At about 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, He Youdong picked her up to meet his parents. Du Siqiu forgot to prepare gifts in advance, so he had to go to the fruit and vegetable market to buy fruits. After a long time of picking, he only brought out a bag of strawberries and a bag of star fruits.
, He Youdong shook his head helplessly, laughing at her for being so fussy.
The car quickly drove to an area of ordinary old bungalows. He Youdong's parents lived on the fourth floor. There was no elevator. She climbed the stairs with him. After climbing three floors, she began to pant slightly. He Youdong babbled and said:
"Your physique is too poor. I will have to catch you and climb more mountains in the future."
"Okay, come and catch me if you have the ability."
She stood at the door, carefully smoothed the ends of her hair, and asked him seriously: "I had insomnia last night. Are the bags under my eyes serious?"
"Why are you nervous? You have seen my mother and sister before." He ignored her anxiety and reached out to ring the doorbell.
She took the opportunity to straighten her skirt again and said, "Yes, I have seen you before. There is also your father. I have never met your father."
He looked back at her, paused for a moment and said, "Oh, I forgot to tell you, my dad is not at home right now."
He's mother was still sleeping, and it was He Youxi who came to open the door. As soon as she saw Du Siqiu, she said, "Sister-in-law, I was expecting you to come. That's great, come in quickly."
He Youdong gave her a blank look, this girl's pain was really in vain, she forgot about her brother after having a "sister-in-law".
Du Siqiu was left to eat at noon. She did not dare to take the initiative to go into the kitchen to help show off her shame. All the delicious dishes on the table were cooked by He Youxi herself.
He once heard He Youdong mention his little girl who was in her second year of high school, saying that she was a rebellious and lazy girl. Du Siqiu saw that she also worked part-time in the supermarket on weekends, and now she was out of the hall and in the kitchen, so she had to doubt He Youdong's words.
Is it just a joke?
When lunch was ready, He's mother got up and came to the dining table. She smiled and said, "Everyone is here."
He Youdong stood up and gave her a seat, "Mom, you slept later than usual today."
"Brother, you haven't been back for too long. Mom's lazy mode has long been activated." He Youxi complained.
He nodded repeatedly: "Yes, yes, it's my fault."
Mother He ignored the play between the two brothers and sisters. She was very happy to see Du Siqiu and praised her with a smile for how well-behaved and delicate she looked. She looked very amiable.
Du Siqiu was so happy that she was praised. After lunch, she took the initiative to carry the fruits she brought into the kitchen and washed them with tap water. The fresh star fruits and strawberries were lying on the fruit plate, crystal clear.
He Youdong handed a star fruit to He's mother. She smiled stiffly, shook her head and said she was too full and wouldn't eat it. He didn't notice the change in her expression, so he took it and started eating it.
Du Siqiu could see it clearly. She was confused for a moment. She didn't know whether He's mother didn't like eating star fruits or thought the gift she brought was too shabby. But one thing she could tell was that He Youdong was very filial to his mother.
Except for finding a girlfriend, everything else seems to be completely obedient to her.
A few people chatted for a while. In the afternoon, He Youdong was going to attend his university's anniversary celebration. He left Du Siqiu here to talk to He's mother and took the first step.
Du Siqiu was speechless to him, this guy really regarded her as his wife!
Fortunately, He Youxi was still there. The little girl liked to talk in random directions. Mother He's attention was diverted, and the previous strange look quickly disappeared. However, she said she felt a little sleepy after not sitting for a while, and got up to go back to the bedroom. She
He asked He Youxi to entertain Du Siqiu well, and also asked her to come and sit more often when she had time in the future.
Du Siqiu was a little embarrassed, wondering whether to say goodbye. At this time, He Youxi, who was watching a Taiwanese idol drama, came over and grabbed her and said, "Sister Qiu, come and sit in my room."
There were many things in He Youxi's room, which was as messy as a pig's nest. She was a little embarrassed, so she threw the clothes hanging on the back of the chair on the bed and asked her to sit down. She leaned on the dressing table behind her.
Du Siqiu tilted his head and asked, "Xixi doesn't have a boy she likes?"
"Eh?" She couldn't keep up with her thinking, and smiled shyly: "Of course. Why do you ask?"
"Haha, all the girls who fall in love are very clean. Do you have one?"
The little girl heard something in her words and became a little unhappy. She murmured unconvincingly: "Of course, I am much more diligent now than before." She pointed her fingers around her messy bedroom without any shame, and looked at it very clearly.
pride.
Du Siqiu couldn't help laughing and said: "Okay, you can give me a fight."
Just as he was talking, He Youxi closed the door furtively and pulled out a green bottle from under the bed. Du Siqiu took a closer look and saw that it was Tsingtao beer.
She poured the light yellow liquid into the glass and reached out to hand it over.
"Yeah, you're still drinking."
"Shh, don't tell my brother and my mother, they are very old-fashioned."
"Then why are you telling me?"
"I know we are the same people, haha." She didn't know how she could tell that Du Siqiu also liked drinking, but she felt that things were starting to get a little interesting.
"You are still studying, so drink less." Du Siqiu took a symbolic sip and spoke in the same tone as He Youdong.
"Sister Qiuqiu really looks like a sister-in-law." The little girl smiled again, with a cunning look in her eyes: "Come, let me show you my elder brother's former boudoir."
In comparison, He Youdong's bedroom was much neater. Except for the quilt on the bed, everything else was still there, clean and tidy.
Du Siqiu felt ashamed: "It's really a boudoir."
He has a small wooden bookshelf here, which is full of comic books and martial arts novels, including Old Master, Dragon Ball, Jingle Cat, and works by Gu Long Jinyong.
He Youxi said: "These comic books all belong to his friends. My eldest brother had a problem when he was a child. He would never return things he borrowed from others. So everyone who agreed to lend them to him basically took it as a gift to him."
Du Siqiu couldn't help but smile, he turned out to be so domineering and rogue when he was a child.
An hour or two passed again, and Du Siqiu didn't want to stay too late, so she got up and prepared to go home. He Youxi stopped her again, this time in a pleading tone: "Sister Qiuqiu, I'm going back to school in the afternoon."
"Then what?" She waited patiently for her to continue.
"My brother used to drive me to school. He has something to do today. Can you accompany me?"
It turned out that it was something like this. Du Siqiu didn't think much about it and readily agreed. She thought, after all, this girl is still a child. At the age of sixteen or seventeen, no matter where she goes, she always wants someone to accompany her.
.She was also like this.
He Youdong was away and there was no special car transportation, so she had to accompany He Youxi to take the bus to school. It turned out that she was a student of "Renxin" High School, and the admission score of this school was one of the best in the city. This shows that He Youxi's study
The results are not bad.
Renxin High School was still some distance from the bus station. After arriving at the bus station, Du Siqiu helped her carry large and small bags of snacks and fruits and walked with her all the way to school.
Renxin High School is much more beautiful than her previous school. It has all-off-white buildings, bright red runways, quiet biology gardens and geography gardens, as well as fountains and rockeries. The school roads are full of people wearing sky blue uniforms and canvas shoes.
student, young and clean, enviable. After walking for about ten minutes, the two finally arrived at the downstairs of an off-white dormitory. Seeing that she was hesitant to speak, Du Siqiu said with a smile: "Is there anything else?"
"Yes..." she agreed hesitantly.
"You're welcome. If you have anything to say, just tell me."
"Well, Sister Qiuqiu, our school is holding a parent-teacher meeting today. Can you attend on my brother's behalf?"
Du Siqiu felt very strange. He was busy in winter, so it was understandable that he couldn't come. Why didn't she ask her mother to come?
But she was too embarrassed to pursue matters that were easy to do. She made an impromptu decision and became a parent for the first time.
He Youxi was so excited that he grabbed her hand and shook it: "Thank you, Sister Qiuqiu!"
"Silly girl." Du Siqiu felt confused, rubbed her hair and laughed.
After she finished the parent-teacher meeting, she understood the reason for He Youxi's strange reaction.
The parent-teacher meeting started at 3 p.m. The first meeting was held in the gymnasium and was given by the principal and the director of the Academic Affairs Office. The general content was to remind parents of sophomore students to prepare their children mentally for their senior year, enhance learning motivation and balance learning.
Pressure. These contents are exactly the same as the contents of Du Siqiu’s parent-teacher conference in high school. Everyone has already heard it, so the school just went through the motions and lasted a short time.
The second parent-teacher meeting was held in the students' respective classrooms, hosted by the head teacher, who announced the students' recent academic performance and had in-depth contact with parents about the specific situations of individual students. Du Siqiu was invited by He Youxi's head teacher to communicate. At this time, she
Then I realized that the girl really had an ulterior motive in begging her to come to the parent-teacher meeting in place of He Youdong. It would be weird if her brother came in person and didn't beat her.
When the parent-teacher meeting ended, it was getting late. She walked out of the classroom, and other students nervously approached her to observe their parents' faces, fearing that the head teacher would complain to their parents about some of their bad behavior. He Youxi lay on the railing of the corridor
, raised his head and glanced at her, then quickly looked away guiltily, as if he too felt embarrassed and did not dare to face her.
Isn't that right? The head teacher complained one after another, and even her fake sister-in-law blushed after hearing it, not to mention her client. Du Siqiu was really convinced by her. She came from a girl's family, quarreled with others, and drank in the dormitory.
She cheated on exams, went to bars, stayed out of school at night, and she did all kinds of illegal things.
The class teacher thought Du Siqiu was her sister and wanted to poke her head and scold her. In the end, due to her dignity as a teacher, she could only suppress her anger and say patiently: "Miss He, you should take care of Youxi. Just do this."
If the trend continues, it will be difficult for her to go to senior year next year! The school has already given her a serious demerit, please ask her to write a self-reflection letter."
Youxi was still lying on the railing motionless, so Siqiu had no choice but to walk over by herself: "I'm going home, won't you see me off?"
She lowered her head in silence and accompanied Du Siqiu downstairs. The two slowly walked through the biological garden and stepped on the stone road. After an unknown amount of time, she spoke with difficulty: "Sister Qiuqiu, I'm sorry for causing you to be scolded.
Already."
"Actually... I don't understand. Why are you quarreling with others? That's something only elementary school students do." As soon as she said the words, she regretted it. In fact, she and she were not related, but they were not relatives.
Who are you to teach her a lesson?
"Haha, because...it's boring." She bit her lip and forced a smile.
What a ridiculous reason to make trouble out of boredom!
"How can it be boring? There are still your friends and family around." Suddenly, the conversation became a little difficult. Her intuition told her that this was not the case. She found it in this teenage girl.
There was a feeling of déjà vu. But she was powerless and could only continue the topic in an empty manner: "Look, you have your brother, your mother, your... uh, and your father, where is he?"
The thin shoulders of the girl walking in front suddenly shook discordantly in the afterglow of the setting sun. After a long time, Du Siqiu heard her lonely voice echoing on the empty stone path: "My dad, he is in prison.
"
Du Siqiu stood there blankly, and finally sighed silently. She thought, should she mind this business, or should she help her hide it from her family?
In other words, she had no choice at all. At this moment, He Youdong was walking towards them from the direction of the teaching building. He must have met Youxi's class teacher and knew what she was doing.
"Brother, why are you here?"
"You think the school newsletter is useless!" He Youdong said angrily: "Your class teacher complained that you didn't come back to school all night. What were you doing at night?"
He Youxi remained silent.
"Tell me, what are you doing?"
"Internet cafe, surf the Internet all night long."
He was a little unbelievable, and scolded with a low face: "Tell me, who are you showing yourself to by giving up on yourself like this?"
He Youxi seemed to have been stabbed in a sore spot, and suddenly said sternly: "I am willing to give up on myself, I am happy!"
He felt more and more angry and raised his hand to slap her. Du Siqiu was afraid that he would act too aggressively, so she hurriedly stopped him: "Don't be like this. If you have something to say, talk to her."
"Don't worry about it, I'll settle the score with you later."
Du Siqiu was choked by him and shut up instantly.
He Youxi sneered: "You beat me, beat me to death so you don't worry. Brother, do you think I really want to stay in a messy Internet cafe for the night? I can't sleep, I'm almost bored to death."
He Youdong couldn't bring himself to do it at all, with a look of pain on his face: "He Youxi, no one forces you to forgive your father's mistakes, but you insist on destroying your own future!"
"Stop talking, don't mention him to me again!" He Youxi yelled at him in disgust, and suddenly ran out as if losing his mind.
"Xixi! Come back!" He Youdong was caught off guard. When he reacted, he chased him out of the school, but he was already far behind.
Their figures gradually moved away in the hazy night, until they disappeared from Du Siqiu's sight. On the empty stone road, she was the only one standing there, as if seeing the incomplete version of herself.
She was also like this, when she was in her teens, she stubbornly hated her father.
In Du Siqiu's life, he lived with his cousin for several years. It was a period when family planning was very strict, and strange supervisors would knock on the door in the middle of the night every day, asking to check on the children at home. At that time,
In rural areas, each family is allowed to have two children, and any additional children will be considered excessive. Once caught, you will be fined a lot of money, and the women in the family will be forced to undergo sterilization surgery.
Du Siqiu was a superborn child, but her parents hid her very well and never paid the fine. One night, she was suddenly awakened from her sleep, and her mind was in chaos. Her parents told her that the investigation tonight would be more complicated than before.
Yan, it was not safe to stay at home. They took her and ran out of the house secretly, leaving only her brother and sister at home. From time to time, dangerous sirens came from the path, and in the rush, they interpreted the meaning of the night in a different way.
Loneliness.
That night, they escaped to the mushroom factory where their father used to work, and the family of three hid in the gaps of the mushroom barrels to sleep. The young Du Siqiu didn't understand anything, but he still slept soundly in a different place.
At dawn the next day, they sneaked back home again, like wanted criminals. That morning was as beautiful as usual, and the air was filled with the faint scent of old banyan trees. She raised the corners of her mouth slightly, still looking forward to tonight
's second escape.
But her father's generous hand suddenly let go and said, "Girl, I will wrong you in the future."
She didn't understand what her father meant. She only knew that the moisture from the cement floor last night made his waist sting unbearably. He said he couldn't stand this kind of life.
It wasn't until that evening that she realized that she seemed to have been abandoned. Her father secretly adopted her to her unmarried cousin. It was his idea.
It was raining non-stop outside.
When her cousin led her out of the house, she didn't cry. Her other little hand tightly grabbed her mother's sleeve and murmured: "Mom...Mom, you don't want me anymore..."
Mother turned her back and secretly wiped away her tears: "Qiuqiu, be good, listen to your cousin from now on."
After hearing this, she finally slowly loosened her palms, which were turning pale, and felt only a desolate feeling of loneliness in her heart.
From beginning to end, she never looked back at her father. She once loved him so deeply.
Later, she began to sleepwalk inexplicably and began to look for her mother everywhere in the endless darkness. However, her father's shadow gradually became blurred. This chapter has been completed!