The cold wind was impersonal, like countless sharp bone-scraping knives, blowing unscrupulously on the bodies of people waiting to get on the bus.
All the buses parked at the restaurant have their doors closed tightly. The driver said that this is to prevent someone from taking advantage of the opportunity to steal. In fact, everyone knows the real purpose is to force people to eat and drink hot water in an unlicensed restaurant. Otherwise,
How can drivers get their fair share from black restaurant owners?
"Damn, this ghost place is so dark!" Xiangzi cursed: "If you don't stop to eat, people will die! The driver is not a good person either! It's better to be in the South China Sea, wandering there is better than living in a place like this!"
If Liu Gen hadn't lived in Nanhai for a few months, he wouldn't think there was anything bad about his hometown, but now, he also feels that the people living here are too different from Nanhai.
"I really should have asked my dad to drive to pick me up. I can't stand it. The toilet is so dirty that it's disgusting!" Xu Yazhi didn't drink water or eat bread. It seemed that what she saw and smelled in the toilet made her lose her appetite.
Even though he was wearing a lot of clothes, he was still shivering from the cold and his voice was shaking: "This is my first time taking such a long-distance bus. I smelled the stench most of the night. When I think of the smell on the bus, I don't want to get on it."
Leah."
"Haha... Yazhi, then you stay in this black shop and let your father drive to pick you up." Xiangzi joked.
"Come on, if you live in a place like this, no one will know if you are sold!" Xu Yazhi glanced at the dark mountains and forests around her, as if she was afraid, and hugged her chest tightly with her hands.
"We'll have to wait a few more hours before we get to the county seat." Liu Gen said. He was starting to get a little excited about meeting his parents and sister Liu Zhi. He planned to go to the county hospital to see his father immediately after arriving in the county seat. He thought
Liuzhi had already taken her father to the county hospital.
The bus started on the road again after more than half an hour. Fortunately, it didn't snow, so the journey went smoothly. After dawn, we arrived at the Qiong County Long-distance Bus Station.
"Xiangzi, who I can't kill, is back!" Xiangzi shouted loudly after getting out of the car, attracting countless people to look at him. They didn't seem to recognize him, thinking that there was something wrong with his mind.
Xu Yazhi's family bus was parked among several buses. She saw the license plate at a glance; "Liu Gen, that's my family's car." She pointed to a bus and said to Liu Gen.
Liu Gen looked over and saw a middle-aged man running over: "Yazhi, I've been waiting for you. We're finally here."
"This is my second uncle." Xu Yazhi introduced the middle-aged man to Liu Gen and Xiangzi.
Liu Gen and Xiangzi politely exchanged a few words with Xu Yazhi's second uncle, and then broke up with Xu Yazhi. They were going to pick up Liu Gen's father and return to Nanhai two years ago, and they were going back the same way as Xu Yazhi. They carried their bags and said goodbye to Xu Yazhi.
What Liu Gen was holding was still the same woven bag, but it was not so stuffed anymore. Most of it was empty. In addition to a few changes of clothes, there were some Nanhai sweets and specialties bought for his parents and Liu Zhi, and even
His military canvas schoolbag, which had been washed white, was also stuffed into a woven bag. The only valuable thing inside was Ouyang Xue's Walkman.
Xiangzi was simpler, only carrying a backpack with a few pieces of underwear stuffed inside.
"Brother Gen, where are you going now?" Xiangzi asked. He had no home to go back to. He came back this time to help Liu Gen pick up his father.
"You don't want to go home and have a look..." After Liu Gen finished speaking, he realized that his home had been burned down: "I'm sorry, Xiangzi, I forgot about your home..."
"It doesn't matter, haha... I will go back and see what it looks like after being burned." Xiangzi replied.
"Then you go to the hospital with me first." Liu Gen said.
"okay."
The two were walking on the only wide straight road in the county. Many pedestrians on the road thought they were from out of town and greeted them curiously and with hostile eyes.
"Brother Gen, why do I feel that something is wrong with the way those people look at us?" Xiangzi said, looking at the pedestrians on both sides.
"Are you worried about being recognized?" Liu Gen also noticed.
"Since you dare to come back, you won't be afraid that they will recognize Xiangzi who we can't kill!" Xiangzi said loudly.
The two walked quickly onto the road leading to the county hospital.
The newly built outpatient building looks very out of place with the dusty buildings around it. There are many shops on the road in front of the county hospital, including those selling mutton steamed buns and other food, as well as small shops and two
pharmacies and a clinic.
In an affiliated hospital like Nanhai Medical University, both of them could come and go freely. For such a small hospital, they quickly found the inpatient department without asking anyone. Liu Gen knew which department to go to find his father.
However, when he asked the nurse, he didn't know at all. When he asked if he had been discharged from the hospital, he was impatient and ignored him.
Yanagi Gen then searched from ward to ward, including the Department of Hepatobiliary Medicine and Surgery, but there was no sign of his father and Yanagi Zhi, so he went to other departments to look.
After searching all the wards in the inpatient department, Liu Zhi and Dad were still nowhere to be found.
"Brother Gen, maybe uncle will go home." Xiangzi saw Liu Gen's anxious face and comforted him.
"Let's go to school." Liu Gen wanted to see if Liu Zhi was still in school.
But when we arrived at County No. 1 Middle School, it was deserted and had already been on vacation. However, Liu Gen was from here after all, and many teachers knew him. After asking a teacher, he found out that Liu Zhi had gone home after the vacation, and he had not heard that she had picked him up.
He told me about dad coming to treat his illness.
"Let's go to your house and have a look." Liu Gen said with some frustration.
Xiangzi's home is on a small hill in the south of the county. There are many residential buildings here, either government dormitories or family homes run by various bureaus. But there is one independent building, which Xiangzi's father bought.
The courtyard of the three-story foreign-style building built on about four to five acres of land was once called the Liu Family Courtyard in Qiong County.
The majestic red lacquered door in the past has long turned into a burnt black color. The stone lions on both sides of the door, the one on the left is lying on the ground, and one of the legs of the one on the right has been broken off.
Xiangzi stood at the door, with tears in his eyes. He didn't need to go in to know what the situation was inside.
The moment the two of them stepped through the door, Xiangzi burst into tears and fell to his knees on the ground: "These bastards! They burned my good home to this..."
In the huge courtyard, the vegetation has long since died. The rockery in the oval fountain in the middle has long since collapsed. The pool is full of yellow sand and fallen leaves. Not a single window in the three-story building that used to be very western is complete.
The door panels and window frames were gone, and everything was dark and burnt by smoke.
Although it is completely unrecognizable, you can still see the grandeur of the past from the remaining building.
Liu Gen pulled Xiangzi up and said, "Let's go home with me."
The two of them returned to the long-distance bus station and took the shuttle bus to the countryside.
Some villagers in the car recognized Liu Gen, but they didn't talk to him much. It seemed that everyone had something to say and didn't want to say more.
More than an hour later, Yanagi Gen and Xiangzi arrived in the countryside. They could only walk the rest of the way, and it took more than two hours of walking on the mountain road to reach Gangou Village.
It can be seen from the yellow sand all over the fields that it has not snowed since the beginning of winter this year. The thirsty yellow land was blown by the north wind, and the sky was filled with yellow sand. By the time the two walked into the village, it was already full of snow.
Yellow dust all over the body.
The aunties in the village gathered in small groups to pick up the soles of their shoes in the sun. When they saw Liu Gen and Xiangzi, they all stopped their sewing.
"Isn't this the daughter of the Liu family..."
"Genwa is back..."
"Genwa, the scar on your face..."
"Genwa, go home quickly, your mother is looking forward to you..."
…
There was a lot of talk, and the aunts and mothers sighed.
This suddenly gave Liu Gen an ominous premonition in his heart.
Liu Gen led Xiangzi through several narrow dirt roads with twists and turns, and after climbing a ridge, he saw his two cave dwellings and courtyard, which made him feel friendly.
"Xiangzi, that's my home." Liu Gen pointed with his finger.
This was the first time Xiangzi came to Liu Gen's house. When the two of them walked into the one-meter-wide entrance between the half-person-high earthen walls, an old woman who was covered in dust and wore a patched cotton jacket walked out from one of the cave dwellings.
, her feet were very awkward. When she heard the footsteps, the old woman turned her head and squinted at the entrance of the yard: "Genwa..." She stumbled over.
"Mom..." Liu Gen screamed, threw away the woven bag, ran forward and knelt down with a plop, holding his mother's legs with both hands: "Gen baby is back to see you..." Big tears rolled down his eyes.
"Gen baby... you are finally home..." My mother's tears fell on Liu Gen's head, and she touched her son's long hair with both hands: "It's good to come back... It's good to go home... Get up...
I’ve even brought guests here... Why don’t you invite the guests to sit inside, it’s freezing outside..."
Liu Gen stood up, patted the dust on his mother's body with both hands, wiped away her tears, and then waved to Xiangzi: "Xiangzi, this is my mother, come here quickly, mother, he is my good brother, his name is Xiangzi, and his father's name is Liu
Kui, he helped me before in high school..."
Xiangzi stepped forward and knelt down in front of Liu Genniang: "Mother... Xiangzi has lost his mother. From now on, please ask your mother to accept my son..." Xiangzi cried and said, "Kowtow to you, son!" After that,
I really kowtowed three times.
"I'm going to kill you! Get up quickly... I heard the aunties in the village talking about your father... Oh... it's such a sin..." Liu Gen's mother bent down and helped Xiangzi up with both hands, helping him to avoid being beaten.
Dust: "You baby, my mother recognizes you!"
However, Liu Gen ran into the cave dwelling on the right first and shouted: "Dad, Gen baby... Where's dad... Mom, where is dad?" Liu Gen saw that there was no dad on the kang of the cave dwelling. He stood at the door of the cave dwelling and looked back.
Mother asked.
Xiangzi supported the old man, walked to the cave door, and walked inside.
Liu Gen ran to the cave next door to see, but there was still no father, so he turned around and said, "Mom, did dad stay in the county with Liu Zhi?"
"Gen baby, come on, sit down..." Mom patted the kang next to her and said.
The ominous premonition in Liu Gen's heart became stronger, and his heart was beating loudly. He walked over and sat down next to his mother, while Xiangzi sat on the other side.
"Genwa, your father...he is free..." Mother did not cry, but touched her son's cheek with both hands and said: "On the weekend when Liuzhi came back, he said that you had sent money back and asked Liuzhi to take your father away.
When you were admitted to the county hospital, your father asked Liu Zhi how you could earn so much money all of a sudden. Liu Zhi couldn't explain for a moment, and your father was so anxious that he slapped the bed and cursed loudly, "This kid must have done something evil."