There are a lot of things to take, all of which are money paper and ingots that my mother folds in her free time.

When Zhou Yu and I went out, my mother sent it downstairs, and then handed me the black wooden box that she had been carrying in her hand.

When I took it, my intuitive feeling was that it was heavy.

Zhou Yu also noticed it and stretched out his hand to me: "I'll mention it." But unexpectedly, I avoided him, did not look at him, only hung my head and said, "It will be a few steps to the car." Then he took the lead towards the parking lot.

When the car was on the road, I couldn't help but look at the rearview mirror outside the window, my mother was still standing downstairs, her figure was slowly getting smaller, and she couldn't see it when she turned out of the community. After waiting for the car to drive out for a while, I remembered to ask Zhou Yu: "Do you know the road?" ”

He glanced at me, "I don't know if you can still be your driver?" ”

Phoenix Mountain, Chengxi Cemetery.

The car was parked outside and couldn't drive in, the two got out of the car to pick up things, Zhou Yu deliberately didn't come to pick up the black wooden box, and carried the rest of the items in his hands. Walking along the path one after the other, I silently counted to the twenty-ninth row and turned around, and saw that there were people worshipping somewhere in front of me, and I thought that there were people who would come to this cold place for the festival like us.

The number is marked with lime powder on the ground, and you just need to look for it one by one to find the eighteenth.

As I got closer to the number, it suddenly occurred to me that the person kneeling in front of the tombstone seemed to be in the position of ...... Number eighteen? The man was wearing a white down jacket, a hat that covered his head and face, and a black mask and sunglasses on his face, and I didn't recognize who it was until I walked up to me.

Intentionally looked at the inscription on the tombstone, Yin Hong's father's name was engraved on it, and it still felt dazzling when I looked at it after many years.

After confirming that this was my father's tombstone, I asked, "May I ask who you are?" ”

The other party seemed to have sunk into his thoughts and didn't notice that we were approaching, when his body shook and slowly turned his head. The sunglasses and masks covered it tightly, and it was only vaguely distinguished from the style and dress of the down jacket that it was a woman.

In front of her kneeling leg was a large bouquet of white lilies, almost covering the front of the tombstone.

"May I ask who you are?" I asked again.

She got up from the ground and lowered her head and said vaguely, "I'm a friend of Mr. Jia." Then he said, "I'm sorry, I'll go first." He stooped down and picked up the white backpack resting behind the lily and walked in the opposite direction from where we had entered, with hurried steps.

I stared at the white back for a while, and when the other party walked more than ten meters away, I suddenly raised my voice and shouted, "Wait a minute." ”

She paused and turned back, while my gaze fell back to the bottom of my eyes, and her tone was cold: "Your thing has fallen, please take it away." ”

Silent reincarnation, Zhou Yu came up from behind and touched my hand, and said in a low voice: "Jia Xiaoru, don't be like this." ”

I suddenly rolled my eyes and scolded: "You shut up for me!" ”

The pupils of the black eyes constricted, and a haze floated up.

Turning his gaze again, he fixed on the white figure on the side, and said word by word: "Please take it away, Wei Lai!" ”

She walked back and took off her sunglasses and mask when she came to her, revealing her reddened eyes behind her back, and the tears seemed to be still there. looked at me with a sad look: "Jia Ru, I just want to pay homage to Teacher Jia, I don't mean anything else." ”

I said, "My dad is allergic to flowers, so he can't smell these foreign things." ”

The corners of her mouth froze, and she lowered her head and whispered, "I'm sorry, I don't know." Then he stooped down and picked up the large bouquet of lilies again, but it was probably too big, and some of the branches fell to the ground.

I looked at it blindly, and reminded coldly: "There are still them on the ground, please clean them up." ”

But Wei Lai hugged the flowers in his arms at this time, and he didn't have the hands to pick them up again, he looked at me at a loss, and then at Zhou Yu behind me, and called softly: "Ah Yu, can you help me get it?" ”

A string in my brain snapped at that moment, and reason was far away from me.

I bent down and grabbed the remaining branches on the ground and threw them forward, which happened to hit Wei Lai in the face, and she exclaimed, and the lilies scattered to the ground as soon as her hand loosened.

"Get out! You're not welcome here, and my dad doesn't want to see you! ”

"Jia Ru, listen to me......"

With a flying kick, the raised lily danced in the air, "Wei Lai, don't you understand human speech?" I told you to! I hissed and screamed, my hands hanging at my sides clenched into fists to keep my shuddering from trembling.

The most piercing thing is that Zhou Yu behind him is saying: "Wei Lai, you go first." ”

Some people were in turmoil, shrunk and turned around with grievances, and ran away in shame.

After that, I only did one thing, stubbornly threw the scattered lilies on the ground into the garbage bin at the intersection one by one, and did not let go of even a single one.

When I was done, I was panting for air, my eyes scanning the ground, and there was no room for a grain of sand in my eyes.

With a sinking shoulder, Zhou Yu said beside him: "Jia Xiaoru, it's okay, let's burn incense for Dad." ”

I glared at him fiercely, and the anger in my eyes was evident. But he bit his lip, didn't say a word in the end, lowered his head and stared at the tombstone, fell to the ground with his knees limp, and called softly out of his mouth: "Dad." ”

Every time I passed by my mother's side, I would go into the house to give my father incense and talk for a while, but in such a winter, facing this cold tombstone, I only shouted and felt tears welling up in my eyes.

I don't want to admit that I am vulnerable, but I have come to someone who shouldn't come!

Zhou Yu also knelt down beside him, and took out all the things his mother had prepared from his bag, which were nothing more than some paper money and folded ingots. He took the lime powder and sprinkled it in the same place for a circle, and then moved everything into the circle.

"Will you light the fire or will I light it?" He asked me with a box of matches.

I took it directly from his hand and struck a match, numbly put paper money into the fire, the flame ironed the surrounding space, but it was difficult to iron my cold heart. They all understand that people are not brought by life and not taken away by death, and burning these things is just a consolation for the living, which can also be said to be a sense of ritual. But I am still doing such a thing year after year, it has nothing to do with whether it is meaningful or not, just to shorten the distance between life and death.

But through this tombstone, I can't feel the slightest breath of my father. It's even less warm than the spiritual seat in my mother's house, which is why I don't want to come to the cemetery.

What else could this place have besides pain for the living?

When the paper money burns, the flames are blazing, but after a short time, they are extinguished and only ashes remain. Blown by the wind, shackled by the lime powder circle, no ash was blown away, but the scene of the silvery ash trembling in the wind was particularly bleak.

I pulled the wooden box over, patted the lid and smiled, "Dad, see what I brought you?" Mom and I both know that's all you have on your mind, so I'm bringing it to you today. ”

With a slight press, the lid of the wooden box is lifted. My eyes slowly scanned the inside of the box, everything was familiar and unfamiliar, and it was the first time I had opened this box since my father left. Before that, I hadn't touched it.

Mom often takes it out and wipes it to prevent a little dust from falling on it.

I stretched out my hand, my fingertips were held by Zhou Yu without touching it, and I raised my head and looked into the quiet black eyes. He said, "Since you have quit, don't touch it again." It seemed like a long time to look at each other, but in fact it was short, he pulled the corners of his mouth and lowered his eyes, and whispered: "Quitting, it doesn't mean that you won't, you can pick it up again, just want to or don't want to." ”

He pulled his hand from between his fingers and went straight down to pick up a deck of playing cards.

When my father came to see me at school, he took a deck of playing cards and said to me: The most basic operation of magic is cards, and it is also the most difficult.

I opened the cardboard box, took out the cards and spread them out in my palm, and quickly drew one of the cards with a flip of hand, and flipped it over, and it was the Ace of Spades. Draw another one, Ace of Hearts.

Stretched out the cards in front of Zhou Yu, "You draw two." ”

He didn't move, staring at me with a heavy gaze.

I sneered, "Didn't you always believe in magic?" If you don't try it, how do you know if you'll fall for my way? ”

After a pause, he pulled two random cards from the stack of cards I reached for.

I motioned for him to flop, a club ace and a square ace, one black and one red, conspicuous and neat.

It seems that even after many years of not touching, the technology still has not regressed.

I didn't continue to play the cards, but carefully put the cards in the box and put them back in place. Fingers caressed the white balls, red wine glasses, black cloth, and every prop had seen my dad perform on stage.

However, these small performances don't attract too many people, and the audience won't come to think about how many days and nights your performances have spent practicing skills, they want to see fresh and exciting. So even though my dad cherishes these treasures the most, he can not use them much on the stage, but he used them more when he taught me to practice later.

In order to win the audience's affection, Dad performed more dangerous large-scale stage magic tricks on stage, because the effect would be shocking, exclamating, and applauding.

On Christmas Eve four years ago, the playground was brightly lit and full of people, and everyone's face was full of laughter, but I was the only one who was destined to mourn.