and slammed it on the ground.
The bowl broke into pieces.
White ice cream fell on the dirty floor.
In front of him, the dumbfounded grandma and the crying brother disappeared together in this space.
Wang Jiexiang lost her strength and squatted down with her knees hugged.
It was raining heavily outside.
It seemed that someone was crying hoarsely for her.
"Yin Xian," Wang Jiexiang looked at the rain outside the window, and said to himself, "It would be great if I could do it all over again..."
In the letter, before everything was scribbled and altered, before it was heavily crossed out.
She writes:
[Yin Xian, if you can start your life over again. I, Wang Jiexiang, still want to meet you.
I want to live next door to your house, teach you to ride a bicycle, take you out to play, and we will raise rabbits together. A little bigger, we go to the same school, I have to make you like me first, and return everything I like about you.
You will urge me to study hard and teach me mathematics; I will teach you to write essays and remind you not to lose your dreams. After graduating from high school, I will take the college entrance examination with you and become a very smart and knowledgeable girl.
Then you have always liked me very much, we grew up and got married. Give birth to a child, a girl, and you still like me more than a child. Then, I will drink a lot of carrot juice and spend a very happy life with you.]
A clean white envelope appeared on the table.
Wang Jiexiang sighed deeply, walked over and opened it.
There is no reply letter from 17-year-old Yin Xian anymore, only a lonely key lying there.
"I hate you to death."
I don't know what poked the pain point, and the tears that had stopped poured out again.
Wang Jiexiang wiped away her tears with her fingers, and combed her hair hastily. Then, she poured the key in the envelope into the palm of her hand and held it firmly.
The raindrops stopped falling, the sun broke through the dark clouds, and the light of the whole world was absorbed by the key.
The picture of the old house faded away frame by frame, Wang Jiexiang closed his eyes, and his body was wrapped in a burst of warmth.