Chapter 150 put one's oar in

Holding a stack of airmail envelopes that read "Professor Yang Qian, Shanghai Liu Yan" in her hand, Xiaolan sat blankly beside her father's desk. Dad temporarily went to Shenyang to hold an academic conference, and he has been there for two weeks. These are letters from Shanghai within two weeks. There are four letters in total. They are not thin to the touch, and the handwriting is very beautiful, like willow branches swaying in the spring breeze. . Dad is a professor of economics and an academic authority. He is seventy years old and has passed the retirement age, but the college still asks him to bring some graduate students.

Father and mother are classmates in the university. They are in love and married. After marriage, they stay in school to teach together. Their lives are very happy.They have two daughters, Xiaolan and Xiaofen, who are also married.Xiaolan married Wang Weidong, an educated youth who went to the countryside with her, and they had an eight-year-old son named Dongdong.Xiaofen and her lover Li Zhuo were in the same class at university and got married in love.After the two sisters got married, they both lived in their own institutions. The dormitory of father and mother is a unit with four bedrooms and one living room in the Kochi Building of the university. The bedroom of their husband and wife is relatively large, with a double bed with a "Simmons" mattress, a large wardrobe, a chest of drawers, etc., facing the The one in the north is where the old aunt lives.On the right side of the living room is their study room, which is smaller than the bedroom. Two desks are placed opposite each other, like a large square table.

Unfortunately, my mother passed away suddenly due to myocardial infarction ten years ago. My father was very sad, and put my mother's ashes on the shelf next to his desk to accompany him.He couldn't take care of himself, so Xiaolan's family happily moved in with him.Dad gave them the big bedroom and lived in the study by himself.Dongdong was also taken by the old aunt and lived in the north room.More than half of Dad's monthly salary is handed over to Xiaolan for family use.Xiaolan felt that her life was easy and comfortable. She tried her best to take good care of her father, and quietly hid her mother's urn in the wall cabinet.

Unexpectedly, ten years after my mother died, my father came back from an academic conference in Shanghai. His spirit became lively, his complexion became ruddy, and he spoke excitedly. letter! Is Dad in love with someone again?Xiaolan felt a sour feeling from the bottom of her heart.Are you jealous for your mother, or do you look down on your father, as if he is losing his dignity by doing so? She was holding the letters in her hand, and she was in a daze when her younger sister Xiaofen came to see her father. She heard that her father had gone to Shenyang temporarily, and saw the letters in Xiaolan's hand. I told my sister about my doubts.Unexpectedly, Xiaofen laughed happily and said: "After my mother left, my father seems to have aged a lot, and now he has a partner, which shows that even when he is old, he needs a close-fitting partner who can speak some old-fashioned words. In addition, there are Many things, such as illness, we can't take good care of. I think if there is a clue to this matter, you must not interfere!"

Xiaolan said sadly: "I don't want to interfere, but my father is getting old and married, his students will laugh when they hear it..." Xiaofen laughed and said, "When you and Wang Weidong fell in love, my mother still didn't agree, thinking that he was not from a scholarly family, didn't my father insist: 'Don't interfere with your children's love and freedom of marriage'? I think you still... " The conversation between the two sisters froze and could not continue. Two days later, my father came back from Shenyang, and Xiaolan gave him several letters from "Shanghai Liuyan".He happily took it, looked at it and smiled and said to Xiaolan: "This Professor Liu is going to join a tour group and come to Beijing. She received me during the meeting in Shanghai, and I think I should also treat her well."

In the evening, the phone on the corridor wall rang, and Xiaolan rushed to answer it without waiting for her father to come out, and took off the receiver. It was said that the call came from the guest house of the Academy of Sciences. There was a clear and clear voice of a woman in the receiver, asking "Yang Qian Is the professor at home?" Xiaolan said, "Yes, what is your surname?" The microphone said, "My surname is Liu, and I come from Shanghai." At this moment, her father was already standing behind him, and she took the microphone, and Xiaolan turned around and said Back in his room, he slammed the door shut.

Dad came to knock on her door and said with a smile: "That phone call just now was from that Professor Liu Qing. I want to spend two days with her in Beijing, and then invite her to come to my house for dinner. Then you can make preparations. Let Xiaofen and his wife come to participate." Xiaolan lowered her head and said "Yes". From the next day, my father went out every day, and every day before leaving, he said: "I won't go home for dinner, don't wait for me." When the day came when her father asked her to prepare a treat, Xiaolan was tired of helping the old aunt cook, while thinking gloomily, "If Dad really married Professor Liu, we have to give up this house and go back to that place." In the two narrow units, I have lived in the cold days before, and I can't even afford a nanny... I must interfere with Dad's marriage!"

Before the banquet that day, she took out her mother's urn from the wall cabinet, cleaned it, and placed it on the bookshelf next to her father's desk. Group photos of mothers at different times. Xiaofen and his wife came excitedly half an hour before the banquet and brought a lot of flowers.When arranging flowers, they looked at the living room and the new arrangement in Dad's room, they all looked at each other in surprise, then at Xiaolan, and silently lowered their heads. At this time, my father had come in with a woman who was about sixty years old and dressed very neatly, and introduced her to her with a smile, "This is the family of my two daughters," and then said to them. "This is Professor Liu Qing." Everyone shook hands one by one. After drinking tea, Xiaolan immediately took the guests to visit their living room.When Dad saw his wife's urn on his bookshelf, his face couldn't help becoming serious. At the dinner table, Wang Weidong and Xiaofen were chatting and laughing enthusiastically with the guests, and they also asked questions. He knew that Professor Liu's wife had been with him for twelve years. There are also two married children who also live in their own dormitories, and only come to Professor Liu's residence for dinner every Sunday.But Xiaolan didn't say a word except to add vegetables to the guests' bowls.Dongdong whispered in his mother's ear, "This old lady is really nice!"

After drinking coffee after dinner, Professor Liu got up to thank her and said goodbye. Her father said, "I'll take you to the taxi stand." Lan had no choice but to say: "Dongdong will accompany grandpa for a walk." Dongdong chased him out. Not long after, Dongdong came back and said, "Grandpa said it was too cold outside, so he told me to go back quickly for fear of catching cold." Xiaolan hurriedly asked: "What else did they say?" Dongdong scratched his head and said, "It seems that Grandma Liu said, 'It seems that your eldest daughter doesn't like us being together—'Grandpa sighed and said, 'I'm afraid we can only be like the railway The two rails on the road, although walking side by side, will never come together...'" On the morning of August 5, 1988 (This article was originally published in "People's Literature" No. 9, 1988.)