I really don't want to be a novelist

Chapter 259 Hey!
"...Your foot is sprained badly. Does it hurt?"

"You sit here first, and I'll get you some medicine to apply."

After entering the main room, the woman closed the door of the main room again to block the cool wind outside.

Lead the old man Xu De'en to sit down at the dining table in the house, and then go to the next room.

The old man sat on a stool, still unable to let go of the hoe, and looked up at the main room.

In the main room, a dim yellow lamp was lit on the top, dispelling the darkness in the room and seeming to dispel the chill of many nights.

There is a dining table in the main room, a few stools beside the dining table, and some sundries in other places.

After watching for a while, the old man lowered his head again and remained silent.

Not long after, the woman in the house came out again, holding a pot to soak the potion,

"...This foot is sprained in the ground? Didn't it mean that this place has been demolished, why are you still farming here?"

The woman was gentle, squatted down in front of the old man, unscrewed the potion jar, and asked with a smile.

Facing his former son and daughter-in-law, the old man never said a word, but now facing this woman,
I just feel that this woman has a kind and familiar face, and she always wants to confide everything. In the main room illuminated by this light, he feels at ease inexplicably.

"...I want to grow some vegetables in exchange for some pocket money. It's right by the river, in a corner. I pulled out the weeds, turned the land, and planted some vegetables there."

"I go to see it every day, just hoping to exchange some pocket money..."

As the old man spoke, some grievances and sorrows welled up in his heart, and his eyes were so red.

"Then why don't you go home after spraining your ankle?"

"My home has been demolished, and I used to live with my son and daughter-in-law."

The old man was silent for a while, and told the woman all the words.

The woman naturally squatted down in front of the old man, stretched out her hand and took off the shoe on the old man's sprained foot.

"...They don't want me to grow vegetables. But if I don't grow vegetables, I don't have any money."

"You're right. The daughter-in-law's son's house isn't your own?"

"It's so old, so old, what do you need money for?"

The woman poured some medicine into her hands and rubbed the swollen area of ​​the old man's ankle.

The old man shrank his feet at first, wanting to come by himself, but the woman just smiled at him,

"Let me do it."

The old man paused, but felt a little wronged and sad in his heart, and these emotions that had been accumulated in his heart for a long time came out again.

"...The home of my son and daughter-in-law is not my home. If it is a son and daughter-in-law, it is also dependent on others. I live in my own home, and I can do whatever I want. If there is any conflict with them one day, they will let them I'm leaving, where should I go?"

The old man's eyes turned red again.

"Like today? Your son and daughter-in-law sprained their feet because of you, and you ran out after talking about you?"

The woman put medicine on the old man's feet and asked again with a smile.

The old man felt even more wronged when he saw the smile on the woman's face.

"If there is a quarrel at my house, I'll ask them to get away and go back, but this is someone else's house, and if they let me go, I can still stay in their house."

"You, you..."

The woman shook her head and suppressed her smile.

"Then you ran back from your son's house? Then what do you want so much money for?"

"...I just want to have some pocket money on me. When my grandson comes back...I can buy him some food. When the children in the neighbor's house call grandpa, I can buy snacks for others. I don't want to let People think that my grandfather is really useless."

"Then ask your son to get you some money. Why do you still go to farm by yourself?"

The woman still gave medicine to the old man.

More grievances poured out from the bottom of the old man's heart, tears were already in his red eyes,
"...The money that others give is what others are willing to give...If others are not willing to give it, how can I force it?"

"Then when your son asked you for money when he was young, he was always pestering you and didn't feel embarrassed. Why are you so old that you are embarrassed to ask him for money?"

The woman poured some more potion, rubbed the swollen place on the old man's ankle, gradually rubbed back the deformed foot of the old man, and raised her head to ask a question.

The old man was silent when he heard the words, but his eyes were red.

"Then he sprained his foot in the ground? Why were you so careless?"

"Then how do I know?"

The old man was even more aggrieved, this time the tears were really unbearable,

"...I go to the field every day, weeding, watering, and I am always careful. If I cut my hand and insects crawl over, I cover it with my clothes, lest they see it and make trouble here again. Give me a break."

"I was careful today, but I stumbled and stumbled. When I got up, I couldn't stand firmly, so I stumbled and sprained my ankle."

"...That's right, you're getting older too."

After the woman finished administering the medicine to the old man, she withdrew her hand and answered after a pause.

The old man was silent and didn't say any more, just thanked the woman.

"……thanks."

"no, I'm fine."

The woman just waved her hand, and stood up again, closing the lid of the potion jar,
"I made this potion with wine and some medicinal herbs. The children in my house were also very naughty when they were young. They knocked here and touched there. When they were young, they climbed trees to pick the fruits from the trees. "

The woman said with a smile.

The old man remained silent.

The woman covered the potion jar and temporarily put it aside, then said to the old man,

"You ran out angrily, you probably haven't had dinner yet. I happen to have some cooking in the house here, so why don't you eat something too?"

Hearing this, the old man tried to stand up with the hoe in his hand,
He had already troubled others once, and he didn't want to trouble others again.

But it's rare for someone who can speak, and in front of this woman, he seemed to be able to say what he wanted to say, and he didn't want to leave the grievances accumulated in his heart.

So there is some hesitation.

"...No need, I won't trouble you?"

"Trouble me? What trouble are you giving me... Sit down. I just sprained my foot, and it moved back and forth again, and I tripped again after a while."

The woman smiled and asked the old man to sit down again.

The old man hesitated, but sat down anyway.

"Thank you……"

"You don't need to thank me. I'll wash my hands and serve the food."

As the woman spoke, she entered the kitchen in the back room.

The old man sat at the dining table, and the surroundings were quiet,
I could only vaguely hear the movement of the woman washing the dishes and serving the food in the kitchen in the back room.
This kind of quietness makes the old man feel very at ease, just like being in his own old house, his own home.

"It's time to eat. I cooked two dishes today. I cooked some porridge."

The rice porridge was brought to the table in a small pot, and the dishes were served in two separate dishes.

Before the dish was served, the old man smelled it,

The permeating fragrance seems to have awakened the oldest memory in the old man's mind,
"...This is fried..."

"Fried potato shreds, with some lard residue in it."

"Green peppers fried with bacon..."

Looking at the two dishes, the old man's gaze has been on the two dishes,
Looking at these two dishes, the eyes of the old man turned red again.

"...Why is this bacon so fragrant? How do you make it?"

The old man lowered his head and handed over to the woman a bowl of porridge.

It seemed that he didn't want the woman to see that his eyes were red.

"There's no way to do it. During the Chinese New Year, put some salt on it and hang it on the beams after drying."

"It's just that there was less meat in the past. After the Chinese New Year, when the moon is barren in February and March, people feel that bacon is extra delicious when they eat it."

"Now, if you think this bacon is delicious, it's because you're still hungry. Eat it, I've cooked a lot of rice here today."

The woman smiled and said so.

"Um……"

The old man responded, picked up the chopsticks, stretched out his hand to pick up the vegetables,

However, the hands holding the chopsticks trembled a little, and it was rare that some shredded potatoes were picked up by the chopsticks, and they hurriedly stuffed them into their mouths.
With the porridge, I planed it into my mouth together.

"Is it tasty?"

"delicious."

The old man responded, chewing the food, but his eyes became more and more red.

The woman smiled, stood by the dining table, and moved the two dishes on the table,

Put it in a position closer to the old man.

"You eat too, you eat too..."

The old man was holding the bowl and eating these two dishes, his hands were trembling.

But he never raised his head again, as if he was afraid that the woman would see his red eyes.

The woman also sat down at the nearby table.

"...Is your foot feeling better now?"

The woman asked again about the old man's sprained foot.

"Okay...a lot better..."

The old man held the bowl and kept his head buried.

"It's fine... I'll help you with some medicine after dinner later."

"Uh-huh……"

With food in his mouth, the old man responded indiscriminately.

"You...you're so old, don't act like a child, and get angry with your son and daughter-in-law."

"What ugly things did you say when talking about you today?"

The woman talked to the old man again.

"...they told us to go and live alone."

"Then you really shouldn't have said that. Then they asked you to move there at the beginning, right?"

"Now your house is gone, your home is gone, and if you are asked to go, where are you going? Isn't it."

woman's words,

On the contrary, it made the old man feel even more wronged. While eating the food in the bowl, his hand holding the chopsticks trembled a little.

A few drops of tears fell from the red eyes and fell into the bowl.

"...But that should be because they are worried about you. They didn't say what they said out of anxiety because they sprained your ankle when you went out to the fields."

"...It's not the first time... I finally planted some vegetables, and they went to the field to pull them out for me...The seedlings have just grown alive!"

The old man spoke from the bottom of his heart to this kind-faced and familiar woman without reservation,

The soreness in my heart came out along with these words.

"...That shouldn't be. It's not easy to grow vegetables in the field, and you have spent a lot of effort."

"Just pulling it out like this is a bit hurtful."

The woman responded to the old man's words and coaxed the old man like a child.

"Also before...the couple went out to work, and it was almost noon and they hadn't come back yet, so I went to cook the vegetables and rice. After cooking, I ate it myself without saying anything. Waiting for the couple to come back to eat..."

"Come back... Just because I didn't turn off the fire on the stove, I was scolded, but I found that the rice in the rice cooker was not pressed, and it was even more..."

"...You have good intentions too, but it's quite dangerous if the stove doesn't go out."

"...The couple asked me to move there...I don't want to go!"

The old man said something childish.

All women should.

A few more tears dripped from the bowl in front of the old man.

The old man just poured out the words of everyone in his heart,

Tell the woman all the grievances,

Talked all the way through and finished the dinner.

Only then did the old man raise his head again, looking at the kind woman,

"...The place has been demolished, and no one lives there."

"Why do you still live here?"

The woman had already got up and cleaned up the dishes on the table.

"Everyone else has left, but I haven't left yet. My son is outside, and I'm here waiting for him to come back. If I change places before he comes back, he won't be able to find a home."

The woman said to the old man with a smile.

The old man was a little strange, but he didn't ask anything about the woman's familiar face.

"...If you don't want to go back to your son's house, you can stay here? Stay for one night."

The woman said to the old man again.

The old man showed some hesitation on his face,

He really wants to stay here, stay here, close to his home,

Still in this old village,

Staying here, he also felt relaxed.

But also afraid of troublesome people...

"Don't be afraid to bother me. There is a room next to it for the children in my house. It is usually empty."

"Just live there."

"You don't rush to go, I'll give me two more medicines, so that your sprained foot will heal faster."

"thanks……"

"You don't need to thank me...I'll wash the dishes and then give you medicine again."

The woman cleared away the dishes,
Soon he came out of the back kitchen again.

He picked up the medicinal wine jar next to him, opened it again,

Naturally put medicine on the sprained foot of the old man,
The old man smelled the pungent smell of the medicinal wine, looked at this kind woman,

But it feels more and more familiar and intimate.

"...you have been living in the village, how can I... I should have seen you?"

"I've seen it, I've seen it. It's still common."

"It's just not so common in recent years."

the old man asked.The woman should.

Apply medicinal wine to the old man's ankle.

"It shouldn't hurt so much to take the medicine this time."

The woman is more concerned about the injury on the old man's foot,

"Wait until tomorrow morning, and I'll apply the medicine on you again, and the swelling will slowly subside."

"Okay...it's getting late, you have medicine on your feet, so you don't need to wash them. I'll pour you a basin of hot water, and you can wash your face."

The woman was busy again, and poured a basin of hot water,
Wring out the towel soaked in hot water, and let the old man Xu De'en wipe his face.

Then lead the old man to the door of the bedroom.

"...I clean up this room all the time. It's all clean. Let's sleep here at night."

The old man went into the bedroom.But he felt that the bedroom was more reassuring and familiar to him.

The appearance and furnishings of the bed are very familiar.

The old man turned his head and looked at the kind-faced woman again,
The woman smiled at him and told him to rest quickly.

The old man went into the bedroom.

Standing silent for a while behind the closed bedroom door,
Only then went back to bed.

Lying in bed, covered with a quilt,

To the top of the roof,

I don't know if it's the surrounding environment or the bed that makes the old man feel at ease.

It's like returning to the most familiar place, like returning to your own home.

In this way, he relaxed, and the old man who was tired all day soon fell asleep on this bed.

The old man had not fallen asleep so peacefully for a long time, nor had he slept so deeply.

After falling asleep,
The old man had another familiar dream.

He was in front of the old house, it was only in a dream, but he felt that he should stand in front of his parents, the original house,
So he searched for the vague memory in his sleep, passed through his own old house, and entered the original old house of his parents.

Three houses, two bedrooms, and one main room.

Only this time, the room was clearer, only to see the blurred figure with an apron on the table,

The old man felt intense sorrow and grievance in his heart.

Then, suddenly awakened from sleep,
Waking up, he's still in the house,

It's just that the eye sockets are already red, and tears welled up from the eye sockets.

He couldn't care about his sprained foot or other things, he stumbled and rolled over from the bed,

get up,

"Mother... Mother..."

Such an old man in his 70s cried out aggrievedly,

With a hoarse and crying voice, all the grievances in my heart poured out,

Too much is too much.

"Hey... don't panic, don't panic... I fell again after a while. Mother is still here."

(End of this chapter)