Cheng Yan began to ask his parents constantly when they would return.

At first, Mu Shi would answer a few sentences patiently, but after a long time, she became impatient, and always dealt with it casually, saying that it was right away and fast. Cheng Yan was very happy to hear this, so he ran to the calendar hanging on the wall and carefully counted the days. But the more she thought about it, the more anxious she became, always thinking that her parents would come back the next day, but after waking up, she was still at her grandmother's house, and the people she saw were still those people, and there was no change at all. Finally one day, her parents called, and she knelt on the chair excitedly, holding the edge of the pear blossom wooden table with both hands, and looked intently at her grandmother, listening to what they were communicating.

Cheng Yan didn't understand what they said, what "business is not good", "another month or two", "calculate the money clearly" or something, she has been looking forward to hearing the words "come back", but the call is almost over, and she hasn't heard it yet. In the end, Mu Shi turned his head and said to the other side: "You talk to Xiao Yan, this girl asks you every day when you will come back." ”

She handed the microphone to Cheng Yan, Cheng Yan hurriedly straightened up, took it with both hands, and shouted timidly: "Mom." ”

Cheng Jiahua's voice came from his ears, gentle and low, "Xiao Yan, have you listened to your grandparents?" ”

"Yes!" Cheng Yan hurriedly replied, squeezing out a smile on his face, "Dad, when are you coming back?" ”

"Come on, wait a few more days."

"That's what Grandma said today."

"Then you should listen to grandma."

Before Cheng Yan could say anything, there was a sound over there, it seemed that the microphone was taken by someone else, and the sound of Hetu came, especially soft, as if a warm spring water flowed into Yan's ears.

Hearing her mother's voice, Cheng Yan couldn't hold back any longer, her mouth was deflated, and she was about to cry. When Mu Shi saw it, he hurriedly took the microphone, answered a few vague words, hung up the phone, pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped the tears on Cheng Yan's face, and muttered in his mouth: "What are you crying about?" Okay, let your mother hear and think I've treated you badly. ”

didn't talk to his mother, which left Cheng Yan with a small regret in his heart. When she went to school that afternoon, she was absent-minded, and the math teacher called her twice to ask her to come to the podium to do problems, but she didn't hear them. After school, she stuffed her books into her schoolbag, picked them up and ran outside, but the way was not to her grandparents' house, but her mother took her countless times back to her home.

At this time, the sun was already hanging halfway up the mountain, and the light emitted was no longer dazzling, it was very soft. She walked to the door of her house in the warm sunshine like her mother's embrace, the gate and the open space where she often ran around in front of the door were very familiar to her, Cheng Yan's heart warmed, and she couldn't help but slow down.

She wanted to rush in the door as she had done before, and ask her mother if the meal was ready in the direction of the kitchen. Usually when she is out of school, the kitchen has already begun to smell, and her mother's cooking skills are unique in the world, and no matter how good the dishes in the big restaurant are, they can't compare to what her mother makes. But today, the door was closed, and the big lock on it was so dazzling that Cheng Yan's eyes were sour.

She squatted down on the steps next to the door, her bag on her lap, her hands folded under her head. She stared blankly at the grassy garden next to her, which had not yet had time to build a wall, and felt a little empty in her heart. Sitting like this, I don't know how long it took, the sun had been obscured by the horizon for half of his face, and the sky was not as bright as before.

Suddenly, a voice came from front of her, and someone crouched down in front of her and asked her what she was doing here.

Cheng Yan raised his head and looked at the man's face carefully, and couldn't remember who he was for a while, but felt very familiar. She shook her head, feeling a little flustered, as if someone had discovered her little secret. She stood up, tightened her bag, walked past the man, and ran down the road.

It wasn't until she ran to the school gate that she saw her grandfather wandering. After carrying his schoolbag, he shouted loudly and ran towards his grandfather.

Of course, Cheng Tielong scolded her a few words, but his words were not serious, and he took her hand and walked towards home. The meal has been prepared, just waiting for the two to come back. Although autumn was not long in coming, the weather was still a little cool, and as soon as she stepped into the threshold, the familiar fragrance of threads came, and Cheng Yan's heart suddenly became very steady, as if someone had filled all the empty spaces in her heart at once.

Life is like this, whether you are happy or miserable in your heart, time will pass day by day, and there will be no emotion. The days still have to be lived, three meals a day, and the things that must be done, although mechanical and repetitive, are also an important part of life. Cheng Yan came over under such a repetition day by day, that day, she got out of school as usual, jumped home with her companions, and suddenly saw many people around the gate, pointing at the door, talking to each other. Cheng Yan slowed down and looked at them suspiciously, not knowing what was going on, until the neighbor's fat boy turned his head and saw her, and hurriedly waved at her and shouted, "Cheng Yan! Your mom and dad are back! I also brought a lot of stuff with me! Get in on here! ”

Cheng Yan was stunned for a moment, as if she didn't hear his words clearly, and after two seconds, the dozen or so words exploded in her heart one by one like a small cannon. She suddenly felt very excited, very excited, let go of her footsteps and ran towards the door, ran two steps, she stopped again, grabbed the two schoolbag belts helplessly, and the whole person became cowardly and timid.

Unexpectedly, Cheng Yan felt a little scared to see his parents. She moved slowly step by step, and finally moved into the gate, and looked in, there were many things piled up in the yard, but there was no one in sight, and the voice came from the room of the grandparents, and it seemed that they were all gathered in the house.

"Get in! Don't you miss your parents very? The fat boy pushed her, Cheng Yan turned his head and glanced at him, bit his lip, threw away the schoolbag belt in his hand, and strode in as if he had made up his mind.

The two familiar voices, one high and one low, were laughing and talking about something. Cheng Yan's ears boomed, and she didn't hear a word clearly, she stepped on the threshold with one foot, and stood still, because there was a small boy standing in front of her, looking at her curiously with a pair of dark black eyes, and a fleshy little face was very cute.

Is this his younger brother Cheng Lin? Cheng Yan was puzzled in her heart, she stretched out her hand, gently touched the boy's face, and smiled flatteringly. The boy turned his head and ran towards a couple of men and women behind him, shouting as he ran, "Mom! Mom! ”

The woman answered, turned her head and glanced behind her, this look, she was stunned, looking at the little girl who cowered outside the door and didn't dare to come in, after a year, she couldn't recognize it as her daughter for a while.

However, she quickly reacted, hurriedly stretched out her hands, and called out to Cheng Yan: "Xiao Yan! Come here! It's Mom! ”

Cheng Yan looked at her timidly, and then looked at his father, who was also smiling next to him, but he didn't follow Hedi's words, and ran behind Mu Shi with a cigarette, looking at them with half of his head exposed.

He Di suddenly felt a little disappointed, but her father-in-law and mother-in-law watched from the side, she was too obvious to be bad, and she changed the topic with a smile, and continued to introduce the things she brought back.

"I haven't seen each other for more than a year, and the child has been born." Cheng Jiahua smiled and looked at Cheng Yan with a gentle face. Over the past year or so, he has changed a lot, it seems that he has changed from a boy to a man all of a sudden, most of the unstable prodigal energy on his body has disappeared, and the whole person has become a lot fatter, and there is always a smile on his round face, as if everything in this world is very beautiful in his eyes.

"Xiao Yan." Mu Shi turned his head and looked at Cheng Yan with a little reproach, "I think about your parents every day, and you are like this again when they come back." ”

Cheng Yan completely retracted his head behind Mu Shi, and the whole person was hidden.

Everyone smiled helplessly, left her alone, and continued to discuss the topics discussed earlier. For more than a year, although she didn't make a lot of money as she thought in her heart, she also saved a lot steadily, and what made her most gratified was that because she went to live with her parents and was not familiar with the place, Cheng Jiahua could no longer go out to gamble, under the supervision of his parents, he was also conscientious, and he helped the family every morning and evening, and it seemed that this problem had been changed. He Tu was very happy, and the quarrels with him gradually decreased, and the two of them were in harmony and very affectionate. In addition, Cheng Lin is getting bigger and bigger, her eyebrows are very delicate, she is also very clever, she lives with her parents and co-games, everyone helps each other, and she can only hear laughter all day long, this is really the fastest and happiest year she has ever lived. But this happy life is always going to end, Cheng Yan is still living at her in-laws' house, she and Cheng Jiahua's roots are in that place, and they still have to go back in the end. At the time of parting, Jiafu and Cuiying went to the station to see them off, and everyone felt sorry for each other, and at the urging of the conductor, they boarded the train, and gradually moved away from this once very happy place, and Hetu couldn't help but feel very sad. Depending on the meaning of the parents, they will not come back in a short period of time, and with such a separation, I don't know when and when they will see each other again. The train ran all the way, and her tears fell all the way, and by the time she got off the train, she was almost swollen into walnuts. Cheng Jiahua kept persuading her next to her and telling her funny jokes, which made the amusement He Tu didn't have much energy to be sentimental, and the two of them took Cheng Lin, hurriedly stopped the car, and went home.

After distributing all the things he brought back, he exchanged a few more pleasantries, and Cheng Jiahua said that he was going home. Cheng Tielong and Mu Shi didn't stop them, and sent them back to the gate. A family of four was walking home with large bags and small bags, and the afterglow of the setting sun shone obliquely on them, cutting four long shadows on the ground.

Cheng Yan was still very timid. She followed them with a large bag containing her few clothes. She looked at her parents holding Cheng Lin's hand, and felt sour in her heart, and she actually felt like crying. Even when her parents turned around and called her several times, she longed for her parents to hold her hand, but she never dared to step forward. Before her parents came back, she imagined countless images of seeing each other in her mind, but none of them were like this, and she didn't expect that she would be in such a mood as she is now. In her eyes, they were strangers, and together with the younger brother who had been carved in pink, they seemed to be guests from afar, and after a little stay by her side before leaving, she would return to the eaves of the sojourn, and look at the harmony of other people's families, and envy herself.

Finally arrived home, Cheng Jiahua put down his luggage, stepped forward to unlock the door first, pushed the door open and went in. I haven't been back for more than a year, and my home is full of dust, and it looks very desolate to the touch. He turned around and took his luggage, took it from Hedi's back, stacked it at the door, lowered his head and took a candle in a bag, and lit it.

I can barely see what I see clearly.

He Tu sighed and said, "You will pay the electricity bill tomorrow, so you can make do with sleeping like this today." She hurriedly cleaned the house in the dim light of the candles, changed the sheets and covers on the bed, and then busied herself outside to fetch water, ready to boil some water for the whole family to wash.

By this time, the sun had completely set, and the surrounding darkness could barely see a small piece in front of me.

Cheng Jiahua sat on the sofa, watching Cheng Yan tease Cheng Lin, with a satisfied smile on the corner of his mouth. In fact, it wasn't Cheng Yan who was teasing Cheng Lin, but it was like she was currying favor with him. Cheng Lin has a lot of toys, almost piled up in the corner of the sofa, Cheng Yan has never played with these toys, although she is curious and wants to take them to observe, but she does not allow herself to be like this, she subconsciously feels that she has to make them laugh, they will be good to themselves, otherwise they will leave themselves again. So, she took those toys one by one, laboriously twisted the switch on them, put them in front of Cheng Lin, and let it run weirdly, looking at Cheng Lin's face with a happy smile, she smiled contentedly, feeling as if she had done something big.

However, she was so cautious, but her parents didn't see it, their minds were complicated and distant, and they seemed to be focused on what she didn't know and didn't want to know, and they didn't even have the slightest energy to pay attention to her. She listened to them talk about what she didn't understand, and looked at the new clothes they were wearing, the new clothes that her brother was wearing, and then looked down at the clothes on her body that had been changed from grandma's clothes to a smaller one, and suddenly felt very inferior, she shrank her body, stuffed herself into the sofa, and her eyes became more and more timid.

She suddenly missed the smell of the threads in her grandparents' house, and she longed to run back to her grandfather's house now, to escape from the place that was about to suffocate her.

But soon, the feeling of suffocation disappeared.

While she was struggling to please her brother's laughter, her father took out a thick book out of nowhere, quickly placed it on her lap, pursed his lips and smiled at her reaction.

Cheng Yan was stunned for a moment, lowered his head and looked carefully by the candlelight, it was a thick Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, the cover was very simple, and only a little girl in a cloak and a big bad wolf with bared teeth were painted on it. Cheng Yan looked at his father puzzled, and then looked at the book.

"For you." Cheng Jiahua said with a smile, as if he was a little unaccustomed to this expression, "A gift for you." ”

Cheng Yan's eyes became pleasantly surprised, her eyes seemed to glow, looking at her father, she couldn't help grinning.

Cheng Jiahua reached out and touched his daughter's hairy head, and couldn't help but feel a pain in his heart. All this time, he had almost forgotten that he had a daughter, and watching her careful stroking of the book made his heart feel even more distressed.

After taking care of the family and washing their faces and feet, everyone was extremely tired, and the family made do with the crowd on a bed, and fell asleep until dawn the next day, when he rubbed his eyes and propped himself up from the bed.

After this year, she has also become much more mature, and she is no longer as impulsive and irritable as she was when she was younger. It's just that under the cover of this peaceful appearance, her heart still longs for something, and this desire makes her feel impulsive, and she can't really be satisfied with the current life. She felt lost, but there was nothing she could do, so she desperately tried to find something to do for herself, so that she could feel a little fulfilled inside. Today was the first day of the happy life, and this mood was even stronger, and the first time she opened it, she couldn't help but feel a wave of boredom when she saw the familiar ceiling and the things around her.

It's just that reality didn't give her a chance to think carefully about this mood, she still had to get up and wash, make breakfast for the whole family, and thoroughly clean the home that had been full of dust for a year. Her emaciated body was busy in the kitchen, and although it was weak, it seemed that there was an invisible force that supported her and supported the family, and if this force was gone, the home would also be gone.

Cheng Jiahua had breakfast, and went out to find something to do under the urging of Hedi. He seemed to have become much more pragmatic, but this pragmatism only took effect at the urging of Hetu, and once Hetu left it alone, the lazy worms on his body would gnaw at him through various pores, so that he didn't even think of bed. Although he had just returned home, his body was still very tired, and he didn't know what to do immediately in order to earn back the money and hand it over to Hedi, Cheng Jiahua hurriedly put on his coat and went out and disappeared at the end of the road.

Cheng Yan sat at the other end of the table, carefully eating the rice in the bowl, and even dared to hold a small chopstick in front of him, and quickly stuffed it into his mouth and swallowed it. The taste of her mother's cooking is completely different from that of her grandmother's, and she can't get used to it, but she thinks in her heart that her mother's cooking is better. After eating a bowl of rice, she wanted to eat a second bowl, but she was too embarrassed to say, so she had to put the bowl down and lie that she was full.

"Then let's go to school." He Tu said, reaching out to wipe the rice grains on Cheng Lin's chin.

Cheng Yan stood up, found his schoolbag, and slowly moved out the door.