As Liu Hong's father-in-law Zhao Guangming grew older, his personality began to appear withdrawn and silent, and his temper became more and more stubborn. He coughed constantly all day long, but he did not listen to the advice of others, never went to the hospital for treatment, and went to Xinhua Bookstore to buy medical books and take medicine according to the book.

Just after New Year's Day of the following year, Zhao Guangming's cough became serious, and the sputum he coughed up was bloodshot.

Chen Xiufang saw that the situation was not good, and hurriedly called Zhao Qingsong to tell Zhao Guangming's condition.

Zhao Qingsong and Liu Hong rushed to the dry rest house and sent Zhao Guangming to the hospital. After an initial X-ray examination, the doctor suspected that the shadow of the lung might be cancer, and arranged for him to undergo a more detailed examination, which finally determined that the lung cancer was advanced.

Since then, Zhao Guangming has been admitted to the cancer hospital.

Three months later, Zhao Guangming died suddenly at the age of 70.

Before he died, Zhao Guangming told Zhao Qingsong and Liu Hong in a faint breath: "First, you must work hard and make achievements in your career; second, you must take care of your mother." Your mother has been with me all her life and has not enjoyed my blessings, so you can help me make up for it. Third, the child belongs to yours and to the country. You have cultivated Longlong into a talent, and you cannot become a burden to the country. In the end, I am a member of the Communist Party, taking the lead in changing customs, everything in the future is simple, no memorial service, no linen and filial piety, and the ashes are scattered on the land of Jinshan. ”

Chen Xiufang, Zhao Qingsong, Liu Hong and Long Long listened to Zhao Guangming's dying instructions and were moved to tears.

Zhao Qingsong and Liu Hong finished Zhao Guangming's funeral, and took Chen Xiufang home from the dry rest house according to his instructions, and the three generations of grandparents lived together, and everything was safe.

Once, Chen Xiufang's sister Chen Xiuying came to Anxi from other places to visit her sister and stayed at Liu Hong's house. She likes Long Long very much, and whenever she has time, she tells him stories that are circulated in the countryside, such as the white-haired fairy, the red-tailed fox spirit, and the white-eyed lady.

Long Long has listened to fairy tales since he was a child, and now he feels particularly curious and exciting when he hears the ghost stories told by this aunt, and from time to time he pesters his aunt to tell another story, and is very affectionate with her.

Liu Hong inadvertently found that Long Long had been full of immortals and ghosts recently, so he asked casually: "Where did you hear about feudal superstition?"

Long Long said seriously: "It's not feudal superstition, it's the real people and real things that my aunt told me, all of which happened in the village where they lived. ”

Liu Hong said with a smile: "It's all made up by hearsay, and then add oil and vinegar to make it look like the real thing." Auntie and grandma are teasing you. ”

Long Long still said seriously: "It's true. I made an appointment with my classmates to go to Dinghai Daxian in the old street this week. ”

Liu Hong was anxious when he heard this, and shouted sharply: "Don't run around! I don't want you if you run away." ”

Liu Hong didn't take Long Long's words seriously afterwards.

On Sunday, Zhao Qingsong sent Long Long to the Children's Palace to learn piano, and then went to the mall to buy some things, ready to bring them to relatives when his aunt Chen Xiuying returned.

Zhao Qingsong returned to the Children's Palace before Long Long finished class, but found that the door of the classroom was locked and there was no one inside. He ran to the teacher's office to inquire about the situation. The teacher told him that because of the temporary power outage, the piano class was out early.

Zhao Qingsong hurriedly ran to the courtyard of the Children's Palace to look around, but did not see the shadow of Long Long. He went to the nearby streets and shops to inquire, but there was no trace of Longlong. He thought: Did Liu Hong take Long Long away on a whim?

He immediately called Liu Hong and asked, "Xiaohong, did you pick up Long Long?"

Liu Hong replied, "No." I'm working overtime to deal with the materials, where do I have time to take care of him? Isn't it the Children's Palace where you took him in the morning? Why are you asking about me now?"

Zhao Qingsong felt that the situation was wrong, and said, "Long Long is gone." ”

Liu Hong shouted: "Ah, you can't even look at a child, you're still a policeman." By the way, he said that he had made an appointment with his classmates to go to the old city on Sunday to find some ghosts. You hurry up there and look for it. ”

The so-called Old Town is an abandoned old city located 5 kilometers east of Anzai City. I don't know what year and which generation this old city was built, but now it is a ruined wall, which is covered with thatch more than one person high, and birds and animals have also settled here, and there are usually no people.

Zhao Qingsong borrowed a jeep from the Public Security Department and rushed to the old city. He jumped out of the car, stepped over a wall in a few steps, and shouted towards the thatched city, "Long Long, where are you?"

Zhao Qingsong then pricked up his ears and listened carefully, and sure enough, he heard the child's faint crying. He immediately searched for the sound, and after about ten minutes, he finally saw a large collapsed pit in the gloomy and damp thatch. Long Long and a boy of the same age were sitting in the mud and crying.

Zhao Qingsong jumped off the big pit that was more than one person high, raised Long Long and the child with his hands and put them on the edge of the pit, and then dragged the thatch on the edge of the pit and climbed up.

He took the two children to a nearby canal, washed the mud off their faces and hands, and drove them home.

Zhao Qingsong said while driving: "What are you not doing here?"

Long Long said: "Grandma said that there are immortals living in the old city. Guo Xiaoming and I came here after class, just to see what the gods looked like. Who knew that as soon as I walked inside, the soles of my feet fell into it. ”

Zhao Qingsong said: "There are no gods and no ghosts in the world. That's because the ancients didn't understand science and made it up. When you go back, you two don't say that you have run to the old town, but that you have fallen on the grass while playing soccer in the park and have soiled your clothes. Got it?"

Long Long said: "The teacher said you can't lie. ”

Zhao Qingsong smiled and said, "Okay." When you go home, tell the truth, and see that your mother doesn't break your calves. ”

A few days later, the unit sent Zhao Qingsong to Guangzhou on a business trip.

One day, after Liu Hong went to work and Long Long went to school, Chen Xiuying and Chen Xiufang's old sisters cleaned up their rooms and went for a walk in a nearby park.

Although Chen Xiuying is old, her eyes are very good, and she found a nest of white mushrooms growing at the root of the big willow tree in the park. She happily walked over and picked the mushrooms, put them in a cloth bag, and prepared to take them back to cook.

Chen Xiufang stopped her sister and said, "If you want to eat mushrooms, let's go to the vegetable market and buy some." I've always heard the radio say don't pick wild vegetables and mushrooms, saying that you're afraid of poisoning. ”

Chen Xiuying laughed at her sister and said: "You have become a big city person now." When we were young, I used to take you to the woods to pick mushrooms and take them home to stir-fry and eat, and you ate the most. Have you forgotten? Aren't you okay now?"

Chen Xiuying returned home to clean the mushrooms and stir-fried a mushroom dish with red peppers, green peppers and chives. When the mushroom dish was about to come out of the pot, she also deliberately put a handful of garlic and said to Chen Xiufang: "Garlic can solve the toxicity of mushrooms, which is a secret recipe handed down by our ancestors." Just put 100,000 hearts. ”

At this time, Zhao Xiaolong returned home from school. He smelled a special fragrance, so he asked loudly, "Grandma, what are you doing tonight?"

Chen Xiuying walked out of the kitchen with the fried mushroom dishes and said with a smile: "Good grandson is back? We will eat wild mushrooms and fried chili peppers tonight, as well as cold eggplant and rice." ”

Long Long smiled and said, "I'll taste what wild mushrooms taste like." ”

Chen Xiuying took a piece of wild mushroom with chopsticks and fed it to Long Long's mouth.

Long Long chewed a few times and exclaimed, "Wow, wild mushrooms are so delicious, 100 times more fragrant than artificially grown mushrooms!"

Chen Xiufang said with a smile while scooping up the rice: "Okay." It's all yours. Come on and eat Longlong, and you will grow tall and strong in the future. Oh, by the way, leave a few mouthfuls for your mom, and the rest is yours. ”

Long Long had never eaten such a wild mushroom with such a rich fragrance, and he ate the plate of wild mushrooms by himself, and then happily went to do his homework.

After eating, the sisters Chen Xiuying and Chen Xiufang cleaned up the kitchen, and then sat on the sofa in the living room and watched TV.

Long Long suddenly ran out of the room and shouted, "Grandma, my stomach hurts, and I'm nauseous, and I want to vomit." ”

As soon as he finished speaking, Long Long spat out a ball of food.

Chen Xiufang hurriedly stepped forward to pat him on the back to prevent him from choking.

Chen Xiuying also brought a glass of cold boiled water and asked Long Long to rinse his mouth.

Long Long retched twice, spit out a large puddle of food, his face became pale, beads of sweat fell down, and his eyes began to blur.

Chen Xiufang hurriedly helped Long Long to the sofa and half lay down, and then said to her sister: "You look at Long Long, I'll call his mother, let's send him to the hospital." ”

Liu Hong's office was brightly lit at this time. The leading body of the television station is fighting at night to study the Ninth Five-Year Plan to be submitted the next morning.

Suddenly, the phone on the desk rang. Liu Hong thought that her family was urging her to go home for dinner, and when she picked up the phone and was about to speak, she heard Chen Xiufang's trembling voice.

After listening to Chen Xiufang's words, Liu Hong hurriedly arranged for her mother-in-law to call a taxi to take Long Long to Anxi Hospital. She urgently settled the others to continue their research and planning, and then got into her own car and rushed to Anxi Hospital.

By the time Liu Hong arrived at the emergency center of Anxi Hospital, the doctors had already begun to rescue her.

Liu Hong's face was covered with beads of sweat due to her nervous mood and running fever. She panted and asked Chen Xiufang what was going on.

Chen Xiufang and Chen Xiuying, who were trembling with fright, couldn't speak clearly.

After about half an hour, a doctor came out and shouted, "Who are the patient's family?"

The three women replied together, "Me." ”

Seeing that Liu Hong was younger, the doctor guessed that it might be the patient's mother, so he beckoned to Liu Hong: "Come here." ”

The doctor told Liu Hong: "The test results are out, and the patient is poisoned by wild mushrooms." Fortunately, it was delivered in time, otherwise it would really be hopeless. ”

Liu Hong glanced at the extremely nervous Chen Xiufang sisters, and then said gratefully: "Thank you, thank you so much." ”

The doctor continued, "The patient still needs to be observed, and you leave one person to keep watch." ”

Liu Hong turned to Sister Chen Xiufang and asked, "Where did Long Long eat wild mushrooms?"

Chen Xiuying roughly explained what happened.

Liu Hong said to Chen Xiufang irritably: "Mom, I'm so busy in the unit, if you don't help, forget it, what's the trouble! Okay, don't explain, go back and rest." I'm here to guard the dragon. ”

Liu Hong stayed in front of Long Long's hospital bed and didn't close his eyes all night. This is the first time Liu Hong has stayed with her child all night since the full moon of Longlong.

The next morning, after the doctor made sure that Long Long could be discharged from the hospital when he checked the ward, Liu Hong hurriedly called his driver and sent Long Long home to rest first, and then rushed to the TV station.

Chen Xiuying didn't expect that the wild mushroom almost caused someone's life, and Liu Hong blamed her mother-in-law in front of the doctor, so that her face was really unbearable, and after reluctantly staying for two or three days, she saw that Long Long was fine, so she found a reason to call her home to urge her to go back, and left in disgrace.

After Zhao Qingsong came back from a business trip, Chen Xiufang told his son in detail about the poisoning of Longlongye mushrooms.

Zhao Qingsong blamed the aunt for being too careless.

After Liu Hong got home from work, she also told her husband what had happened.

Zhao Qingsong not only did not blame the aunt, but said that Liu Hong was making a fuss, which immediately made Liu Hong angry: "Your son almost died!

Zhao Qingsong blushed and said, "Auntie is also doing bad things with good intentions, so don't worry about the old man." ”

Liu Hong said angrily: "I don't care about my aunt." I'm concerned about you. You have never had a sense of right and wrong. ”

Zhao Qingsong shouted angrily: "Okay, I'll shoot my aunt as an intentional murderer, okay?"

Liu Hong was so angry that his liver hurt, and he stabbed Zhao Qingsong's stomach with his fist and said, "Zhao Qingsong, I can't talk to you anymore." ”

Since then, the husband and wife have almost nothing to say except for what they have to say, and they are like passers-by.