Chapter 16 Four

Dad is watering the flowers in the yard. This is his daily homework. After returning home from get off work, he changes his clothes and always goes to the flower pond to fiddle with the flower pots for a while.Those pots of pomegranates were fertilized by my father in the spring, and the yard smelled of sesame residue. In May, the fiery red flowers bloomed. Now that the Mid-Autumn Festival is here, the big fat pomegranates all grinned at Dad!But today Dad was not happy, he stood in front of the flowers in a daze.I saw that my father was thin and tall, with a swaying body in white silk trousers and a jacket, and looked extraordinarily lonely. He had never been like this before.

Song Ma was serving dinner, and she was carrying bowls and plates to the dining room. Today's dishes are very rich, and they are for Uncle De Xian and Aunt Lan to see them off. I am writing the last big characters in the room.I had a very happy and novel summer vacation this year, but I left all my summer homework undone, and no one cares about me this summer vacation.Aunt Lan urged me to write Jiugongge at first, but later she only cared about watching "The Puppet Family" and didn't bother with my homework.The nine-square grid is filled with my scribbled ink, one after another, I don't seem to be writing, it's uglier than a ghost drawing.I saw Dad's white back from the window, so I couldn't help but stop writing. For some reason, I felt very sorry for Dad.

I was very puzzled, how did Uncle Dexian and Aunt Lan mention to Dad that they were going to go together?When I entered the room last night when I was about to go to bed, I only heard my father say to my mother: How come I don't know anything about it? I didn't know what Dad was talking about, so I didn't pay attention at first, and I was thinking about my own business while changing clothes: there are two days before school starts, and I should write the big characters tomorrow, but a sheet of nine characters, Ten sheets of ninety characters, forty sheets of three hundred and sixty characters, how can I catch up!Or ask Aunt Lan for help.Then I heard my mother say:

How could you know about this kind of thing!snort!Mom sneered. so you know? I?I don't know, how did De Xian mention it to you? He first said that these days the wind is getting tighter, he must leave Beijing, he plans to visit Tianjin first, and then go to Shanghai by boat.Then he said: I have something to tell my elder brother, Ms. Huang is going to go with me.Only then did I understand what I was talking about, and I listened carefully and curiously. snort!You won't be surprised to hear that De said it first!Mom said. Should I be surprised!Dad is not convinced, but it's just unexpected, you really don't know at all, didn't you see it at all?

Where do I know that?Mom is talking nonsense!After pausing for a while, mother said again: Usually, I seem to see that it is so interesting. Then why don't you tell me? Yo!Let me tell you, can you still stop them? I think they are doing very well. It's good, but I don't agree with Dexian's sneaky behavior. Mom let out a snort when she heard this, and when she turned around and saw me, she scolded me: What do children listen to!Don't go to sleep yet! Dad was sitting there with his legs folded and shaking constantly. I really wanted to go up and tell him that Uncle De Xian had inscribed on the photo taken at the gate of Sanbeizi Garden: Why did we meet before? I have said it several times!But I was afraid that my father would scold me and beat me if I said it.I silently climbed onto the bed, lay down, and heard my mother say:

Did they decide to leave tomorrow?Then we have to cook a few dishes for them, right? whatever! I didn't hear anything more, I just felt sorry for Aunt Lan, so I forced my eyes to open and close again.I was still writing big characters in my dream, and Aunt Lan was pressing my right shoulder, as if it was the night when I was shopping for lanterns. I wanted to raise the pen to write, but she pressed it tightly, and couldn’t raise my hand, so I couldn’t write. But now I am writing one by one, and I finally finished before dinner. I came to the dinner table with a black beard and black handprints. Aunt Lan smiled first:

Have you written your characters upside down? I sat next to Aunt Lan today, and I really felt reluctant to part with it. My mother gave up the wine and said to Aunt Lan and Uncle Dexian: Best of luck you two! Dad didn't need anyone to let him down, so he flushed himself, and the blue veins on his head were exposed like earthworms. He held up the wine glass and stretched out his head until Aunt Lan's face. Aunt Lan dodged back and said : Mr. Lin, don't drink anymore, but you have drunk a lot. Dad suddenly straightened up again, pretending to be a big brother, and said drunkenly:

I am the person who is most willing to help friends, and I like to help friends the most, don't I?Dexian, you have to treat her well!She is like my own sister!Dad turned his head again and said to Aunt Lan: If he treats you badly, just come back to me.Aunt Lan smiled shyly, as if she was an eighteen-year-old girl who just got married. Song Ma was waiting beside her, also smiling, looking at Aunt Lan with fresh eyes.At the same time, he also gave the towel sprinkled with Shuangmei's toilet water to Dad to wipe his face again and again. The carriage had already been called and stopped at the gate.Our whole family saw us off at the gate, and even our little sister who had just turned one month was hugged out of the gate to see the wind.

The Hufangqiao Street at dusk is very lively, people come and go, there are people in front of you, and there are neighbors waiting around in front of the carriage to see what's new, Mama Song must have told them! Aunt Lan has changed, her shiny twisted bun is gone, and now her hair is cut in the style of Prince Warren!Just like the picture in my storybook: a row of hair is aligned with the eyebrows, and the sides hang down to the ears.What I was wearing was the egg blue silk cheongsam, made into a long waistcoat with two sleeves, a white gauze around the neck, tied obliquely into a big bow, just like the third aunt of the Zhang family who was studying in a women's high school. Be the same!

She said many words of thanks to her parents, then bent down and touched my face and said: Yingzi, study hard, don't make your mother angry like last time, you are a big girl in the third grade! I wanted to cry, and I also wanted to laugh. I didn't know what it was like to see Aunt Lan and Uncle De Xian getting into the carriage together, and waving at us through the window. The carriage went farther and faster, and there was a billow of dust, so I couldn't see anything clearly.I looked up at my father, he touched his chest with his hands, just like my mother every time she got angry and had stomach problems, I only felt a little sorry for my father, and even more sympathized.I gently pushed Dad's thigh and asked him:

Dad, would you like some cardamom?I will buy it for you. He didn't hear it, but shook his head at the distant smoke.