"If you sow melons, you will reap melons; if you sow beans, you will reap beans." This old saying has been passed down for many years. Does it seem that everything has a cause and a result? Perhaps we should talk about what kind of seeds and what kind of buds they sprout.
If it weren't for the decadent man standing in front of me, I probably wouldn't know this story. Even from a distance, I could smell the smell of alcohol mixed with the sour smell from his body that had not been cleaned for many days. He casually put on a wrinkled suit over his discolored "white shirt". The leather shoes had completely lost their luster. Only the pair of gold-rimmed glasses on the tall bridge of his nose and the pair behind him were still hanging low but still The sharp eyes seemed to remind me that this man used to live a very privileged and aloof life.
"I come from an enviable family." He licked his chapped lips vigorously, and I poured him a glass of water. After drinking it, he started to talk about the story about seeds.
"Although we are from a famous family, we still have pain that outsiders cannot understand. No matter how beautiful and prominent our family is, it is always a single inheritance.
Every generation has only one son, and the elders in the family always raise this child with great fear. Even if there were three wives and four concubines in the past, there was always only one who could inherit the family. If he had another child, he would die and have a miscarriage. Either that or it's a girl.
The prosperity of the population is related to the rise and fall of the family. This is an unchanging law of Chinese society that has been formed by families for thousands of years. Although our family tried our best to find solutions everywhere, it seemed to be in vain. Later, we thought about it and let it go.
My father is a wealthy Confucian businessman. He was a university professor before going to sea. His business was going smoothly and he also won an excellent reputation. I grew up surrounded by money and ink, but under his guidance, I I didn't become a nerd, nor did I become a mean and profit-seeking businessman. I seemed to be steadily following the path planned for me by my family, and became a successful person that outsiders admired.
But sometimes the road forks.
I was married to a woman I loved very much, but for six years there was no sign of fertility. On the surface, a harmonious family always casts a shadow. In my opinion, not having children is somewhat painful, but it does not affect my life. However, my parents are anxious and have gray hair, and in this era, it is not something that can be discussed in the past. Concubine, our family can't do it even more.
My wife often sheds tears in her sleep. I understand her pain, which makes me even more troubled. She and I have gone to the hospital for check-ups, but both of us are fine. My wife once filed for divorce, but I severely rejected it. , if I abandon her because of this matter, then I really am not a human being.
My mother, who was also my father's college classmate, gave birth to me when she was forty years old. She also took great risks at that time, and after that her health deteriorated and her legs often hurt, but no matter what the weather , she gets up very early every morning.
Finally one time, when I was young, I quietly got up and followed her to see what she was doing. I saw her walking to the living room in a single coat on a cold morning, and taking out a long wooden product from nowhere in her hand.
It seems to be a spiritual position.
Mother placed the memorial tablet at the window facing the living room and actually knelt down.
I was about to go over and help her, but my curiosity made me hide aside and watch.
My mother actually started crying, and her voice was very sad. I lost my attention for a moment and cried for a while. My mother stood up, put away the memorial tablet and returned to her bedroom.
For decades, my mother has been doing this every day, and I have always wanted to know who the tablet belongs to. Maybe it is my mother's good friend? My father said that my mother had a lot of friends when she was young, and she was like a heroic woman, and she was also very affectionate. If you think about it this way, it makes sense to just pay tribute to an old friend.
The days passed in a suffocating environment at home. I tried my best to resolve the conflict between my parents and my wife, but the gap between the three of them became wider and wider. Until one time, my father went out for a long time. When I asked my mother, she just said that she had gone to her hometown. Ask me for the secret recipe for having a baby.
My father was very happy when he came back, as if he was a few years younger. However, the attitude of the old couple toward my wife suddenly changed, which made us both feel quite uncomfortable. I thought that the ice that had been maintained for several years might have been broken. , and then it turned out I was wrong.
My father did not come alone. He did not bring any secret recipe. When he was a child, he brought a pregnant woman who was about to give birth. My father said that she was a friend from the countryside. Since the family had already given birth to a baby, he did not dare to give birth in the village, so he brought her here by the way. A pregnant woman dreams that her baby is dead in her belly , so letting her give birth in the city can be considered as doing something good for the people in the countryside. In addition, in rural areas, it is believed that having a pregnant woman in a family that does not want to have children can bring good luck. Naturally, I have no doubts, because my father often Helping people in my hometown, job transfers, supporting poor students, etc.
Of course, I thought this time was no exception, but this woman with a dark and healthy face stared at me as if she were a monster, and then looked at my wife. She suddenly stroked her belly as round as a watermelon and laughed, but that smile was uglier than crying.
I walked over to help her take the luggage, but the woman suddenly lowered her head and rubbed her belly and whispered to me.
"Baby, remember him."
I thought I heard it wrong, but she repeated it again. I couldn't help but feel a little puzzled, but seeing my father warmly entertaining this woman seemed to be a little different from his previous attitude towards people from his hometown, but my father had always made the decision at home. , as long as my father doesn’t want to tell me, I always ask more questions.
Two weeks later, the woman gave birth to a little boy. He was very cute, but he had six fingers on his right hand. His father said it was nothing serious. My wife and I went to the hospital to see her, but she didn't seem to be happy about being a mother at all. Instead, she had a very painful expression. The woman touched the baby's tender little face and whispered to my wife and me.
"Baby, remember them."
I began to hate this woman. Yes, I did feel disgusted at that time. I even doubted that this woman would leave the child to our family to take care of her. My father has always been a good person and never refused their requests.
But I thought too much, and within a few days, the woman and the child disappeared, as if they had never been there, and my father suddenly advised my wife and me to relax and go on a good trip.
Staying at home was depressing, and that was exactly what I was thinking. Before leaving, my father said goodbye to me excitedly.
My wife and I went to a place we had long wanted to visit before. This long-term trip was like going back to our honeymoon again. When I returned home after the trip, I realized that a year had passed. As expected, time flies by while playing.
But I didn't expect a miracle to happen. After returning for a while, my wife had a strong pregnancy reaction. She went to the hospital and found out she was pregnant. Maybe the pregnant woman really brought good luck to the family. After the examination, the doctor said they were twins. When I happily told my father the good news, he stood up suddenly while he was reading the newspaper on the sofa.
twin? My father asked me with a trembling voice. I thought he was very surprised that a pregnant woman dreamed of her baby dying in her belly , but I didn’t think much about it, thinking that he was happy and a little out of sorts.
My father lowered his head and kept mumbling. I vaguely heard what he was saying about how this could happen. Soon, he realized his gaffe, immediately put on a smile, said good things, good things, and then walked absentmindedly to the bedroom, sighing as he walked. Because I was immersed in the happiness of becoming a father, I didn't pay too much attention to my father's changes.
My wife's belly gradually swelled over time, and she was about to give birth soon.
The doctor told us that my wife would give birth in the next few days. My father was worried about my health, so he asked me to go back to sleep. I had already asked for leave from my work unit and had been taking care of my wife in the hospital for a long time. I was indeed a little tired, so I was alone that night. I went home to rest, while my parents were in the hospital. If there was any news, they would notify me at any time.
I was suddenly the only one in a house with four people, so of course I felt a little uncomfortable. I am not a timid person, but I was thinking about my wife that day, so I always felt a little uneasy.
I couldn't fall asleep no matter what I was lying on the bed. I don't know why the shadow of my mother worshiping this tablet always appeared in my mind when I was a child.
Once curiosity arises, it is like a flood bursting from a dam.
I started rummaging around the house, and finally found the spiritual tablet wrapped in thick oil paper in the wooden compartment under my mother's bed.
When I took it apart and took a look, I felt puzzled.
What was clearly written on the tablet was actually my name. When I was wondering about this tablet, a child's laughter like silver bells suddenly came from outside the empty living room.
I rewrapped the tablet and put it away, and walked into the living room.
Laughter still filled the cold and dark living room like mist drifting from afar – when I came out, I found that the house had a power outage, and this kind of thing rarely happens in my house.
Following the laughter, I walked out of the house. It was colder outside than in the living room, and the north wind was blowing, but I could still hear the child's laughter clearly.
When I walked to the corner of the courtyard outside the house, the laughter began to weaken and gradually turned into the sound of crying. I was unintentionally irritated by the sound, so I decided to just ignore it. Since I couldn't sleep, I might as well go to the hospital to stay with me. wife.
I was about to turn around when I felt something slowly rising up under my feet, as if something was wriggling in the soil.
I moved my feet, squatted down slowly, and began to slowly dig up the soil on the soles of my feet with my hands.
There is a lawn planted in this courtyard, which has always been taken care of by my father. The grass is extremely lush and beautiful. Others see it with envy. They often ask my father for advice, but my father always keeps silent. However, I find that the soil on the soles of my feet is very It was soft and seemed to have been recently refurbished.
My fingers touched something soft and greasy, like fat meat that had been left for a long time, or like tofu. I hurriedly opened my phone and took a photo.
Along with the dim light of the mobile phone, what I saw was a pale hand, a small hand to be precise, a baby's small hand.
That hand has six fingers.
I no longer had the courage to dig anymore, but when I tried to support my body and leave, I found that the child's hand was tightly grasped.
The soil next to it began to make bigger movements, shaking non-stop. The light of the mobile phone also dimmed, and no matter how I pressed it, it would no longer display.
In the dark, I smelled a fishy smell, which was the smell of rotting meat mixed with the soil. The smell was very familiar. When I was helping my father renovate the land when I was a child, I would often find some food leftovers hidden by animals in the soil. The corpses that came down.
Something slowly climbed up along my ankle, and my body seemed to be tied up with a rope. The unknown guy actually climbed up to my ear and said carefully, that sentence Although it was weak and was instantly submerged in the howling cold wind, I still heard it.
'I know you. 'It's like the words spoken by a babbling child, but they don't make people feel cute at all. There is no vitality in the words.
The note suddenly rang, and I hurriedly answered the phone. Everything around me disappeared again, except for the soil under my feet, which was still soft.
My father anxiously told me on the phone that my wife had started the operation. I responded casually and rushed to the hospital.
After waiting anxiously for several hours, the day was already dark, and a tired-looking doctor walked out of the operating room.
'Mother and son are safe. ’ He smiled reluctantly. Then he rubbed his eyes, stretched and walked towards the locker room.