If there is an afterlife (novella) Zhang Baotong

There is an end to the days of suffering. Li Xiaole finally graduated from college and found a very good job, and applied for a job as a technician in a large state-owned factory in Xi'an, with a monthly salary of 3,000 yuan. In order to let his mother share this happiness, he bought a lot of delicious things from Xi'an and returned home, and spent more than ten happy days with his mother.

Mother and son go to the field together all day, go home together, and even when cooking, the son sits next to help light the fire. Li Xiuying sometimes brought her son to the village and took her to the market together, so that everyone knew that her son had graduated, had a job, and was a technician in a state enterprise. The son also specially invited the people who had helped their family a lot in the past to have a meal in a big restaurant in the county seat.

At the banquet, Boss Wu proposed to demolish their family's dilapidated house at a preferential price and build a new house. However, Li Xiaole said that the house did not need to be built, and when he settled down in Xi'an, he would take his mother to live in the city. Because since his mother fell off the high stool, he felt very uneasy about his mother being at home alone. Li Xiuying actually doesn't want to live the life of a city person, she still wants to stay in this hut, farm the land, pick up the rags, and live a free life. But she couldn't say that anymore. She knew she was old and didn't have the ability to take care of herself as she used to. Ever since she fell off the high stool, she felt like she had broken her internal organs, and she often felt a heavy feeling in her heart and lungs, and she couldn't breathe after a little work. She had a lot of pain in her left leg, but it was not only not getting better, but it was getting worse and worse, and she couldn't walk steadily, and she could no longer work in the fields and pick up the rubbish, as she used to. She is really old and needs her son to take care of her.

Seeing that his mother was in her last years, sick and difficult, and had to rely on crutches to walk, Li Xiaole said to her mother, "Mom, don't work in the field in the future, and don't pick up rags." Now that I have a job, I can send you money every month, so you can stay at home and retire easily, and when I settle down in the city, I will take you to live in the city. The mother didn't want to live in the city, but when she heard her son's words, she felt a warmth in her heart. She said, "I can still do some work now, and when I can't do it anymore, I'll go and live with you." But the son said in a commanding tone, "You are in your 70s, and your health is not good, and you have to walk so hard that you will be uncomfortable for a long time before you have worked for a while, so I will not allow you to work in the field anymore, nor will you pick up the rags anymore." You wait for me at home, and I'll pick you up as soon as I'm settled in the city. When the mother saw that her son was speaking in such a serious tone, she had to promise that she would never work in the field again, and that she would no longer pick up the rubbish.

The son stayed at home for more than 10 days, saying that it was time to go to work, and before leaving, he left 400 yuan for his mother, saying that it was for his mother's living expenses for this month. In the countryside, if a person can have 400 yuan, his life is naturally good, because grain and vegetables can be produced by himself, and the things used for food are also very cheap.

After her son left, Li Xiuying continued to work in the fields or pick up waste every day, but she no longer saw it as a means of making a living, but as a way to spend time idle. Therefore, she got up late every morning, ate breakfast in a hurry, and finished her household affairs, so she went to the fields, went to the garbage dump to have a look, picked up some waste casually, felt a little tired, and walked back. After lunch, I have to go to bed and lie down for a while, and in the afternoon, I go to the fields and the garbage dump for a while. She no longer raises pigs and sheep, but just raises more than a dozen chickens. These chickens can lay eggs without having to be fed specifically.

Now that her son has grown up and has a job, she no longer has any plans for life, just waiting for her son to come back and take her to live in the city. But what do people live in the city? She didn't know, because she hadn't been in the city, and she hadn't watched television. But she could still imagine it. She has been to the city and seen that the people in the city live in high-rise buildings, and there are wide streets outside, and there are cars everywhere, so you don't have to walk. Shops and hospitals are nearby, making it easy to shop and see a doctor. Therefore, she always sees that kind of life as a kind of enjoyment, a good life that rural people dare not even dream of.

She thinks about this kind of life once or twice a day, and even thinks that her son lives in a building, marries a virtuous and beautiful city daughter-in-law, and has a lively and lovely child. She helps them keep an eye on the children and let the two of them go to work properly. Thinking too much about these beautiful scenes, it became a kind of longing for her future life. With this longing, she began to hope that her son would return sooner so that he could bring her to live in the city.

Originally, the son said that as soon as he settled in the city, he would return. But a month passed, two months passed, three months passed, and the son never returned, and there was not even a single message. At first, she wondered if her son hadn't settled down yet, so she continued to wait. However, half a year has passed, and the son still hasn't returned, and there is no news. This made her a little breathless, and she wondered what happened to her son, whether he was settled down or not, he should come back.

The son still hasn't come back, not even for the New Year. In the past, my son went to college in Xi'an, and no matter how busy he was, he had to come back for the Chinese New Year. However, the son did not return. This made her feel very bad, wondering if something had happened to her son. If something hadn't happened, my son wouldn't have come back during the Chinese New Year. However, if something really happened to his son, why did he send her money on time every month?

This incident made Li Xiuying unable to be at peace all day long, and often couldn't sleep at night. She wanted to go to the city to see her son. However, she did not know where her son was, because she had never taken a train or traveled far away, and she was afraid that if she entered the city, she would lose her way and lose herself.

When people are worried, they will lose sleep, and when they lose sleep, they will always have no energy, and they will age quickly. Moreover, human aging is accelerating, as long as people start aging, they will age very quickly, and as long as they feel that something is wrong, it will get worse and worse day by day. Li Xiuying has aged very quickly in the past few years, and she has fallen a few times and suffered from several serious illnesses. Every fall and illness was a serious blow to her body. For ordinary rural women, living to the age of seventy is already considered a long life, not to mention a lonely old man like Li Xiuying who has suffered and suffered all his life. In the past, no matter how hard and tired she was, she had never suffered as much as she did now, so this made her very sad and sad.

Because he didn't know why his son hadn't come back yet, the old man was constantly worried all day long, and he was restless in his sleep, and soon he fell ill. The old man lay on the bed for a long time, but lying down all the time did not make the old man's body recover, but felt more and more weak and powerless. But the old man couldn't stay in bed and tried to get out of bed to find something to do. So, she got out of bed and cooked herself something to eat, and then sat in front of the door and basked in the sun. She couldn't walk a little farther, and as long as she walked dozens or hundreds of steps, she would feel overwhelmed, unable to support herself, and would fall to the ground.

She sat on a small stool in front of the door for most of the day, her eyes fixed on the direction of her son's departure, hoping that he would suddenly appear in front of her. However, this hope is becoming more and more dwindling, and the hope that is full of hope always turns into a heart full of disappointment and a heart full of despair.