Leaving the Aikang Park, it is almost dinner time, and the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner is generally regarded as the most important meal of the year, representing auspicious reunion. But Li Xiaoai sat in the back of the car without saying a word and sent messages on her mobile phone, without telling me where to go, I understood that maybe she didn't know where to go, but just kept sending blessings to others on her mobile phone to ignore her nowhere to go.

The car was parked on the side of the road, and I turned off the engine, "What about your aunts or uncles?" Do you want to be reunited with them? ”

"My grandmother gave birth to my father, and I have been in Hong Kong for so long over the years, I have long cut off contact with my cousins and cousins, and I can't even find the contact information if I want to send blessing messages for the New Year." The phone screen was on, but she was looking out the window.

The afterglow swept across the empty streets, and a father and daughter, or brother and sister, came to meet them? It's not an exaggeration to guess that they are a couple. A sweet-looking exotic brown curly-haired girl dressed in a festive cartoon pattern. She held the man in a black leather jacket wearing sunglasses next to her, and the girl had a warm smile on her face, but the man couldn't see the facial features at all. The two of us passed by our car, looking leisurely and natural. At this time, a person will feel more or less desolate, Li Xiaoai looked out of the window on the other side stupidly, and suddenly a fallen leaf sprinkled down like that, drawing an arc in front of the car window, and then fell to the ground and buried in thousands of fallen leaves.

Li Xiaoai's cold and lost expression was reflected on the car window, like a lonely reflection in the pool of water, and she took a shudder and withdrew her eyes.

At this time, my phone rang, "Lao Di? What's going on with the Chinese New Year? ”

"Hey, Old Di, Happy New Year." I picked up the phone.

"Hello? Zhuang Yan, you are also happy new year, are you still busy with work today? Lao Di had a deep and kind voice.

"Well, I just came out of Aikang with Xiao Ai."

"Didn't you say a few days ago that you would come to my house for Chinese New Year's Eve dinner? It's almost ready, so come over if you're done. ”

"Well, this—" I don't know if I should say yes to her right away.

"Is Xiao Ai next to you? Give her the phone. "Lao Di has always spoken so straightforwardly.

I handed the phone to Li Xiaoai from behind, "Hey? Happy New Year, Uncle Di. ”

Lao Di's voice on the phone was not loud but powerful, probably urging Li Xiaoai to go to his house.

"But it's too troublesome, and it's not easy to trouble for the New Year." Li Xiaoai prevaricated.

"What's the trouble, it's just me a lonely old man, don't you two young people come to me to get together as a companion? Talk to me. Lao Di's voice was full of breath through the microphone.

"Uncle Di, or..."

"What's it, give the phone to Zhuang Yan." Lao Di never dragged out his speech.

I took the phone and looked at Li Xiaoai's somewhat twisted expression, "Huh? ”

"Drive directly to the downstairs of my community, bring Xiaoai up, and see someone in ten minutes, otherwise you will ask, hahaha, hang up first." As soon as Lao Di's voice fell, the phone was broken.

"Let's go?" I'm pretending to ask for advice, there's nothing to discuss about this matter, there are hardly any restaurants open now, and if you don't want to do it yourself, you can only go hungry temporarily, "Usually skipping dinner can be used as a weight loss, but today is the most important dinner of the year, and it would be too desolate if you were hungry." ”

Li Xiaoai looked at me with that reluctant but unable to refuse look, and I started the engine and drove in the direction of Lao Di's house.

"The group of people who came today are indeed foreign shareholders?" I still have doubts.

"Well, it was sent down from above to assist in the follow-up work." Li Xiaoai's face was still facing out of the window.

"Then you usually pay more attention to them, this group of people always feels that the people who come are not good."

"I know, thank you just now."

"Help you out? No thanks, it's my job. "I held the steering wheel and turned it 90 degrees, but my mind didn't spin much.

She didn't say anything more.

Lao Di's deep house and old courtyard look as old as the last time I came, but the location is in the center of the city with the best greenery.

"Wow, Uncle Di's family lives in such a deep alley?" Li Xiaoai kept sighing before she got out of the car.

"Lao Di has bad legs and feet, although he lives deep, he is not too far from the company." I parked the car under a dense locust tree in the courtyard of Lao Di Community, and Li Xiaoai pushed the door and stepped out of the car.

It looks like an old house from the last century, and the walls around it are mostly covered by creepers, and the dark red bricks and gray walls with bright green plants are indistinguishable from all the old houses of that era. Lao Di's house is located on the second floor, and the two large balconies that were originally independent and are now pulled through are placed with various bonsai plants. There are all kinds of bamboo, tulipwood, pothos and so on, and the whole balcony is just facing south and the sun is abundant, and it looks like it has been completely covered with green, and the lush scenery can fully prove how much the owner usually cherishes this green shade.

"Happy New Year, Uncle Di." Li Xiaoai stood in front of me. The door opened, and Lao Di looked good in an electric wheelchair.

"Xiao Ai, Zhuang Yan, here, hahaha, fast forward, fast forward." Lao Di stepped back the electric wheelchair.

"Wow, this is a botanical garden." As soon as I followed Li Xiaoai, I was shocked by one foot, it turned out that I looked up downstairs just now and saw that the potted plants on the balcony were just the tip of the iceberg, a drop in the ocean.

"Lao Di sent a grape trellis in the house." A kind middle-aged woman poked her head out of the kitchen with an apron, and the smell of sweet and sour pork ribs came to her nose.

"Who is this?" I remember that Lao Di was never married, and I never heard that he had a partner.

"Aunt Li, who lives upstairs in my house, usually takes care of me more, and if my daughter doesn't come back for the New Year this year, she will accompany her for the New Year." Lao Di explained, he seems to have an inseparable emotion for his old house, just like he has never distinguished his old friends from rich and poor.

"It's the babysitter." Aunt Li smiled and accosted.

"Who would dare to let you be a babysitter, hehe." Just a few sentences like this, I can probably guess the meaning.

A table of hot meals, sweet and sour pork ribs, glutinous rice and eight treasure rice, steamed yellow croaker, vermicelli scallops, sauce cabbage sum, Chinese Chinese New Year's Eve meal has a special memory for everyone, this meal is something we should not be absent from.

After three rounds of drinking, Li Xiaoai still looked restrained, and from time to time looked at the Spring Festival Gala that was playing on the TV next to the dinner table. On the contrary, I chatted with Lao Di and Aunt Li more hotly, clinking glasses back and forth, "Aunt Li, you are a master of craftsmanship in the north and south of the country, so amazing." ”

"That's not it, Aunt Li used to be the chef in the restaurant." Lao Di praised.

"What a chef, it's a small restaurant, I used to be open with my old man, but then my husband left, and my daughter was older, and I was left alone, so I was too lazy to work anymore." Aunt Li was halfway through her words, and then sighed again.

"Xiao Ai, don't count the rice grains, eat a piece of pork ribs, you used to love it when you were young." Lao Di sandwiched a piece of sweet and sour pork ribs to Li Xiaoai.

"Thank you, Uncle Di, I'll clip it myself." Li Xiaoai smiled at Lao Di.

"Your Uncle Di specially asked me to make this dish today, and he won't cook until you're almost there, just thinking about you." Aunt Li had sugar on her mouth, and her words were sweet.

"Thank you, Aunt Li." Li Xiaoai still smiled a little stiffly.

"Come, Zhuang Yan, let's have a drink."

I raised my glass and touched it with him, "Happy New Year and good health." ”

Drink it all.

"Don't leave later, just rest here with me, anyway, I live alone in such a big house, and Xiao Ai and you are enough for one room." The Chinese New Year's Eve is also a special tradition, and everyone generally gathers together to stay up late, representing the meaning of saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new, and praying for blessings and reunion.

"Uncle Di, it's still inconvenient, I didn't bring a change of clothes, and I didn't drink to drive."

"But..."Lao Di still wanted to stay.

"My stomach is not very upset." Li Xiaoai was embarrassed to interrupt Lao Di.

"Alas~ Lao Di's girls are inconvenient, don't stay, let's go back to our respective homes after eating and chatting, I'm still waiting to go back and call my daughter." Aunt Li persuaded.

"Say goodbye to the old and welcome the new, I also have to go back and change my clothes, hehe, I respect you." To break the embarrassment, I raised my glass again.

Li Xiaoai has always been very silent, at this time there is always a special sadness and loneliness in her heart without the company of her relatives, she watched TV silently but didn't know what she was thinking. But the Spring Festival Gala was full of a lot of sketches and songs and dances about family happiness, and finally when Lao Di and I kept clinking glasses, a song singing about my father reached a climax, and Li Xiaoai on the side also began to sing softly along with the lyrics.

Several people at the table stopped their wine glasses and chopsticks, and when I turned around, I found that Li Xiaoai was already hazy with tears, and then I was more sober, and this was when she was most vulnerable and sensitive.

"Dad~" Her voice was very soft, like exhaling breath, but her voice was even more choked.

"Little love." Lao Di moved the wheelchair towards her and gently brushed her back, "Uncle Di misses him too." ”

"Why is that? The accident has been investigated for more than a month, and there is still no news. Li Xiaoai cried and mourned, tears falling out, "Uncle Di, do you know something?" You were the only one when Dad was around, did he say anything to you before he left? ”

Lao Di lowered his eyes and slowly took the remote control on the dining table, and lowered the singing and dancing music on the TV, the whole process seemed to be recalling something, "No, there is no sign at all, except for the time when I specially ran to the defensive shield to find me, my mood was more abnormal." Lao Di raised his eyes and gave me a look.

"What do you mean? You know that too? Li Xiaoai looked at me with a hint of resentment, "Why don't you tell me usually?" ”

"I'm afraid you'll be worried." I looked at Lao Di again, meaning why did I stab this matter before.

"Afraid I'm worried? I'm afraid I'll be worried and won't tell me about my dad's previous abnormal situation? He's my dad, I'm his daughter, he's dead and I don't know anything, every day I don't know anything except looking at old photos of the past in the office. Li Xiaoai was emotional, and her tears gradually broke like broken threads.

It turned out that the old photo album was about the memories of Li Shukang and Li Xiaoai.

"Lao Li left suddenly, and I've been investigating about him recently, but what he cares about the most is you." Through the wine, Lao Di's tone was also sad.

"He wants us to protect you all the time." I told Li Xiaoai.

"How long?" Li Xiaoai was in tears, but she was still awake.

"All the time." I accentuated those two words, and I think she would understand.

Li Xiaoai was silent, but the tears still couldn't stop flowing, we saw it in our eyes, but we couldn't give her more comfort, Li Shukang's imprint in her heart could not be given by anyone present, and it was even more irreplaceable, it was her father.

"But, but, why?" Li Xiaoai kept shaking her head, "Why?" What went wrong? Is it my dad, or me? Is it Aikan? Or something else? There's always a reason, I don't understand..."