From this day on, I began to relive the life of a recruit, waking up early, training, running, and learning various skills every day, regularly and compactly, which relieved some of the depression in my heart. However, I rarely spoke, and the recruits around me thought I was a strange person, and naturally I didn't communicate much with me.

But every night, I began to have insomnia, I couldn't sleep even if I was tired and sleepy, my mind was full of cranky thoughts, and I often stared at my eyes until the east was white.

After a week in the boot camp, I was suddenly called away in the middle of the training that day, and when I arrived at the headquarters, Uncle Song was waiting for me, he told me to pack my luggage and go home, and the army gave me two weeks of vacation, and then handed over a burden to me solemnly.

It was Zhao Jinfu's ashes, I solemnly took it, and there was a sadness in my heart when I held it in my hand. I didn't say anything, went back to the barracks and put away the simple luggage, and walked out with Zhao Jinfu's ashes in my arms.

Uncle Song was waiting for me in the car, and he dropped me off at the train station after I got on the bus. Before I got in the car, he told me to take this vacation to take a good rest, and in two weeks someone would come to me and tell me what to do next.

I saluted Uncle Song and entered the carriage, and no matter what I did for a few days, Zhao Jinfu's ashes did not leave my palm.

I didn't go home and went directly to Zhao Jinfu's house in Wuqing. Although the army had informed Zhao Jinfu of the bad news, I still didn't know how to deal with Zhao Jinfu's wife and children.

Standing in front of Zhao Jinfu's house, I took a few deep breaths and knocked on the door. Soon the door opened, and I saw my sister-in-law staring at me with a pair of red eyes and then staring at the burden in my hand.

"Sister-in-law! I'm sending my brother back! I said this with the grief in my heart suppressed.

The sister-in-law walked over slowly and gently stroked the burden, she was so careful, as if she was caressing a sleeping child, for fear of waking him up.

I saw my sister-in-law's hands trembling, tears silently pouring out of her eyes and dripping onto her burden. Then I felt a light in my hand, and the ashes were carried by my sister-in-law. She hugged her very tightly, and suddenly her knees went limp, and she sat on the ground, holding her burden and sobbing. Her face was pressed against it, her shoulders shaking violently, but she remained silent.

"Sister-in-law, don't be like this, get up quickly." My eyes were moist and I didn't know how to comfort them.

"Mom, is Dad back?" At this time, a childish voice sounded in the house, followed by a beautiful little boy who jumped out and ran out, it was Zhao Jinfu's five-year-old son Taotao.

When he saw me, and then at my mom sitting on the floor, he seemed to realize something, "It's not Dad!" What about Dad? After asking this sentence, Taotao opened her mouth and cried with a "wow".

I couldn't bear it anymore, tears welled up in my eyes, I stepped forward and hugged my sister-in-law and whispered, "Sister-in-law, don't be too sad, don't scare Taotao." ”

With my support, my sister-in-law stood up, she held the ashes in one hand, and led Taotao, who was still crying, to the house.

I closed the door after me, and when I entered the big house, I saw a table in front of the door, on which were incense burners, white candles, and various memorial offerings, and on the middle wall of the table, there was a black and white photo of Zhao Jinfu.

In the photo, Zhao Jinfu is smiling brightly, wearing a military uniform, with the spirit of a soldier. And his eyes seemed to be looking at me at the door.

The sister-in-law opened the baggage, took out a small black jar, and slowly and carefully placed it under Zhao Jinfu's photo.

Taotao was still crying, and her sister-in-law came over and pulled Taotao, and the two knelt down in front of the spiritual seat. The sister-in-law looked at Zhao Jinfu's photo and said to Taotao: "Taotao, Dad, he's home!" When he finished speaking, he broke down and wept bitterly.

Taotao didn't understand what his mother meant, but he didn't see his father, but cried even more.

My heart was like a knife, and their cries broke my heart. Looking at this mother and son, my heart was full of guilt and regret, I should have been braver at that time and used my life to replace Zhao Jinfu. Or maybe I should have shot that Zheng Xiaocheng to death in the first place, then maybe the scene in front of me wouldn't have happened.

Then the neighbors heard the crying and came in from outside, and they understood at a glance what was going on, and several women went to her sister-in-law, put their arms around her shoulders and said nothing, and wept with her. Two other younger women hugged Taotao, coaxing him and wiping her tears.

An elderly uncle came up to me and asked me in a low voice, "Comrade! You're Jin Fu's comrade-in-arms, right? Thank you! Sit down and rest. ”

I wiped my eyes and said, "Uncle, you don't have to be polite, Zhao Jinfu and I are like brothers, you don't have to entertain me." After thinking about it, I said, "Uncle, is there anything you need my help with?" I don't know if the funeral has been arranged, I can help. ”

The uncle seemed to want to speak and stopped, and his face was not very good-looking, and he only spoke after I asked him repeatedly.

It turned out that Zhao Jinfu and his sister-in-law did not have a large number of people, and the two of them lived in poverty, and those relatives came once after getting the news, put down a few hundred yuan and left, and there was no one to stay to help. These days, the affairs of my sister-in-law's family are all helped by these kind neighbors, and as for those cumbersome funeral ceremonies, my sister-in-law insisted on canceling them.

The coldness of human affection makes me angry, but there is nothing I can do.

The uncle told me that my sister-in-law had done one thing these days, using all the family's savings to buy the cheapest cemetery for Zhao Jinfu in the cemetery, and waited for Zhao Jinfu's ashes to come back and be buried. I asked what day the burial day was, and the uncle said that there was no date at all, and the sister-in-law meant that the ashes would be sent to the cemetery the next day when they came back.

I bowed deeply to the uncle and said, "Thank you, if you work harder to take care of the rest of the matter, I will stay here until Lao Zhao is buried." "I left my phone number behind.

The uncle looked into the room and said, "I'll ask when the two of them are sad for a while, and I'll let you know when there's any news." ”

I nodded and went out the door, ran downstairs and I got into a corner next to me, holding my head and letting the tears flow freely.

I found a small hotel near Zhao Jinfu's house to stay, and I received a call from the uncle that night, and I will leave for the cemetery at 8 o'clock tomorrow morning, and the cemetery will send a special car to pick up people.

I didn't expect that the cemetery is now serviced, so I promised to rush over tomorrow morning.

I still couldn't sleep that night, and I didn't drink alcohol so much that I bought a bottle of high-grade liquor downstairs, and I choked on the first sip of it, but the bottle was empty after half an hour.

I thought I could fall asleep with the strength of alcohol, but who knew that it would have no effect, so I lay down all night with red eyes. At about five o'clock in the morning, I heard the sound of sparse raindrops outside my window, and it was actually raining lightly outside.

At seven o'clock, I jumped out of bed, got dressed, and ran downstairs to Zhao Jinfu's house to wait. Half an hour later, the car with the name of the cemetery arrived, and after another ten minutes, the sister-in-law took Taotao downstairs in the company of several neighbors.

There weren't too many people in the car, except for my sister-in-law, mother and son, and me, and two aunts also got into the car.

The car drove for more than an hour to the cemetery, and immediately someone came to receive it, and asked who was the principal, and there were some things to discuss.

I told the man that he could tell me something, and the receptionist asked me what kind of urn I was going to choose, what price was used for the burial ceremony, and that there were not many of us, so I needed to hire a few cryers.

I was so confused by the jumbles that I couldn't see that I could see it, so the receptionist asked me to go with him into the hall to have a look. I knew that what this man was going to tell me was about spending money, so I followed my sister-in-law to the hall without telling him.

When I saw a shelf of urns, the price ranged from thousands to tens of thousands, I finally understood why the service staff here are so attentive. The funeral methods they arranged alone are strange, only you can't think of it, you can't do it without them, and some ceremonies even charge more than 100,000 yuan.

I didn't want to condemn them for taking advantage of other people's funerals to make a fortune, so I picked an urn of more than 1,000 yuan, arranged a simple funeral ceremony, and rejected the rest of the mess.

The receptionist, who wanted to persuade me to add some service, saw that I was wearing a military uniform and my face was not good, but I didn't say anything more, and I didn't show up again after arranging for the people below.

I paid for it and the staff followed me and started to get busy according to my needs.

Today, my sister-in-law was much calmer, and Taotao was very obedient to the side, and the cemetery staff arranged for them to do whatever they wanted, without any objections.

When they arrived at the location of the tomb, the staff put the urn containing the ashes into the tomb. I found out that my sister-in-law bought this a joint burial tomb, and even the names of the husband and wife were written on the tombstone, but Zhao Jinfu's name was golden, and my sister-in-law's name was only engraved and not colored.

When the staff left, my sister-in-law took out the tributes, incense and candles and put them on the table, and Taotao sensibly helped on the side. After doing all this, my sister-in-law stood quietly in front of the tomb and looked at the tombstone in a daze, and I also looked at the tombstone behind her without saying a word.

Since the car that took us back was still waiting, my sister-in-law took Taotao out after ten minutes. The last one to leave was a military salute to the tombstone, which lasted for more than ten seconds before leaving without looking back.

It was more than an hour to return to the downstairs of Zhao Jinfu's house, and my sister-in-law asked the neighbor to take Taotao up, and then came to me.

"Xiao Qin! I'm sorry for you, I haven't entertained you for the past two days. "My sister-in-law came up and apologized to me first.

I hurriedly said: "Sister-in-law, don't say that, Lao Zhao and I are like brothers, there is nothing to be sorry about." It's me, I couldn't save him, I'm ashamed of you! ”

The sister-in-law said, "I understand! You've done your best, and I don't blame you for that. As a comrade-in-arms, you have done enough, and today I finally let him settle in the ground, I thank you. ”

"Don't be like that, sister-in-law, I should. I just don't know what you're going to do in the future? I asked.

The sister-in-law smiled bitterly and said, "What else?" Life has to pass, the child has to grow up, and no matter what, he can go on. ”

I took out a file bag from my bag and handed it over, saying, "Sister-in-law, this is the pension given by the army, you can take it away, and tell me if you have any difficulties in the future." ”

The sister-in-law was slightly surprised, "So much? She saw that the file bag was bulging with bags.