The Late School

At night, Baijia Village, which is located in a mountain col, fell into tranquility. Occasionally, dog barking sounded, and the sound reverberated in the valley, as if from a distant place.

The silly Dunzi ate dinner, walked around at home, fidgeting, pestering his mother to the next door of Xiaobai’s house, only to see the door closed, the cold wind rustled from the back of the house, nothing else .

In the village of Bai Jianping's house, a family of four sat together. Yang Yi stood her belly up and quietly glanced at Bai Zhiqiang. Seeing his serious expression, she swallowed the words brewing in her stomach and remained silent.

The atmosphere at home was a little depressed. Charcoal fire was burning in the brazier. The door was not closed tightly, leaving a gap. The night breeze came in, blowing charcoal sparks everywhere.

Bai Jianping blocked the sparks with a big hand, and said in a low voice, "I agree with your mother."

Bai Zhiqiang's face changed. He didn't know what he was thinking. He neither agreed nor disagree.

But since there is no agreement, it can be understood as silent rejection.He said hello to his parents last year. After Yang Yi got pregnant, he asked Malanhua to take care of him in Bengcheng, but now, his mother decided to stay and take care of Teacher Jiang.

He stood up in silence, went back to the room, and closed the door tightly.

In the county hospital, Xiaobai was sitting by the bed, talking to grandma, and singing songs from time to time.

Boss Zhang said that she sang well, her confidence is getting stronger and stronger, and she likes singing more and more.

Zhang Tan was peeling an apple. Grandma looked at him and asked, "Boss Zhang, how did you meet Xiaobai?"

Zhang Tan said: "My family opened a late-night school to take in children who were not taken care of by adults at night. Xiaobai is in this school."

Xiaobai laughed and said that the little red horse is so funny, a lot of melons, there are millets lost by a cute mother, there is Cheng Cheng who is very silly storytelling, and there is hiahia who likes to laugh, and there are naughty bags. The troublesome durian, and the nasty ghost Luo Zikang...

She counted the children in the Little Red Horse Academy and talked about it, everyone can tell one or two interesting things.

Grandma asked a few more questions briefly, and finally said: "Thank you."

Zhang Tan cut the peeled apple into six pieces, put them on a plate, and handed them to grandma, "Don't thank you, what I do is what I can do."

"It's hard for you these days, you and your girlfriend are both good people."

Grandma gave the cut apples to Xiaobai, and Xiaobai and Zhang Tan were about to leave the peeled apple peels, marveling at the fact that the apple peels could be connected in a string, and their eyes couldn't help but shine.

She looked at Xiaobai and said lovingly: "My Xiaobai is a good baby. She is fierce because of insecurity..."

Zhang Tan listened carefully. After the grandma finished speaking, she was silent for a moment and asked, "Can you call the nurse in for me?"

"it is good."

Zhang Tan got up and called the nurse. Grandma wanted to wipe her body.

The nurse prepared hot water and towels, Zhang Tan closed the door, walked into the corridor, answered Su Lan's phone call, and chatted with each other.

After the phone call, the nurses came out with buckets and towels.

Grandma's voice came out, "Zhang sigh, come in."

The room looked empty, grandma sat up slightly, with two pillows under her head, Xiao Bai was combing her silver hair.

"Goose, goose, goose~~ Look, uncle, Xiaobai is combing grandma's hair."

The little guy was very happy. Grandma used to comb her hair, but now she can comb her hair too.

"Grandma, do you want watermelon tootou? Watermelon tootou is so generous~~"

She wanted to comb her head with a watermelon, and she smiled and said yes.

Xiaobai laughed, even more energetic, using her grandma's silver hair as plasticine and dressing up as she pleased.

She tossed her grandma's silver hair for a while, and she couldn't comb her watermelon hair, because she could only scream, and finally tied it to the back of her head, sighing that she would learn this strength.

"What's the matter with the paw, a lot of hair is stubborn."

Xiao Bai found that many hair strands had fallen off the sheets, all of which had fallen off when she was combing her hair.

As people get older, their hair begins to fall out, which is a natural phenomenon.

Grandma smiled and said it was okay, she asked Xiaobai to tell her a story.

These days, Xiaobai volunteered to tell a story to her grandma every night, no matter what the story was, she enjoyed it anyway.

"Grandma, what do you want to hear?"

In a flash of effort, a dozen stories ran out of Xiaobai's head. She wanted to tell her grandma. One small mouth was not enough. If only there were two.

Grandma can say anything, as long as Xiao Bai said it.

Xiaobai decided to talk about "I Want the Moon". While listening, grandma tried to embroider Xiaobai's two-year-old clothes.

She could only lie flat, raised her head slightly, and embroidered with difficulty. In order not to make mistakes, the speed was very slow, but fortunately there was not much.

She spent the whole night embroidering a little cute tiger on Xiao Bai's clothes, and asked Xiao Bai to try it on.

It's only two years older.

Xiaobai can fit sooner or later, just wait.

It was late at night, and there was a light rain at night, and the temperature dropped a lot at a sudden, getting colder and colder.

The nurse on duty came to check the condition of grandma, and the air conditioner was turned up a bit.

Zhang Tan checked his watch and wanted to take Xiaobai back to the hotel.

Xiaobai didn't want to go, and wanted to stay here, but was persuaded by her grandmother.

"Grandma, bye~~~~"

"Goodbye Xiaobai."

There is no one to watch the night in the ward tonight, only the nurse on duty in the building.

The lights in the long and old corridor were dim. In the ward, the ceiling lights were off. Only one night light was on at the bathroom door, and there were two night lights on the wall close to the floor under the bed.

The light was faint, grandma was lying quietly on the hospital bed, her eyes were not closed, she was not drowsy at the moment, her heart was surging, turbulent, and scenes of life emerged.

The rain outside the window made a small alarm for a while, then became violent, angry, engulfed in the wind, blowing the glass window, and then gradually reduced, turned into a patter, if there is nothing, it tends to be calm, and finally returned. When the time looked like, the wind and rain were gone, and the night was quiet.

It's like life.

After a night of rain, it should be early in the morning, and there has been no footsteps in the corridor for a long time, everyone is asleep.

Grandma stretched out her hand from the bed, and there was an object in her hand. She pressed it, and the object lit up with fluorescence. It was a mobile phone.

The old cell phone that Xiaobai bought for her.

She was shaking her hands, the phone was not steady, and she fell on the bed.

When she picked it up again, her withered right hand was already stable, as if Xiaobai taught her to use a mobile phone the other day.

She turned on the phone recording function, paused for a moment, and tried to organize the language.

In the homes of ordinary people, something big happened, as if a hole was leaking in the sky, the rain was pouring, and people and boats were covered.

Grandma fell, and she never thought that it would trigger so many difficult choices and affect the lives of so many people.

Everyone was making choices because of her wrestling. She saw it in her eyes and was anxious. After so many days, she finally thought through it and made her own choice.

Her choice is not to bother others.

She is a kind-hearted and quiet person who never wants to trouble people. She persisted all her life and didn't want the moment of her life, but she caused such a big trouble to the people around her.

Since the moment she fell, she suddenly realized that she was no longer an independent person. She was still stubbornly holding on to her personality, but in terms of action and body, she had lost the qualifications to be independent and she could not You don’t need the money earned by your little granddaughter to treat your illness, and you can’t even take care of your own meals and go to the toilet.

She realized that she had become a trouble, and she was least willing to trouble others.

From this moment, a terrible thought emerged in my heart.

She thought of death.

The old man who passed away a few days ago showed her her future.When I suffer, the people around me also suffer.

According to the natural law of a person's old age, sickness and death, she still has some time, but she doesn't want to lie in the hospital bed to linger, she wants to bid farewell to this world in a respectable manner.

Thinking about it this way, that terrible thought is not terrible anymore.It is no longer hideous, desperate, and maddening. It exudes hope, like the breath of spring in the mountains and forests, with the revival of vegetation and the fragrance of earth.

For most of her life, she has always faced the sun with a warm heart, even if her husband passed away, son passed away, daughter-in-law passed away... Life has given her one malicious joke after another. She can persist, still smiling, still With hope, I still look forward to tomorrow.

She has gone through many battles and is full of holes. She is fighting against her old bones gently and stubbornly, and is no longer afraid of any wind and rain.

Now, destiny has lost patience with her and maliciously wants to knock her down.

She wants to live a decent life, but it just doesn't give it.

But she did not resent, and even thanked it for giving her the malicious joke, not Xiaobai.

She took it all.

Fate is doomed to disappointment.

Because she was not in despair and seeking death, she decided to go to death with hope, just like welcoming another huge victory.

She is giving herself alms to fate, not being taken away by force.

She hadn't lost all her life, and in the end she couldn't lose decently.

No one can knock her down, unless she unarms, takes off her helmet, lays down her weapons, and returns to heaven.

Most of her life has been pushed by fate. In the last journey of her life, she has to decide for herself, choose a path, and go all the way well.

In the quiet ward, grandma held the mobile phone in one hand, raised it to her lips, tried her best, and said in a clear voice: "I left last night, and my heart is like still water when I walk. The only thing that is worrying is Xiao Bai... But Xiaobai has you, I have nothing to worry about..."

①This is the first sentence of a suicide note written by an 81-year-old man living alone in Nanjing before his death. The original sentence is "I left last night (the eighth fifteenth day of the lunar calendar), and my heart is like still water..."