I returned home and did not go directly to the apartment over there. What happened this afternoon made me feel a little complicated. I didn't know how to face it. Moreover, I had to change my clothes before going to the laboratory.
Look over there to see how much I owe on the electricity bill. I still have to pay this part of the money. Maybe I have to go to the bank... There are still a lot of things. Even if I go to the apartment over there, it doesn't mean anything.
It was a huge help and it only allowed me to take a little rest.
I walked back home slowly, opened the door with the key, and found a pair of shoes at the door. I knew that pair of shoes, and I also knew who its owner was.
"Who is back?" someone asked, and my guess was correct.
"Mom, I'm back." I shouted in response, and then I bent down to take off my shoes. I heard the sound of someone wearing slippers approaching quickly. I looked up and saw that my mother was indeed standing right next to me.
In front of him, he looked a little restrained and a little excited, and there were some tears in his glasses.
I remembered what Hua Shiyao said to me again, hesitated a little, and took the initiative to hug her: "Mom."
She quickly hugged me tightly, a little harder, as if she was afraid that I would run away again: "It's okay, it's okay, just come back. Things will always be solved."
She comforted me, which made me feel a little embarrassed: "Mom, didn't I tell you that I got a job? It will get better gradually in the future."
"Okay, okay, this is my daughter." She hugged me again, and then let go: "Are you hungry? Mommy will make you something to eat. As good as your brother is as a three-legged cat, it's me.
I taught him temporarily in the past two years, but I don’t know if he has made any progress.”
Speaking of this, I have a lot of questions I want to ask.
"What time is it now? I'm not hungry. By the way, aren't you supposed to go to work today? Why are you still at home now?"
"The company has a meeting this afternoon and we have to go to another company. I have to go with him. We will eat out in the evening. Our company's driver will drive us there by then. It is now far from the time I expect to leave.
There’s still more than an hour left, there’s no rush.”
"That's it." I blinked my glasses, pushed her towards the sofa in the living room and said, "By the way, Mom, I want to ask you some questions, is that okay?"
"Just ask."
"It's about my brother."
"Xia Zhi? What happened to him?"
"It's nothing wrong, it's just that he seems to have been here for a long time..." I mentioned it vaguely, and my mother heard what I meant and sighed softly: "He has been here already.
For almost a year and a half, I have been living in the suburban apartment next to your laboratory, which is where you live these days. I have visited him once or twice, but he is rarely in the apartment."
"Why doesn't he just come and live at home?"
"He said he had something to do and it would be more convenient to stay there. Besides, you haven't seen each other for a long time. He said it was a little inappropriate to live in the same house. But what's inappropriate about this? It's all mine.
My child, what's wrong with living in my house? He just smiled, just like when I trained him before, nothing changed."
There was a nostalgic look on her face.
"You seem to have never told me about this?"
"That's what he said. He said you were busy at that time, so I didn't need to tell you. He would go back after being busy for a while. But he even quit his job and came here specially, so what's the point of being busy?"
"He quit his job? Wasn't he fired?"
"Although your brother doesn't have much ability, he is quite practical in his work and has been doing it for a long time. He has never made any mistakes. How can you say he just resigned? He resigned on his own. I will directly
I went to their company and asked."
It would be too much to go directly to the company and ask...forget it, my mother is always like this.
"About a year and a half ago, he called me and said that he and his girlfriend had agreed to get married when his job became more stable. Not to mention how happy I was. He was already in his twenties.
If you don't get married, you will be a little old." After saying this, my mother still looked at me with some resentment, but she was a little scrupulous so she didn't say it out loud, so I just pretended not to see it.
"Later, not long after you started your company, he suddenly quit his job and went to the suburbs. He rented a house and didn't know what he was doing. His long-time girlfriend also blew her off.
Neither of you two can make me worry. You're better off. I don't know how to persuade your brother. Don't look at him, he seems to be easy to talk to, but he can't pull ten cows if he's stubborn.
When I come back, I simply don’t want to worry about it so much. Do you know what he is doing over there?"
Cleaning, reading, and doing odd jobs... I couldn't say this. Mom would be very worried if she knew about it. I shook my head.
She also sighed.
"Don't bully him too much. He was very kind to you when you were young. He would let you have everything. Although you became sensible earlier...or maybe it was too early. You would let him have your things."
Maybe he doesn't even feel anything. When he was playing with his friends, he would fall out with them when he heard someone say bad things about you." Mom laughed, as if she remembered something particularly funny: "I even taught him a lesson at that time, saying
Others are just jealous. Why are you so angry and fighting with others? Mengmeng might not care. What do you think he said?"
"He said: Mengmeng is a sister and I am a brother. No one can bully my sister. He yelled at me at that time, and I beat him up when I was angry. I didn't even have to think about it, it must have been your dad all along.
You instilled those masculine things in him and let him sleep on the sofa for a week, but your dad beat him again and said he did a good job while beating him."
"However, at that time, you seemed to have gone to the small library in our hometown to read, so you probably didn't know about these things."
"In a blink of an eye, so many years have passed... That little bastard who dared to yell at his mother has grown so big... The Chinese New Year will be coming in more than two months, so we can invite him to come over and have New Year's Eve dinner together. No.
Come and ask your dad to beat him again."
She was thinking about what would happen in two months in a low voice, and my thoughts had already gone to a very far away place.
I changed my clothes and left the house with the excuse that I still had a lot to do. After knowing that I would still rest in the apartment tonight, my mother gave me some cash and asked me to go and meet my brother tonight.