When Gao Xiaodong received the news, he was still reviewing the postgraduate examination questions in the library of Yuzhou University.

His mom messaged him at five o'clock yesterday that grandma was gone.

Suddenly, but not unexpectedly.

In fact, since Alzheimer's disease began a few years ago, my grandmother's health has been worse day by day, and she has been in the hospital frequently in the first month or two, and the old people will get the same disease.

The doctor told them they were counting the days.

He was ready.

But looking at those words, he felt ridiculous, when the two words grandma and death were together, the world seemed to be no longer real, he typed a string of words in the input box with his fingers, and deleted them one by one when he accepted this reality.

And took a deep breath.

Mom said that he was so far away that he shouldn't be able to come back, so he would be buried tomorrow, and let him take care of himself over there, and come back to worship when he was free.

After all, I rushed back, and I couldn't see this last side.

Gao Xiaodong agreed, he also felt that it was not necessary to rush back like this, it was better to concentrate on reviewing for the postgraduate entrance examination.

He had long been prepared for the old man's short days, and when he learned the news, he had mixed feelings for a while, but he didn't feel sad.

He thought he would be sad and burst into tears, but none of them were, he was unusually calm, and after replying that he knew, he lowered his head and looked at the question again.

Looking out of the window on the fourth floor of the library, it is no longer a bend of the river, old trees and white walls, and rows of high-rise buildings.

Gao Xiaodong grew up in the countryside and was brought up by his grandmother, and his earliest memory he can trace is when he just learned to walk.

He still remembers the scene of his grandmother cooking on the wood fire in the kitchen, and he stood up with those chairs, staggered all the way to the kitchen against the wall, and suddenly hugged the old man behind his back.

The old man was startled, but he couldn't stop laughing and hurriedly hugged him.

When he was three or four years old, he woke up in the middle of the night, clamoring to find his father, he knew that his father was working in other places, and he pointed out many places where his father usually was, and the old man carried him one by one, and walked around the whole village in the dark.

When he was six or seven years old, he saw that the house next door had a set of public paintbrushes with beautiful packaging, and he clamored her to ask for it, and the old lady rode the bicycle she bought when she got married, and went to many bookstores in the town to buy it for him, but it was not the one he wanted, and he was angry with the old lady for a long time.

When he was ten years old, as soon as he failed in the exam, his grandmother would become so fierce, and he felt like a demon with a straight face, although he would not beat him, but he was always very afraid that she would be angry.

So he studied very well.

In such a rural area, he is one of the few who goes to high school and goes to university, and it is still a double first-class university.

When the old man first started dementia, Gao Xiaodong was in his third year of high school, and he was very tired in his third year of high school, and he didn't remember much about it, but he remembered that his grandson liked to paint, so he said: It's not just that reading is the way out, if you like to draw, you can paint, and do whatever you like.

She talked nonsense and said, it doesn't matter if you can't read.

Grandma, who has been urging her to study hard all her life, told him that it was not a big deal if she didn't study when she couldn't remember anything.

It's the same as having to explain what happened later.

After that, she couldn't remember anything.

Grandma didn't know what a double first-class university was, she knew that her grandson was very good at studying, she was happy, although she had begun to have senile dementia, but people in the village said that her eldest grandson was studying double first-class.

She barely remembers anything, she forgets yesterday's events today, but she remembers Gao Xiaodong and this grandson she brought up since childhood.

She always asks people, is Xiaodong back? Others told her to go to college.

"Oh! It's good to go to college! ”

When Gao Xiaodong was a freshman, he often called back, and the old lady laughed when she heard his voice, but she always didn't speak for a long time, and he felt very helpless.

"Xiaodong, don't catch a cold." Every time before hanging up the phone, the old lady confessed like this.

He read a high math problem for half an hour, but he couldn't solve it, and he only felt that his strength was draining.

He's not actually sad, he's just missing his grandmother.

So he didn't pack anything, he planned to buy the earliest air ticket, and if he couldn't buy a ticket, he bought a high-speed rail ticket.

Starry night, and by the time he reacted, it was already the afternoon and evening of the next day.

The sky in the countryside is prettier than in the city, with low black wires, ripples on the water at the edge of the fields, mole crickets cooing like toads, and sparrows pecking at spilled grains.

He walked on the sun-burned concrete road in his memory, with low white walls, crops, and rice stalks piled on top of each other on both sides.

In the distance, he saw the old man, sitting on a big rock by the pond, as if waiting for someone.

Gao Xiaodong was not afraid, how could he be afraid of the person closest to him, he just walked over and sat beside her.

A person has lived outside for so long, he has traveled a long way, walked a long way to return here, from Yuzhou to Junsha, from college to childhood.

He said, "Grandma, I'm so tired. ”

The old lady asked him why he didn't rest when he was tired.

"I don't know."

The old lady asked him, are you still happy?

"There's nothing unhappy, how can you be ......unhappy when you're busy," he scratched his head, a little shy: "I like a girl, I didn't bring it back to show you." ”

The old lady said that she was only a few years old, and she was a virgin.

"Twenty-three, you forgot again."

The old lady told him to bring it back next time.

"I don't know if it's going to be successful." He was a little embarrassed.

The old lady asked him, where is your school, it is not far away, and whether it is a long way to go from Laoniu Village to your school.

She said that you said it a few more times, she has a bad memory recently, and she is afraid that she will not be able to remember.

"It's not far, it's not far, if you want me, I'll just say it, and I'll be back."

The old lady said that she went to the city to get a card, what it was called, she didn't understand, but the person who got her said that there was a lot of traffic, so that the next time she called, she could make a long call.

Gao Xiaodong couldn't cry or laugh: "Traffic is not used to make calls, you can't make calls, you have been deceived again." ”

The old lady didn't understand and was laughed at by her grandson, but seeing him laughing so happily, she laughed along.

The old lady asked him why he was crying, and he was still crying at the age of twenty-three, which was ugly.

"You're the ugly bastard." Gao Xiaodong wiped his face and was unconvinced: "You see that you must not have combed your hair this morning, your hair is curled, and it is very ugly!" ”

Countless insects are chirping in the fields, cicadas in the trees are chirping in summer, ponds are reflecting the scenery in the sky, and the evening breeze is gusting.

"Xiaodong, don't catch a cold."