Chen Siping remembers very well that it was the 30th day of the Chinese New Year's Eve, Chinese New Year's Eve, and the family was reunited. He bought cooked vegetables, pig's head meat, salted grass chicken, spicy dried beans, mixed with three vegetarians, cooked a pot of mustard, shredded pork and egg soup, and had his mother face to face for the last meal. He warmed a bottle of rice wine, cut some ginger shreds, drank it hot, and only watched a small half of the Spring Festival Gala, his eyelids were astringent, and he lay on the bed and fell asleep. The wine is in the "three thousand cups" opposite the community, scooped out of the big jar, the color is orange and red, the fragrance is fragrant, and the stamina is very strong.

When he woke up the next day, he was reluctant to give up, lay in the bed for a while, got up with a bone, put on his clothes and pants and walked into the living room. On the table was the leftover scraps from last night, which had not been cleaned up, and the door was ajar, and the cold wind blew in in gusts. Chen Siping was a little stunned, came back to his senses, and rushed into his mother's room, which was really empty. He searched in a hurry, and even didn't let go of the bed in the closet, and finally determined that his mother had run away from home.

Her mother's runaway from home was different from her father's, she was Alzheimer's, empty-handed, and she didn't even close the door. Chen Siping didn't know whether she left in Chinese New Year's Eve or the first day of the new year, so she hurriedly took the mobile phone key and went out to find it. The street smelled of the New Year, and it was also a little deserted, Chen Siping inquired all the way, but no one saw his mother, and even the doorman in the community was at a loss.

Chen Siping went around in a big circle nearby, and returned to the community to continue looking, but his mother did not come back, so he had no choice but to call the police. The police advised him to look for him again, ask relatives and friends, and after 24 hours, he still had no whereabouts, and went to the Baimaqiao Police Station to report the case.

It was the longest 24 hours of Chen Siping's life, he ran around like a headless fly, took a photo of his mother, asked people when he caught him, and finally went to the doctor in a hurry and found his uncle Ding Zhengxin. When Ding Zhengxin received the call, it was already half past five in the afternoon, he was not without sighs, comforted Chen Siping a few words, took care of his nephew to go home and wait first, pondered for a while, and called Director Zhao of the Baimaqiao Police Station.

Director Zhao's son is Ding Zhengxin's proud protégé, and the two families often come and go, not an ordinary friendship. On the first day of the Lunar New Year, Director Zhao was on duty in the institute, the security of Surabaya City has always been very good, the old man lost is just a trivial matter, most of them are staying in a small place, and he can't find his way home for a while, he promised to check for Ding Zhengxin.

At about 8 o'clock in the evening, Director Zhao called back and did not raise the matter of police investigation, but told Ding Zhengxin that a floating corpse was found under the Baima Bridge, an elderly woman, and the time of death was about 3 o'clock in the morning.

Ding Zhengxin gasped, and immediately called his nephew Chen Siping, went to the Baimaqiao Police Station to find Director Zhao, and asked him to go to the forensic identification center together to confirm the identity of the drowning woman. The forensic identification center is what the citizens call the "autopsy center", which is more taboo than the crematorium, and the director in charge of the autopsy is Director Zhao's classmate, who also knows Ding Zhengxin and has had a few meals together.

Director Zhao personally drove away.

Chen Siping sat in the back seat, silent, he had an ominous premonition in his heart, his mother had left him in a cruel way, and he was left alone, living in this reinforced concrete forest, alone, struggling to survive. The premonition was so strong that the hands and feet were numb, the stomach was cramping, and the whole person was shaking slightly uncontrollably.

Director Zhao adjusted the rearview mirror, he had already read the autopsy report, coughed lightly, and took the initiative to ask Chen Siping's mother's age and clothing. Chen Siping was a little sluggish and deaf, Ding Zhengxin couldn't look past it, turned sideways and patted his nephew, and repeated it with a pleasant face. Chen Siping came back to his senses at this time, and said a few words dryly, sluggish and wooden. Director Zhao probably knew in his heart, and shook his head slightly at Ding Zhengxin, death is inevitable, but it is really unacceptable to die in such a way.

Ding Zhengxin sighed secretly.

The process of identifying the body was lackluster. The mother was lying in the freezer, with foam marks around her mouth and nose, pale and wrinkled skin with reddish corpse spots, goosebumps on her upper arms and thighs, and mud on her fingernails. Her face is not much different from that of life, although Ding Zhengxin has not seen her for a long time, he still recognizes her at a glance.

Chen Siping signed the autopsy report, his hands trembling violently, and his name was crooked.

Except for Ding Zhengxin, Chen Siping has no relatives in Surabaya City, and he does not plan to set up a mourning hall. He asked his uncle to contact the crematorium for cremation.

Ding Zhengxin has no objection to this. In the past ten years, he personally sent away his father and mother, his father-in-law and mother-in-law, and Ding Zhengxin is familiar with the funeral customs of Surabaya City. The funeral is for the living, and the mourning is secondary, and in fact there is not so much mourning. Since Chen Siping only has an uncle like him, it is understandable that everything is simple.

During the Chinese New Year, the crematorium on the first and second days of the lunar calendar suspended the cremation business, and Director Zhao promised to help say hello, and sent it to the crematorium to burn a "head stove" on the morning of the third day of the lunar calendar.

It was nearly 12 o'clock when he got home, Chen Siping didn't turn on the lights, sat alone in the dark, quietly listening to his heartbeat, recalling the past, and feeling a little hungry. He cooked a pot of soaked rice, snorted and ate the rest of the cooked vegetables, soaked the dishes and chopsticks in the sink, went to the bathroom to take a hot bath, changed the top and bottom inside and out, and threw the dirty clothes into the washing machine.

On the second day of the Lunar New Year, Chen Siping slept all day, sleeping in the dark, and slept until the earth was barren.