Engineering for Life

Volume I

Chapter 31: A Song of Sorrow

The road of growth is bitter and long, and there are not only happiness and sadness along the way.

In life, there is always more suffering than happiness, and what accompanies us to grow up is the passing of people around us one by one, growth along the way, and sadness along the way.

Whether it is old age or an accident, every deceased family member and friend will make us feel painful, and every way of passing will make us sigh for a long time.

Aging is an objective law that cannot be reversed, and those people cannot be retained even if we give everything we have.

Accidents are the impermanence of life, and countless accidents come together to cause an eternal parting, except for deep regret, we are still powerless.

People go through all this, because only after experiencing all this can we truly grow.

The road is still under our feet, and we have no choice but to keep going.

Growing up along the way, we lost our indifference and hanging.

Only by growing all the way can we usher in the highlight of our lives.

How many times, I'd rather be forever full of indifference, forever hanging.

How many times have I wanted to discard the so-called highlights.

But it can't bring about the resurrection of the deceased, nor the well-being of the deceased.

I'd rather not have this growth, this growth is like a maggot on the tarsal bone, lingering.

I'd rather not have this growth, but this growth is like a curse imprinted in the depths of the soul, you don't die, it doesn't die.

The only way to resist is to keep growing, growing to the point where you can calmly cope with growth, and growing enough to resist growth.

This is the best way, this is the best growth.

The rest of your life is very long, and going down firmly is growth.

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Lai Ping, 27 years old, from XX City, Sichuan Province, unmarried, his parents are selling braised vegetables, chickens, ducks, geese and rabbits, pigs, beef and mutton and sewer, meat and vegetables are available, and more than a dozen stores have been opened at home, the nearest ones are in the city and Chengdu, and the farthest ones are even opened to the magic capital, there are three in the city, which are managed by Lai Ping and Chen Lan.

Chen Lan, 29 years old, from XX City, Sichuan Province, unmarried, Lai Ping's best friend is also Lai Ping's subordinate, helping Lai Ping manage three stores, the two are still cousins, and they also grew up together in open crotch pants.

It may be wrong to describe it as wearing open crotch pants, but this is Lai Ping's original words, the little girl in that not too distant era really wore open crotch pants, which was both innocent and taboo, but also for convenience.

In the past eight years, adults have been busy with farm work in the fields most of the time, and no one has washed the children's pants, and more of them are limited in conditions, and the only few pairs of pants for children may even be ancestral things, not to mention that the working people have wisdom, and this open crotch pants is the embodiment.

There are ancestral heirlooms, and there are also ragged clothes worn by adults and old jackets that are recycled and transformed, not to mention, at that time, almost all mothers will have a little manual needlework, change clothes and pants, shoes with mille-feuille soles and knit sweaters, some of the grandmothers and grandmothers' generation even can weave, and some families have traditional handlooms.

Times have progressed, and these old objects have either been chopped with firewood, or replaced by those legendary merchants and knife bearers.

So at that time, such as open crotch pants, a must-have for home travel, regardless of men and women, as long as it was a child, there were a few pieces each.

What to do in winter? In winter, there is a butt curtain, two large pieces, one in front and one behind, the cloth is sewn, and the inside is stuffed with cotton, which is not cold.

Okay, get back to business, don't bother with this open crotch pants and butt curtain, so as not to be truthful.

Chen Lan, an only child, her parents died of illness when she was a teenager, leaving only one grandmother, that is, Lai Ping's grandmother.

Because Lai Ping's family conditions were better, Chen Lan was adopted by Lai Ping's family when he was a teenager.

This Chen Lan is indeed sensible, since he entered Lai Ping's house, he regarded his aunt and uncle as his own father and mother, and even regarded Lai Ping as his own sister, rushing to do all the housework, and once he finished his homework after school, he went to Lai Ping's braised meat stall to help.

My aunt and uncle also treated her as their daughter, and they never hated the loss, and treated Lai Ping equally.

It is also a good person who has a good reward, and it is also a good craftsmanship and good taste, and it is also Lai Ping's parents who have an integrity-based approach to business, never shoddy, never short of catties or two, and this business is naturally booming.

From small stalls to large stalls, from large stalls to stores, from one to two, it is getting bigger and bigger, and today, more than a dozen stores a year are millions of profits.

And this Chen Lan graduated from high school and was not admitted to college, so she started working in the store, and now she helps her cousin manage three stores.

When the female college got married, Chen Lan was introduced to a man by her classmates a few years ago, this man was discharged from the army, and when he came back, he found a class to maintain the road section, and later transferred to the municipal company to run the construction site.

The man's family conditions are average, his parents are laid-off workers in a machine tool factory, his mother works as a temporary worker in sanitation, his father works as a security guard in a property company, and the family is crowded in a set of old tube buildings divided by the original unit before being laid off, a small two-bedroom of more than 30 square meters, it is polite to say that it is two bedrooms, just such a small three-room, I can't distinguish between the master bedroom and the living room, the kitchen and toilet are also public, one floor at a time.

The two have been in love for more than a year, and it is time to talk about marriage.

As for getting married, it is definitely unrealistic to squeeze into the small two-bedroom of the old couple.

The two young people don't have much savings, originally Lai Ping's parents prepared to give the two of them a three-bedroom apartment in the city, and they have indeed treated Chen Lan as their own daughter over the years, besides, they have made a fortune over the years, and they have more or less the credit of this Chen Lan.

The two young people don't want to live or die, especially this man, a veteran, he is too square, the two feel that they are Chen Lan's aunt and uncle, and they are not their biological parents, and they have not repaid Chen Lan's nurturing grace over the years, so it is really inappropriate to send a new house for marriage, and then Lai Ping's parents really had no choice, so they said that they would lend money to the two to pay the down payment.

This time, the two young people didn't think anything about it, and they reluctantly agreed, and the man took it back and told his parents, and it was the man's father who jumped out and disagreed this time.

Another old veteran, stubborn, resolutely disagreed, saying that he would rather give these two bedrooms to the children, and the old couple couldn't go out to sleep on the street to ask Lai Ping's parents to pay Chen Lan and his son a down payment for a new house.

Borrowing money for a fake is an excuse for support, and fools can understand it, and the old man will naturally not be an exception.

In this world, there are too many spineless people, but there are also such diehards.

Young people already spend a lot of money, the two of them put together the money, only less than 100,000 yuan, a three-bedroom house of 112 square meters, how can it be 8 or 900,000 yuan, the down payment is not enough, and then the two decided to wait two years before getting married.

What about this man, what should I say about some people now, I don't mix well in the unit, do you think, the municipal company, the construction site is all money, and the house will be there in a few years, why can't the two of them pay the down payment for a house together, hey, the hard-hearted people will naturally suffer the crime of being hard-hearted.

The two dragged on like this for another two years, and with the little savings saved by the man's parents, they finally paid the down payment for the house, and the marriage date of the two was set, and they were about to live a good life.

Last summer, this man was working on a municipal road reconstruction project near a river.

During that time, due to the continuous rain and the flood discharge of the upstream hydropower station, the water in the river rose, and the construction site was suspended for holidays, and Chen Lan's fiancé and several others were on duty for flood control on the suspended project.

One day, Chen Lan's fiancé happened to be on duty, inspecting the construction site along the reconstructed road on the flood control embankment as usual.

The man inspected here and saw a few teenage children standing on the edge of the culvert near the river, and the steel pipe frame on the lower level of the scaffolding channel was used to fish nets, and the river was only less than two meters high from the lower platform with wooden gangplanks, and several little children were standing on it, and the safety net on the outside was nowhere to be found.

Summer vacation, the little fart has nothing to do, but also lives near here, I used to see adults use nets to fish, a few little fart children also do the same, because of the flood, this culvert here is a lot of fish, a few little fart children don't know where to get the net, where to be happy, happy.

But all the people on the construction site have a strong sense of safety and a keen sense of danger, and the man saw that a few children were a little dangerous like this, so he drove a few people out.

A few little children pulled the net, carrying a bucket with water and fish to wade through the knee-high water in the culvert and climbed up from the other side, this Chen Lan's fiancé put the warning signs near the work site, fenced, safety warning belt should be checked for inspection, the recovery should be restored, and he left after the recovery, ready to go back and get a few safety nets, and completely sealed the side of the scaffold near the river.

This is also something that prevents gentlemen and cannot prevent villains, and it is better to talk than nothing, so I can only find a way to strengthen the patrol.

Originally, this matter was over, but a few little children did not know where to hide and saw the nosy man leaving, so they killed another horse pistol, broke the fence on the inside side of the residential house, and came back again.

This Chen Lan's fiancé walked less than 200 meters away, and he heard someone shouting for help on the culvert side.

Don't say it, the body of this soldier is good, two hundred meters small, and ran back in a few clicks, a few little rabbit cubs stood on the shore, a little rabbit cub fell into the river, Chen Lan's fiancé asked a few little cubs on the shore to quickly find someone to help, and then he jumped down without saying a word, the child was fished, and it was impossible for the two to go ashore from the culvert mouth, a drop of almost one meter, and there was no place to settle in the water, plus the rising river, it was a little difficult for a person to struggle against the current, let alone pull a person, There are flood control levees that go straight up and down in front and back, and the railings are seven or eight meters high, and none of them can go up.

Chen Lan's fiancé took the child to flutter in the water, the child grew up by the river and knew how to touch the water, but the two of them can't go ashore now, so they can only flutter against the current, not to go upstream, but to stay where they are and buy time.

Chen Lan's fiancé and the child tried hard several times but couldn't reach the mouth of the culvert, but they didn't dare not splash, which went down the water, the two of them would definitely die, and the water in the middle of the river was even more turbulent.

is also too anxious, I knew that I would have jumped off with a wooden plank, and I would not have forgotten about these at such a critical moment now, when my life is at stake.

A few children on the shore ran back to call someone, and the two people in the river could only stalemate here.

Within two minutes, four or five of these children's adults and nearby neighbors came, and even though they tried their best, they were washed more than twenty or thirty meters downstream.

There was still no one on the top who remembered to throw a plank, but he brought a long rope, and after throwing the rope a few times, it was not easy for the people below to catch it, and at this moment Chen Lan's fiancé was almost physically exhausted, and the two pulled the rope like this, and Chen Lan's fiancé wrapped a dead knot around the child's waist so that it would not be washed away by the water.

There are two people in the bottom, one big and one small, and the few people above decided to pull the two up, and the strength of the milk was used, but they couldn't pull it, and everyone felt a little strange and asked what was going on below.

The rescued child said that his feet were caught in fishing nets, and Chen Lan's fiancé asked the child to lift his feet to help him, but the child said that he couldn't lift them.

There was no way, Chen Lan's fiancé could only let the child hold on to the rope by himself, let the few people above pull it all the time, and when it felt loose, he pulled the child up.

Then Chen Lan's fiancé dived underwater to untie the child's fishing net, so he dived down and floated up two or three times, but it still didn't work, Chen Lan's fiancé had no choice but to come up and breathe and rest for a while, and then dive down, I don't know how many times, the person pulling the rope above felt that his hand was loose, and he pulled the child up.

The people on the top pulled the child up a few times, and then turned back, there was a fart in the river, and a few people didn't dare to go down rashly, so they could only call the police for help, and then they remembered to call the police for help, and it was too late.

As soon as this person is in a hurry, his thinking will be chaotic, there will be no routines, and there will be no rules for doing things, so no matter what you encounter in the future, don't worry.

By the time the rescue team found Chen Lan's fiancé again, it was already three days later, and the sunny and handsome young man had already turned into a swollen and white corpse, wrapped in a fishing net, biting a fishing net line in his mouth, and the body was entangled in the net and hung on the pier of a bridge two kilometers downstream, because this pier was originally relatively close to the shore, and the water receded before it was discovered by sharp-eyed people

The parents of the rescued child and Chen Lan and Chen Lan's fiancé had been following the progress of the rescue team as the body was pulled from the shallows to the shore.

When the parents of the rescued children waiting on the shore saw the corpse, they couldn't help but feel sad and cried bitterly, yes, their own son is alive, someone else's son is dead, and their son's life is exchanged for the life of someone else's son, and the grace is greater than heaven.

The two husbands and wives cried, while pressing the child's head, kowtowing to the corpse one by one, and the head was broken in a few clicks, and the people next to them hurriedly persuaded the child's family to stop, the Si people have gone, no matter how much apologies and gratitude, they can't recover the young life that has passed, and the living should take care, or this person will die in vain.

Chen Lan and her fiancé's mother fainted directly when they saw the miserable white and swollen face, and the old veteran cleaned the fishing nets on the little veterans one by one with his hands, crying in a low voice while crying out for fools.

Cry, cry, good people do not necessarily have good rewards, cry, cry, may this fool be heard in heaven, cry, cry, cry, this cry also witnesses the glory of the fool.

This is what everyone expected, and this is also an occasion to break the liver and sausage, in fact, the family's greatest hope may be that the body will never be found, at least they can pretend to have a glimmer of hope for life.

The recovered corpse will affect the sadness buried in everyone's hearts, but this fool should not have fed the fish and shrimp like this, this fool deserves the title of hero, but whenever a person dies, he will be buried in the ground, which is our tradition.

And the hero is dead, and he must go home.

The child's parents looked at the fishing net that was untied from the corpse and told everyone a more touching detail, after the child was rescued, there was still a fishing net wrapped around his foot, and there was also a small hole in his trouser leg, and the child said that he felt that the fishing net wrapped around his foot was bitten by his uncle, and one bite also bit his pants and feet.

Combined with the appearance of the corpse biting the fishing net on the mouth, everyone can't stop crying, no need to experience it personally, anyone who has swam knows that it is extremely difficult to open the mouth underwater, let alone bite the line of the fishing net and tear it under the water one by one, but someone has done it.

Look, it's this fool, this fool has done what we ordinary people can't do, only this once, with his life.

This is the story of a fool, sad, desperate, for the relatives of fools.

But it's also a heroic story, revered, hopeful, and for the family that has gained life.

The hero has a place for the hero, and the hero is gone, and he goes where he should go.

After Chen Lan accompanied her fiancé's parents to take care of the funeral, she actually had symptoms of early pregnancy, went to the hospital to check, and confirmed that she was undoubtedly pregnant, and her aunt and uncle advised her to think carefully about the child's problem, after all, this is just an unmarried posthumous child, even if she is not born, she does not have any moral responsibility.

Chen Lan is determined to keep the child, which is not only the last gift of the lover, but also a little comfort to the fiancé's old parents, the child is the hope of a family, whether it is a fool or a hero, they all have the right to let their bloodline be continued, this woman is strong, brave and resolute, perhaps because she lost her parents since she was a child, and her autonomy and independence are distressing.

The fiancé's mother was very happy, but the fiancé's father was sad, the responsible old veteran thought a lot, whether it was a grandson or a granddaughter, who didn't want it, but this was the biggest drag on Chen Lan.

withstood the pressure of the old woman and persuaded Chen Lan not to have children several times, Chen Lan only bit one sentence, it was necessary, and slowly everyone stopped persuading, Chen Lan's aunt and uncle saw Chen Lan like this, and they were no longer strong, maybe it was the providence of God that made the hero not in vain.

Everyone has the final say on their own affairs, not to mention those who are determined, out of nostalgia for Chen Lan's fiancé, or out of respect for every life, everyone has finally decided to support Chen Lan's will.

Some people are gone, some people are coming, we will remember those who are gone, and we only need to wait patiently for those who come.

It is said that good people must have good rewards, people can think like this, but God will not do this, when Chen Lan was less than six months pregnant, because of excessive sadness, her physical condition was not good, the child was born prematurely, it was a boy, Chen Lan cried heartbreakingly when she was born, crying and begging the doctors to save her baby.

This is another sad story, no matter how much money and medicine is spent, the baby has been in this world for less than a week and then leaves, and he goes to his father, ignoring the feelings of everyone else.

A fool can save someone else's child, but a fool can't keep his child in this world, he is a fool, he can't even keep his own life.

A child born less than six months old can't even open his eyes, so he never looks at the world.

There are too many sad stories in this world, but these sad stories happen to one person one after another in a short period of time, but how cruel and ruthless it is.

Sure enough, heaven and earth are unkind, and all things are used as dogs.

This day, this earth, was originally indifferent to the people of this world.

This woman, who lost her parents when she was young, lost her husband before she got married, and lost her baby before giving birth, what a sad and devastating blow this is, and it is so depressing that it makes people breathless.

But life always has to go on, just get up and continue walking, stay in bed for a few months, everyone's gradual enlightenment, Chen Lan regained some confidence in life, and slowly recovered a little spirit, but the sadness in the eyebrows and eyes is not so easy to fade, and the broken body is not so quickly recovered.

This is all that Lai Ping said about Chen Lan, and at the end of the story, Lai Ping also gave a secret by the way.

And this secret made Lin Yun a little confused, it turned out that the blind date introduced to Lin Yun at the beginning was Chen Lan, because there were two people in the middle, and it was Lai Ping's phone number left, so Lin Yun and his mother mistakenly thought that the blind date was Lai Ping.

And Lai Ping did not expose Lin Yun's misunderstanding at the beginning, but decided to take Chen Lan to take a look today.

This is the scene of meeting and eating and drinking at the beginning, and Lin Yun's eyebrows are so similar to Chen Lan's fiancé, this thing who is so good at dying misunderstands the meaning of others, and he has to compare himself with other people's drinking, and this grandson's drinking style is exactly the same as Chen Lan's late fiancé, and Chen Lan, a person who usually doesn't drink alcohol, actually accompanied him to drink several bottles.

Lin Yun thought that Chen Lan's series of provocative behaviors were just conjectures based on Lin Yun's preconceived assumption that Lai Ping was the blind date.

Things were completely sorted out, but Lin Yun's mind was only clear for less than a minute, and then he was paralyzed and shut down.

This is too unacceptable, I admire Chen Lan's fiancé, I admire it from the bottom of my heart, I also appreciate Chen Lan's courage, I appreciate it from the bottom of my heart.

But this ...... There are some things that I don't dare to think about, to be a person and do things, you still have to believe in metaphysics, although this Lin Yun claims to be an atheist, but the construction site has been mixed for a long time, or this life has been mixed for a long time, and there is still a certain awe of some inexplicable things in my heart.

Don't say that I'm here to go through the motions today, even if I come seriously on a blind date, I'm afraid it won't be acceptable.

Besides, I mistakenly thought it was Lai Ping, but now not only did I get the wrong object, but there were also such things in it, I had to know which grandson was coming.

The introducer is too, and so is my mother, isn't this a pit person, what is called riding a tiger is difficult, this is called a real tiger riding is difficult.

How can I say it for a while, it's easy not to listen to these stories, but it's not good to refuse directly after listening to them.

Refusal, wait, people don't necessarily like me anymore, right?

"Xiao Lai, has your cousin taken a fancy to me?"

"I don't know, but my cousin never drank before."

“……”

Lin Yun had a headache, what kind of answer is this, or pretending to be stupid.

Wait, there's a key question!

"Your cousin is recovering like this now?"

"Not bad."

"Then she can still conceive a child?"

"The introducer said you have a daughter."

"But I'd like to have another one in the future."

After saying this, Lin Yun himself felt shameless, MD, and he could be regarded as doing everything.

Being able to talk about the day is also a shameless new realm.

"Then did you have a crush on my cousin?"

“……”

Can I be outright?

"My cousin used to be very beautiful, much more beautiful than me, you see, besides, the doctor said that it is not necessarily impossible to conceive, this is the last two years It is best not to get pregnant, and it is easy to keep it if you are pregnant."

Lai Ping saw that Lin Yun didn't speak, thinking that Lin Yun was hesitating, so he flipped out the photos left in his mobile phone and handed them to Lin Yun to see, I'll go, Lin Yun's eyes straightened as soon as he saw it, is this a person?

It is indeed very beautiful, tall, well-proportioned, front and back, the photo should be taken in the spring, standing in front of the store of XX pickled vegetables.

She wears a dark sleeveless dress similar to that of a flight attendant or a train attendant, a long-sleeved shirt like a professional attire, thick gray stockings on her legs, and round-heeled shoes on her feet.

Willow eyebrows, apricot eyes, strong and small nose, delicate facial features, and very decent makeup, looking at this photo is the standard of Lin Yun's dishes, and even in Lin Yun's eyes, it is one and a half points higher than Lai Ping's appearance on the side.

But, but, now I really don't dare to compliment it, Lin Yun held the photo in one hand, while looking up at Chen Lan who was singing, the more he looked at it, the more he felt that the outline was still there, and if time passed, hummed......

Bah, baa, fake your sister, are we the filthy people?

To be honest, this product is a little shaken, well, by no means for this appearance, but for appreciating this woman's strength and bravery, this thing uses this shameless and boring rhetoric in the bottom of his heart to slowly pry the psychological defense line that is not too rigorous.

MD, what I just believed in the true metaphysics, it can be seen that people in this world, what they want to do and what they don't want to do, can quickly find reasons.

Men, most of them are the masters of the peony flowers.

"It's really beautiful to look at."

"Of course, Sister Lan didn't know how charming she was before she experienced these two things, and besides, my cousin-in-law is really a talent, you haven't seen it, the two don't know how good they are."

“……”

Can I refute it, forget it, if there are any, I still can't say it, if it weren't for that, would I be here today? There is no logic at all.

Some things are okay to think about, but to say them is to offend others and disrespect the deceased.

"Does your cousin have a crush on me?"

Lin Yun is ready to start the rhythm of swallowing scales, and he also has a crush on the person in the photo, that is, Chen Lan in the past.

"With what I know about her, I should have taken a fancy to you, at least ninety percent."

When Lin Yun heard this, his mind began to liven.

Dr. Ma? He and Dr. Ma will never succeed, and the gap between geography, knowledge and status is difficult to reverse.

In fact, his current feeling for Chen Lan is that this is a man's desire to protect, but this thing is blinded by hue and doesn't know it.

Men have a natural habit of protecting the weak, well, especially beautiful and effeminate women who look like they need protection.

At first glance, there is nothing wrong with this, but the prefix is "look".

Yes, because I think you are beautiful, and you are likely to be a weak woman, so you should need my protection very much, and in the end I must protect you, which is a shameless self-professed and noble Don Quixote medieval chivalric logic, which is usually enjoyed by men who are usually trapped.

This is not a question of the three views, this is a problem of nature, the three views are acquired, and the nature is innate.

"I'm going to order two songs."

Lin Yun poured himself a glass of beer, drained it in one gulp, brewed his emotions for a while, and then said this to Lai Ping.