If there is an afterlife (novella) Zhang Baotong

Early the next morning, it was freezing on the plateau, and a thick layer of ice had formed on the river. Li Xiuying followed the path by the river to the side of the highway to wait for the car, and after getting in the car, she arrived at the county seat in less than an hour. Although the county seat is only more than 40 miles away from her home, she has only come to it three or twice in her life. The county seat became unrecognizable to her, and she couldn't braid. As she inquired, she came to the door of a beautiful school. Others told her that this was Baishui County No. 1 Middle School. She went into the communication room and said she was looking for her son. The old man in the communication room asked her, "What is your son's name and which class is he in?" She only said that her son's name was Li Xiaole, but she didn't know which class she was in. The old janitor said, "Then you can't find it." Li Xiuying pleaded with the old man, "Can you let me go inside and look for it?" The old man said, "There are one or two thousand people in the school, and there are dozens of classrooms, can you find them?" Li Xiuying felt that what they said was reasonable, so she had no choice but to leave the school.

However, one afternoon, the village director Laishun ran to the garbage dump on the edge of the ditch and found Li Xiuying in the cold wind and sweating, and said, "Aunt Li, the county hospital called and said that your family Xiaole was sick and hospitalized, and asked you to go quickly." When Li Xiuying heard this, she carried a snakeskin bag, led the two sheep, and returned home. She knew that it would cost a lot of money to see a doctor and be hospitalized, so she took all the money she had saved in the past few months with her, and then rushed to the side of the road.

By the time she arrived at the county hospital, it was late afternoon. She went to the hospital, and the doctor told her to go to the inpatient unit. She went to the inpatient unit and the doctor asked her what was wrong with her child. She couldn't say either, only that the child had had a high fever in the past. The doctor asked her to go to the internal medicine ward on the fourth floor to ask. She went up to the fourth floor and asked in the duty room. The doctor said to her, "Li Xiaole is in ward 403. She went to ward 403, looked through the window of the door, and saw her son lying on the hospital bed with a hanging bottle.

She entered the hospital room and went to her son's bed, wanting to ask what was wrong with him. However, the son was sleeping soundly, and a middle-aged woman was sitting next to him. She said to the middle-aged woman, "Teacher, what's wrong with my son?" and the middle-aged woman said, "I'm not a teacher, I'm the dormitory administrator." Li Xiaole started to have a fever last night and has been unconscious, and this morning, the students told us about it, and we sent him to the hospital. The doctor examined him and said he had pleurisy and was going to be hospitalized. We called your home and called for a long time to get through. As he spoke, he gave Li Xiuying some bills for examination, treatment and hospitalization. Li Xiuying looked at the bill, a total of 358 yuan, and took out 400 yuan from her pocket and gave it to the administrator. The caretaker had found her money and said, "Then I'll go, I'll go back and clean the hallway." Lee so-young said, "Thank you." ”

Li Xiuying sat on the stool where the administrator had sat just now, watching her son on the infusion. The son was still asleep, and his expression was very calm. She felt that her son was so pitiful, which made her can't help but recall her son's life experience and her own life experience. In fact, she knows that her life experience is closely related to her son's life experience.

After a while, a nurse came to take her son's temperature. So, she put her hand on her son's forehead. When the son woke up and saw her, he said, "Mom, are you here?" Li Xiuying nodded and said, "Are you still uncomfortable?" The son shook his head and said, "I feel better." She placed the thermometer under her son's liquid, and then wrapped his quilt around him.

The son said, "Mom, I'm not angry, I'm worrying about you again." When Li Xiuying heard this, her heart was moved, and she said, "Mom, this is how it should be." Then, she told her son about Boss Wu helping the family repair the house. The son said, "How can we thank people?" Li Xiuying couldn't think of a way, so she said, "Or, when will I buy some things and go to see people." ”

After a while, the nurse came to collect the thermometer, and Li Xiuying asked the nurse, "What's the matter?" The nurse looked at the thermometer and said, "36 degrees 8, it's normal." ”

After dinner, I stopped playing hanging bottles. Li Xiaole also felt much better, so he lay on the bed and talked with his mother. At night, the mother and son squeezed into a hospital bed and fell asleep.

Early the next morning, just after breakfast, the nurse entered the ward and shouted, "Li Xiaole." Li Xiuying asked the nurse, "What's the matter?" The nurse handed her a slip and said, "It's time to pay." Lee so-young asked, "How much?" and the nurse said, "See for yourself." With that, he walked out of the room.

When Li Xiuying saw that she had to pay another 300 yuan, her brows wrinkled suddenly, because she only had more than 200 yuan in her pocket. Seeing his mother frowning, Li Xiaole asked for the payment slip from his mother's hand, and when he saw it, he said to his mother, "We won't pay this fee." Li Xiuying asked, "Why don't you pay it?" Li Xiaole said, "My illness has been cured, and there is no need to be hospitalized again." So saying, he got down from the hospital bed, put his coat on his body, and said to his mother, "Mom, go back quickly." I'm going to class. Li Xiuying said, "No, your illness is not cured yet." But Li Xiaole said, "My illness is cured, and I don't feel it at all." With that, he trotted out of the ward. Li Xiuying chased out of the ward, but her son had already run downstairs.

She also knew that if her son lived down, she would have no money to pay. If there is no money to pay, the hospital will definitely drive them out. So, let him run if his son runs, anyway, the resistance of the big boys and young men is also strong, and it will be cured if he is a little sick. So she hurried back, because the pigs and sheep were still in the pen, and they hadn't been fed for a long time. She hurried back without a single step, and when she was still far from the door, she heard the sound of pigs and sheep squawing from her house, so she went into the house in three steps and two steps, and as soon as she opened the door of the hut, the chickens flew out of the house, and began to hurry in the grass in front of the door to feed. The pig and the two sheep cried out at her. She poured the leftover rice from yesterday into a basin for the pigs and sheep to eat. Actually, she hadn't even eaten breakfast herself.

About another twenty or thirty days passed, and my son had winter vacation. At this time, it is almost the Chinese New Year. People in the countryside are busy all year round, and they are reluctant to eat or flowers, but when it comes to the New Year, there are more people who rush to the market and string relatives. However, Li Xiuying and her son do not have any relatives, and they spend the New Year together every year. As in previous years, they also bought a pound of candy and a pound of peanuts to entertain those who came to their house to pay New Year's greetings. But in fact, no one has ever come to their house to worship the New Year, because their family is not a family in the village.

They would also buy a pound of pork, a pound of tofu and a pound of vermicelli. They use half a catty of pork and Chinese cabbage to stew dumplings together, and then use the remaining pork and tofu vermicelli to stew into a pot of stewed vegetables, which can be eaten for two or three days. For their mother and son, as long as the Chinese New Year's Eve and the first day of the new year pass, the big year will be considered to be over, and the second and third days of the new year will be passed again, and the whole year will be over. For the poor, the Chinese New Year is just a celebration, and it can't be spent too long, because every day of the New Year has to cost money.

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, Li Xiuying took out the new clothes she bought for her son to wear, and she herself took out the clothes that she was usually reluctant to wear and put them on, put a firecracker in front of the door, and after eating dumplings, she put a basket containing a few chickens on her arm, and took her son Li Xiaole to the village to greet others. They went to Cui Zhicai's house first, and as soon as they entered the door, Li Xiuying said to the Cui family, "We have come to pay New Year's greetings to your family." As he spoke, he asked his son to kneel down and kowtow to the elders. Li Xiaole listened to his mother's words, so he knelt down and kowtowed to Cui Zhicai's parents and family, and said, "Uncle and aunt and brother, you have a good New Year, Li Xiaole has given you New Year's greetings." ”

Maybe no one kneels down and kowtows anymore, so seeing Li Xiaole kneeling on the ground and kowtowing to them, everyone hurried over to pull Li Xiaole up and said, "Don't do this, wronged the child." As he spoke, he put the candy and peanuts on the plate into Li Xiaole's pocket. At this time, Li Xiuying took out a three- or four-pound rooster from the basket and said, "This is our home-raised chicken, it's the New Year, let you taste it and see if it's delicious." Cui Zhicai's father immediately changed his face and said, "Don't be like this, your family is so pitiful, we will feel uneasy when we eat your chicken." However, Li Xiuying said, "Your family has helped us a lot, and we will never forget it for the rest of our lives, so let's express our gratitude." Hearing this, it is not good for them to return the chicken to them.

They went to the village chief Laishun's house and two other families, all of whom had helped them a lot. However, Boss Wu's family was not in the village, so Li Xiuying had to ask Lai Shun to help give the chickens to others. Sending chickens and kowtowing to these people for New Year's greetings, Li Xiaole feels that it is appropriate and necessary. However, if he wants to go to other people's homes to pay New Year's greetings, Li Bule feels that there is no need, because there are many people who have never had contact with their families, and they don't even know what their surnames are. However, Li Xiuying still insisted on going to every family to pay New Year's greetings, because she thought that their mother and son were helpless, and maybe if they encountered any difficulties one day, they would have to ask others for help. Anyway, New Year's greetings are not a treat, you don't need to bring anything, just bow to others and say a word. Listening to his mother's words, although Li Xiaole was reluctant, he still followed his mother from the head of the village to the end of the village, and greeted people one by one. There were only thirty or forty families in the village, so before noon, I visited every house.

After the New Year's greetings, the human etiquette of the year can be regarded as dealing with the past. Back at home, Li Xiuying began to boil the stewed vegetables and distill the steamed buns, and then, the mother and son each had a big bowl of vegetables and ate the steamed buns fragrantly. Eating this meal and this dish, looking back on the life of the past year, Li Xiuying felt that they had spent another year smoothly.