There is a feeling called heartache

Chapter 29 Hair in the Bento
It was not just a lunch, but also the mother's full love, even the hair mixed in it was also the mother's love.

In that impoverished era, many students often did not even have the ability to bring a decent bento to school, such as the classmate sitting next to me.The dishes in his bento are almost every day dark fermented soybeans, but my bento is often filled with ham and poached eggs.And this classmate would pick out the hair from the bento every time, and then eat his bento as if nothing had happened.This uncomfortable discovery stuck with me and my fellow students.

"It can be seen how sloppy his mother is, she has hair in her meal every day." The students discussed in private.But in order to take into account the self-esteem of the classmate, he couldn't show it, and always felt so dirty, so his impression of this classmate began to be greatly reduced.

One day after school was over, that classmate stopped me: "If you have nothing to do, go to my house to play." Although he was reluctant in his heart, it was the first time since he was in the same class that he invited me to play at his house, so I Sorry to say no.

I followed my friends to a poor village located in the steepest terrain in Seoul.

"Mom, I brought my friends here." After hearing the excited voice of the classmate, the door opened.His elderly mother appeared at the door.

"My son's friend is here, let me see." But the mother of the classmate who walked out of the room just touched the beams outside the door with her hands.

It turned out that she was blind and blind.I suddenly felt a sore nose and couldn't say a word.

Although the classmate’s bento dish is made of fermented soybeans as usual every day, it is carefully packed for him by his invisible mother. It is not just a lunch, but also the mother’s full love, even the hair mixed in it. So is a mother's love.

Warm feet
Although Ye Luo has a voice, her deep love has no trace!

The first time I saw her was in late autumn, and my eyes were full of fallen leaves.My heart is getting colder like the seasons.

When I brought Yang, whom I had been in love with for three years, to my parents, my mother didn't have the slightest liking for this poor child from the countryside.At that time, Yang was dark, thin, and very inarticulate, and his mother was cold, and only had one sentence: "You should give up on this idea!"

During those days I was floating in my mother's tears and spittle.Yang was very stubborn and refused to give in half a step. He would often drive an hour to come here on Sundays, look at me under the eyes of his mother, and then leave.

My heart is very bitter. On the one hand, my parents who gave birth to and raised me, and on the other hand, the lover who loves me and loves me. I can’t let go of them, which often makes me upset.But Yang actually begged me to go to his house.He said let's just be good friends, his mother has never walked out of the mountains and never met a girl in the city, so I'll let it go and fulfill her wish.

I know that Yang loves his mother very much. His mother is very miserable. She has never studied, and she can’t write her own name. Her mother died at the age of 3, and her father died at the age of 13. She has no support, is lonely, and relies on her fortitude to survive until 19 years old. At the age of [-], he recruited an honest and poor young man to be his son-in-law. After getting married, he was still bullied by the villagers. Once he fought for water, his head was opened by the son of the village party secretary... Seeing Yang's speech was very emotional, and I felt uncomfortable , just go, it's a visit to see his miserable mother.

Yang’s family was very poor, but I didn’t expect it to be so utterly poor: several adobe brick houses were empty, with only two beds, a square table, four benches, and two chests of drawers mottled like unearthed cultural relics.

Yang's mother is not as thin as I imagined: she has a black and red face, a short body, thick hands and feet, and she exudes the smell of sunshine and earth, which can only be found in her gray hair. A few wisps of bitterness and hardship.Her voice was high and bright, and she could hear her "whispering" with Yang several rooms away: "This girl is born well, and she is as painful as a spring onion."

The dinner was very rich, with chicken, eel and tofu on the table.I like to eat the fragrant and burnt big eel fried in tea oil the most, but I am not very good at eating, the bone on the table still looks like an eel.Yang laughed that I didn't know how to eat, and threw away the fragrant and crispy bones, but she protected me: "Bones are sharp, and she's not used to them." Yang then tore the fish for me, and chewed the bones himself.

The night in the countryside is very quiet, you can hear the sound of leaves falling to the ground, the mountains are cold early, and the autumn insects have long been silent.My body has always been weak, and my hands and feet are cold all year round.

I went to bed quietly, lest I wake her up early.Unexpectedly, she groped and hugged my feet, and touched me with her rough and warm palm: "Oh, it's so cold." I could feel the raised lines on her palm, like old The bark of the pine tree.

"My hands cut people?" Maybe it was my shy feet that made her misunderstand, and she hugged my cold feet tightly under her soft ribs... That night I slept deeply, In the dream, there are colorful fallen leaves resting on my body and feet like butterflies, warm and fragrant.

Later, I found an appropriate opportunity to tell the story of warming my feet to my mother.The mother was speechless for a long while, and just let out a long sigh.Since then, I have never seen her roll her eyes at Yang again.

Maybe, mother understands mother better; maybe, mother also has a touch, although Ye Luo has a voice, but there is no trace of deep love!In short, a year later, the simple peasant woman who warmed my feet on that autumn night really became my mother-in-law.

(Fangtang)
(End of this chapter)