Chapter 25 Chapter Twenty-Five

The cold winter passed like a nightmare at last.Spring brings hope to people.The dense fog was blown away by the spring breeze.People laughed and talked about the news of the war. But nothing has changed in Wang Wenxuan's life.His health is still going up and down.When it’s good, I go out for a walk occasionally, and when it’s bad, I lie in bed all day.Mother cooks and cleans the house as usual, and makes medicine for him when he is sick.Xiaoxuan goes to the city once every two weeks, stays for one night, and talks about one or two stories about the school. He doesn't talk much, and it's even rarer for this child to smile.When Xiaoxuan came back, there was no laughter in the room, but when the child left, the room looked even more desolate.The wife wrote letters and sent money as usual, the money was remitted once a month, and the letter was sent once a week. She had never written three letters, although there was infinite affection between the lines.She is always busy.But he was always patient, he sent a long letter every week, often made up some lies, and he didn't want her to know the real situation of his life.Writing letters became his only pastime, and it can also be said to be his only work.

In spring the days grow longer and become more of a chore to get by.He felt that he was about to lose the ability to speak.After he suffered a cold and lost his voice, he kept speaking in a hoarse voice.My mother is getting older, and she talks less and less.Often mother and child sit opposite each other in the room without making a sound.Sometimes he could not speak thirty full sentences a day. Time is like a sick old coachman dragging them forward slowly, so slowly that sometimes he even feels that the car has stopped. But he is still alive, still has feelings, still has thoughts.He has constant pain in his left chest.He often breaks out in cold sweats at night, and he often has a dry cough.Occasionally he would vomit a mouthful or two of blood secretly—it was just blood in the phlegm.The pain continued and continued to increase, but the laughter of joy has become a distant dream.

He didn't moan or complain.He silently sent away one gray day, and silently greeted an even grayer day.He talked less because he was afraid of hearing his own hoarse voice.Sometimes he was so depressed that he had no choice but to sigh, but he didn't want his mother to hear his sighs, and he always sighed behind his back. The days are getting longer and harder.A thought tormented him: his mental strength was running low, and he couldn't drag on any longer. But no one allowed him not to drag on.His wife still told him to treat the disease with peace of mind and wait for her to come back.Mr. Zhong promised to try to find a suitable job for him.His mother kept buying medicines for him, and what she brought back included Chinese prescriptions and famous Western medicines.He didn't know whether those medicines were good for his body, he just took them obediently and intermittently.He did this mostly to perfuse his mother.Once, his mother took him to Kuanren Hospital to see a doctor.He remembered the letter of introduction from his wife, but he couldn't find it anywhere. It turned out that his mother had torn it up.He didn't want to pay more for a special account, so he only registered for an ordinary account, and waited for three hours.His mother had already conceded to taking him to the hospital, so he had to patiently wait for his shift, no matter how crowded the waiting room was or how cold the patio was (that was before spring came).A doctor with a mustache showed him a frozen face. The doctor told him to undress, listened with a stethoscope, tapped everywhere, then frowned, shook his head, and told him to get dressed again. , prescribed a prescription and asked him to go to the pharmacy to buy a bottle of medicine.The doctor didn't seem to want to talk much, and only told him to go to "see through" next week.The doctor said that it is best to take X-rays, but the cost of "fluoroscopy" is low.He came out and asked the price of the fluoroscopy fee at the information desk. He stuck out his tongue and walked out of the hospital silently.Later, he went to the hospital again, and the doctor still told him to go for a X-ray next week.He calculated how much money he had spent this month, and guessed what the results would be after the X-ray, so he dared not go to the hospital again.

"What is coming will come at last, let it go," he said to himself.He wanted to "obey the boss".In fact, there is no resting place for his heart other than here. One day he went out for a walk after lunch.The weather was fine, but the streets were still dusty, overcrowded and disorderly, with a heap of rubbish at one corner and a musty stench emanating from it.He covered his nose and walked down a street.Inadvertently looking sideways, he was standing in front of the glass window of the International Cafe.There were several birthday cakes and several kinds of American candy on display in the window.Everything is the same as it was a few months ago.The difference is that he can no longer hear that person's laughter, and can no longer see that Tingting's figure.

He went in.There were quite a lot of guests in the hall, and it happened that the small round table where he had sat before was empty, so he squeezed inside and sat down.The two waiters were busily running around carrying trays.The guests are competing to call the waiter loudly.He sat timidly in the corner, waiting silently. A waiter in a white uniform finally came over. "Two cups of coffee," he whispered. "Huh?" The waiter asked rudely. "Two cups of coffee," he added, raising his voice. The waiter didn't answer, but turned around abruptly and left.After a while, the waiter came back with two cups. One cup of coffee was placed in front of him, and the other cup was placed opposite him. "Would you like milk?" the waiter asked, picking up the milk can.He shook his head and said, "I don't want it." Pointing to the cup opposite, he said, "I want this cup." The waiter poured the milk into the cup and walked away with the can.He scooped up the sugar with a teaspoon, first put it into the opposite cup, and then stirred it with the teaspoon before putting the sugar in his own cup.

"Drink it," he whispered to the empty seat, raising his glass.In the imagination, Shusheng was sitting opposite him, and she liked drinking coffee with milk.He seemed to see her smiling at him.He took a swig happily.He smiled.He opened his eyes and looked across.The seat is empty, and the full cup of coffee has never been touched.He took another sip.There was still the smile on his mouth, but it was slowly changing, and now it was a sad smile. "Will you still remember me?" He whispered, feeling his nose sore, he quickly turned his face away to look at others.The four seats are full of smoke, people are talking and smoking cigarettes.No one noticed him.

"I dare to guarantee that Germany will surrender in less than two months. Japan will not survive a year. Maybe we will spend the next New Year in Nanjing!" A big man in a Chinese tunic suit on a table next to him said loudly with joy. He was taken aback.He looks at the speaker.This prophecy brought him a strange feeling.He was not happy, but he felt envy and jealousy.He looked at the empty seats and the full cup of coffee again, sighed wistfully, stood up, paid the bill and went out. When he got home, he saw his mother coming out of the room holding a pile of wet clothes. "Mom, why are you washing your own clothes again?" He asked in surprise.

"It doesn't matter, I can wash it," the mother replied with a smile. "Actually, you shouldn't be saving this little money, and you should be less tired," he said. "But the laundry lady has raised the price again, Shusheng only sent so little money, I don't know how it will be enough!" The mother said a little annoyed. "I don't know how much prices have risen since the New Year, but the income has not increased. What can I do!" "She has more money than I get paid for my work," he thought, but he dared not tell his mother.He had no choice but to enter the house silently and let his mother go to dry the clothes on the balcony.

He was alone in the house.He doesn't want to sit, lie down, or read.He had to pace up and down the room. "Why is she always so busy? Why does she always write some short messages? Since she cares about me, why doesn't she let me know about her life?" He wondered suspiciously and irritably. no answer.He will never find an answer. But someone interrupted.He heard heavy footsteps.So a postman opened the door and came in, shouting: "Wang Wenxuan received the letter! Stamp it!" He took it, a very thick letter, with stamps all over the envelope.He recognized Shu Sheng's handwriting at a glance.

In a burst of joy, he stamped the stamp and handed the mail receipt to the postman. "Thank you," he said gratefully to the postman. The long letter finally arrived, and it was just the answer he needed, and he kissed the envelope gratefully.He chuckled, and he repeated the address on the cover.He forgot his troubles, even his illness. So he opened the letter and took out a thick stack of letter paper. "She wrote me a long letter! She wrote me a long letter!" He said several times with a smile to himself.He spread out the letter paper, but after he only read the title "Xuan", he immediately folded the letter paper again, took them, and walked around the room excitedly.

Finally, he sat down on the wicker chair.He calmly opened the stack of letter paper and began to read her letter.