When we went back in the evening, my parents' moods had basically returned to normal. The two elders were leaning on the sofa watching a noisy domestic movie.
Du Siqiu changed his coat and hung it on the hanger, and joked: "Tsk, tsk, tsk, it's another movie about a battle between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. Aren't you upset after watching it?"
"What's wrong with this? Look at how lively it is."
Du Siqiu smiled and did not refute. When her children were not around, and when there were only two old people in the house who were too lazy to talk, they had to rely on a lively TV series to support themselves. She sat on the edge to watch it with them, and saw the two elders
I yawned until I ran to take a shower.
Before going to bed, she turned on her cell phone and found two missed calls, both from He Youdong. It was already past 11 o'clock at night, and she didn't know if he had slept. She was afraid of waking him up, so she sent a text message: "Are you okay?
?" She didn't get a reply for a long time. He must have fallen asleep at this hour. After the test, she lay down on the bed and slept peacefully.
At two o'clock in the afternoon the next day, Du Siqiu's sister Du Siyi gave birth to a little girl in the hospital. She was white and fat. Mother and daughter were safe. Her brother-in-law excitedly announced the good news on the phone: "Xiaoqiu, your sister has given birth. Both mother and daughter are fine. She is fine."
I just fell asleep!" You can hear that it is the joy of being a father.
Du Siqiu hurriedly followed her mother to the hospital. Through the transparent glass, she saw her newborn niece, pink and tender, innocent, exuding the vitality of a newborn baby. She had maintained the same appearance for a long time.
He looked at the child in front of him quietly, and at that moment, he felt inexplicably moved in his heart.
When Du Siyi returned to her parents' home to recuperate, Du Siqiu began to think about preparing a small gift for her niece.
It happened that He Youdong called and asked her to go fishing.
"No, I don't have time today. I have to go to the city shopping mall."
"Comrade Du Siqiu, you have a problem with your attitude recently. You reject me at every turn." He deliberately changed his tone into a serious tone.
"It's really something, please forgive me."
"Okay, I'll go with you."
Yes, why did she ignore such a good labor resource like him? Since he came to her door on his own initiative, it would be better to obey him than to be respectful.
Just after breakfast the next day, He Youdong called: "I'm at the door of your community."
Du Siqiu was immediately dumbfounded: "Ah?! I'm not ready yet."
"You know, you still need to put on makeup, right?" He Youdong said, "Just do it slowly. I don't have to go to work today anyway."
She walked to the window and saw his milky white Ford Mondeo parked steadily at the gate from a distance.
She remembered that He Youdong had a lot of leisure magazines in his car. He called these things a good way to kill time, and they would naturally come in handy when waiting for someone. At this moment, he would not be bored. She analyzed it like this,
She felt at ease and did not invite him to sit at home. Of course, the premise was that he did not directly knock on her door.
"It's really different after dressing up." He Youdong praised the fruits of her labor very proudly.
"Hey, you are really a friend of women." Du Siqiu secretly glanced at the rearview mirror of the car. The woman inside was indeed much more beautiful than before. The white velvet collar on her woolen coat made her look particularly delicate.
"I just told the truth."
"No, no, no, I guess you must have quite a lot of love experience, especially how to please girls."
"Yes, I have a harem of three thousand beauties." He said seriously.
Naturally, she could no longer tell the truth from such a joke. However, she still laughed happily: "I'm afraid you can't handle it alone." When she laughed from the bottom of her heart, her long eyelashes could not help but smile.
Trembling slightly, like butterflies chasing each other, the vivid appearance is always a bit more beautiful than usual.
Calculating carefully, she has not dressed herself up for a long time. For a long time, she has not been able to find the energy to look at her appearance. But no matter how she dresses, she never uses perfume. Girls of the same age as her,
Either Chanel's Encounter Series, Hermès' Nile Garden, or Arden Green Tea, they all have a charming fragrance. Du Siqiu's smell is different from others, her fragrance only comes from shampoo and washing powder.
She has always been like this. She only uses Pantene for shampoo and Bilang's jasmine fragrance series for washing powder. It's not that there is anything outstanding about the quality of these brands. She just simply likes the smell of these two.
People's attachment to a certain flavor is often kidnapped by memories.
On weekends, the city shopping mall was overcrowded. More than half of the customers in the supermarket were housewives. Du Siqiu bravely shuttled back and forth among these aunt-like figures, picking and choosing. In less than an hour, she picked up several bags of maternal and infant products.
He Youdong naturally became a coolie.
Finally, the two of them went to the hardware store upstairs to pick out a silver longevity lock. He introduced her to a store with a relatively high cost performance, "Du Siqiu, how come you are the one who comes to buy your niece's longevity lock in her turn?"
"It's not because my sister has a miserable life. Her mother-in-law has been looking forward to her giving birth to a boy, but now she has given birth to a girl. The old lady is sulking. How can she be in the mood to buy these things for my little niece?" Du Siqiu said angrily.
The underground conclusion: "So, if a woman gets married in a good manner, she is asking for trouble!"
The corners of He Youdong's lips raised: "So you have never considered marrying me?" Naturally, he thought she was completely joking.
She laughed and scolded: "Shameless, I will follow you no matter who you say it is."
He didn't understand how a young girl like her, who had just graduated and must have been in love once or twice, at an age when she should be full of longing for love, could look like she had seen through the world, and seemed to only want to protect herself.
"You are so cool, does your mother know?"
She shook her head: "No, they all believe that I will marry myself before the age of 26. They are very relieved about me."
"How to say?"
"Because in their eyes, I am just a little girl with no ambitions. But in fact, I am such a person."
He Youdong stopped at the corner. He bent his strong body and carefully observed the longevity lock on the counter. His attentive look made the salesperson mistakenly think that he was the father of the child, and he praised them for their good fortune with a smile.
, became a parent at a young age.
Du Siqiu's face turned red, and she secretly scolded the sales lady for her irresponsible remarks. Looking at He Youdong again, he was continuing to choose his longevity lock with a calm expression, pretending not to hear, his eyes as calm as ever: "
Look, what do you think of this?"
Suddenly she remembered that night at the Sky Mansion KTV, the night when He Youdong sang "Enough Bell" affectionately. His calm eyes were exactly the same as now. She was sitting in a dark corner, all her resentment was temporarily wiped out, and her heart was peaceful.
.
She looked at him again and nodded in agreement.
When they returned home, He Youdong walked her to the gate of the community where her parents lived. Du Siqiu expressed her gratitude to him, but before she could say goodbye, her attention was diverted by the old lady outside the glass window.
Her mother was knocking on his car window pretending to be reserved at the moment, and asked with a smile: "Young man, are you He Youdong?"
When He Youdong learned that she was Mama Du, he quickly lowered the glass to greet her: "Hello, aunt, I am He Youdong."
"Mom, you came at the right time. He...is a friend of mine." She rushed to use explanations to cover up their relationship.
"Okay, Feng Xue has told me everything." Mother Du winked at her as if she thought she knew the inside story, then turned around and warmly invited him to sit at home. She held up a full vegetable basket and said, "Come here.
Let’s have a meal at home, there are so many people here today, I bought a lot of vegetables!”
He Youdong was embarrassed to dampen the old lady's interest due to his feelings, so he finally agreed to her invitation and went to meet Du Siqiu's family for the first time.
He didn't originally plan to visit his "parents-in-law", and he was in a hurry and didn't prepare any gifts. He had to take out the Martell he just bought in the shopping mall from the trunk as a first meeting gift.
This was completely out of Du Siqiu's control. She originally didn't want to let her family know about their dating too early. The less people knew about it, the less likely they would be involved in getting out. Feng Xue, a big mouth, was still
Ruined her wishful thinking.
When she entered the house, she found that her cousin was also there, and her little niece was having a good time in her arms. The cousin's child was still young, but she was fifty-six years old this year, and her charm was still there.
Du Siqiu stood at the door like a wooden block, and for a moment he forgot to say hello to her. They had not seen each other for a long time. But she said hello to Du Siqiu first: "Qiuqiu is back, come and take a look, this little girl looks so good.
It’s pretty.”
He Youdong poked her arm for no apparent reason, and she just came back to her senses. Her frozen face quickly changed into a familiar smile: "You're here."
No wonder her mother said everyone was here today.
In just a few words at the dinner table, Mother Du found out all the details about He Youdong. He is from Cantonese, the eldest in the family, and has a younger sister. His parents are still alive, and he currently works as an account executive in an advertising company in this city.
.
Du Siqiu secretly broke into a cold sweat. Fortunately, her mother did not ask him whether he had a house or how much his annual salary was. Otherwise, she would definitely not be able to hold her head up in front of him in the future. She is a conflicted person, and she made it clear that she is a typical
A little money-lover, on the other hand, I look down on those snobbish people from the bottom of my heart.
After the meal, He Youdong felt very insecure and his face turned pale. He was afraid that the old lady might ask when they were getting married.
Of course, she didn't ask that, she just asked him: "Xiao He, you are good with our Qiuqiu, why do you like her?"
"Well...she...she's quite special."
"What special law?"
"Hmm...very cute and fun."
"What's the cute way?"
He Youdong glanced at Du Siqiu with some embarrassment.
Du Siqiu clasped his hands together as if begging: "Old Mrs. Du, can you stop being so stupid? I haven't even asked her that."
Her sister Du Siyi was in confinement and was not eating at the same table with them. Now she joined in the fun. Her loud voice came from the room: "I said, little sister, don't just protect my brother-in-law.
Let us all test him!" He was so vigorous that he seemed ready to go to work in the fields right away.
Here’s my brother-in-law! Du Siqiu looked at He Youdong dumbfounded.
My cousin immediately continued: "That's right, come on, Xiao He, just tell everyone the simplest thing, what is our Qiuqiu's favorite food?"
He Youdong scratched his head and cast a pleading look at Du Siqiu. She suddenly thought out of her wits and quietly showed him the comic version of the curry steak keychain under the table. He glanced at it hastily and said in confusion: "Chicken Steak Orleans?
"
Idiot, it's curry steak! Du Siqiu stepped on him secretly without tears. No wonder he didn't know. They had only known each other for three weeks, and they could count the number of times they had met on one hand. However, he seemed to be right.
She is not very interested in her affairs.
"Why are you stepping on me? Isn't this just a chicken chop!" He pretended to bend down to pick something up, and protested her violent behavior in a low voice.
She looked at his frown and couldn't help covering her mouth and snickering.
"Ring ring ring..." At this embarrassing moment, fortunately, a phone call came to the rescue in time. It was Du's father.
Mother Du went over to answer the phone and came back, and began to mutter dissatisfiedly: "This old guy is really serious! Yesterday, he said that the curtains should be changed to white. Now that he bought them, he was clamoring to change them to brown.
"
"Isn't he still on duty at the hospital? Why did he call back specifically for this matter?"
"Isn't that right? I've been nagging all day long." Mother Du complained dissatisfiedly and went back to the room to take down the curtains.
Du Siqiu knew that no matter how dissatisfied her mother was, she had to do what her father wanted in the end. Because she was not financially independent, she was never the one who made the decision in the family.
When my father was young, he was a well-known barefoot doctor in the town. With his superb medical skills, he supported this family of five by himself. Yes, this family originally had three children, that is to say,
, Du Siqiu also had an older brother.
My father is indeed a great man, but it is because of his great dedication to the family that his machismo is particularly rampant. The most egregious one was when he had an argument with her mother, and he scolded her mother for being someone who only had food to eat.
A parasite, you have no right to stare at him. The mother yelled at the top of her voice: "Just tell lies with your eyes wide open. I didn't do any of the laundry, cooking, taking care of the children, or getting Chinese medicine. Do you dare to say that you don't earn any money?"
My share of the credit? Besides prescribing medicines, what else do you do all day long? You know how to drink!"
"Hmph!" Father's nostrils were almost touching the sky, "Don't yell at me. Let me tell you, in the medical field, prescribing medicine is equivalent to the brain in a person's organs. The work you do is at most a
Hands and feet are dispensable." At that time, little Du Siqiu secretly muttered in her heart: However, without hands and feet, a person's life will be ruined.
For several months, his mother had to look at his face when she asked him for living expenses. This incident has always been deeply imprinted in Du Siqiu's mind. In the long years that followed, Du Siqiu became accustomed to relying on his own independent consciousness for everything.
It probably started to take shape at that time.
He Youdong helped Du's mother remove the curtains and came to sit on the sofa in the living room. Seeing her frowning slightly and being in a daze, he couldn't help asking what was wrong.
She said seriously: "What should I do? Everyone in my family likes you. It will be difficult to 'break up' in the future."
"Break up?" He Youdong's eyebrows slightly raised subconsciously: "You have been thinking about when will you break up with me all day long?"
Du Siqiu felt regretful that she had slipped up, and hurriedly yelled: "What? I was just joking, why do you take it seriously?"
He then relaxed his guard and smiled.
She kept pestering him to chat just to avoid being alone with her cousin.
It wasn't until it was completely dark that He Youdong stood up to say goodbye. Du Siqiu followed him out and told him not to take the original road when he went back. That section of the road was under construction recently and the traffic jam was particularly serious at night.
He nodded noncommittally, which counted as agreement.
She then raised the Martell in her hand to him and said, "You'd better take this wine back."
"Uncle, doesn't he like to drink? Just leave it for him." He patted the dust on his woolen coat, with a sly look in his eyes: "I've been busy with work lately anyway, so I don't have time to drink."
She giggled: "He Youdong, you can't be too nice to any girl, you know. Maybe one day I won't let you go."
"Really? I'm so scared." He pretended to tremble: "I'm afraid you will be disappointed. I am not a good person."
His eyes fell on her clear and deep pupils, and he said silently in his heart: I don't deliberately want to be nice to anyone. I'm just not interested in spending too much energy on fussing over everything.
This twenty-seven-year-old young man is always as warm and genial as the spring breeze in front of others, but it is difficult for him to control himself and not bear the torment of loneliness when he is alone at night.
Du Siqiu talked for a long time before she apologized to him seriously: "He Youdong, you have worked hard today."
"How can I? I've eaten and drank for nothing and I haven't thanked you yet." He said and stamped his feet exaggeratedly: "It's just that my feet still hurt a little."
After saying that, the two of them looked down at the gray-white footprints on the tip of his shiny leather shoe on his right side, and laughed in unison.
"Hey, don't forget, take a detour." Before leaving, she repeated it again. Hehe, today is really wordy.
As he opened the car door, he asked jokingly: "How about I send you a text message when I get home to let you know that I'm safe?"
"Hey, do whatever you want." As soon as the words came out of her mouth, she was frightened by herself again. According to her usual style of such a provocative joke, she should have retorted mercilessly: I am not your mother!
She couldn't help but sigh: Why did the female men of the past take a gentle path?
"Okay, let's go." She felt embarrassed after thinking about it and hurriedly urged him to get in the car.
He turned back and hugged her for a while, and said, "Yes." The light breath of mint spread over her body, gentle and full of charm.