innocent year

Xu's father and son came to a nearby park.The greenery here is good and no tickets are required. It is the first choice for many elderly people to do morning exercises and parents to take their children for a walk.Xu Minghai used to come here often when he was a child. Now that I look at it again, I don't know if my memory has made a mistake. It's so small here?

Xu Yong bought a bunch of yams with rock sugar from the vendor in the courtyard, and took Xu Minghai to sit on a stone bench in a corner of the park.

"Don't you not like sweets?" Xu Minghai looked at his father's unusual behavior and wondered.

Xu Yong took a bite of the frozen rock candy, chewed and said, "I was the cutest when I was young. But my family is poor, there are many brothers, and there are natural disasters. How can I have spare money to buy candy? Your grandma is the best!" Take more of the non-staple food tickets you saved and go to the store to buy some scum.”

Xu Minghai was puzzled: "Scumbag?"

"Oh, it's the puff pastry that has fallen off from the dim sum, and it's broken into pieces. It's really satisfying to eat with a spoon. But you have to be careful when eating, there may be mouse droppings."

"..."

"Once, I saw the neighbor's third son holding a piece of fruit candy. I was so greedy that I begged him to let me lick it. He said that if I learn how to bark, I will lick it. He scolded me for being worthless and made no face for him, and dragged me from the door of my house to the entrance of the alley with the sole of my shoe."

Xu Minghai took a deep breath: "Are these three still alive, Dad, I'll whip him for you!"

Xu Yong smiled and waved his hands: "After that time, I will not eat sweets anymore. It is strange to say that if I don't eat it all the time, I really don't like it." After finishing speaking, he handed the rock sugar yam in his hand to Xu Minghai .

Xu Minghai took it and bit it, and he didn't forget to reassure his father: "Dad, you were poor when you were young. But isn't it getting better and better now? You can eat freely in the future, just be careful not to get diabetes."

"Son, what I want to say is actually," Xu Yong paused, staring at Xu Minghai, "Even if Guozi is the piece of candy you like most in your heart, you can't get along with him anymore."

In an instant, all the blood in his body rushed to Xu Minghai's head.He blushed, with a yam in his mouth, neither spit nor swallowed, choked in his throat, almost suffocating.

Xu Yong finally gave up looking at his son.He lowered his head and said slowly: "At the beginning, it may be uncomfortable, you may not be able to sleep, and you may feel wronged. But as time goes on, it will fade away. When you reach my age, you will never think about that candy anymore .”

It's not that Xu Minghai didn't think that one day things between the two of them would come to light.He even thought that he was already mentally prepared: for example, he could bear being slapped or kicked by Li Yandong.However, he couldn't stand his father's way of comparing his feelings to a child's greed in this kind of over-the-top tone.

"Dad..." Xu Minghai murmured, "You are... are..."

"How did I find out?" Xu Yong grinned helplessly, "That day, Guozi came back early in the morning to wash his hair in the yard. I walked by and saw him with a scary mosquito bag and scratches. To put it bluntly, it's all At this age, what can you do to let mosquitoes bite you like that? I thought he couldn't hold back with his little girlfriend, and the two of them were out in the wild... But I didn't expect..."

Xu Minghai answered the second half of the sentence in his mind, but he didn't expect his son to come back with the same bag and marks of scratching and biting, which was shocking.He immediately understood his father's mood when he accidentally broke the bowl that day.

Xu Yong continued: "I was afraid that I was thinking too much, so I followed you two for a month."

"Followed us... for two months?" Xu Minghai became a repeater again.

"Every Monday you will pick up Guozi after school, and then go to XX Hotel. You told your mother that Feng Yuan's store releases new albums every Monday, and you help to watch a movie at night with Guozi. Anyway, there is no need for Guozi. Who to tell."

Xu Minghai was really stupid this time: "No, where did you get the time to keep an eye on us?"

Xu Yong laughed again: "Your father has been laid off for almost half a year."

"What?!" Surprised, Xu Minghai hurriedly asked, "Why didn't you tell the family? Then you carry a bag every day..."

"I started carrying my bag every day to look for a job at 'Relocation and Reemployment for Laid-off Personnel', but more and more people registered, but there was no news about jobs. Later, I came here."

Xu Yong shook his chin everywhere: "Look at the scenery and think about life. People who reflect on their own age are useless. As soon as the economic system is reformed in the factory, I will be the first to be kicked out. Hey, I was still a scumbag just a second ago. The screws of society, the next second, become garbage that hinders the development of enterprises, and they are pried off and thrown away."

"dad……"

At that time, the concept of "mid-life crisis" was not popular yet.Everyone is unprepared and surging in the torrent of the times. Every minute, some people become rich and some are laid off.And Xu Minghai, as a 20-year-old boy, couldn't fully understand his father's anxiety.

"Dad, your son can earn more than you can go to work. You can treat it as an early retirement and enjoy the happiness at home!"

"It's not as simple as you think?" Xu Yong said, "Your mother has been looking forward to the house division for half her life, but now the house is not divided, and people are also laid off. The hope is suddenly gone. I'm really afraid that your mother will not be able to bear it."

Xu Minghai felt that the conversation with Xu Yong today was like playing Russian matryoshka.One layer after another, there will always be worse news waiting for you.

"What does it mean that my mother can't bear it?"

Xu Yong glanced at Xu Minghai: "I saw the diagnosis certificate in your mother's bag, liver cancer stage III."

This time, the blood gushing in Xu Minghai's brain suddenly flowed cleanly along his limbs, and his body suddenly became cold.

half an hour.

"Dad..." Xu Minghai stammered and asked, "Could it be a mistake? I saw that my mother's health is better than mine. Really, I can eat two big bowls of rice. I met Aunt Qian at the entrance of the alley that day. Quarreling, very confident."

"It's black and white, how can I read it wrong? I asked other doctors, and they said that the third stage is the late stage, which is equivalent to a death sentence. Most people can only live for two or three years. I have seen her secretly take medicine. The packaging has been torn off, it must be because we are afraid that the two of us will find out."

Xu Minghai was completely speechless.He stared blankly at Xu Yong, and stretched out his hand to pinch his arm.

"I pinched it a long time ago," Xu Yong shook his head, "I pinch it every morning when I wake up, it's all purple, it's useless."

Xu Minghai watched the other party's mouth open and close, and he was talking about something. When he realized it, he blurted out: "Dad! I'm working hard to make money. If there is any hope, we will not give up on my mother."

Xu Yong remained silent, as if he was waiting for Xu Minghai to say "but".

"But I can't live without fruit. Dad, he is not my candy, he is my life!"

Hearing such an unethical but powerful answer, Xu Yong couldn't help but smile wryly.Before coming, he probably knew that his son would react like this.Ever since he'd noticed, he'd been nearly set on fire by the sparks in the eyes of the two kids when they looked at each other.It's not that the enemies don't get together, and I don't know who to ask to settle this debt.

On the other hand, Xu Minghai is still eagerly admitting that he is worthless and doesn't want to make a face for adults.I begged Xu Yong to beat him hard with the sole of his shoe.But he just couldn't share with Guo Zi. If the two of them could really control themselves, they wouldn't be where they are today.

Xu Yong interrupted Xu Minghai: "In order not to worry you, I pretended to come to work in the park from nine to five every day; in order not to worry us both, your mother took on such a big matter by herself. Xu Minghai, Tell me, why do we all have to pretend to be grandchildren and pretend to be quiet, while you can have fun on your own? Is it fair?"

Xu Minghai was speechless.

Xu Yong couldn't laugh anymore, he wiped his eyes heavily: "Father, please break with Guozi. He is a good boy, he studies well, has a good temper, and looks good. But men and men, No matter how good it is, it won't last forever. I can see it, and your mother may see it someday. Liver disease can't bear anger. She will be strong for a lifetime. You let her live the last few years with dignity, OK?"

Relying on his intelligence, Xu Minghai always felt that everything could be done, but at this moment, 1 thoughts were surging in his mind at the same time, and none of them was reliable.

Why is it so difficult for people to live?

It took a long time before he said tremblingly: "Dad, you said my mother... how many years does my mother have?"

"At best, there are still two or three years."

"It can't be cured?" Xu Minghai asked.

"Chemotherapy hurts more than death. Are you willing to go after this pain?" Xu Yong answered frankly, "Anyway, I'm not happy."

"Dad, let's talk about a condition." Xu Minghai forced himself to calm down, "You continue to pretend that you work from nine to five, but don't stay in the park anymore, I'll find you a job that doesn't expose you to the wind and sun Son, I don’t have much money, but it’s a business. Besides, you’ve been laying the groundwork for my mother from now on, saying that there’s something to be said about housing. After the Chinese New Year, I’ll find a friend to rent a flat, and you’ll say it’s in the factory. Move in with my mother, and let my mother fulfill this dream."

"Can it work?" Xu Yong hesitated, "Will there be any flaws?"

"It can be done. I will fill in the flaws when there is a real flaw. As for Guozi, I will let him go to a university in another place. He will come back after graduation."

Speaking of this, Xu Minghai gritted his teeth, and said cruelly: "Dad, I forced him between the two of us. Your son is useless, and he is born to be hard on women. You know, if you beat me up As a brother, he listened to me in everything, and he had to obey me in this matter. He didn't do anything wrong from the beginning to the end, so I have to be responsible to him. You said that men and men can't get along forever, but I The two are different, and they will definitely be together for a lifetime, you believe me."

Looking at his son who was desperately trying to prove himself, Xu Yong thought of himself who cried all night for a piece of fruit candy.At that time, he secretly vowed that when he grows up, he will become famous and afford the most expensive sugar in the world.But now, hasn't he been hammered into another person by firewood, rice, oil and salt?

Young people are good at swearing because they can't.

After a while, Xu Yong said slowly: "When your mother is gone, you can do whatever you like. I just pretend that I am blind and can't see anything." After speaking, he got up and left.

As his father's figure walked further and further away, Xu Minghai vaguely heard the lyrics of the song "Taiping".It's just that this cheerful ditty was hummed by Xu Yong with a sad taste.

"I went out to the west of the city with nothing to do. I saw other people riding horses and I rode donkeys. I turned around and saw the man pushing the cart. I was more than the top and the bottom was more than the bottom."

When Xu Yong completely disappeared from sight, Xu Minghai realized that the rock sugar yam was still tightly held in his hands.