I set you up on a blind date, and you've managed to overcome all the weirdness?

From then on, Xiaoming and I lived together.

At 5:30 in the morning, when it's still dark, I have to get up and heat up his milk.

At six o'clock, I got him out of bed, ate breakfast, and took him to my mother's.

I arrived at the construction site promptly at seven o'clock.

After get off work, I went to pick up Xiaoming and take him home.

In the evening, I go to the night market to help people unload goods, and I can earn a few dozen dollars.

When Xiaoming gets home, he is usually already asleep.

Day after day, year after year.

until that day.

It was evening, and I had just finished work at the night market.

My throat suddenly felt very itchy, but I endured it and quickened my pace.

I think I caught a bit of a cold these past few days, but I didn't pay much attention to it.

Finally, I couldn't hold back any longer and coughed for a while while leaning against the telephone pole.

He opened his hand, revealing a palm full of blood.

Oh, blood.

He wiped it clean on his trouser leg.

I don't have any other thoughts, really.

I'm so tired that I don't even have the strength to be afraid anymore.

Exhaustion is nothing.

But the most exhausting kind of repetition is the kind where there's no hope in sight.

The debts haven't been cleared, Xiaoming's medication can't be stopped, and my mother's meager retirement savings have already been used up.

I did the math, and I only get about four hours of sleep a day.

When I was a child, the old donkey in my family that was worked to death slept more than I did.

But I can't die. I have to keep breathing. If I can't hold on, this family will be truly finished.

back home.

Xiao Ming was still sitting on his little stool, still looking at the wall.

I walked over and squatted down in front of him. He still didn't look at me, but instead of looking at the wall, he looked at me, who was blocking the wall.

"Xiaoming, Dad's home!"

no response.

I stared into his eyes for a long time. His eyes were very clean, as clean as two glass beads.

I got up and went to the kitchen to boil a kettle of water.

There's a cabinet under the stove in the kitchen, and inside the cabinet is a pair of scissors.

Those scissors were the ones I used to cut wire on construction sites.

I took it out and weighed it in my hand.

In the living room, Xiaoming was still in the same position, and I sat down next to him.

I held the scissors in my hand, pressed my thumb on the blade, and made a light cut, breaking the skin and hurting a little.

I looked at Xiaoming's neck.

His neck was thin and very white.

Just once.

Soon, he won't be in pain for long, and then I'll...

As I was thinking, my hands suddenly started trembling uncontrollably.

Pressing it down with my other hand didn't work either.

Just then.

The television suddenly turned on.

The remote control has been missing for a long time.

After his mother passed away, the TV hadn't been turned on for a long time.

But now it lights up on its own.

I got up to turn it off, but I glanced at the TV screen a few more times.

It's a children's channel, showing cartoons.

A frog wearing a red scarf is standing on a lotus leaf.

It faced the camera, its mouth wide open, laughing heartily.

Then the frog started dancing.

It's called dancing, but it's really just sticking your butt out and wiggling around; the movements look really silly.

It sang as it twisted and turned.

"Quack quack quack quack."

I was stunned.

I was still holding the scissors in my hand, but I had forgotten what I was supposed to do with them.

I just stood there watching that stupid frog on TV wiggle its butt.

then.

There was that one moment.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed something moving beside me.

Xiao Ming's right hand actually lifted up by itself.

I thought I was seeing things.

Xiao Ming had turned around at some point.

After a while, the corner of his mouth seemed to twitch slightly.

It's almost invisible, but I definitely saw it.

He likes this.

My son likes this!

It's been two years, and I've tried everything.

Music, massage, swimming, acupuncture, pets.

In the end, I even tried folk remedies, like stewing toads in soup and soaking incense ash in water.

None of it worked.

So he actually liked a frog?

I laughed for no reason, as if I had finally found an outlet for a breath I had been holding in for a long time.

I was laughing, but then tears started streaming down my face.

I just watched him, laughing and crying at the same time, for who knows how long.

I made a decision.

I bought a frog mascot costume online.

I was still at the construction site when the goods arrived.

The deliveryman called to say he'd left it in the parcel locker.

After finally getting off work, I rode my bike home first and carried that big box upstairs.

The box was bigger than I expected.

I opened the box and took out the frog costume.

The fabric was rough and smelled of industrial glue.

The hood was huge, with two large eyes bulging out and a large mouth that was stretched open.

I held the clothes up in front of me to compare them; they were too big.

Try wearing it.

After putting on the hood, I could only see outside through the slit in the frog's mouth, which narrowed my field of vision by half.

I looked in the mirror.

To be honest, it's a bit ugly.

The workmanship is rough, there are many loose threads, and the belly area is unevenly bulging.

It looks like a malformed, underdeveloped toad.

I stood in front of the mirror, raised my two webbed hands, and waved them.

Xiaoming will like it.

This idea immediately gave me motivation.

I went out wearing the frog costume.

As I was going downstairs, a neighbor lady happened to be returning from grocery shopping.

I was startled when I saw a frog walk out of the stairwell, and I almost dropped my shopping basket.

After recognizing me, she cursed me as a lunatic.

I ignored her and rode my bike to my mom's.

Xiaoming sat on a foam mat in the living room.

My mom is cooking in the kitchen.

I opened the door.

My mom turned around and saw a frog standing at the door, and she was startled too.

She looked cautious and nervous as she put down the spatula and came out.

This family can't afford any more problems from anyone else.

I walked up to Xiaoming and squatted down.

The frog face was facing him.

I said, "Little friend, are you happy?"

Xiao Ming reacted this time.

This was the first time he had looked at my face on his own initiative.

Although it was a frog's silly face.

Then he moved.

He touched the frog's mouth.

I could feel it; it was incredibly light, like a feather falling on the water.

I froze completely. I didn't dare to move, afraid that if I did, he would pull his hand back.

The corners of his mouth curled up again.

That night, I danced around in the living room for a long time wearing a frog costume.

Xiao Ming sat on the sofa, watching the clumsy frog in front of him waving its arms and legs.

His eyes were following me the whole time.

I jumped even harder.

Sweat soaked through the entire frog costume.

My mom stood at the kitchen door for a while, then turned around and went into the kitchen.

I saw her secretly wiping her eyes with her apron.

That night, after I got home, I made a decision.

I'm going to work at the Water World.

Because that water park has family-friendly activities every day, and there are frog mascots interacting with children.

Although my salary is only half of what I earn on the construction site, I can wear the frog costume every day and let Xiaoming see the frog every day.

I quit my job at the construction site and had a fight with the foreman.

I didn't get my salary back that month either.

However, I'll keep the part-time job at the seafood shop, because I still have time after returning from the water park in the evening.

The day I walked through the gates of the water park wearing a frog costume.

The security guard at the entrance glanced at me.

"New here?"

"Um."

"That seems plausible."

"Thanks."

I stood by the pool, with the shimmering water in front of me.

Things will get better.

Xiao Ming.

Things will definitely get better.