If there is an afterlife (novella) Zhang Baotong

Li Xiaole said to his mother, "I am tutoring students. Li Xiuying asked, "What is a tutor?" Li Xiaole said, "It is to be a tutor for other people's children in middle school, and I can earn 50 yuan an hour, and I am now tutoring more than 10 students." Therefore, on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays, students are taught in class. Li Xiuying then understood why her son never came back, but she felt sorry for her son and said, "Then you can't go home too." The son explained, "I pay 50 yuan for an hour of tutoring other students, which means that you have to pick up the rags for several days, and I want to earn more money so that my mother can do less effort." Li Xiuying said, "However, my mother can't see you, she always thinks about you, and she even dreams about you at night." The son said, "I miss my mother too, but I can't help it, and when I graduate from college and find a job, I will take my mother to live in the city, and I will never let you work in the fields and pick up the rubbish." ”

Li Xiuying felt sweeter than eating meat when she heard this. She also looked forward to the day when her son could have that day, but she was thinking that if her son had a job and a home in the city, she would not go to live in the city, because her son would marry a daughter-in-law, and she didn't want to add a burden to her son, and what she was thinking about was that as long as her son lived happily, she would be happy.

Seeing his mother limping when she walked, Li Xiaole asked, "Mom, what's wrong with your leg?" Li Xiuying said disapprerovingly, "It's nothing, I fell while walking." The son asked, "How long has it been?" said Li Xiuying, "It's been three months." The son said, "Otherwise, I'll take you to the big hospital in Xi'an." Li Xiuying immediately shook her head and said, "Don't go, my leg is fine, why do you want to go to the hospital." ”

The son bought his mother a lot of delicious things, including bananas, mandarins, exquisite specialties and pastries, as well as cured beef and roast chicken bought from Xi'an West Street. The mother said to her son, "Why do you spend so much money on buying so many things?" The son said, "Mom, you have worked hard all your life, and you are not willing to eat or wear, I want you to taste the delicious things in Xi'an." ”

In fact, for the elderly, the New Year is not of great significance, as long as they can see their son, their hearts are warm. This time for the New Year, Li Xiuying did not go out to pick up rags, but stayed by her son's side all day long. Because she knew that once her son left, he would not be able to come back for a long time.

People often have to wait for months or even a whole year to look forward to the Chinese New Year, but the New Year is only a few days. At noon on the fourth day of the junior high school, her son was about to leave, and Li Xiuying was so sad that she didn't even eat breakfast, and kept sitting on the edge of the bed in a daze. After lunch, my son took his suit, walked up to her, and said, "Mom, I'm leaving, don't be sad, as long as I have time, I'll come back to see you whenever I have time." However, Li Xiuying didn't want to hear this, because she knew that her son would be busy, busy going to school, and busy earning money. She nodded and said, "As long as you can live well and take good care of yourself, it doesn't matter if you don't come back." But the son still said, "I'll be back when I'm free." ”

After sending his son away, a new hope began again. However, soon after the year, the weather began to warm up, and the work in the fields was busy, and time flew by. In order to know when her son will come back, Li Xiuying specially bought a wall calendar and tore one every day, she knew that after this thick wall calendar was torn, her son should come back for the New Year.

However, one day in June, her son suddenly came back and brought her some delicious food, and sent her 2,000 yuan to pay it back. Li Xiuying didn't want her son's money, saying that she could repay these loans slowly. Because she knew that the new year was about to start again, and her son's tuition and room and board fees for a year had to be paid to the school again. The son told his mother that he had saved enough of the 7,000 yuan he was going to hand in, all of which he earned as a tutor. When Li Xiuying heard this, she felt that her son had really grown up and was amazing, and he could go to school and earn money at the same time. She was so proud of her son. The next day, the son got up early in the morning, went down to the field, and helped her cut the wheat for the day. However, in the evening of the same day, the son left in a car, because he would have to tutor the students early tomorrow morning.

The son is becoming more and more capable, but Li Xiuying feels that she is getting worse day by day. That night, when she saw that the weather was slowly getting hotter, she dismantled and washed her son's quilt, sewed it up, and wrapped it in a plastic bag to put on top of the big worn cupboard so that she could use it when he returned. However, the top of the cabinet was too high, and she stepped on a high stool and put the quilt on it, as she had done in the past. She had just stood on the high stool, and was about to hold the quilt and put it on top of the big cabinet, when the high stool shook, she didn't step on one foot, and her body suddenly lost her balance, and she fell off her back from the high stool. The back of his head hit the ground, and the man immediately fainted. I don't know when it was in the night, she woke up from the ground, felt a terrible pain in the back of her head, and touched it with her hand, and a big bag like an egg rose on the back of her head. She wanted to get up from the ground, but her whole body seemed to fall apart, and she had no strength at all, and she couldn't get up. She thought to herself that she was done, I was afraid that she was going to be paralyzed, and she would never be able to get up again, and she would not be able to move. She struggled hard to see if she was really paralyzed, so she supported the ground with her two arms, crawled to the edge of the bed step by step, and went to the bed, and lay down without taking off her clothes. She turned off the light, stared at the darkness of the room, and wondered how sad her son would be if he knew that she had fallen like this.

She lay on the bed for more than ten days in a row, feeling that the internal organs of her body were broken, her heart and lungs were always suffocated, she couldn't breathe, her body skeleton hurt all day long, and she didn't dare to turn over and move. She regretted that she shouldn't have put the quilt on the big cabinet. The years are not forgiving, after all, he is already in his seventies, not as good as the past. What was possible in the past can no longer be done. She usually gets up early all day and is greedy for darkness, so busy that she has no time to rest. Now that I have really rested, I feel very anxious and uncomfortable. However, at this time, no matter how anxious she was, it was useless, because her heart and lungs were suffocated, her whole body was in pain, and she didn't even have the strength to get out of bed. She didn't even know when she would be able to get out of bed and get to work. Fortunately, after half a month, she endured the suffocation and pain, got under the bed, and tried to do some light and slow work. Then she began to hoe, fertilize and spray pesticides, and then began to pick up the rags again.