Chapter 30 City Pack (4)

In 1983, I gave up medicine to pursue literature.Since then, I have hardly seen Teacher Xiao again.Only once, that was five years ago, when I was shopping, I suddenly met Teacher Xiao and his wife. Next to the sale stall at the entrance of a clothing store, Teacher Xiao was trying on a pair of trousers. Head nurse Jing supported him to prevent him from falling.While dressing in a panic, Teacher Xiao kept glancing at the pedestrians on the street.The first thing he did when he saw me was to turn his back on me.In this way, head nurse Jing also found me.I quickly called them.Nurse Jing said how are you?I said fine.I said how are you?How is Xiao Jing?Head nurse Jing said yes!At this time, Teacher Xiao turned around, and he had already buttoned his trousers.He said yes!We are all good!How about you?I said okay again.The saleswoman, who was standing high on a chair and squeezed a handful of banknotes, patted the heads of many customers, asking if you want it?Pay as you go.I also patted Teacher Xiao, and Teacher Xiao's white face turned red immediately. I pretended I didn't see anything, and left in a hurry.

This time I saw Teacher Xiao three months ago, on June 18th of this year. June 18th was a day of both joy and sorrow for me. The joy was that I got a house in the Peacock Lake residential area, but the sorrow was that the moving day was met with heavy rain. The workers of the moving company are not afraid of the rain, they are fighting for time.One by one, they carried the quilts and duvets, and the TV and refrigerator freely on the ground and downstairs, as if the red sun and the blue sky were above their heads.I ran back and forth in the heavy rain, shouting hoarsely, but in the end all the belongings were still wet.It's all piled up in the living room, like it was salvaged from the flood.

We couldn't cook on a fire that day, so we decided to settle for instant noodles.My skirt was dirty and wet when I walked into the grocery store and wrapped tightly around my legs.The slipper strap is broken.Behind him were splashes of mud from the heels of slippers. Teacher Xiao is buying soy sauce at the counter. He said: God is it you? I said: Teacher Xiao! Teacher Xiao has become fatter, his face is whiter, he is wearing a clean white shirt and bright leather shoes, and he is full of energy. I asked: How is head nurse Jing? Teacher Xiao said: Good. I asked: How is Xiao Jing? Teacher Xiao said: Good.

I said: Xiao Jing is a big girl, right? Teacher Xiao said, "It's a big girl. It's a big girl." We are all very happy that we are living in the same residential complex.We reported our house numbers to each other, and agreed to visit each other at another day to have a good talk.Teacher Xiao forced me to return the instant noodles, saying that he would go back immediately and head nurse Jing would cook for us.Teacher Xiao said that today Sunday, all the meals are ready-made at home, and as usual, a large pot of broth is simmered for drinking. I laughed: the broth is good.

Teacher Xiao said: I want to have a good meal after a tired day.Go back and do a wash and change into dry clothes and come over for dinner with your lover. I said: Then we are welcome. I went home and told my husband that we had hot rice and broth.Husband is very happy.We freshened up and went downstairs excitedly, but I forgot the house number of Teacher Xiao's house.I can't recall the memory of ten minutes ago.I felt that the numbers of dozens of buildings in the whole community were all the numbers of Mr. Xiao's house, but after thinking about it again, I felt that they were not.

I insist on not eating instant noodles, I believe Teacher Xiao will come and call us.After an hour passed, I realized that Teacher Xiao must have forgotten my number. In the end we still ate fast food noodles. I thought it was over.Just like what each of us has experienced in our daily life: acquaintances whom we haven’t seen for a long time suddenly met, and they agreed to find time to talk; but they didn’t tell each other specifically, so we separated again and went to other things . On the night of June 18th, after eating instant noodles, I was busy with the wet household items in the room. My husband and I carried the cabinets and other things around, wiped them inside and out with a rag, and found the electric fan facing it. The cabinet door blows the air.After a while, we were both annoyed and tired, and we sat on the ground and didn't want to move.But things at home are not as important as things outside.You can have your own ideas and attitudes about the big things outside, and you can be passive or not at all.You can’t do it at home. If you quit, you will have no food, no clothes, no place to sleep. You are really not allowed to have ideas and attitudes.

Looking at the piles of messy things, we are sore, and we can't sleep peacefully.At this time, I came up with an idea.Three months later, when Teacher Xiao died suddenly in front of us, I woke up in a dream again and again.I woke up and sat on the bed with my knees tucked up, always thinking about how I came up with that idea on the night of June 18th.In the twilight of dawn, I listened to the rumble of the bus outside the window.I thought: I came up with that idea, so the arrow of death pointed straight to Mr. Xiao.At that time, I didn't realize it.The puffs of cold, not chilling, but frightening, frightened me of everyday life.In the non-staple food store on June 18th, Mr. Xiao smiled at me in the background of red, yellow, purple and green beverage cans. He never knew that his death was only three months away.So what about us?What is coming to us?

At that time, looking at the messy piles of things that urgently needed to be cleaned and dried, I came up with this idea: hire someone to work. The husband disagrees.He has been duped many times, including the moving company he just joined today, so that he no longer trusts some private home service companies in the society. I don't trust either but I'm still halfway through my idea. There is a Hankou University near us, which is well-known throughout the city for its characteristics of going out to society.It is said that the students in the school are working-study, and the atmosphere of experiencing life is very enthusiastic.

We believe that college students are generally trustworthy.So, my husband and I wrote a notice that housework was urgently needed, and my husband rode a bicycle and posted it on the reading column at the entrance of the cafeteria of Hankou University overnight. Urgent recruitment notice: Due to the rain in the moving house, the housework has increased sharply. Now we are urgently hiring a healthy girl who is good at housework to work and study to help solve family difficulties.Compensation is calculated by the hour.RMB 1 per hour or negotiable.Interested parties are welcome to contact us with their student ID card and school labor service company contract.Address: Unit X, Building X, No. X, Peacock Lake Residential Community.

We laughed as we wrote the notice.The husband said: Is there something like that? which?I say.I said it's reform and opening up now, don't you see that the streets are full of advertisements and notices? The husband said: It is true. From the early morning of the next day, we listened to the footsteps on the stairs, but no one stopped in front of my house. For ten days, no one knocked on the door.In anticipation we reorganized the river and mountain, and somehow cleaned up that horrible pile of wet stuff.My husband gave me a conclusive evaluation of the idea: finally let us live a difficult life with hope.