It has always been my grandma's habit to leave late night snacks for me, especially after I dropped out of college due to illness. Grandma felt that I was invaded by evil spirits because I was too weak, so she would give me supplements in different ways every day.
Xiangyu and I came to the kitchen, and the soup was being warmed for us on the old-fashioned stove. I opened the lid and took a look. What was simmering inside was pork ribs and spring vegetable porridge. This kind of porridge is most in season in the middle of summer.
"Wow, grandma is so kind to you. After wandering outside for a day, seeing this pot of porridge now feels so healing." Xiangyu said.
"Grandma knows a lot about health care, and I have been weak since I was a child. Grandma can be considered an expert in dietary therapy." I smiled, scooped up a bowl of porridge for Xiangyu, and handed it to her.
"Zhou Cang, I think your family is so warm. Although your parents have been working outside, your grandparents have educated you very well." Xiang Yu's eyes were full of envy.
Little did she know that this seemingly warm surface was actually riddled with holes.
I smiled bitterly, said nothing, and spooned a small bowl of thinner porridge for myself, then poured it into my stomach and swallowed it along with the sour water that came to my nose.
After finishing the midnight snack, it was almost two o'clock in the morning. Xiangyu simply freshened up and went back to the bedroom to rest.
I took a shower and washed my hair, and I felt much more awake.
In the dead of night, let's sneak into my father's study and have a look.
I said to myself in my mind, and then quietly opened my father's door.
Grandma must have come to my father's study today to clean it. There was no dust at all, and the bedding seemed to have been washed. There was a smell of sunshine coming to my nose.
I turned on the white woven lamp, and the room was instantly illuminated. I walked to my parents' rarely used mahogany bed, and my heart was filled with excitement.
Ever since I can remember, the relationship between my mother and my grandma has been very bad. I don’t know what conflict could arise between my mother and my grandma when she only comes home for a few days throughout the year?
Grandpa seems to be very indifferent to my mother. Anyway, in my memory, the communication between them is very little, almost non-existent.
I don’t know why, but I always thought that my family pattern was normal, but after joining the astrolabe-hunting army, I gradually discovered that the Zhou family really didn’t seem that simple.
After probably sitting on the bed for more than half an hour, I stood up, adjusted my emotions, and then walked into my father's study.
Since I had already come in once before, I opened the cabinet door under my father's desk with ease.
However, what shocked me was that the cabinet was empty, there was nothing -
My father's diary has disappeared.
I was stunned for a moment, and then I looked through all the books on the shelf, but there was no sign of any diary.
Grandma would never touch anything in my father's room. I know this, so these missing diaries must have been done intentionally.
Who is the one?
During this period, only grandpa and grandma were in the Zhou family's old house, and only they might know where his father's diary was kept.
Is it grandpa or grandma?
I was wondering in my heart.
At this time, I heard a noise outside the door and hurriedly walked out of the study.
Unexpectedly, it was grandma standing in my father's bedroom.
Grandma looked at me expressionlessly, without any emotion or anger on her face. It was the first time I saw her like this, and I felt very strange.
"Nai, why haven't you rested yet?" I asked timidly.
"I couldn't sleep. I saw the light in your dad's room was on, so I came over to take a look. I didn't expect it was you." Grandma said and changed her expression, but I still felt a little scared.
Maybe it's because I've rarely seen my grandma unhappy. Even when she was angry with grandpa, she could instantly change her expression when she saw me and give me a amiable smile.
"Go back and rest. There is nothing you want in your father's study." Grandma suddenly said.
"Mom, have you taken away my dad's diaries?" I said cautiously, fearing that grandma would suddenly become angry.
To be honest, an angry grandma looks a hundred times scarier than an angry grandpa.
"No, I never touch the things in your father's house. Those things were taken away by your mother." Grandma said calmly.
"Mom, has my mother come back? When?" Grandma's words caught me by surprise.
"On the second day after you went to Poyang Lake, she came back." Grandma said.
"Why did they come back suddenly? And they didn't call me first." I asked in confusion.
Usually, before my father returns to the Zhou family's old house, he will call me in advance to tell me which city they are in, what specialties they have here, and ask me what I want to buy.
However, this time he came back without any news.
"What about them? Only your mother came back," grandma said.
"My mother is alone, what about my father? Why didn't he come back together?"
This is impossible. His father and mother have always lived together, and they have never divorced each other. There is no way he would let his mother go back to the Zhou family alone.
"Who knows? It's useless for a son like him to brave the abyss even though he knows there is an abyss ahead of him."
Grandma said these two sentences with an unusual indifference, which made me feel cold. At that moment, I even thought that grandma and father might not be related by blood, otherwise what mother would talk about her son like this.
"Then did my mother tell me why my father didn't come back? Did she look for me?" I then asked.
"No, you, mother, have always been arrogant. It's not like you didn't know it. When you came back, you didn't even say hello. You went into the study, packed your things, and left without saying anything." Grandma said and added.
He said: "Cang'er, anyway, you have been following us all these years. Isn't this kind of life quite good? Don't dwell on it any further. Live a good life with us. Go to bed early. There are still guests at home."
"Milk, I know," I lowered my head and said a little discouraged.
Grandma looked at me again, sighed deeply, and then turned around and left silently.
I looked at my grandma's leaving figure, and couldn't help but ask myself: "Should I listen to grandma's words, stop here, and continue to live the same life of lying down? The Zhou family has the strength to let me lie flat for the rest of my life."
I have passed, but will it be like what Xiangyu said, my escape will make it difficult for my next generation and the next generation to escape from the clutches of the astrolabe?
Hey, God, I'm obviously a person of average intelligence, why do you always have to give me problems?
I sighed and simply lay down on my parents' bed.
I had been struggling for most of the night, but I didn't expect that something like this would happen again when I got home. I felt exhausted physically and mentally, and I didn't want to move as soon as I lay down, so I decided to spend the night on my father's bed.
, I don’t want to move anymore.
However, just as I was lying on my back on the bed, my eyes wandering among the tiles on the roof, suddenly, a burnt yellow thing came into my eyes.
There seemed to be a piece of wax paper sandwiched between the tiles on the roof.
This unexpected discovery made my tired body suddenly feel energetic.
I quietly walked out of my father's bedroom, set up a ladder in the utility room in the west wing, and then returned to my father's bedroom.
After a lot of effort, my hand was finally able to touch the gray tile. I pinched it with my index and middle fingers and took out the burnt yellow wax paper.
I opened the wax paper and saw a line of words written inside, which was my mother's handwriting -
Cang'er, don't believe anything in your father's study, including the diary.
The wax paper fell from my hand, and I lost my balance and fell down.