between clouds and mud

Chapter 30
Feng Yi hugged her son distressedly, with tears on her face.

Once again, Zhou Li had to lie alone on the cold operating table, had his left chest cut open and then sewed up.

And this is the last time, after this, everything will be fine.

Thinking of the probability the doctor said, Feng Yi's heart ached. She couldn't control her tears and hugged Zhou Li: "Son, can't we do well?"

You can't run, you can't exercise vigorously, you can't ride a bicycle for a lifetime, and there is nothing wrong with it.

Zhou Li is a warrior about to go to the battlefield. At this time, he comforted his mother and sister like a man: "You don't have to worry, it's okay."

Zhou Li continued: "My sister couldn't walk when she was young, but now she runs as fast as the wind. When I recover, I will have a healthy body and run like my sister."

Zhou Song concealed the panic in his heart, and encouraged him calmly: "Zhou Li, I will."

Before entering the operating room, Zhou Li whispered something to Feng Yi.

It wasn't until seeing his mother nodding that Zhou Li, who had received the promise, let go of his hands in peace, and was pushed in by the doctor while lying on the hospital bed.

The door of the operating room was slammed shut, and the curtain in the ward was drawn behind the glass.

Zhou Song and Feng Yi stood outside the operating room, watching the "in operation" light above their heads light up.

The mother and daughter sat on the stools in the corridor and waited. The pungent smell of disinfectant floated in the air, and every moment was extremely tormented.

Zhou Song's panic couldn't be suppressed, and in his blurred vision, a familiar figure came at the end of the corridor.

Zhang Chengnian, who was covered in wind and snow, had a resolute figure, with a few unmelted snowflakes on his shoulders, and a bitter breath rushed towards his face.

"Xiao Liu, I'll accompany you." Zhang Chengnian held her hand tightly and passed on solid strength to her.

Zhou Song prayed in his heart, every second was very long, until the door of the operating room was pushed open, and the nurse came out with a list: "Where are the family members?"

Feng Yi was stunned for a moment, then got up.

The nurse handed over the form: "The patient needs plasma supplementation, you go to the first floor to pay the fee."

Hearing this, Feng Yi breathed a sigh of relief. She took the form and asked anxiously, "Doctor, how is my son?"

"It's in operation." The nurse closed the door and went in without saying anything.

Zhang Chengnian took the form, and he was familiar with the way to the payment window, going back and forth three times.

Panting heavily, he saw Zhou Song holding a new list in his hand, and took it: "I'll do it."

This time he didn't twitch, Zhou Song's knuckles were white, and the big characters that caught his eye were a...

medical crisis notice.

Feng Yi covered his face and wept, Zhou Song shook his fingers and signed the name crookedly after several strokes.

After handing over the list to the nurse, Zhou Song stood outside the door with a blank mind.

She seemed to realize that something was being peeled off, and after a while, she clutched her chest and began to curl up.

Her body trembled with suffocation, Zhang Chengnian's voice was already blurred in her ears, tears fell one after another, and she cried out in heart-piercing pain.

This time, Zhou Li never woke up again, and what was pushed out of the operating room was a pale and cold corpse.

The teenager stayed at the age of 17 forever, and his life ended in this blizzard.

17, what a wonderful age.

He still has a girl he likes, but the head portrait of the chasing boy will never light up again.

The doctors who came out of the operating room wore masks. They paused for a moment and bowed deeply: "Please forgive me."

"How is it possible." Feng Yi staggered after him: "Try again, try again."

At the rescue site of the snow disaster in the mountainous area of ​​Hunan, there was heavy snow in the sky.

Zhou Huaiming's figure blended into the mighty crowd, and the secretary next to him took quick notes with a notebook.

After Zhang Fang hung up the phone, she looked around for Zhou Huaiming with an umbrella in her hand, and finally saw a man standing with his back on a gentle slope.

He was wearing rain boots covered in yellow mud, and his body was covered with snow just like the construction workers on site.

Zhang Fang silently held up an umbrella for him, her voice choked with sobs: "Uncle Zhou"

Zhou Huaiming's figure was extremely heavy, and he looked into the distance with a solemn expression, and there was an endless expanse of whiteness as far as the eye could see.

"My condolences." Zhang Fang couldn't hide her grief and shed tears.

Zhou Huaiming looked at the edge of the black umbrella above his head: "Put the umbrella away."

He was only silent for a moment, then turned around and went back to work, continuing to transfer work.

The figure of this man merged with the rescue workers on the scene. Standing on the gentle slope, Zhang Fang looked at the crowd and couldn't tell which one was him.

For 3 minutes, Zhang Fang calculated in her heart.

Just now Zhou Huaiming stayed here for 3 minutes solemnly, paying homage to his son who died young, and then continued to return to work.

He can fully use the power in his hand to fulfill the responsibility of an ordinary father.

But he persisted in his post, and it was his job mission to be responsible for the whole province.

These are Zhou Song's two fathers, one who gave warmth to her family, and the other who gave warmth to the people.

Zhang Fang put away the umbrella, followed the footprints on the muddy ground, and stepped up firmly step by step.

When Zhou Song woke up from the darkness, he was in his room.

The curtains were drawn, and she didn't know whether it was day or night, so she opened the door and groped into Zhou Li's room.

Turn on the light, it's a bit glaring.

All the furnishings are the same as yesterday, and the quilt is still a bit messy.

She seemed to be having a nightmare. There was a woman crying hoarsely in the hospital, and then her vision suddenly went dark.

After waking up, her heart was empty, and her eyes searched for Zhou Li.

"Xiao Li, Xiao Li" his throat rolled, and his voice was a little dry and hoarse.

Zhou Song reached out to test the temperature of the bed sheet.

It's cold without a trace of temperature.

Her thoughts gradually came back, and she stood in the room for a long time in a daze, her eyes touched Zhou Li's computer desk.

Anyway, the photo frame of the family portrait was placed on it, and there was a thin layer of dust, Zhou Song wiped it clean with a paper towel.

There is a small key in the corner where the tissues are stored.

Zhou Song took it and opened the second locked drawer, which contained a mobile phone and a diary.

The remaining power of the phone was low, and the QQ avatar kept flashing, indicating that there was a new message. She tried a few times, but couldn't guess the password.

She knew very little about Zhou Li, and the Ultraman she bought last time was never given away.

Zhou Li's diary was in his early teens, and he wrote it intermittently, not every day. The latest few pages were obviously torn, probably because he didn't want his family to see them.

The latest handwriting, dated about a week before the operation:
Mom, dad and sister, don't cry, if you see this sentence, I'm already in heaven.

Hey, surprise!

It's definitely impossible, I'm not afraid.

(Okay, actually I'm a little bit scared, but I don't want to worry people, they are annoying when women cry.)
Tears wet the handwriting, Zhou Song's tears are like a gate that can't be closed, she sits at the desk and tears like rain.

She slowly flipped through each page. Most of the ten-year-old Zhou Li wrote about his sister, which recorded every detail of his relationship with his sister.

It's more like a vendetta than a diary.

Zhou Song stopped and looked at each page for a long time.

"Sanya, Hainan, my sister didn't play with me in the sand, I'm not happy."

At that time, Zhou Li came to knock on her door with a small shovel and a small bucket, but Zhou Song didn't open it.

The night wind blew, and the corner of the half-opened window lifted the curtains of the room. She followed the commotion and looked over.

The only thing the wind blows is an empty fold.

When he was a child, he hid behind the curtains, worried about being discovered, but Zhou Song knew about it but deliberately kept silent, and punished Zhou Li to stand for a long time.

She hasn't had that nightmare since he left.

It turns out that everything is God's will.

Why didn't she speak up, Zhou Li, let's not have surgery, okay?
We don't run, we don't climb trees, we don't ride bikes, we don't want to be healthy, okay?
The person behind closed the window and put a coat on her.

Zhang Chengnian took her into his arms wordlessly, and stroked her hair with his generous palms soothingly.

Zhou Song wailed and cried bitterly: "Zhou Li. Zhou Li is not yet full."

After Zhou Huaiming finally got away from work, he lost two bottles of glucose in the hospital because of a sudden heart attack.

Zhou Li's body had already been coffined, and he didn't see the last side.

According to local customs, death under the age of [-] is considered violent death, and relatives in the family have already taken care of the funeral.

The coffin was not parked for seven days, and it was buried in the ground on the same day. The cemetery was also extremely simple, and the immediate family members could not know the location.

Zhou Huaiming stood for a long time at the foot of the snow-covered mountain where his son was buried. At this moment, he could finally cry as a father.

He couldn't forgive himself in this life, he was sorry for his family, his wife and children.

Standing outside the house, I dare not open the door several times.

Feng Yi walked down the stairs slowly and pushed open the door.Looking at her husband's tired and thin face, she said slowly, "I'm finally back."

"The child is disobedient and left." Feng Yi couldn't control the tears falling down.

Together they experienced the grief of a white-haired man sending a black-haired man to one another. The husband and wife cuddled up and supported each other, hot tears fell one by one, and scars burned everywhere on their chests.

Before Zhou Li entered the operating room, he whispered into Feng Yi's ear, "Mom, Dad works very hard, don't blame him."

Mom did what she promised
But the son, disobedient, left.

In the face of fate, the god of death will not favor anyone.

It turns out that for some people, a healthy body is beyond expectation.

When people are alive, they must always be content and happy.

When a person's life disappears in this world, people just ache and cry.

And the greater sorrow is the throes that arise during the training days, when you recall this person for a moment.

You realize with hindsight that death means that this person no longer exists in the world.

Time is the best tailor. It has repaired the cracks in people's hearts over the long years, leaving only a scar after the scab fell off, and this scar is the only trace that can prove that person really existed.

After the relief from the snow disaster, the transportation hub finally resumed operation, and Zhou Song returned to his hometown immediately.

After confirming that her parents were safe and sound, her hanging heart finally let go.Maybe she couldn't understand that after experiencing Zhou Li's death, she also let go of the rift with her biological parents.

She finally saw the heavy responsibility on Zhou Huaiming's shoulders.

In the heart of a public official, he would give up his family and take care of everyone.

He may not have fulfilled his responsibilities as a father, but he did not fulfill his own responsibilities, let alone the people of the whole province.

Zhou Song was preparing for the postgraduate entrance examination in her senior year. She set her goal on China University of Geosciences. Wuhan is relatively closer to Hunan.

Parents are here, not far away.

After taking the postgraduate entrance examination, the train from Wuhan to Changsha took four hours, and Zhou Song went home regularly every month.

Zhou Song asked Aunt Song, and found the chess box in the drawer of the locker.

After dinner, Zhou Song was sitting in front of the coffee table. She was dissatisfied that Zhou Huaiming's tea tray took up too much space, so she pushed it aside.

Zhou Song arranged the chess matrix and began to greet: "Dad, play chess with me."

Zhou Huaiming walked over with the newspaper in his hand: "You know this?"

"I read the tutorial, but I haven't actually played it yet." Zhou Song said very sincerely.

"Then I have to make a rule that no cheating is allowed in chess."

Zhou Song nodded, and the father and daughter got together to play chess.

Zhou Song was basically defeated, but she learned things very quickly. Following Zhou Huaiming's tactics, she couldn't survive for 10 minutes at first, but then she was able to hold on for half an hour.

This thing is more brain-intensive than she thought, but the more challenging it is, the more she likes it.

The father and daughter often spend time at the chess table, playing with each other and enjoying it.

Occasionally, Zhou Song could turn the tables and win a few rounds, but most of them were because Zhou Huaiming watched her lose terribly, so he quietly put some water to stimulate her enthusiasm.

The father and daughter smiled and enjoyed the rare family happiness.

Zhou Song secretly followed his father's figure from the corner of his eye.

Over the past year or so, most of Dad's hair has turned gray.

There are a few wrinkles in the corners of my mother's eyes.

When the family sits together, they always laugh happily.

Actively encouraging each other, they all try their best to cover up the endless sorrow of the queen, and chew the pain alone.

Zhou Li——is a name that cannot be mentioned, and it has become a hot scar in the hearts of the three of them.

———Author’s Message——

I'm sorry, life is very precious, and I'm also saddened by Zhou Li's death.

For Xiaoli, he wants to find his own value more than his crippled life.

This is the turning point of the story. He changed the relationship between Zhou Song and his biological parents, and also affected Zhang Fang's belief in life.

Paying tribute to life and courage, this butterfly effect indirectly promoted the fate of Linxi Mountain.

The characters in the article all have prototypes in life, and Zhou Li in reality is more bitter than Zhou Li in my writing.

But life is tenacious after thousands of blows, let the wind from east to west, north and south.

Those who can be knocked down by life are the weak, and only by experiencing a strong heart can they suddenly see the light.

The same flower, the same tree, the same road, each passer-by has a different state of mind and thought, but the wind and rain in this world cannot blow down a person with a strong heart.

The message is specially sent to my readers—Little Moon yl, if I read your message, don’t cry.

Every comment, message or like recommendation, the author has read it carefully, thank you friends.

Zhang Wenche on July 2022, 7
(End of this chapter)