A few days before Fang Qitian and Hua Ling's birthdays, it happened to be a weekend, so Hua Ling gave Fang Qitian two days off.
"Go back and have a look. After all, it's your eighteenth birthday, and they will celebrate it for you." Hua Ling patted Fang Qitian on the shoulder, and Fang Qitian grabbed the strap of the satchel in his hand.
Fang Qitian lowered his head, then raised it hesitantly: "But I always have an unknown premonition."
"It's okay. It's time for them to become adults. They won't do anything outrageous. Don't worry."
Hua Ling drove Fang Qitian to the station. Fang Qitian took the bus back to the community, came to the gate and took out the key to open the door.
Fang Qitian tiptoed into the room and closed the door, but he didn't see the woman working at home. He called several times but no one responded.
There were still unwashed pots, dishes and chopsticks in the kitchen sink. Fang Qitian was stunned for a moment before putting down his bag and reaching out to wash them and put them away.
"After tidying up, they should look at me more favorably...but where did it go?"
Fang Qitian looked at the empty house in confusion.
Cleaned up the kitchen, swept, mopped, washed, hung clothes, wiped tables, set up chairs, threw away trash...
She did all the things that Fang Qitian was not very good at doing at home. She felt that her parents would be happy when they came home, and then she would get a great coming-of-age ceremony.
A cake with candles and a dinner for three will be fine, as long as there are no quarrels.
Fang Qitian specially sat on the sofa at home, which she would not usually sit on. From the sofa's perspective, she could directly see the door being opened, and she could see her parents' return.
It was 10:30 in the morning when Fang Qitian returned home. After finishing her housework and cooking egg noodles for lunch, it was 1 in the afternoon. She sat on the sofa from 1 in the afternoon and waited for her parents to come home.
They came back at half past three.
When they opened the door, their eyes met. Fang Qitian stood up and greeted them with a smile, but the man suddenly said: "Aren't you coming back? Why are you coming back now?"
"I...when did I..."
No, Fang Qitian never said he would not come back. What happened? Why do their expressions hate Fang Qitian?
The woman put the bag on the shelf in the entrance hall and shouted at Fang Qitian: "Your grandfather is dead! He is gone! He said you wouldn't come back to see him!"
Fang Qitian was stunned and his eyes were a little moist: "When? You didn't tell me..."
The man pointed at Fang Qitian and scolded: "If you don't go home even after going to work, you might as well consider your boss as your father! Damn you girl!"
No, no. No one told me about grandpa. I don’t know. It’s just that during the summer vacation, grandpa became much weaker and was hospitalized. I thought grandpa would be alive like dad. No one told me.
Ah, not even a phone call...I just wanted to say birthday...
Fang Qitian felt as if something was stuck in her throat. She pursed her lips and accepted the accusations from the two adults. She held the phone in her hand and glanced down at what she typed in the memo she wanted to say to her parents.
Those are evidence of her recalling happy times, and those are evidence of her finding happiness in tragedy.
Grandpa is gone, the person Fang Qitian trusts the most is gone, and the person Fang Qitian thinks she loves the most is gone, just a few days before her birthday.
In other words, every year from now on, after grandpa's memorial day, it will be Fang Qitian's birthday. Before Fang Qitian can get over his sadness, he has to force himself to be happy, because it is not good for the birthday boy to be sad.
"I...I want to celebrate my birthday..."
After the two adults finished scolding each other and planned to do their own things, they heard Fang Qitian speaking in a weak voice.
The man turned his head and glanced at the calendar, then looked at Fang Qitian with disgust: "What kind of birthday do you deserve to celebrate?"
After the man finished speaking, he went into the kitchen to cook. Fang Qitian was driven away by the woman who walked to the sofa: "Go back to the house, don't let me see you. If you don't go back early, you won't go back later. But you came back at this time, so you came here specially."
Celebrating your birthday? What a beautiful thought. If you spend your time in your company, you won’t want to come back anyway.”
Fang Qitian returned to the room and gently closed the door. The door had been damaged because Fang Qitian locked the door when he was tired of studying, so it could not be locked. However, the man nailed a towel on the door, which could be stuck on the door frame.
It will be blown by the wind.
Fang Qitian sat on the edge of the bed, lowered his head and looked at the black screen of his mobile phone. After pressing the switch button, Fang Qitian saw the screen saver of his mobile phone, which was a paragraph with white characters on a black background:
"If you are sad, don't cry loudly. If your cry is heard, it will only make others bully you more. Either wait for them to fall asleep, or beat yourself until you stop crying."
This was Fang Qitian's warning to herself. Many times she cried because she was slapped until she burst into tears. This at least made her feel better.
This time Fang Qitian didn't hit herself. She moved the clothes in the closet to the bed and stuffed herself into the closet. She cried, and the sound of crying came from the closet.
When Lu Ya came home, Hua Ling was lying on the sofa taking a nap. When she heard the sound of the door opening and closing, Hua Ling raised her hand and waved: "Qi Tian went back to celebrate his birthday."
"No wonder, it feels a lot quieter."
When Fang Qitian was there, Lu Ya would usually see Fang Qitian and Hua Ling chatting or watching movies when he came back from outside. There was no sound today, which was strange for him.
Hua Ling sat up from the sofa and stretched: "It's a lot quieter? Do you think it's a good thing or a bad thing that Fang Qitian is here?"
"It's 'good', right? It's quite energetic."
"That's true."
After lying down at night, Hua Ling looked at the bed above and tried to remember how she spent her eighteenth birthday in the past.
Before I came to this world, I remember that I was at my grandparents’ house, and my grandfather cooked food for Hua Ling. I liked grandpa the most and grandma the least.
Fang Qitian told Hua Ling that his grandfather was ill during the summer vacation. At that time, Hua Ling wanted to see a doctor for his grandfather.
But this won't work, something will happen.
"I wonder how her grandfather is doing."
Hua Ling couldn't use her own abilities to do anything to Fang Qitian, couldn't hear her voice, couldn't change her actions, couldn't predict her future.
Otherwise, Hua Ling would definitely see Grandpa through Fang Qitian's eyes at this time.
Fang Qitian first took the bus to where his parents lived. They should take Fang Qitian back to his grandparents' house, right? Hua Ling thought happily.
After Hua Ling fell asleep, she had a dream.
He saw a middle-aged man with another old man who had lost all his hair and had his hands behind his back.
Hua Ling was stunned. He thought that Fang Qitian had said that the flowers and trees in the pendant were the flowers and trees, so the middle-aged man should be the flowers and trees, but who was that old man?
The two had their backs to Hua Ling, but Hua Ling could hear the content of their conversation.
"Old sir, are you...?"
"Hello, young man, my name is Fang Haiyang, where are we?"
Room ocean?
Hua Ling walked toward the two of them blankly. When he approached them, Hua Ling shouted: "Father?...Grandpa?"
"Huh?" Both of them turned to look at Hua Ling. Suddenly the old man said in surprise: "Tiantian? Why are you here too?"
In the eyes of the old man, Hua Ling turned into Fang Qitian.