Shadow Stream Road

14-year-old Qi Jingyu

In May, peonies were in full bloom, and there was a faint fragrance in the campus. Shen Yu didn't have the heart to smell the fragrance. He lowered his head and walked silently behind Qi Jingyu. The commotion just now made both of them a little embarrassed , even more speechless at this moment.

Qi Jingyu said that he came to the school for a walk, and he really walked around the playground for more than half an hour. Seeing that it was almost time for self-study in the evening, he had no intention of leaving school.

One circle, another circle, Shen Yu's mouth was dry, and his heart was fluttering.He even regretted rejecting Qi Jingyu's intimacy.Although Qi Jingyu didn't say anything, and personally carried Shen Yu over the wall, Shen Yu vaguely felt the low pressure around Qi Jingyu's body, and his face was not very good.

Probably because of saving face, Shen Yu thought to himself, after all, he has been a rich young man who has no worries about food and clothing since he was a child, and he has never suffered any setbacks. This should be the first time that he failed to ask for a kiss.

Shen Yu expressed that he could understand. Just as he was thinking about whether to explain, and gave Qi Jingyu a step down, the man walking in front suddenly stopped, "What's wrong?"

"Shen Yu." Qi Jingyu put his hands in his pockets, raised his head slightly, looked at the brightly lit teaching building, and continued after a long time: "What was your childhood ideal?"

Shen Yu felt baffled, and he was not an elementary school student writing a composition, "Why are you asking this? Qi Jingyu, did you take the wrong medicine today?"

Qi Jingyu turned around, paused for a while, lowered his eyes, and continued, "Shen Yu, have I told you about my grandma?"

Shen Yu nodded slightly, "I told you a little bit, you said she was an art soldier of the art troupe."

"Yeah." Qi Jingyu smiled lightly, "She sings very well, and always likes to teach Qi Xunyu and me to sing... Today is her death day."

Qi Jingyu was obviously smiling, but his eyes were full of sadness. Shen Yu didn't know how to comfort him, "Qi Jingyu..."

"I'm fine." Qi Jingyu stood under the willow tree, most of his figure was swallowed by darkness, "Have you heard of Alzheimer's disease?"

Shen Yu nodded.

"Patients will have early symptoms of forgetfulness and memory loss. Grandma often forgets the words on the edge of her mouth. She can't even remember the plot of the TV series she watched repeatedly. Sometimes she forgets to cook. At first, no one cared about her abnormality. , No one paid attention to it, and it was not until later that she found out that she didn't even remember us, and everyone realized that grandma was sick." Qi Jingyu said, "It was too late to control, and she completely forgot about it after a while. us."

…………

13 years ago, during the extremely hot summer vacation, the temperature in Yucheng hit a record high.The hot weather that lasted for a month made everyone anxious and irritable.

The grandfather was away, and the parents went to enroll the eldest son who had gotten into trouble into a military academy, and the teenager stayed at home with his grandmother, the old and the young.The courtyard has no air conditioner, so the boy can only lie on the floor and blow on the fan, while his grandmother sits on the rocking chair to fan him.Grandma's illness didn't get better, and she had occasional moments of sobriety.

"Little goldfish." Grandma couldn't remember the boy's name anymore, she just called him by his childhood nickname, "Are you hungry, grandma will cook noodles for you."

They had just had lunch, and grandma had already mentioned three times to cook noodles for him. The young man knew that grandma's memory was confused again.This has happened from time to time since my grandma got sick.Grandma couldn't remember who they were, but when she saw them, she asked "Have you eaten yet" and "Are you hungry?"The old man's concern is so simple, but when she stands in the kitchen and takes out the spatula, she often can't remember what to do next.

The young man didn't get an answer, but the old man was still repeating her question, asking over and over again: "Little goldfish, are you hungry?"

The boy turned his face, turned his back, and secretly wiped away the disappointing tears.I don't know when, the kind-hearted and energetic grandma in the memory turned into the current appearance with white hair and hobbled steps.Grandma has been ill for almost a year, but the boy still cannot accept the reality.

The old man asked in silence, she seemed to have forgotten what to ask.She stood up, put the cattail fan on the rocking chair, and walked towards the inner room with heavy steps. After being ill, her movements seemed slow and clumsy.

The boy secretly followed his grandmother, and his mother told him to take good care of her.

Grandma doesn't cook, and she doesn't go to the toilet. She rummages in the drawer.

"Grandma, what are you looking for?" The boy didn't expect the old man to answer him, "Let me help you find it."

The old man stopped suddenly, turned around and saw the young man who was following him, smiled, and said softly, "Is it the little goldfish?"

The young man knew that the old man had forgotten what happened just now.

The old man took out a photo album from the drawer. It had been a while, and the cover was a little yellowed, and the patterns on it had long been unclear.

The boy helped the old man to the rocking chair, "Grandma, do you want to see the photo?"

The old man laughed when he heard the photo, "My grandson hasn't come to see me for a long time, and I miss them a little bit."

Recently, the elderly have fallen in love with looking at old photos. They can't remember them in reality, but they remember them in the photos.

"These are my two grandchildren," the grandmother pointed to the two children in the photo. "This is the elder grandson, who is in elementary school. This is the younger grandson, who is still learning to walk." Grandma looked at the boy squatting in front of her lap again. , smiled and narrowed his eyes, "The little goldfish really looks like my little grandson."

The young man felt a little sad.

Another page was turned, and it was a photo of grandma when she was young.At that time, the conditions were not good, and taking pictures was relatively rare. There was only one single photo of my grandma, and she was not married to my grandfather at that time.

"Who is this little girl?" Grandma said to her photo.

The boy said, "It's my grandmother."

Grandma smiled and said, "Your grandma is so beautiful."

She remembered everyone in the photo, except herself when she was young, and the boy squatting in front of her.

"I miss my grandma very much." The boy said, "I want to hear her teach me how to sing."

"Where did she go?" asked the old man.Deep-sunken eyes filled with tears.

The boy looked at his grandmother who was close at hand, not sure if she was awake, lowered his head, and said sadly, "I don't know either."

The album turned to the last page. The old man was holding the album and was reluctant to put it down. The young man stood up and said, "Grandma, do you want some watermelon?" There was still watermelon in the refrigerator, but the young man wanted to go out and buy it.

The old man who reacted slowly just smirked at the boy and opened his hands, "Little goldfish, are you here?"

The boy subconsciously avoided the old man's embrace, "I'll buy you a watermelon." These were the last words the boy said to the old man.After leaving this sentence, he took the change and went out.

There is a watermelon stand at the gate of the compound, the watermelons sold are crisp and sweet, and my grandmother used to take care of this business, the old woman selling melons saw the sweating boy, cut a large tooth of iced melons and greeted him: "Little goldfish , mother-in-law will give you melons to eat."

The boy took the melon, squatted in front of the fan, and ate the melon while blowing the air.There was a wind blowing, and the heat waves on the ground were rolled up, rushing towards the face.

"I haven't seen your grandma for a long time. Is she better?" the old woman asked.

The boy eats watermelon without spitting out the seeds, so he asks cows and horses: "Grandma is sleeping at home."

Hearing that the regular customer was at home, the old woman beamed with joy, and picked out the biggest and sweetest melon, cut it up for the boy, and put it in a fresh-keeping box, "Summer is here, your grandma used to love my melon the most, you take it back for her, don't you?" Collect money."

"Thank you, grandma." The boy put the clean melon skin back up and placed it neatly on the ground.After picking up the melon, I secretly pressed all the change on my body under the fan, and walked back with the refreshing watermelon.

When he got to the door of the house, he didn't go in for a long time.

The young man was disturbed by the loud noise from the tree beside him, he didn't want to go back right away, he couldn't tell whether it was because of fear or irritability, he didn't want to hear his grandma call him little goldfish.

So, he took the bag of watermelon bought for grandma and sat under the big tree until the sun set and the watermelon was no longer cool.

On such a hot day, he could actually fall asleep. The grandfather who came back early shook him awake under the tree, and the first sentence was: "Where is your grandma?"

Grandpa had a serious expression, and his tone was a little anxious. The young man subconsciously put his hands behind his back, as if he was punished to stand for doing something wrong.

"Let me ask you, where is your grandma!" Grandpa said more and more anxiously, his eyes turned red, "Why don't you look at your grandma carefully, why are you hiding outside!"

With a hidden word, the boy was so frightened that he dropped the watermelon in his hand.The watermelon fell to the ground, and the tender red watermelon juice flowed everywhere along the mouth of the bag.

"Grandma is sleeping at home..." The boy's voice trembled, his body was icy cold, "I'm going out to buy melons for grandma..."

Above my head was my grandfather's furious and painful voice, "Your grandma is lost!"

Immediately, the boy was so frightened that his legs became limp, and he couldn't care about anything. He picked up the watermelon, got up from the ground, and ran back home immediately, looking for the figure of the old man.

"grandmother!"

"I am back!"

"I bought you a watermelon!"

No one responded to him.

Grandma's rocking chair was lying quietly on the balcony, the old-fashioned fan above her head was still spinning, and the photo album was thrown on the ground, except for a single photo of grandma missing.

The boy slept under the tree for a long time. During this time, his ignorant grandmother went out with her photo.

The old woman selling melons was busy with her business, so she didn't see the old man going out alone. The neighbors in the neighborhood were all at home, and no one noticed that there was an old man faltering on the road, looking around.

The next day, he got news from the old man, but the boy could no longer hear his grandmother's gentle voice when he called him little goldfish.

…………

"Shen Yu, I killed grandma." Qi Jingyu no longer had a smile on his face, guilt and self-blame were like invisible chains, dragging him into the abyss of sin.No matter how many years have passed, what happened on the day the old man disappeared is still fresh in his memory. "I didn't lock the door... I thought I would go back after I bought the melon, only a few minutes..."

No one spoke for a long time, only the distant ringing of bells and each other's breathing could be heard.

Shen Yu approached slowly, stretched out his hand, hugged the man in grief from behind, put his face on his back, and said softly: "It's all over..."

His reassurance didn't work, and he heard the man sobbing.

"sorry Sorry……"

The author says:

Make an advertisement for the article next door "The Boring Daily Life of Ordinary High School Students". It is a short outline article, about tens of thousands of words, written to regulate emotions.