Late at night, on a deserted street in the county town, sanitation worker Li Xia, wearing a white hat and a large mask on her face, swept the entire street with difficulty. When she returned to the tricycle loaded with garbage, she was suddenly stunned as if she had seen something alien.
Li Xia clearly remembered that the storage bag ghost she hung on the tricycle was used to store picked up cans, empty plastic bottles and the like. It had been hanging on the car all the time. She hadn't picked up anything today, so it should be empty. However, as if by magic, a stationery gift box popped out, and it was brand new, and the bag hadn't even been opened.
Li Xia picked it up and was surprised again. She had read stories like "The Secret of the Magic Gourd" before. As long as she thought of something, it would appear in front of her. She was middle-aged and had long passed that era. However, the pencil case gift package in front of her was exactly what her son had always wanted, even the brand was correct. She had a very deep memory of this gift box.
Back in January this year, Li Neng, the son, brought the birthday gift of Xiaojie, the son of the neighbor Zhao family, to his mother. He looked at his mother with envy and expectation, and carefully chose words that would impress her: "Mom, look, Xiaojie's gift box is so beautiful, it has everything, and it's the Optimus Prime and Bumblebee series on TV. Look, it's a complete set, 15 pieces, with a kettle, a pencil case, a pencil sharpener, and even an eraser. Everything is from the series. I've seen that a kettle like this costs 100 yuan, but this set is only 120 yuan. It can be used until the sixth grade…"
Seeing the eager look in his eyes, she almost shed tears. She knew that her son wanted to persuade his mother to buy one by saying that the average amount for six years was only 20 yuan a year. In fact, buying a birthday gift, a gift box worth a hundred yuan, is indeed a common thing for families nowadays, but it is a difficult task for her. With an income of more than a thousand yuan a month, she has to pay for water, electricity, gas, heating, food, and various expenses for the children's schooling. She doesn't make ends meet. Doesn't she want to be a generous mother? However, she can only persuade her son to return the gift box…
Li Xia looked around, but there was no one in sight. It was late at night, and the nightlife in the county town was not like that in big cities like Tianjin and Beijing. In addition, the street she was in charge of was not the main street in the county town. Even the small supermarkets and shops that made money at night only had the lights in front of their doors on, and the people inside were fast asleep. Who would come here in the middle of the night? Looking at the solemn atmosphere on the street in the autumn wind, listening to the rustling of leaves on the ground in the wind, and the occasional rustling of leaves falling, Li Xia felt a little scared for some reason. However, looking around, on the whole street, there were only piles of leaves piled on the roadside after she swept them, and leaves on the ground in front of the shop…
The next night, Li Xia rode her tricycle and came to Mingguang Road, which she was responsible for. The storage bag was still hanging on the handlebars, and the gift box was placed inside. She didn't want to accept other people's things for no reason. What's more, it was secretly placed here by someone, and she hadn't figured out what happened. Although she knew it couldn't be someone else who put it in the wrong place, she still had a glimmer of hope and wanted to return it to the person who put it in the wrong place. As for someone giving gifts, Li Xia didn't believe it at all. In this era, there are many people giving gifts. I'm afraid that even if there are people giving gifts everywhere, they won't give gifts to street sweepers.
Although she couldn't afford to buy that thing for her son, she really didn't want to accept such an unknown thing. Although she was not rich, she never thought of things as good. When divorcing, her husband asked her what conditions she had, she just shook her head and said nothing. She thought: If there is no love, what is the use of things? In the end, her husband left the house and things to her, and only took away his clothes. Facing the house and things, she was neither moved nor excited, nor did she feel a sense of victory.
It was late at night, and in the city that had been bustling all day, under the dim lights, there were no vehicles or pedestrians, and one could see far away. As soon as she got on Mingguang Road, she saw someone swaying in the distance, right in the middle of the road, swaying back and forth, very much like sweeping the road. She was a little puzzled. That was the section of road she had contracted. In order to make more money, it was originally a section for two people. She begged the stationmaster to give it to her in full. Wasn't it just to earn more money? The stationmaster knew her situation and agreed. Who would get involved in her "defense zone"? Thinking of this, she endured the pain in her waist and pedaled the tricycle over. When she got there, the words she wanted to ask were stuck in her throat and couldn't come out.
"Oh, the weather is cold, there are too many leaves, it's hard to sweep, I…" Li Dong turned to Li Xia and smiled, then he started sweeping again. It was just a false sympathy, looking at Li Dong's face full of regret, she suddenly remembered the gift box, and quickly ran back to the tricycle, holding the gift box and said to Li Dong:
"You must have put this in my bag, right?" Li Dong didn't even raise his head, just said "hmm", indicating that he put it there, and continued to sweep the floor. Li Xia was a little angry, she hated the man in front of her, hated him so much that her teeth ached, if it wasn't for him, she might not be so embarrassed, so sad, so miserable.
"Hurry up, or my broom won't have eyes, don't wait for me to break my face…" Li Xia endured the pain in her waist and shouted at the man she once was. Then, she stuffed the pencil case gift bag into his hand, almost pushing Li Dong to fall. "I, I, don't mean anything else, I just saw that you were too tired, so I helped you sweep some, it can be regarded as a merit to atone for your sins, I'm sorry for you and your daughter, I owe you too much, I can't pay it back…" Li Dong responded while sweeping hard. It was a long road, and by here, four-fifths of it had been swept. Li Xia felt bitter, sweet, sour, and salty in her heart. She wanted to cry but had no tears, she wanted to say nothing, she wanted to scold but had no energy, she just kept poking the broom on the ground and yelled: Go away…
Then, biting her lips tightly, she forgot about her waist pain and swung the broom with all her strength, creating a gust of wind. All the dust and leaves flew towards the man. She didn't care and swept desperately, wishing she could sweep the man away as well, thousands of miles away. She didn't want to see this man anymore.
The dust was rolling, and when she stopped to wipe the tears from her face, she looked around. In the dust, he had disappeared. She felt a little strange, and her eyes were blurred with tears. She looked around, but there was no one in front, behind, left, or right, not even a distant back. She endured the pain in her waist, quickly swept the rest of the field, collected the leaves, and went home.
The next day, in order to avoid a similar situation, she deliberately went out an hour earlier. However, when she arrived, Li Dong was still there sweeping with a broom, and it seemed that he had come earlier and had already finished sweeping. She stared at Li Dong and said coldly: "Don't be so hypocritical, I don't need your help here, go away quickly, don't come next time, I don't need you here." Li Dong seemed to want to say something, but he didn't say it, and then quietly left.
After finishing her work, Li Xia returned to her tricycle and suddenly found the pencil case in her schoolbag hanging there. She picked it up and wanted to throw it away, but after thinking about it, she put it back into the storage bag.
Three days later, the aunt came. Li Xia called her to come. Li Xia found the pencil case and said that Li Dong had sent it to her. She wanted the aunt to take it back to him. The aunt was shocked. She stared at the pencil case with wide eyes and didn't say a word for a long time. Li Xia asked her what was wrong. After a long while, the aunt took the pencil case and looked at it from left to right. After a long time, she said, "I was just about to tell you about this."
When Li Xia heard this, she quickly asked what happened. My aunt said that her classmate Xiao Ding worked in Huadong Supermarket. That day, she saw my brother go to the supermarket to buy something and bought a pencil case gift bag. Xiao Ding told her about this on the phone yesterday, which scared my aunt at the time. She said that the classmate was talking nonsense or was dazzled, but the classmate kept saying it was true. Finally, my aunt said with tears in her eyes: "My brother has been dead for ten days. How could he go to the supermarket to buy things?"
"What? Your brother is dead?" Li Xia's eyes widened, and tears started to fall for some reason. Li Xia was a little unconvinced, and she held up the pencil case and said to her aunt, "No, he helped sweep the streets every night these past few days. He gave me this pencil case the day before yesterday, how could it be fake?"
"My brother is really dead, sister-in-law…" The aunt looked at her sister-in-law's surprised eyes and realized that her sister-in-law didn't know about her brother's death, so she told her the reasons one by one.
It turned out that during a physical examination, Li Dong found out that he had AIDS. After thinking about it, he thought that the root of the disease was a blood transfusion during a car accident. However, there was no evidence or witnesses to find the source. Facing this highly contagious disease, he did not want to implicate his family, let alone his wife's reputation, so he had to take extreme measures. He found a woman to cooperate with him and deliberately let his wife catch him cheating and divorce him. Then, he hid in the hospital in his hometown for treatment. Due to ineffective treatment, he died ten days ago. Before his death, he repeatedly told his wife and son not to tell them, so his family did not tell them.
"But, he clearly came and helped me sweep the streets. Also, he specially sent this gift and put it in my bag. He also said to me: 'I, I, I don't mean anything else. I just saw that you were too tired, so I helped you sweep some. It can be regarded as a way to atone for my sins. I feel sorry for you and your daughter. I owe you too much and I can't repay you…" Really, it happened in the past two days."
Li Xia said with tears streaming down her face. Her aunt touched the exquisite pencil case and widened her eyes. She didn't know whether her brother was still alive or his ghost was still thinking about his wife and son and appeared here…