Chapter 17 Kiss potatoes (7)

Wang Qiuping's husband glared at Wang Qiuping bitterly, and said, "You see, he is younger than me, let him drink my chicken soup, you seduce people—" Wang Qiuping shook her head and sighed, and helplessly fed her husband chicken soup spoonful by spoonful.After feeding her husband, she went to the bathroom with Li Aijie and suddenly said: "So many people who shouldn't have entered the bungalows have entered there, but he, who should have entered, has lived and tortured people every day. Sometimes I really want to poison him to death." Li Aijie looked at Wang Qiuping in a daze, and said in a daze, "Qin Shan has been diagnosed." She suddenly threw herself into Wang Qiuping's arms and cried, "I'm not as good as you, I don't want him to torture me!"

The two middle-aged women hugged each other and wept into tears, scaring some people who went to the toilet into fright. That night Wang Qiuping and Li Aijie almost stayed up all night.The two bought a bottle of white wine, got drunk, and cried out the tears they hadn't finished crying in the toilet.At the beginning, both of them felt dizzy. The strange thing is that they woke up from the wine after crying thoroughly, and they didn't feel sleepy.The two of them talked about their respective family backgrounds, and when the day dawned, they felt that their eyes were watery, and they both fell into a deep sleep in the bud-like dawn.

Li Aijie dreamed that he and Qin Shan were going to shovel grass in the potato field. Passing through Caodianzi, Qin Shan picked a flower for her and fell into the swamp.Seeing people sinking deeper and deeper, Li Aijie cried out in anxiety, and sat up from his sleep in a jerk.Rubbing her temples, looking at the empty wine bottle and leftover sausages, dried tofu, and peanuts on the low table, she recalled drinking with Wang Qiuping last night.Wrapped in a thin velvet blanket, Wang Qiuping slept with her hair disheveled, her nose fluttered slightly, and her complexion was much better than it looked during the day.Li Aijie grabbed his watch and saw that it was already noon. He was so frightened that he quickly woke Wang Qiuping up: "Sister Ping, it's noon and we haven't gone to the hospital yet."

Wang Qiuping also sat up with an "ouch", rubbed her eyes vigorously with the back of her hand, and blamed herself angrily: "Oh, I can't get a bus ticket, and I can't even collect pig food." She straightened her waist, and suddenly lay down on her back. In bed, he looked like he was resigned to his fate: "Anyway, it's already noon, so it's better to sleep until night, and you can save a meal." Li Aijie knew she was talking angry.After she finished washing and returned to the hut, Wang Qiuping really got up.She told Li Aijie that she would go back to Mingshui in two days, and at night she dreamed that two children were bitten by a dog: "One was bitten on the arm, and the other was bitten on the leg, and they threw themselves in front of me and couldn't afford to cry." Come on, it's really pitiful for the child to be born in my family."

"Dreams are interpreted backwards." Li Aijie comforted her, "If you dream of them crying, it means they are laughing." "Cough, I'm missing a child." Wang Qiuping sighed again, "It's time for the autumn harvest, so I can't keep pointing at my natal family for help?" "It's time for the autumn harvest. Our family has a huge potato field." Li Aijie felt as if his feet were stepping on the thin ice that hadn't passed the autumn when he said this. There was an indescribable loss and joy. miserable. The two came to the street while talking, each bought a pancake, and ate it leaning against the ash-laden fence.The sun was shining brightly, and they squinted their eyes, watching pedestrians, vehicles, and billboards boredly, listening to the sound of car horns, the sound of pop songs played on tape recorders in front of the tape sales booth, and the sound of hawking one after another.

It was past lunch when they arrived at the hospital.Li Aijie was dumbfounded as soon as he entered the ward.Qin Shan was gone, the hospital gowns were piled on the bed, and the lunch box on the bedside table and other things were also gone. The nurse was giving the patient an injection, and when she saw Li Aijie, she said bluntly, "The family members of the fifth bed, why did your patient disappear?" "He was still here when I left last night, why did he get out of the hospital?" Li Aijie said anxiously, "Should I ask your hospital?" "The hospital is not a nursery." The nurse said angrily, "Is it still possible? There are other patients waiting for the bed."

Li Aijie lifted Qin Shan's bed sheet and saw that the slippers under the bed were gone, so she sat on the bedside in fear and began to cry.A patient in the next bed said that Qin Shan slept soundly at night, and at around four o'clock in the morning, when the light came on, Qin Shan got out of bed, and he thought he was going to relieve himself. Will Qin Shan die?Yesterday she and Wang Qiuping cried in the toilet. Even though they washed their faces several times before returning to the ward, and stood in the wind in the yard to calm down, her red and swollen eyes might have caught him.He left without saying goodbye, apparently not wanting to live anymore.

Wang Qiuping couldn't care about her husband anymore, and hurriedly accompanied Li Aijie to find Qin Shan.They went to the Songhua River, the railway crossing of Jihong Bridge, and the deep woods in the park. They ran almost all the places where they could commit suicide, but no one threw themselves into the river, lay on the rails, or hung under the trees in the park.When it was dark, they still couldn't see Qin Shan's shadow, but only a steady stream of strange returning home of all kinds.Li Aijie cried bitterly in front of the green iron railing of Jihong Bridge. They racked their brains to think where Qin Shan would go, and finally Wang Qiuping said that maybe he went to Kek Lok Si to become a monk.Li Aijie also felt that there was some truth, maybe Qin Shan thought that escaping into Buddhism would save his illness and soul.So after another sleepless night, they went to Kek Lok Si Temple early in the morning.They approached the abbot and asked if anyone wanted to become a monk yesterday.The abbot clasped his palms together and recited "Amitabha", then shook his head slightly.They then went to the Catholic Church and a Christ Church on Dazhi Street.Why do they go to church?Maybe they thought it was a place for souls.In the afternoon, Qin Shan was still nowhere to be seen.They ran back to their residence to watch the landlord's TV, to see if there was a missing person notice or an accident on the city's noon news, but they found nothing.

It wasn't until two o'clock in the afternoon that Li Aijie, who was in a state of extreme anxiety, suddenly realized that Qin Shan must have returned to Li Town.How can a person who is about to commit suicide take away lunch boxes, towels, slippers, etc.?She also thought of Qin Shan asking her for money that day, and she firmly believed that Qin Shan had returned to his hometown.Li Aijie started to pack his bags for home. "Sister Ping, follow me to complete the discharge procedures." Li Aijie said without raising his head, "Qin Shan must have returned home." "He doesn't want to be treated anymore?" Wang Qiuping shouted.

"He must understand that his illness is terminally ill, and he won't cure a disease that can't be cured." Li Aijie said with a sob, "He wants to leave the money for me and Fenping to live. I know him." "Why did such a kind person let you get involved?" Wang Qiuping sobbed, "Why didn't he call you when he came home?" "Call me, can I let him go?" Li Aijie said, "Today's train is already late, and I will return tomorrow." Once he figured out where Qin Shan was going, Li Aijie calmed down.In the afternoon, Wang Qiuping accompanied her to go through the discharge procedures. The hospital began not to refund the hospital deposit, saying that the patient had been staying for more than a week and had taken a lot of medicine.Li Aijie couldn't agree with them, so he turned to Qin Shan's attending doctor for help.After hearing the situation, the doctor helped her find the money that should be refunded.

In the evening, Li Aijie opened the travel bag, took out a pair of brand-new silver-gray woolen trousers, and handed them to Wang Qiuping: "Sister Ping, these are my trousers from three years ago, and I have worn them twice. People in the city judge people by their appearance. Where do you go for business?" I'll put it on when I'm in. You're a little taller than me, so you can put your trousers down." Wang Qiuping held the pair of pants and wept them to a large extent. When Li Aijie rushed back to Li Town, it was the autumn harvest day, and every family was growing potatoes on the southern slope.It was afternoon, the sky was extremely clear, without a trace of cloud, only the cool wind was wandering in the alley.Li Aijie didn't go home, she went straight to the potato field on the southern slope.Along the way, she saw many people's fields with carts, and people were digging, picking, and bagging.The neighbor's dog also followed its owner to the field. When it saw Li Aijie, it wagged its tail and came up to grab her trousers, as if greeting her attentively: Are you back? From a distance, Li Aijie saw Qin Shan Mao Yao pick up potatoes in his field, and Fen Ping was picking potatoes with a soil basket behind him.Qin Shan was wearing blue cloth clothes, and the afternoon sun shone heavily on him, making him shine in the bright sunlight. Li Aijie called out from the bottom of his heart: "Qin Shan—" his cheeks were scalded by his own tears . After Qin Shan's family harvested the potatoes, they spent the winter in peace.Qin Shan lost weight faster and faster, and could barely eat.He often looked at Li Aijie obsessively without saying a word.Li Aijie still calmly cooks for him, does laundry, makes his bed, and sleeps with him.One evening, when it was snowing and Fenping was baking potato chips on the stove in the kitchen, Qin Shan suddenly said to Li Aijie, "I bought something for you when I came back from Harbin, guess what it is?" "How could I guess it?" Li Aijie's heart was pounding. Qin Shan got off the kang, took out a red paper bag from the cabinet, opened it gently layer by layer, and shook out a sapphire blue soft satin cheongsam, which was illuminated by the light and gave off a moving faint light. "Oh!" Li Aijie exclaimed in surprise. "It's so bright." Qin Shan said, "You can wear it next summer." "Next summer—" Li Aijie said sadly, "I will show you the clothes then." "It's the same when you wear it for others to see." Qin Shan said. "Such a long panty, I don't want to wear it for others to see." Li Aijie finally couldn't help crying and fell into Qin Shan's arms, "I don't want others to see my legs..." Qin Shan struggled for two days and two nights during the snowy days and finally stopped breathing.Everyone in Lizhen came to help Li Aijie take care of the funeral, but she was the only one responsible for keeping the spirit.Li Aijie wore the sapphire blue soft satin cheongsam in the room, guarding the warm fire and her husband from morning to dusk, from midnight to dawn.She didn't change the cheongsam until the day of the funeral. Due to the freezing weather, it is impossible to dig too deep the graves of those who died in this season, so it is useless to cover the coffin with only the frozen soil.People usually go to pull a wagon of cinders to cover the grave, and wait until the spring is warm and the flowers bloom before planting new soil.When the funeral host sent someone to pull the cinders, Li Aijie suddenly stopped him and said, "Qin Shan doesn't like cinders." The funeral host thought she was in deep grief, and was about to persuade her, when she suddenly took out a few sacks from the warehouse and walked to the entrance of the vegetable cellar, opened the cellar door, and told several young and strong people: "Put potatoes into the sacks." Everyone understood Li Aijie's intentions, so they picked potatoes together.In less than an hour, five sacks of potatoes were filled. People in Lizhen saw an unusual funeral.Five sacks of solid potatoes sat next to Qin Shan's coffin, and Li Aijie followed behind the car with her head wrapped in filial piety. Although the funeral director refused to let her follow to the cemetery, she insisted on following.Qin Shan's coffin fell into the pit, and after people lifted up the meager frozen soil with shovels, the coffin still showed some red spots.Li Aijie stepped forward and dumped bags of potatoes on the grave, and saw those potatoes twirling on the grave, and finally squeezed together as one, making Qin Shan's grave suddenly plump and full.After the snow, the tired sunshine struggled to stretch its tentacles into the gaps between the potatoes, filling the whole tomb with a warm atmosphere of harvest.Li Aijie looked at the grave with relief, thinking that when the Milky Way was shining, would Qin Shan recognize his family's potato field at a glance?Will he still smell the special aroma of potato blossoms? Li Aijie was the last to leave Qin Shan's grave.She had just taken two or three steps when she suddenly heard rustling noises behind her.It turned out that a round and fat potato fell from the top of the grave, rolled to Li Aijie's feet, and stopped in front of her shoes, like a spoiled child begging for his mother's beloved intimacy. .Li Aijie looked at the potato lovingly, and lightly reproached, "Are you still with my feet?"