Chapter 20 (sixteen)

Since we moved to Sanlihe Residence, it seems that after a long journey, we finally have a home where we can settle down. The two of us quietly occupy a desk in the living room every day, reading and working quietly.When we weren't working, we were "exploring" the neighborhood or taking walks in and out of the yard.When Ah Yuan came home, we all took out handfuls of "stones" to play with.Ah Yuan has the most stones.Grandma Zhou also felt at ease and gradually put on weight. The three of us, but more than three.Everyone can change into several people.For example, when Ah Yuan was only five or six years old, my third sister said, "Your family has the largest round head and Zhong Shu is the youngest." My elder sisters and younger sisters all thought that what the third sister said was right.When Ah Yuan grows up, he will take care of me like a sister; he will accompany me like a sister; he will take care of me like a mother.Ah Yuan often said: "My father and I are the most 'buddy', we are two urchins of my mother, my father is not worthy of being my elder brother, only my younger brother." I became the oldest again.Zhongshu is our teacher.Ah Yuan and I are both good students. Although we are close at hand, if we have any problems, we can solve them by just asking, but we will never disturb him.He is very tall.But he needs our mother and daughter to take care of him like a child when he dresses and eats, and he is very weak.

The two of them would form a gang to rebel against me. For example, when I was abroad, they didn't even make the bed, and they predicted that I would come back, so they rushed to make it up.After I got home, Ah Yuan whispered softly: "The dog's nest is so comfortable." Sometimes they quoted naughty words from classics, and I couldn't turn the corner for a while, and they proudly said: "Mom is a bit stupid!" I am indeed the stupidest one.My daughter and I will also form a gang, laughing that my father is color blind and only knows four colors: red, green, black, and white.In fact, Zhongshu's sense of aesthetics is far stronger than mine, but he can't name the color correctly.We will make fun of Zhongshu's clumsiness.Sometimes our husband and wife gang up and say that our daughter is a pedant, a fool, and a fool.

We really admire our daughter.I said, "Who does she look like?" Zhongshu said, "I love teaching, like my grandfather; I am upright, like my grandfather." When she spoke at the conference, she dared to speak her own words.She had just worked as a teaching assistant, and because she participated in the compilation of "A Small English-Chinese Dictionary" (commercial publishing), she became a representative and went to other places to hold an ultra-left national linguistics conference.Some people suggested that all characters next to the word "female" should not be used, and a large group of leftists responded in favor of it.Qian Yuan was the youngest brat, and she said: "Then, what about Chairman Mao's phrase 'Lonely Chang'e Shu Guangxiu'?" I like Qian Yuan.

Qian Yuan was a reviewer of the Textbook Review Committee.Once a school wanted to find a serious reviewer, and the school handed over the task to Qian Yuan.She sniffed out the paper like a hound for plagiarism.She picked the pages of the book with two fingers exactly like Zhongshu, flipped through the book in a hurry, and turned it as fast as Zhongshu, and found out the original text that was plagiarized all at once. In 1987, the Department of Foreign Languages ​​of Normal University and the British Council jointly established the Sino-English Teaching Project (TEFL). Qian Yuan was the person who established the project and was also the person in charge.In ordinary schools, foreign experts are often the authority.Once, a British expert newly hired by the English Department of Normal University told Qian Yuan that he planned to teach a certain course in this way.Qian Yuan said no, she instructed how to teach.The expert disagreed.According to Ah Yuan's description: "His pair of blue eyes stared at me like a cat." Qian Yuan took him to the library and showed him the books he should refer to one by one.The expert did not expect that the library of the Normal University had such profound monographs.At the end of the semester, he came to our house and said to Qian Yuan: "Yuan, you worked me hard." But he admitted that "I have benefited a lot".The scores of foreign experts from Normal University were evaluated by Qian Yuan.

We watched our daughter grow, achieve, and be proud of her.But our "pioneer" is overloaded with work every day - according to the school's evaluation, her workload is 200%, and I think it is more than that.In order to care for the students, she increased the burden unlimitedly.For example, she often changed the students' graduation thesis and ordered it to be redone.I often ask her: "Can you be a little lazy? Can you stop being so serious?" She always shakes her head.I can only feel distressed secretly. Ah Yuan is the masterpiece of my life, which Zhongshu regards as "a material that can be made", and the "seed of reading" in my father-in-law's mind.She went to high school to learn to carry dung buckets, and went to the countryside to work in a factory after college. After graduation, she was sent to the "four cleanups".Parents cannot be at ease.

Zhong Shu's novel was changed to a TV series, and he suddenly became a celebrity.Many people came from afar to see Qian Zhongshu's demeanor.He didn't want to be a rare animal in the zoo, so I had to guard the door to keep out visitors for him. Every day he receives letters from many strangers.I once asked a great writer whether to reply to letters from readers.It is said that he receives a large number of letters every day, how can he answer them one by one.But the first thing Zhongshu does every day is to write a reply letter, which he calls "repaying the debt".He writes quickly, and pays off the "debt" in a short while.This is his polite thanks to the letter-writer.But the debt is always paid off; what is paid today is owed again tomorrow.The letters also caused unexpected trouble.

He doesn't ask for fame, but he can't escape the annoyance and troubles of celebrities.If he has no name, how peaceful we should be! No novel or fairy tale ends in this world: "From then on, they live happily ever after together." There is no simple happiness in the world.Happiness is always accompanied by worries and worries. There is no forever in the world.Our life is full of ups and downs, and only in our twilight years can we find a place to settle down.But old age and illness are urging us, and we have come to an end on the road of life. Grandma Zhou has already returned home due to illness.Zhongshu was admitted to the hospital in the summer of 1994.I went to see him every day, and brought him meals, vegetables, and soup.Ah Yuan was admitted to the hospital in the winter of 1995, at the foot of West Mountain.I talk to her every night and visit her every week.But we can only meet each other in a hurry in the hospital.The three live in three places, and I can still be a liaison officer, passing on news frequently.

In the early spring of 1997, Ah Yuan passed away.At the end of 1998, Zhongshu passed away.The three of us were separated.It got lost so easily. "Good things in the world are not firm, but colorful clouds are easy to scatter and glass is brittle."Now, I'm the only one left. I saw soberly that the apartment that used to be "our home" was just an inn on the road.Where is home, I don't know.I'm still looking for my way home.