In the silent place

Twelve years have passed, and Zhan Huaiyi recalled that year vividly, as if it were yesterday.Just entered May, at the end of spring and early summer, the hillside outside the compound of the military area was covered with green grass and lush trees.But in recent days, it has been rainy and humid, causing the temperature to drop sharply.Another thunder flashed, and the torrential rain was pouring, and the rain was drifting obliquely along the window sill.Turning to look at the clock on the wall, the pointer has pointed to seven o'clock in the evening, but the wife has not come back yet.Zhan Huaiyi picked up the phone on the desk, thought about it and put it down again.At this time, the wife should have left the unit long ago.Are the wheels stuck in the mud?Zhan Huaiyi began to think wildly.

The son is doing his homework, looking up from the window from time to time. "Why hasn't my mother come back yet?" His voice was green and tender, revealing the melodiousness unique to teenagers.It's a question, but it's more like talking to yourself.

"Hungry?" Zhan Huaiyi looked at his son's childish face, and said with a smile, "I can't wait for your mother to come back to cook, so let's cook some instant noodles first."

The son propped his chin, looked out of the window again, and shook his head slightly.At this time, there was a faint sound of wheels coming from the gate.The son shouted happily: "My mother is back." Then he hurried to open the door.When I saw the visitor, I couldn't help being a little disappointed. "Hello Uncle Li, Uncle Zhang."

Li Liwang and Zhang Kuisheng are Zhan Huaiyi's comrades-in-arms, and they have a pretty good relationship. They both live in the family compound of the military region and often walk around.But at this time of rainy night, the two came to visit, which made Zhan Huaiyi a little puzzled and a little uneasy.

"Xiao Liu, take Zhan Zhao to another room." Li Liwang said to the driver behind him.Watching Zhan Zhao obediently enter the room in the south with his homework in his hands.He took a deep breath, looked at his old comrade-in-arms, and said solemnly: "Old Zhan, you have to be prepared. Just now the county hospital called and said that my sister-in-law had a car accident..."

Zhan Huaiyi's eyes dimmed, and he couldn't hear anything behind him.He took a few breaths, collected himself, picked up his coat and said, "Go, go to the hospital."

Zhang Kuisheng looked at Nanwu, hesitated and said, "Take the child."

At night, on the muddy road on the hillside, a jeep bumped forward in the torrential rain with its headlights flashing.Zhan Huaiyi turned his head to look at his son, feeling agitated.He was very obedient, he didn't ask a word since he got in the car, he sat silently beside him, like a little soldier, tense and straight.

When we arrived at the county hospital, it was already past nine o'clock in the evening, and the rain was getting heavier.A few people got out of the car, but they didn't care about holding an umbrella, so Zhan Huaiyi dragged his son and ran inside.When he arrived outside the emergency room, what he was waiting for was a bad news that he would rather die than believe.

"It hurt too much, sorry." The doctor shook his head and walked away.

Zhan Huaiyi couldn't care about his son anymore, pushed open the door and rushed in.He staggered to the bed, looked at a strand of black hair protruding from the corner of the bed sheet, lifted the white cloth covering his wife's face with trembling hands, Jiang Hanshan's bloodless face was stained with traces of blood, how he wished This is not her, but the reality is so cruel and ruthless. "Hanshan...Hanshan..." He called his wife's name over and over again, pressed his forehead against her head, and cried bitterly.At this moment, he seemed to have lost everything, and the whole world lost its color.

Li Liwang and Zhang Kuisheng who arrived afterward waited quietly outside the door, and after he stabilized a little, took him to the bench in the corridor to sit down.No one in the compound of the military region knew the deep bond between their husband and wife. At this moment, Zhan Huaiyi was distraught, and the hearts of the two old comrades felt as heavy as a heavy boulder.

Zhang Kuisheng himself has two children, and the second son is about the same age as Zhan Zhao.At this moment, Zhan Zhao could not be seen from left to right, and he couldn't help feeling a little nervous. "Old Zhan, the child isn't with you?"

"Xiao Zhao?!" At this moment, Zhan Huaiyi thought of his son. "I was still here just now." He suddenly remembered something, turned around and ran towards the emergency room.When he pushed open the door of the emergency room again, his son was standing motionless in front of the white bed.

"Who told you to come in, get out!" Unable to control his irritable anger, he yelled at his son.On weekdays, his son would have withdrawn obediently and obediently, but now, he is still standing there indifferently.Zhan Huaiyi took two steps forward, raised his hand to grab his son's back collar, but his eyes passed over his son's head, and when he landed on the bed, his hand was suddenly in the air.It was his wife's hand, exposed outside the bed sheet, the place where the thumb was broken off had congealed black, and the ring finger still wore the platinum ring he gave her when they got married.He tightly covered his son's eyes with his big palms, the moist heat from his palms burned his heart to pieces.

After his wife passed away, it was as if the sky had fallen. He was depressed, applied to the army for demobilization, and left the military compound where he and his wife were everywhere.At that time, his son was about to take his first exam, but he had to follow him to a strange city.He has always had a bad temper, but now he is in a new working environment, everything is not going well, and he often cannot control his emotions when he returns home.The son is always silent, but the more the son is like this, the more angry he feels.Once, for some unknown reason, he beat his son in a fit of anger, and regretted it.After being bored for a few days, Zhan Huaiyi couldn't hold back anymore.In the scorching summer, his son was wearing a long-sleeved shirt dangling in front of his eyes all day long. He knew his strength and wanted to see the 'masterpiece' he had left on his son, but he couldn't let his old face say it.The father and son have been so stubborn for a week.

This day when his son came home from school, Zhan Huaiyi couldn't bear it anymore.He dragged his son into the house. "It's summer, why don't you wear long sleeves. Go change into cooler clothes."

"I'm not hot." The son answered with his head down.

Zhan Huaiyi sighed, put down his airs of being a father, and said in a low voice, "Let Dad see your shoulder."

As soon as the son heard this, he ran out sharply, but he was only 12 years old after all, so he was no match for his father who was a soldier.When Zhan Huaiyi mentioned that he pulled his back collar to the side, half of his arm was immediately exposed to the air.Zhan Zhao struggled desperately, but he didn't expect his father to let go of his hand suddenly. This time, he couldn't hold the brake with too much force, so he staggered and fell back, sitting firmly on the ground with a bang.Zhan Huaiyi wanted to pull him, but saw his son stand up swiftly, pat his buttocks and walk into the living room.

In the evening, Zhan Huaiyi stood at the door of his son's room, holding the safflower oil bought from the pharmacy in his hand, he hesitated for a long time before knocking on the door. "Xiao Zhao, it's Dad. Are you asleep?"

"not yet."

"Then I'll go in." Zhan Huaiyi said as he pushed the door open.The son is holding a small desk lamp and sitting at the desk doing homework.He walked over and sat on the edge of the bed, looked at his son's profile and said, "Recently, you haven't asked your father to check your homework. Do you blame your father for beating you?"

The son turned his head to look at him, his eyes shining brightly. "No, I know all these questions recently."

Touching his son's head, Zhan Huaiyi's heart was full of ups and downs.When his wife was alive, this boy never asked him to check his homework, and even Han Shan never gave his son a little trouble for his studies.But since there are only father and son left in this family, whenever the son sees him dazed or depressed, he will ask him for homework and ask him to check it when he is done.At the beginning, he didn't realize it at all, but after a long time, he gradually discovered what his son was thinking.I want to enlighten my father.Zhan Huaiyi sighed in his heart, looked at his son's shoulders, the bruises and bruises appeared again in front of his eyes, he felt so guilty that he wanted to slap himself twice. "Turn around and rub it on your arms." He said and passed the safflower oil in his hand to his son.

"Yeah." The son reached out to take the small medicine bottle, looked at it, and put it next to the desk lamp.

Zhan Huaiyi stood up, looked at his son twice, walked out of the room, at the moment the door was closed, his son turned his head and called him, and then said awkwardly in a mosquito-like voice: "It's dark, actually I don't hurt at all." Zhan Huaiyi's eyes turned hot, he grinned at his son, and closed the door for him.

After Han Shan passed away, his son was like a life-saving straw for him. He hated him, scolded him, loved him, and wished to tie him by his side every day, but he never thought that if one day, He grasped too hard and too hard, and one day this life-saving straw would be unable to bear it, and he would uproot it, and then slowly wither until it died.

The creaking sound of the door opening interrupted Zhan Huaiyi's thoughts, and he quickly wiped his face.Liu Rong came out of Zhan Zhao's room with a washbasin in her hand. "Which of you two is going to change his clothes, the child is sweating all over, so he can't sleep like this."

"I'll go." Zhanhuai Yiteng stood up from the sofa.Jiang Yewan, who was at the side, felt uncomfortable seeing his brother-in-law, a big man with two red rabbit eyes.He sighed and stood up. "Let's go together."

Zhan Huaiyi glanced at his brother-in-law gratefully, opened his mouth, but didn't know what to say.

"Don't say anything." Jiang Yewan saw his brother-in-law hesitated to speak, raised his hand and stopped him. "The child is my nephew, and I don't want to see him suffer."

"Wait for me to get a basin of hot water first, and you two will wipe his sweat off." Liu Rong said as she walked into the bathroom, and came out with a basin of steaming water after a while.Zhan Huaiyi hurried over to pick it up.

"The change of clothes is in the closet." Liu Rong said, turning her head to look at her wife. "Old Jiang, go to the kitchen and pour a glass of warm water, let him rinse his mouth, and see if the child is still feeling bad. If he doesn't feel bad anymore, let him take the medicine. He vomited out everything he took just now."

Jiang Yewan responded, turned and walked into the kitchen.

"Thank you sister-in-law." Zhan Huaiyi said sincerely.

"Oh..." Liu Rong let out a long sigh. "Old Zhan, stop yelling at the child later."

"En." With a muffled answer, Zhan Huaiyi walked into his son's room lightly with a straight face.

Facing such a sensible brother-in-law and a kind-hearted sister-in-law, Zhan Huaiyi felt full of guilt.He has grown so old for nothing, he is not as sensible as a child.Going around the end of the bed, he put the washbasin on the bedside table, then turned his head and stared blankly at the sleeping son on the bed.The son did not sleep peacefully, his brows were furrowed, his eyelashes fluttered, as if trying to endure something.Zhan Huaiyi felt a pain in his heart, turned around and went to the cabinet, rummaged through it, found a set of very light lake green pajamas, then went back to the bed, sighed, and gently shook his son.

"Xiao Zhao, wake up, change your clothes before going to bed." The son seemed to hear the call, his eyelids trembled, and he slowly opened them, but closed them again after a while.Zhan Huaiyi saw that there was a layer of sweat on his neck, and he grabbed the sheet with his hands, and quickly asked, "Why is it uncomfortable?"

Zhan Zhao lay on the bed and took a deep breath slowly, feeling as if he would spit it out with one mouthful.At this time, the top of his head and temples were throbbing and throbbing, his stomach was convulsing, and a puff of stale air gushed straight into his throat.His throat was throbbing and he swallowed with difficulty, trying to control the vomiting, but it didn't seem to be obedient.He opened his eyes slightly, gasped twice, and pointed to the washbasin on the bedside table.

Zhan Huaiyi could see what was going on in his mind, but when he thought there was water in the basin, he ran out in a panic, almost bumping into his brother-in-law who came in with a cup.

"what happened?"

"Where is the washbasin?" Zhan Huaiyi was full of anxiety and asked without answering.

Jiang Yewan handed the water glass to his brother-in-law. "I'll get it, you look at him." Zhan Huaiyi didn't argue, and ran back in a hurry, seeing his son struggling to sit up, his head buried in the arm on the bedside table, his back heaving up and down violently .He was so distressed that he raised his palm and put it down again, afraid that his son would vomit out immediately if he touched it.It was so difficult for a few seconds.Thinking about myself being like this, my son may be even more uncomfortable.When Jiang Yewan ran in with an empty basin, Zhan Huaiyi grabbed it and put it on the floor beside the bed.

Zhan Zhao couldn't bear it any longer, and vomited in one gulp.A burst of pungent air rushed straight into his throat and nasal cavity, causing his face to flush red and tears to flow out.He coughed and vomited, until the last thing left was only bile and gastric juice, which hung on and off his mouth.

Seeing his son's heart-piercing vomiting and coughing, Zhan Huaiyi's heart ached.If there is a god in heaven, why did he let his son suffer this crime and suffering!Seeing the bruises on the back of his hand propped on the bedside table, the whole arm was trembling, afraid that he would fall off the head of the bed, so he ran to the left, grabbed his arm with one hand and wrapped his arms around his with the other. shoulders.

Closing his eyes, Zhan Zhao calmed down.All the strength in his body seemed to be taken away, and he couldn't see anything clearly in front of him.Finally stopped vomiting, he raised his hand on the cabinet, wiped the sweat from his forehead and eyelashes, then slowly lifted himself up on the edge of the bed, curled the corners of his lips and said out of breath: "Spit It's over... much better."

Seeing his nephew like this, Jiang Yewan gritted his teeth and suppressed the tears that welled up in his eyes.He quickly pointed to the washbasin on the floor and asked, "Is it still in use?" Seeing that Zhan Zhao shook his head, he knelt down, picked up the washbasin and left the house as if fleeing.He really couldn't stay any longer, probably because he had lived with his wife for a long time, and was too deeply influenced by her, and his heart became softer and softer.Shaking his head, Jiang Yewan turned on the faucet of the bathtub and began to clean the washbasin.

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