The door of Fan Taotao's house is a vermilion iron door, newly painted paint, and the faint smell of paint is particularly prominent in the world after the rain. The Spring Festival couplets with "ten" painted on the door beam fell off half of the side, covering up half of the hanging gossip mirror.

Seeing Zhang Daxian staring at the door of his house, Fan Taotao said weakly: "Sometimes, I really hope that there are gods, immortals, and Buddhas, even if it is a ghost - that is also a glimmer of hope that people can persevere!" ”

Inside the door is a two-story red brick building that is some years old, and the yard of her house is not large, and there is a plum tree with the thickness of a bowl, with many branches, and the tree is full of budding flowers, and those early blooming flowers, some have withered, and the walls are all broken flowers.

Zhang Daxian now understands that the black amber plums that Fan Taotao brings with her every summer vacation are all made of this tree.

Looking at the plum tree, Zhang Daxian remembered for no reason that as long as he ate more than four plums in the past, Fan Taotao would say a sentence - "Peaches raise people, apricots hurt people, and the dead are carried under the plum tree!" ”

Although these words were originally intended to make people pay attention to health preservation, they only flashed in his mind, but Zhang Daxian's heart was filled with a sense of guilt, in such a situation, how unacceptable and unwilling to accept "death" was.

"Mom!" Fan Taotao pushed open the door and walked into the courtyard, "I'm back!" ”

Zhang Daxian also followed, and heard the cry of pain that could be heard clearly through the wall, and suddenly disappeared—from the east side of the first floor of the red building, a violent and suppressed coughing sound came out.

"Your dad is waiting for you!" A middle-aged woman who walked out of the house with tears on her face and was tired and old, was stunned when she saw Zhang Daxian, and didn't know what to say for a while, "Fan Taotao, he's ......"

Zhang Daxian could hear the gloom in his words.

"My squad leader!" Fan Taotao took the umbrella in Zhang Daxian's hand and closed it on a stool placed under the eaves, "My head teacher is not at ease, let him send me back!" ”

"Tao Tao went to pour him a cup of hot water, and he was drenched!" Mom Tao realized that she had thought about it, but she was a little embarrassed.

"Thank you, Auntie!" Zhang Daxian said.

Fan Taotao was about to go to the kitchen in the west to pour water for Zhang Daxian, when a violent and uncomfortable cough suddenly came from the house in the east, and Taotao's mother's face suddenly became a little pale, and said to Fan Taotao: "Hurry up and go in, your father has been waiting for you for a long time!" ”

Zhang Daxian could see that Fan Taotao's footsteps were a little weak, his body was trembling, and he deliberately gave him a smile that was more ugly than crying when he passed by.

"There's a mess in the house!" Tao Tao's mother said while opening the curtain to let Zhang Daxian in.

"Is my uncle's illness better?" Zhang Daxian sat on the broken sofa in the room and asked politely.

"It's better!" Taotao's mother forced a smile and quickly changed the topic, "Our family Xiangxiang often praises you at home, and says that she is making rapid progress thanks to you for giving her a lecture!" She also often reprimanded her brother, saying that if you have one-tenth of your grades, you don't have to worry about his father and me! ”

"After the New Year, I won't have a chance to give her a lecture!" What Zhang Daxian meant by this was that he hadn't seen Fan Xiangxiang for a while, not that he was pretending to be suspenseful, but that he really didn't know how to ask Fan Xiangxiang if he really dropped out of school.

"Daisen! My dad let you in! Fan Taotao came out, stood at the door of the east room, and called him.

Zhang Daxian looked at Tao Tao's mother, and the latter said, "Go in!" ”

The smell of medicine in the room came to Zhang Daxian's face the moment he pushed the door in. In some dimly lit rooms, Zhang Daxian saw Tao Tao and her father lying on the bed, his eyes were scattered, like a candle about to be extinguished, as long as he sighed lightly, he could be taken away.

"Taotao, you come in, her mother, you go out first, I'll say something to the two children!" Tao Tao's father's godless eyes suddenly brightened after noticing Zhang Daxian coming in.

After moving a stool for Zhang Daxian, her mother went out.

Tao Tao's father pulled out the skinny and bony hand from the quilt with difficulty, and held Zhang Daxian's hand, "It's the same as what I dreamed of in my dream!" ”

He stretched out his other hand, grabbed Fan Taotao's hand and put it in Zhang Daxian's hand. Zhang Daxian found out for the first time that the girl's hands were cold, or the kind of cold that always seemed to be warm or not.

"I hope you can take care of her more in the future..."He seemed to notice Zhang Daxian's composure, "In terms of studying... She's a good girl....... She doesn't want to be the boss, you can treat her as a sister in the future! ”

Zhang Daxian didn't hear Tao Tao's weakness when her father said the word "also", and Fan Taotao and Tao Tao's mother outside the door heard it very clearly.

"Good!"

Zhang Daxian didn't even think about it, so he agreed! He seemed to feel the rapid passage of Tao Tao's father's life, if he hesitated and he thought about it a little more, it would make the person in front of him, who was suffering from the disease, leave with regret - he couldn't bear it!

"Dad!"

Zhang Daxian heard this heart-rending cry, his heart chuckled, his brain boomed, and it was blank! He just felt as if his hands were wrapped in the ice of the cold winter moon.

Taotao's mother rushed in, but she didn't panic, first took Taotao's father's hand away from Fan Taotao and Zhang Daxian's hands, put it in the quilt, and then said to Zhang Daxian: "Child, you help me take Taotao upstairs to the west room!" ”

Zhang Daxian picked up Fan Taotao, who was crying and paralyzed on the ground, and then took out the money he had taken out of his arms and handed it to Taotao's mother, "Auntie, I took this money to help you with emergencies... I didn't expect it to be the "urgency" of this situation! ”

Momotao's mother's eyes were red, she had made all kinds of assumptions, but she never thought that the person who helped her through this last difficult time was a boy or an outsider who had nothing to do with her family.