porridge for two

On April 4th, in the happy community.

After dinner, Su Zeyu cleaned up the dishes and asked Xie Xiuping to take a bath.Su Zeyu packed up the kitchen and came out. Seeing that the lights in the bathroom and bedroom were turned off, he glanced into the hall and saw Xie Xiuping standing on the balcony. He could smell the smell of smoke from a distance.

"Why are you smoking? I haven't seen you smoking before!" Su Zeyu walked over and saw a box on the table next to Xie Xiuping's elbow.

"I've been on vigil for the past few days, so I take a few breaths when I'm sleepy."

Xie Xiuping took a puff of smoke from Su Zeyu who was coming towards him. Su Zeyu waved the smoke left and right with both hands, approached and stood beside Xie Xiuping.

"Ahem! Smoke less, it will hurt you!"

Su Zeyu choked on the smoke.He approached and saw that Xie Xiuping's eyes were bloodshot and his eyelids were still a little swollen. Su Zeyu patted Xie Xiuping's shoulder distressedly, took out a cigarette, lit it, and stood shoulder to shoulder with Xie Xiuping .

Ever since he picked up Xie Xiuping from the station this afternoon, he looked weak.It is indeed powerless. Anyone who has just lost a loved one and stays up all night will be haggard.

"It's okay! My father-in-law is relieved to be gone! He is also suffering from a sick body!"

Xie Xiuping continued to smoke the cigarette in his hand, and exhaled smoke rings one after another, as if he wanted to spit out those bored emotions along with the smoke rings, and then dissipated without a trace.

The two of them just stood on the balcony and finished smoking a cigarette without saying a word, just being so quiet.

……

"What's in that box?" Su Zeyu stubbed out the cigarette butt in the ashtray, looked up and saw the box again.

"It's a relic!" Xie Xiuping picked up the box and opened the lid. Underneath was an old passbook with a harmonica and an electronic watch popular in the 90s. Soft blue cloth.

"This watch was when I was in the first grade. My old lady promised me that if I could get No.1 in the class at the end of the semester, I would buy a watch for me! Then I did it. He went to our mountain to chop some wood and sell it in the town. , bought me this watch. He did too!"

There was a smile in Xie Xiuping's tired eyes, and he kept rubbing his watch with his hands. After speaking, he put down the watch, and picked up the harmonica to make a few gestures around his mouth, just like a child showing off his favorite toy to his friends.

"The old lady can play the suona! At that time, there were any weddings and weddings in the nearby villages. He was asked to help. Every time he came back, he brought me fun and delicious food. This harmonica was brought to me when he went out to play the suona. .”

After Xie Xiuping finished talking about the harmonica, he opened the blue cloth again. The pattern was a lily flower with a blue background and white flowers.

"My mother is very good at needlework, but her health is not very good, so she didn't do a lot of work! This batik was dyed by herself when she was young. She and my father got to know each other by singing folk songs when they were watching the meeting. For the old lady, this should be their token of love."

When he finally took out the old passbook, he opened it and showed Su Zeyu the deposit details and the final amount inside.

"When my father-in-law is in good health, he will also buy some mountain products and sell them in the town. If he gets money, he will sell delicious food to me and my cousin. I will save the rest, saying that I will save it for me. I will marry a wife in the future, and the cousin He has an uncle and a second mother, so he doesn't envy the father-in-law's eccentricity."

Xie Xiuping looked at Su Zeyu with a smile on his pale face, he felt that he was actually very happy, these were heavy loves!Parents, father-in-law, uncles and aunts, even cousins ​​are sensible.

"In the future, his health will be weak. My mother and uncle will give him some pocket money during the holidays. He saves it up and gives it to me. But I don't have any use for it. It's all given to me."

As Xie Xiuping said, he stroked the final balance with his fingers a few times, 635.88 yuan, not much money, but very heavy, with love and expectation.

Su Zeyu watched and listened quietly all the time, Xie Xiuping took out precious things one by one, and then laid them out one by one with stories.He could feel that Xie Xiuping had no resentment in his heart, only longing for his loved ones.

At this time, what he said was inappropriate, so he quietly listened and waited for Xie Xiuping's heart to gradually open to him, allowing him to explore more things and understand Xie Xiuping better.

"I went there when I was in the third grade. At that time, there were some small coal mines run by private owners. Some people who were not afraid of hardship went to dig coal to earn some money to subsidize their families. It was very hard to dig coal, and they were A private kiln, many conditions are not good. With a miner's lamp, a foreign pickaxe, and a plum boat made of bamboo strips, I went down to the kiln. Every day when I come back, my face, clothes, and body are black and full of soot. .When you meet people on the side of the road, you always know people by their backs.”

"That day, the coal mine caved in, and the old lady was trapped in the coal cave. No one knew. He would rush back to have dinner every day, but we didn't see him back after waiting for a long time that day. My mother and I hurried to find someone to help. Go When I went to the coal digging place, I found out that there was a landslide. I asked for help. It took me a long time to dig out the coal sand blocking the entrance of the cave. When I dragged it out, my body was already hard. In the end, the owner of the private kiln gave my mother [-] yuan. Five, it's private!"

Xie Xiuping recalled that memory with a painful expression.Su Zeyu gently took his shoulders and hugged him.

"My mother was not in good health, and she was hit by such a blow. She didn't survive the New Year's Eve, and she went with her. Although she didn't stay with me and went with her, I was still happy for her at the time. Yes. That is her way and her destination, her way and her destination is Lao Dia, and I will have my own way."

"In the future, I will accompany you on your journey!" Affected by Xie Xiuping's emotions, Su Zeyu's voice was also a little hoarse.

"So I just wanted to get out of there, and I wanted to see where my way was? I kept walking and looking for it aimlessly, until we wrote and exchanged letters and saw those postcards you handed me, and I thought, maybe I I can go to these places to have a look, maybe there is a path for me to go there, and I will find my destination there.”

As Xie Xiuping said, there was a gleam of light in his tired eyes, and he looked into Su Zeyu's eyes with a smile.

"Well! I will accompany you to travel all over those places in the future!" Su Zeyu put Xie Xiuping's head on his shoulders, pinched the back of his head with his right hand a few times, and smoothed his left palm on his back , the unspeakable distress in my heart.

……

"I'm going back tomorrow, are you going?"

On the eve of May Day, Su Zeyu and Xie Xiuping were lying on the bed. Su Zeyu hugged Xie Xiuping's waist from behind and buried his head in Xie Xiuping's hair.

"Go! Should we take the train or should we drive by ourselves?" Su Zeyu straightened Xie Xiuping's body, looked into Xie Xiuping's eyes and asked.

"You have a purse driver's license, right? You don't usually drive it very much. The slopes over there are big and mountainous, and May Day is a season with a lot of rain, so sand and landslides are easy to come by. After you practice a few more times and your skills are good, you can drive there by yourself." .”

Xie Xiuping thought about it and decided to take the car.

"Let's take the bus tomorrow! Let's go to the county first. My high school classmate also came back, saying that he brought a date back and wanted to get together." Xie Xiuping said plans again.

"The man brought his partner, you take me there, I'm your partner!" Su Zeyu did not forget to take advantage, even if it was only in language.

"That's right! Don't you call yourself my wife every day?" Xie Xiuping rubbed Su Zeyu's hair angrily.

"Don't touch men's hair!" Su Zeyu yelled and fought with Xie Xiuping on the bed.

"I just touched it, touched it, what can you do? You want to go to heaven!" Xie Xiuping pulled Su Zeyu back, and ruthlessly touched Su Zeyu's head before letting go.