My girlfriend was reborn.

Chapter 34 A Long Vacation, Her Treasure

Grandpa Geng was wearing a jacket often worn by retired cadres, pushing a shopping cart by himself.

The car was filled with everyday ingredients: lotus root, pork belly, chili peppers, lettuce, soy sauce, milk, and a bag of flour.

If I remember correctly, these are the ingredients for making lotus root balls.

Just as Zhou Heming was about to greet them, Cheng Shuangjiang stopped him.

Grandpa Geng was stopped by a shop assistant who was trying to sell him samples.

"Would you like to try our new peach shortbread? It's free."

The middle-aged shop assistant enthusiastically promoted the product.

"No, no."

Grandpa Geng glanced at the peach shortbread, which was divided into small pieces and seemed to contain dried cranberries, waved his hand, and prepared to leave.

"You're here to buy bread for your grandson's breakfast, right? I remember you often come here with Teacher Jiang."

The shop assistant then spoke, causing Grandpa Geng to stop in his tracks.

"Teacher Jiang said that if you come alone and don't know which flavor to buy, she would recommend this one. She has tried it and this one is the best suited to your family's taste."

The shop assistant pointed to a type of toast that looked very soft in the display case.

Seeing that Grandpa Geng did not respond, she used a toothpick to pick up a piece that had already been cut from the plate and handed it to him.

"Why don't you try it? Teacher Jiang is a regular customer of ours, but he hasn't been coming much lately. Maybe it's just that I haven't been able to see him during my shift."

Nearby, children were clamoring to try the food, so the staff smiled and went to serve them.

Grandpa Geng took the bread from the skewer in a daze, stared at it for a long time, and then put it in his mouth.

He chewed slowly and carefully, as if trying to taste something beyond the bread itself.

"Thank you, please install one for me, thank you."

Grandpa Geng politely placed the skewer into the wastebasket next to him.

"okay."

The shop assistant smiled and carefully packed a loaf of toast for the elderly man, placing it in his shopping cart.

Grandpa Geng picked up the bread and examined it for a long time.

When he continued pushing the cart, his movements seemed to slow down considerably.

Zhou Heming watched all of this from afar. He turned around and glanced at Cheng Shuangjiang.

"How about we just buy a cake?"

The girl did not refuse again.

But when the two returned, they found that the last three lemon mousse cakes had already been sold out.

"Well, there's nothing we can do about it then."

Cheng Shuangjiang smiled and gently pushed the shopping cart with her left hand.

"Come early tomorrow, you're sure to get some."

Zhou Heming said with certainty.

He remembers that during elementary school, one semester, when other classmates started playing with four-wheel drive cars, he told his family he wanted one, but they refused on the grounds that they couldn't buy him toys.

While others were playing, he could only sit aside with a world classic that was a bit difficult for elementary school students, telling his classmates that he had no interest in such childish toys.

Later, when it was his birthday during summer vacation, his parents finally gave him a four-wheel drive car. But when he returned to school with the brand-new four-wheel drive car in his backpack after the vacation, everyone had already started playing with other things.

His classmates never knew that he also had a bicycle in his schoolbag.

The four-wheel drive cars of that time and the lemon mousse cake of today are roughly the same thing.

The two had bought almost everything and were about to head to the cashier.

The supermarket entrance is near the checkout counter, in a large goods area with refrigerators, TVs, toys, suitcases, and the like.

They saw Grandpa Geng here again.

Grandpa Geng was clearly about to pay, and he was walking quite fast, but as he passed the appliance section, another salesperson called out to him.

"Sir, that massager you've asked about so many times before, we're having a clearance sale now, it's half price. Would you like to buy one?"

Grandpa Geng took two more steps before slowing down, looking over there, and speaking.

"I'm sorry, you don't need it now."

"It's cheap right now, would you like to try it again? It's very good for your cervical spine. You've been looking at it for so long, this is a rare opportunity."

The shop assistant wouldn't let it go.

Grandpa Geng remained silent for a while, then slowly nodded.

The shop assistant immediately asked him to sit down, helped Grandpa Geng set up the massager, and adjusted and started it.

As the buzzing sound began, Grandpa Geng closed his eyes, seemingly savoring the massage from the device.

suddenly.

He sniffed, hurriedly raised his hand, and frantically rubbed his eyes. Then he bent over, his shoulders trembling slightly, and his breathing became rapid and heavy.

"Oh, what's wrong? Are you feeling unwell? I'll turn it off for you now."

The shop assistant was shocked and immediately turned off the massager to check on Grandpa Geng's condition.

"sorry."

But he was just sobbing softly.

His wife, with whom he had argued his whole life, was diagnosed with a terminal illness. When the doctor pronounced a death sentence, he didn't cry.

Because if he breaks down, how can this old woman keep going?

He didn't cry when his wife, who had become increasingly thin due to illness and eventually looked like a child, passed away.

Because she finally told herself to live well and not to be sad or upset about it.

At his wife's funeral, when his relatives and friends bowed to him three times one by one, he did not cry.

Because he wanted to tell everyone who cared about him that he was fine, that they should live their own lives and not worry about him.

This elderly man, who seemed to have experienced the vicissitudes of life and faced the pain of separation and death, and who would never be so moved again, burst into tears at this moment, simply because of a trace left by his lover.

The passing of a loved one is not a sudden storm, but a dampness that lingers throughout one's life.

After you left, I see you in the mountains, you in the sea, and you in everything in the world.

His cries were soft, just short sobs, much like the era when emotions were rarely expressed, and people were restrained and suppressed. Even feelings and love were hard to express; the two of them simply "lived together."

When Grandpa Geng spoke, he didn't say more than forty years, or even fifty years, but rather a precise timeframe of forty-seven years.

He also remembers every moment he spent with his wife, every corner they walked together, and every yesterday she was there.

Cheng Shuangjiang looked at the old man. She wanted to go over and comfort him, but then she thought that it might be better to let him cry it out.

Turning her head, she wanted to ask Zhou Heming for his opinion, but found that the boy had disappeared at some point.

After a moment of panic, my phone rang with a notification tone indicating that it was under special surveillance.

[Zhou Heming]: Wait for me a moment.

Cheng Shuangjiang didn't know what Zhou Heming was going to do. She just stood there, looking around blankly.

Finally, she saw Zhou Heming.

This socially awkward guy, who hates trouble and doesn't like talking to strangers, was trying to explain something to a mother with a child in front of the toy shelf. Then, he raised his hand and pointed towards Cheng Shuangjiang.

Moving her gaze, Cheng Shuangjiang quickly noticed a box of lemon mousse cake casually placed in the mother's shopping cart.

The moment she realized this, the girl's eyes suddenly welled up with tears.

She immediately turned her face away, not wanting the other person to notice the change in her expression, even from such a distance. She placed her hand on her chest, her heart pounding as fast as her breathing.

As the footsteps drew closer, Cheng Shuangjiang sniffed and looked over again.

Zhou Heming, holding the box of lemon mousse cake, ran back with a silly grin, like a primary school student who had won first place in a sports meet.

“I just saw them looking at toys after they bought the cake, and then I was thinking, should I talk to them about it?”

The boy handed her the cake box.

"What did you say?"

"My voice is a little hoarse," Cheng Shuangjiang asked.

“I said, this is my girlfriend. She was seriously injured before, but she has finally been discharged from the hospital. We hesitated for a moment and couldn’t buy this cake, but thinking about it, I still want her to eat this cake on this day, which is the day she wants to eat the most. Can you give this one to me?”

Zhou Heming answered frankly.

"Then the lady gave it to me very readily, since we hadn't paid yet and they said we could buy it tomorrow."

The girl silently accepted the cake box and stared at it intently.

“Something interesting happened just now. That aunt’s child got tired of playing on the ground and said, ‘Mommy, can you hug me?’ Then the aunt picked him up.”

Zhou Heming gestured with his hands.

"It turns out that it was so easy to get your parents to hold you when you were little."

He said it with a smile, as if he had discovered a new continent.

Actually, when Zhou Heming was a child, he didn't really want a four-wheel drive car, nor did he really like canned dace with black bean sauce. He was just cautiously and fearfully trying to find out if his parents really loved him.

He got the answer to this question on New Year's Eve that year.

During the last few minutes of lucidity in her final moments on her sickbed, her mother asked Zhou Heming to lean close and whispered a few words in his ear.

—Ahe, Mom loves you.

He waited fifteen years to receive this answer that he should have heard at birth.

Nine-year-old Zhou Heming didn't get a four-wheel drive car when he wanted one, and he felt that the love he received always seemed to come a little too late.

The sensible boy knew that his parents actually loved him, but were just a little clumsy and inept at expressing it. However, he still couldn't help but fantasize about how happy he would be if he could feel love when he most wanted to receive it.

Therefore, Zhou Heming, who is eighteen years old, wants Cheng Shuangjiang, who is seventeen years old, to have her wish fulfilled today.

Even if it's just a lemon mousse cake.

"So, just say it."

Upon hearing this, Cheng Shuangjiang realized that he was looking at her.

"How can I help you achieve this if you don't tell me?"

"Ah He, you looked kind of cool when you said that just now~"

The girl blinked before smiling.

"Really? Actually, I've been thinking about this line for a long time."

"how long?"

"It's been so long since I saw your expression after you finished eating the cake."

"You're so silly."

Cheng Shuangjiang looked at the cake in her hand again. Strange, it was clearly an ordinary box, so why did it look so beautiful?

"What if that auntie didn't give it to you?"

"Then I'll go to the information desk and make an announcement saying that Zhou Heming's girlfriend from Class 7 of Senior Three wants to eat lemon mousse cake, and that customers who haven't paid yet should bring their cakes and report to the information desk immediately."

"You're not Jay Chou, you'd get beaten up!"

"Or go to other chain supermarkets. There are several in Jiangcheng, so there must be some left over."

"Actually, it doesn't necessarily mean we have to eat it today."

"No, just like when you're so sleepy in class, taking a ten-minute nap is equivalent to sleeping for an hour in bed, getting what you want most when you want it most is ten times happier than usual."

"There's such a theory?"

“by Zhou Heming”.

"From the moment I met you, I've been ten times, well, a hundred times happier."

"Are you so happy?"

"Like a bear in spring."

"That's really great."

“Ah He, let’s eat after dinner tonight, as a way of celebrating our first National Day holiday together.”

As she spoke, Cheng Shuangjiang solemnly placed the cake box into the shopping cart, not letting anything else near it.

Then, she gently took the arm of the boy beside her.

These are all her treasures.

*
New author, new book! Thank you everyone for your monthly votes and recommendations!
(End of this chapter)