After 0:00, Xiang Yongming from the shopping mall stood up from the mahjong table with his stomach covered and said, Zhu Hua, you come and wipe two plates for me, and I will go to the toilet. Zhu Hua said that I am not good at playing cards. Xiang Yongming said that if he loses, it will be mine. Hurry up, I can't wait. As he spoke, he pulled Zhu Hua over and pressed him to the side of the table.

The moment he stood up and turned around, Xiang Yongming glanced at the couch next to the table. Guo Xiaohai's mother lay quietly on it, her face covered with an open book, and cotton threads stumbling on her feet in a new pair of shoes. He quickly turned his face away, he was most afraid of seeing a dead person. Especially at night.

The Spring Festival is just a few days away, and Xiaohai's mother didn't survive this winter. According to local custom, Guo's mother's body was to be mourned at home for two nights, and the third day after her death was mourned.

Li Fei came to Xiaohai's house in the evening. Walked to the couch, took out three sticks of incense, held them in his hand and lit them on the candle. lit and lit, and suddenly sadness came from the heart, and tears flowed like a spring for a while, and I almost sobbed. Hurriedly held the incense and bowed down to give Xiaohai's mother on the couch to make a bow.

Li Fei thought of his mother. Twenty years have passed since his mother left him, and the grief of losing his mother is still heavy. Every time I dream about it, I have to wake him up crying. With your mother, you will always be a crying child.

It was a cloudy noon, and the sound of cicadas in my ears made people drowsy. Mother and a few neighbor grandmothers play cards in the living room, and you take a lunch break at home after dinner. Suddenly, I heard a neighbor's grandmother exclaim: Xiao Li, come and see, what's wrong with your mother!

You get up and go over to see your mother leaning over the table with a neighbor's grandmother propped up. You pick up your mother and call out to your mother in a panic. Death has taken the mother.

Hearing your cry in frustration, Mother broke free from the rope of her life and fled, her eyes half-open and unable to see you, and uttered the last slurred words with what little strength she had left.

What is your mom talking about? No one around could understand. But you get it. Your tears are falling from the ground. What my mother said was that they were in the sleeve of my mosquito net.

Even a few years ago, my mother said the same thing to you: "Those few things are in the sleeve of my mosquito net." I'm afraid that one day you will suddenly be unable to speak, and you will lose it. At that time, you were still blaming your mother for not saying such an inauspicious thing, but you didn't expect that today it was really a prophecy.

Those few items were a set of gold jewelry. A pair of rings, a pair of earrings, a pair of earrings, a hairpin. These treasures were the mother's dowry that year. When I was ten years old, my mother took them out at night and told you the same under the lamp. The atmosphere was mysterious, and it was not allowed to keep these items privately. These things are wrapped in a handkerchief and placed in the palm of your little hand. The mother said she would leave these things to her future daughter-in-law. I sighed and didn't know if I could see that day.

It was the neighbor's grandmother who said, hurry up and send your mother to the hospital, which woke you up at a loss. At that time, Hongyun was in class, and his father was not at home, so you borrowed a board car and dragged your mother to the hospital alone. You walked out of the alleys, ran through the streets, sobbing all the way, bursting into tears all the way, like a fragile child, completely ignoring the maturity and steadiness of a man; Someone who knows you asked with concern, who is it-Li Fei? You replied with a cry: It's my mother.

In the face of the angry mother, the doctor had no other way than to give an intravenous drip. The small hospital is in poor condition, with four wooden beds and four stools in the ward, and a lonely lamp on top of his head. Red clouds are coming, and they want to guard with you; You didn't agree, there are children under a year old at home. When my father came to bring you food, he said to the nurse in an abrupt and faint voice: "Doctor, can you replace me and die for her?"

From the road to the hospital, you kept crying.

Soon, my mother started to be incontinent, and you called for hot water and changed her clothes while crying. Over and over again. When he was done, he sat on the stool that had fallen down, and lay down beside his mother's bed and continued to cry. When others know that you are an only child, they say that you are pitiful, and you don't even have a sister or sister. You say to your mother in your heart, "Mom, I am your son and your daughter."

You have a sister after you, who was born at dawn. Five-year-old you opened your sleepy eyes and said something inexplicable, you said, you dreamed of a dango (girl) ghost, who was driven into the latrine by a black dog and drowned. You clearly remember that the dango ghost was a rolling ball of meat. Sure enough, the little sister only lived for seven short days.

Her tragic fate was shattered by you.

Fei'er, my baby, my heart. The little ghosts on Hades' side all praise me for being so blessed to raise such a promising and filial son like you. They took me away suddenly, and I can't blame them, it's because my longevity is over.

I had been sick all my life, and I didn't expect to live past the age of sixty, and I was content. It's just that seeing you grief breaks me. You are the eighth child I have ever born, and when I conceived you, you had only a six-year-old brother left in front of you. A few months before you were born, your six-year-old brother was gone. The death of seven children in a row dried up my tears.

Ever since you came into this world, there has not been a day that has not scared me. Fear that the tragic fate will repeat itself once again.

When you were eight months old, you suddenly stopped breastfeeding. It was June, and it was very hot. At night, other people's families moved bamboo beds to go outside to enjoy the shade, and I sat in the mosquito net with you for seven days and seven nights. Even the fan didn't dare to shake it wide. That kind of life in the ghost gate is really tormenting.

See a doctor, please Bodhisattva, everything has been set. On the seventh day, you finally asked for milk, and a stone hanging over my heart fell to the ground. Later, you breastfeed until you are five years old. After weaning, your father installed an iron shelf on the kerosene lampshade, and stewed water with rock sugar and white fungus on the shelf to nourish your body every night.

At that time, white fungus was wild and could only be bought in pharmacies.

I am not in good health and have never stopped taking medicine in my life. In 1959, when my illness worsened, your father took me to the county seat on the family boat to see a doctor, and I was looking for the most famous old Chinese medicine doctor at that time.

The old doctor said, "Your illness is like a sunken ship, and my medicine can only relieve its sinking, but cannot make it float again." Let's take it one day at a time.

The doctor's words made me very sad. I'm not afraid of death, I'm afraid that if I die, my son, you will create karma. Will you starve without a mother in the future? Will you get cold? Will someone be bullying you? Who do you say to if you have a grievance? Thinking about this makes my heart twist.

When I came out of the hospital, I weptly entrusted the aftermath to your two aunts, asking them to promise to sew clothes for you and make shoes for you every year. Until you grow up.

They said that they were bent and flattened, and advised me to relax my heart. When it came to the county seat, it was not easy, so I tried my best to persuade them to go to the theater to watch a flower drum show with them in the evening. I didn't have the heart to watch any play, and I was reluctantly nodded when they talked about it. Walking on the street, I suddenly heard someone else's child crying, and I felt that my heart and liver hurt: My son, are you crying at this time?!

I didn't want to stay in the county for a moment, so I had to rush home overnight. It's already the middle of the night when I get home, and when I enter the door, I take you who are already sleeping in my grandmother's arms and hug you tightly in my arms.

Mother, you have told me these things more than once in the past. Today is Xiaohai's house, and it is Xiaohai's mother lying on the couch.

Xiao Hai's father sat silently next to the couch. Li Fei greeted him, and after a moment of trance, he recognized the person. You are Li Fei. He said, Li Fei, Xiaohai is young and ignorant, and he wants you to help him more.

Li Fei said, don't worry, Xiaohai is very good. As he spoke, he took out his wallet, took out five 100 yuan yuan, and stuffed them into Xiaohai's father's hand. The old man shirked and was forcibly stuffed into his purse by Li Fei.

After Li Fei's mother died, his father had a mental problem. refuses to leave the house, and always runs to his hometown in the town. The house in my hometown has been sold to someone else. I just went once or twice, and people were polite; If you go too much, people will be annoyed and drive him out. He wandered around, and Li Fei found him and took him home, and ran away again a few days later. Give him twenty dollars each time. At that time, the salary was only a few dozen yuan a month.

Seeing Xiaohai coming, Xiaohai's father said that Manager Li must give me money. Xiaohai looked at Li Fei, then at his father, and said that he had money to spend. Li Fei said that these are two different things. Li Fei knew that Xiaohai's father had a pension. Li Fei asked, how is the night vigil arranged?

Xiaohai's parents are old children, Xiaohai is a lone seedling, and his mother's funeral has to be handled by him alone. He looked at the group of classmates and friends present and said that they had handed it over.

Li Fei said, I have a lot of things to do during the day, and I don't have time to help. If I send a vigil at night, I can come.

Xiaohai said, you don't need to come, you are so busy.

Xiaohai's classmates asked: Mr. Li, do you play mahjong?

Xiang Yongming rushed to say that Mr. Li never played cards.

Li Fei said, I won't.

Xiaohai's friends gossip: It doesn't matter, we can teach you. When you are a general manager, it's not fast to learn to play mahjong? Really, to come? There are seven of us in total, and if you come, we will have exactly two tables of mahjong, and we will keep vigil in two shifts and one watch in the middle of the night. Can? If we are afraid of losing money, we can play smaller.

People Li always have money!

In this way, Li Fei said, you all keep watch for the first half of the night, and leave it to me in the second half of the night.

You're alone in the middle of the night?

Yes.

Aren't you afraid?

Afraid of what?

Of course, I was afraid of the deceased lying next to me. Everyone looked at each other and smiled, but the words that came out of their mouths did not come out.

What time do I take over? Li Fei asked.

How about two points? We can play a little longer.

Li Fei said, no problem, I'll arrive at two o'clock.

Xiang Yongming covered the door and went out. Xiaohai's house is an old-fashioned private house, and there is no bathroom in the house. A cold wind blew and blew the door wide open. It's cold, close the door!

Zhu Hua took a stool and pressed the door shut, and it was blown open again after a while.

Shut the door, close the door!

Xiang Yongming is still outside. Zhu Hua said.

He's back and open again!

After a while, Xiang Yongming came back and slapped the door like a drum. It's raining outside, it's cold. Xiang Yongming rubbed his hands and said, the wind is also strong, and Lao Tzu can't light the lighter in the toilet.

Nestled in your pants? The crowd laughed at him.

I almost couldn't run to the toilet, and my stomach hurt to death.

In the shuffle of mahjong "squirming", some people say that today it seems that we can't go back.

It didn't rain much, so why can't I go back.

How do you go back when no one is coming to take over?

Didn't Li Fei say that he would come to take over?

Do you take this kind of casual talk seriously? The weather is so cold, windy and rainy, three watches in the middle of the night, who will run so far to take over with you? Don't dream.

You don't know Mr. Li. Xiang Yongming said that he would not agree to what he couldn't do, and he would definitely do what he promised.

I don't believe it.

Believe it or not. Xiang Yongming said.

Can he come in the middle of the night when the wind is raining and the rain is deep? Come and see you! You were deceived by someone else and sold it, and you counted the money for others. Some people say Xiang Yongming.

He's definitely coming! Xiang Yongming was enraged. He said, "Do you dare to bet with me?"

What to bet on?

You bet on whatever you say.

You said!

I'll lose and I'll keep watch for Yongming alone for half the night, and you go back to sleep; You lose, you continue to keep vigil, and Mr. Li and I go back to sleep.

Good. Talking counts?

Talking counts!

Also, if he goes more than two o'clock, you lose. Some people are still a little unsure.

It's not fair. Xiang Yongming didn't dare to agree with this. Everyone has a drowsiness, and it's normal to be late for a while if you sleep too late. It's not clocking in at work, how can it be so strict.

No, not even a minute late! I said you don't dare to bet, right?

Who says I don't dare to bet? In the end, he confirmed to Yongming that he agreed to the other party's harsh conditions, and Li Fei couldn't be late for a minute.

The clock was approaching two o'clock in the morning. The sound of the wall clock moving around the hall was also louder. Tick-tock-tick-tick, every stroke is knocking on people's hearts. - Mr. Li, you shouldn't really be expected to die by them, right- Xiang Yongming was a little breathless, and in a panic, his eyes glanced at the deceased on the couch again. I cried out again and again in my heart: It's over, it's completely over!

Knock knock, a few minutes after two o'clock, the sound of whirring wind wrapped in the sound of knocking at the door. It's not loud, but it's recognizable to everyone. It was indeed someone knocking on the door, not the wind. shouted to Yongming: It's coming! Marley got up and went to open the door. Li Fei walked in wearing his long tweed coat, standing on the collar, and carrying a laptop bag.

Is it cold outside?

OK. Li Fei replied, you can go.

No way! Xiang Yongming stopped, they bet that you won't come, they lost. They should continue to keep watch for the rest of the night, and you and I will go back to sleep.

Ho - is there such a thing? Li Fei looked at everyone with a smile.

One said, Mr. Li, we really convinced you. Another said, therefore, a successful person must have a reason for his success. There is also a dejected saying, you and Xiang Yongming go back to rest, and we will continue in the second half of the night.

Li Fei said, really?

It's true. Only one person answered, and not simply. The others you look at me, I look at you, smiling awkwardly.

Hurry up, you all go, I have something to do. Li Fei said, if you don't leave, it will affect me.

Hearing Li Fei say this, everyone smiled reassuringly. Someone has already flown out like an arrow. Li Fei saw that everyone was gone, Xiang Yongming still didn't leave, and said Xiao Xiang, why don't you leave?

I'm staying with you. Xiang Yongming said.

What are you doing with me?

Are you really not afraid at all?

What is there to be afraid of.

Xiang Yongming touched his head and smiled, not knowing how to say: There are still four or five hours before dawn, and there is no one to speak, how do you pass the time?