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墨書 Inktalez
"Hello, Xiao Hu, is that you? Why aren't you speaking?"
The voice on the other end sounded warm and urgent.
Meanwhile, I hung up the phone in a daze.
What am I saying? What can I say?
This is the coldest winter of my 28 years of life, chilling to the bone, making my teeth chatter with a "clacking" sound.
We chat on voice call almost every week, and she always says "I miss you!" "I'm waiting for you!"
In fact, her child can already call her "mom"! My phone has been ringing non-stop, and the caller ID is that "darling" who haunts my thoughts. I don't answer, I don't have the courage to answer!
The fact is already here, lies are not scary, the truth is the sharp knife.
Finally, the phone stopped ringing.
I suppressed the urge to call back and settled down at Annan County Guesthouse.
I called Biao Ge and said, "I'm back, keep me company and have a drink with me!" Biao Ge wanted to say something to me, but I rudely interrupted, "Don't say anything, just drink with me, and we'll rest when we're drunk!" What does it feel like to drink too much?
The wine is good, but when it reaches my mouth, there is no aftertaste and mellow fragrance. Besides the spiciness, it's just bitterness, so bitter that my tongue knots and goes numb. Biao took the bottle from my hand and said, "Enough, stop drinking. Listen to me first..."
"You... better not say anything. Whatever you say feels like stabbing a knife into my heart! Don't stop me, let me drink myself to death!"
I'm drunk, I'm fallen, I don't know anything anymore.
5.
Waking up again, it was already the early morning of the second day, with the red glow of dawn reflecting off the snowy white curtains.
Biao Ge teased, "You really are quite sentimental!"
I'm replaying my drunken state from yesterday: I drank too much, first I cried, not wailing but crying from the bottom of my heart, then I talked, talking about the difficulties and hardships I've faced in the five years since graduating from college, grateful for Qiuying's help, support, and encouragement, and then I complained, complaining that Qiuying had forgotten our promise of never leaving each other...
Wait, yesterday Biao called someone, it seems to be Qiuying, I vaguely remember Qiuying trying to pull me up, I lay on the ground with tears in my eyes singing "I don't regret letting him down," and even held her leg begging her not to leave me!
When I sobered up, I grabbed Biao's collar and asked, "Where's Qiuying?"
The sound of knocking on the door, Biao Ge slyly shook his head at me and said, "Open the door, the person you've been thinking about is here!"
I hesitated again as I held the doorknob.
Things have changed, but what should I say?
The knocking on the door was persistent.
I steadied myself and used all my strength to open the door.
Qiuying stood at the door, and I had the impulse to embrace her, but seeing the two-year-old boy she was holding, I abruptly stopped myself.
"Mom, is that person you're talking about him?" The little boy with bright, sparkling eyes looked up at Qiuying.
"Yes!"
"Is he dad?"
Qiuying Nodding.
I feel dizzy again.
"Dad, why did you only come to see me now!"
The little boy let go of Qiuying's hand, hugged one of my legs, pouted with a crying tone, "Everyone has a dad, but I don't have one. Other kids don't want to play with me."
I stood there stiffly, not knowing what to do next.
The child's eyes were bright and clear.
In my wallet, there is a photo of me as a child that my grandmother cherished when she was alive. This child looks almost exactly like me when I was young! My heart is pounding, almost ready to burst out of my chest. I crouch down and gently cup his rosy little face: "Daddy won't be back! From now on, no matter where Daddy goes, he will always bring you and Mommy with him!"
I won't be wrong, this child is mine!
6.
At that gathering, Qiuying took me to a hotel room when I was drunk, and that night, she gave herself to me.
Not long after I left, she discovered that she was pregnant. The village chief and his wife insisted that she have an abortion, they have no confidence in our future. "I'm not doing well, they don't want their daughter to suffer with me; if I do well, they worry that I will lead their daughter astray in the flashy world of Shenshi. Neither of these outcomes is what any parent would want to see."
Qiuying disagrees and insists on keeping the child.
Village Chief Uncle and his wife have only one daughter, and they cannot resist Qiuying's stubbornness. They forced Qiuying and me to get married immediately. Considering my situation, they didn't even ask for a bride price, three gold, or a house.
At that time, I was fighting for my life in Brother Xiong's club, and Qiuying couldn't bear to dampen my spirit. No matter what Village Chief Uncle and his wife said, she refused to tell me the truth and asked me to go back.
Later, as her belly grew bigger, the gossiping tongues of the women grew louder.
"Have you seen it? Old Jiang's daughter-in-law's belly is getting big!"
"Old Jiang's wife said it's her classmate's, and the two of them are getting married?"
"Marriage? It's been so long, why haven't I seen any young man come to propose?"
"Who knows, maybe it's with that man that she got pregnant!"
"She looks strangely beautiful, but she's just a rotten person!"
Eight months pregnant, Qiuying called me in tears, determined to bring me back no matter what, but I resisted after just arriving at the Guo Group.
The gossip in the village is getting worse and worse.
Village Chief Uncle and his wife bought a house in the county town and left the village with Qiuying.
The former village chief couldn't hold his head up in front of others, and the couple almost fell into depression. When the child was born, there were complications, and besides the village chief's wife, there was no one else by my side as the child's father. Later on, I did better and better at the Shenshi, and even Qiuying didn't know what our future would be like. She, who was gentle and determined, chose to conceal everything about the child.
Village Chief Uncle, no, my father-in-law is lying in the hospital. The doctor said there is a nodule on his lung, and the situation may not be good. At present, although the old man's condition has not been diagnosed, his spirit is already on the verge of collapse: he may not make it, leaving behind his wife and his unmarried daughter, how will they live in the future? "Dad, Mom, look who's here!"
I carried my son, Yibo, into the ward. As soon as Village Chief Uncle saw us, a glint appeared in his eyes. Then he forced himself to sit up and slapped me hard across the face. I knelt down in front of Village Chief Uncle. Qiuying's mother pulled me up and scolded Village Chief Uncle, "It's enough for the child to come back, what are you doing!"
I should definitely go!
7.
On the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, Biao called and said, "There's a high school class reunion tomorrow at the Guobin Hotel in our county. You must come!"
"Of course I'm going. The private room wasn't as crowded as I expected. There was only a large round table with about ten people sitting around it, all seemingly high school graduates who have been hanging out 'outside' since then. Sitting next to Biao, I asked in a low voice, 'Why are there so few people?'"
Biao Ge whispered, "Wu Xianfei is in charge."
Wu Xianfei was originally not very tall, and now he's even fatter. He sat there knocking on the table, saying, "At the beginning of another year, we are having this gathering here. Firstly, it's to catch up on our friendship, and secondly, it's to strengthen the communication among classmates, achieving resource sharing and connection. The reason we didn't invite our classmates from the countryside is because there's nothing we can share or utilize between us anymore."
Then he pointed to a girl of medium build and slightly plump, introducing her, "This is my wife, Hu Yanyan. Her dad is the deputy mayor of Chengguan Town. Isn't that awesome, bro?"
There's no one else like you, living off others and still smacking your lips.
"As for me, I'm still working at the Rural Credit Cooperative, and now I'm the deputy director at the Community Center. If anyone needs a loan, they can come to me. Recently, my friends have been facing a lot of financial pressure, so I hope everyone here can show some support."
After speaking, he looked around at everyone and then turned his gaze to Qiuying: "Sister Autumn, it's been two years since you joined our gathering, right? I heard you already have a child. When did you get married? Why didn't we hear about it?"
Qiuying wrapped an arm around me and said, "Doesn't it all not matter anymore?"
Li Feiyun is a follower and close friend of Wu Xianfei, working as a temporary police officer at the Chengguan Police Station. He has always had feelings for Wang Bingbing, who works at the county fertilizer plant, but she has no love for him and looks down on his aggressive behavior. Wang Bingbing moved from Li Feiyun's side to Qiuying's side and said, "Long time no see, let's chat, us girls."
Li Feiyun's face changed slightly, and he said to me in a neither friendly nor hostile tone, "Lao Hu, your wife took my girlfriend away. You have to take responsibility for this!"
Wang Bingbing's face turned cold: "Li Feiyun, what nonsense are you talking about!"
The dishes arrived, and Wu Xianfei announced the start, first toasting each classmate one by one.
His left-hand man Dong Yongheng is a judge in the civil court of the county court. Wu Xianfei's tone was very low: "Lao Dong, the pressure during the opening period is really high, you have to help me push the deposit task forward!"
Next is Bai Mingsheng, who opened a few storefronts in Annan Shopping Mall after graduating from high school, managing several big-name clothing brands. Wu Xianfei poured him a drink and asked, "Lao Bai, how many 'W' are you prepared to support me with?" Bai Mingsheng looked troubled and replied, "For us business people, it's difficult to determine how much money we can make based on the size of our business. Our assets are indeed substantial, but they are all tied up in inventory." Wu Xianfei persisted, "I don't care. If you can't come up with the money, who will believe you? So, I'm assigning you a task of 200,000. That's not too much, right?"
When it comes to me, Wu Xianfei spoke as if he had been injected with chicken blood, with a condescending tone in his words: "Hu Ruoyun, what have you been up to these three years?"
I replied, "Commute between Jiangcheng and Shenshi."
"Are you screwing at the factory in Shenshi, or moving bricks at the construction site in Jiangcheng? How can you still commute? Is the money you earn enough for the travel expenses?" Li Feiyun said sarcastically.
I ignored him and refused Wu Xianfei's toast: "I can't drink, I'm driving!"
"Just you? You're still driving! What are you talking about? It's almost like driving a tractor!" Li Feiyun continued to taunt, with a look of wanting to make you look bad, "If you don't want to drink Wu Lao's wine, just say so. Do you have to use such a high-sounding reason? Is it low or not low?"
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