C12 Hengfu

Her voice was too husky to tell a man from a woman, but she spoke in a rather high-pitched tone. Word by word, with a strange accent, popped up in his throat.

I calmed down a little.

This old lady should be the sequela of cerebral stroke, regardless of the Chinese and foreign elderly will have a higher chance of sudden stroke after a certain age, but the United States medical care is relatively advanced, the probability of rescue is more. Survivors will have different degrees of dyskinesia and dysphagia after recovery. The old lady had a serious problem with swallowing her words, which was why her tone was so sharp.

Seeing that I didn't say anything, the old lady slowly handed me the cardboard box.

"My grandson said that he has already met all of you. This is my new baked biscuit."

Alpha timidly stuck his head out from behind the old lady.

"Hello." I opened the door.

It took the old woman nearly two minutes to move to the only two chairs in the living room. It was as if this action of hers had cost her half of her life.

"Call me Madam Maria. I am Alpha's grandmother. " the old lady said.

"I'm Shin. This is my wife, Olina." I said.

Lina poured the cookies onto her plate and carried them over. "I'm really sorry, we've just moved in a few days ago and our house has not been cleaned up yet.

Unlike Chinese customs, the first thing a new family has to do in the United States is to visit its neighbors. The neighbors who used to live in Philadelphia when they were in school knew each other, and they usually had help.

At that time, we also had an old neighbor who was the same age as Maria. She often gave us celery carrots he grew.

Maybe it was because of this period of experience that Lina had an especially good impression of Maria.

The old lady called herself Maria. Adel, a German immigrant, had lived in this building since the 1950s. Right now, other than us, the only other guests on the sixth floor are her and Alpha.

After chatting for a while, the old lady's dullness piqued my interest and I used the name of reading to accompany the both of them.

Vaguely, I heard Maria say something in her strange voice from outside:

"... In the beginning, many newlyweds didn't like children... In our country, a wife will take her sisters' children home for a while... "Once a husband gets used to having a child by his side, he will naturally want to have one himself …"

A burst of boredom rose up in her heart, Lina must be complaining to Maria about me not wanting a child. Why talk to an outsider for the first time?

I suddenly felt that Lina might have never understood me.

"Olina, why don't we go check on the miaow?" When the grandfather and grandson left, I heard Alpha's voice.

February 15, 1988

Lina and Alpha are still taking care of Little Cat everyday, I can't tell if Lina likes that child with all her heart, or if she is deliberately giving me pressure.

After work today, he called Li Haoming, the university's senior, to work as a doctor in a private clinic in Los Angeles.

When he opened the door, he saw Lina sitting on the floor barefooted. There were four or five pieces of furniture in the house, and on the floor was a piece of new Bohemian carpet that was scattered with drawing paper and crayons.

"Hey, where did you go?" Lina looked to be in a good mood.

"Oh, do you still remember Senior Hao Min? I went out to have a meal with him in the afternoon." I said, "Where did this carpet come from?"

"I met Maria again today, the old lady suddenly mentioned 610's tenant to me. It turned out that an American had lived there before and had emigrated to Australia decades ago. He left in such a hurry that he didn't even have time to clean the furniture. He only asked Maria to help him sell it. But then there was no more news from the American. Maria said that she's old and didn't have the strength to sell these furniture. Seeing that we don't even have a sofa, he insisted on giving it to us. " Lina said excitedly: "I had to move here by myself for a long time in the afternoon before I could finally move into this place … I love this carpet so much that it's almost exactly the same as the one I dreamt of! "

I carefully looked at every piece of furniture that Lina brought back. Although it looked old, it had been well maintained.

The corners of the dining table were carved out of gold, the sofa was made of calf hide, and the Bohemian carpet was made of silk. There wasn't even the slightest trace of moth on it …

Although the furniture was simple in style, it was definitely worth a lot of money.

I always felt that something was wrong, but I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was.

"You … Are you sure you don't have to pay for all of these? " I looked at Lina in disbelief.

"This grandma is really a good person. 608 to 612 is her business. She originally wanted us both to move in, but I feel too much trouble for her."

After saying that, Lina waved her arm, and a bronze key appeared. "Isn't this, she gave me the key to number 610, and told me to take whatever I need.

I looked like a bedroom. The mattress I'd bought at the secondhand market was still on the floor.

"If you have nothing to offer, you are either a thief or a thief," I said. "How can there be such a good thing in the world? Are you sure Maria didn't ask you to exchange anything? "

"I was also frightened at the beginning," Lina said as she spread out her hands.

"But let me think about it. What could she possibly have lied to us about? We don't have any money or power, so we shouldn't lie to you. Maria was actually a very lonely old lady. She said that she had always hoped to be able to talk to a neighbor. I said I could help her sell the furniture, but she said it was worth less than helping us. "

Seeing that I did not say a word, Lina stared at the drawing on the ground and the crayons, she was silent for a while, and finally said:

"Alright, Maria had actually given me time to play with him. She's too old to take care of a child. "He was here just a moment ago. We drew a few pictures, that's all."

When Lina said this, she did not look at me.

I immediately thought of what Maria had faintly said in the living room last time: "... Bring your sister's child back to the family, and let your husband understand that your child can bring happiness to the family … "

"You're not stupid enough to believe that kind of nonsense, are you?!" I suddenly felt that Lina was about to suffocate me.

"Huh?" Lina blinked her eyes. She's still pretending, I really hate her.

"I say, you won't be so stupid as to believe that just by finding a random brat outside to raise will be able to change me, right? Do you have to tell someone else everything about us? " I almost shouted it out.

"What do you mean?" Lina looked at me in disbelief. She suddenly stood up and shouted: "I have never told Maria about us. I don't know why she suddenly mentioned this that afternoon! Maybe that's why they say I don't have any children to sympathize with me! I never thought of changing you. I never thought of using Alpha as a tool to change you … "

As Lina spoke, tears flowed down her face like a waterfall. We had been married for so long, Lina had never been so sad before.

"Can't I even have a friend? "Sob, sob …"

My heart was in pain, I hugged Lina in my arms and said, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry …"

"I was wrong, it's all my fault. I know you just want a child, we'll definitely have a baby."

These words were not only said to Lina, but also to myself.

I carried Lina to bed. As long as I cooperated with Lina, she would feel better.

After that, seeing Lina falling asleep in my embrace, it started to rain outside again.

He looked at his watch. It was almost 12 o'clock. I can't sleep anyway, so I just get up and read. I just borrowed two books from the library on genetics and malformed fetal pathology.

"Buzz …"

The shutter went off again.

After the last power outage, Lina had prepared a few more candles at home. The old house's voltage probably couldn't be repaired anymore.

A clap of thunder.

"Hiss — — Hiss — —"

The stray cat started scratching at the door again. I cover my ears impatiently. Who in the world would be so bored as to close the door to a junk room all day long?

Eh, something doesn't seem right. There are only two houses on this floor.

Lina and Alpha had always been very concerned about that baby miaow, so they couldn't possibly intentionally close the door; naturally, I didn't close the door; Maria, she even had to struggle to get to the storage room — Who in the world went to close the door?

The sound of the door being scratched became louder and louder. It sounded as if someone was scratching his nails. This damn cat, did he guess that I wasn't asleep?

Sigh, forget it, just treat it as opening the door for Lina.

I took the candle and walked out of the apartment. It was still dark outside, but I didn't seem as frightened as I had before. People are like that. When you know what's in the dark, you don't fear the dark.

Darkness is darkness only when you don't know what is in it.

The door to the utility room was open.

There was no stray female cat, and the little cat inside raised its neck in the dark and looked at me.

Could it be that stupid cat had gotten the wrong cat? I was a little doubtful. After looking around the chore room for a long time, I was about to turn around and head back.

There was a flash of lightning, and the window of the utility room was illuminated as bright as day.

I looked out of the window and saw a man standing under a street lamp on the other side of the stairs.

She stood in the rain, unshielded, looking toward me on the sixth floor.

It was an old gypsy woman he had met downstairs on the first day of his stay. In my memory, her eyes were blind, but I felt as if she were staring right back at me.

It's raining so hard I can't hear it.

The stray female cat I was looking for lifted her neck from her arms and looked back at me.

At this moment, the sound of someone scratching the door echoed throughout the corridor.

"Hiss — — Hiss — —"