all the mornings

Chapter 40 Little Yu (3)
At the entrance of a small street where the car could not enter, the driver stopped the car.Li Sichuan unbuckled the baby seat, Xiao Yu had already gone down, standing at the entrance of the alley, looking sadly at the past she didn't want to face.

Li Sichuan was standing next to her with her baby in his arms, looking at this old residential area with the eyes of an architect.The silence between the two of them didn't affect Yingying, she turned her big eyes to look around, and finally concluded, "I've been here before."

Xiaoyu was shocked when she heard the words, and woke up from the silence, saying repeatedly: "No! You have never been here before, this is your first time! Sichuan! Sichuan!" Her panic splashed out from her eyes, turning into tears.

Li Sichuan was not as idealistic as she was. He asked Yingying softly, "When did you come here? Dad hasn't even been here. Can you tell Dad who brought you here?"

Yingying didn't know that the words she unconsciously threw out had such a great lethality, which shocked the two adults.She shook her head innocently and said, "I don't know."

Li Sichuan put one free hand on Xiao Yu's body, adding three points of strength so that she could feel his support.

"Little Yu, are you ready?"

"I thought I was ready, but it seems I'm not." Xiao Yu looked at Li Sichuan, with a look of begging for help on his face, and Li Sichuan's heart tightened when he saw that look.Xiao Yu has always been cold and arrogant, superior and disdain to ask others for help, this is the first time, she sent a signal to Li Sichuan for help.If it were Li Sichuan a year ago, he would support her, but he wouldn't understand where her fear came from, so he couldn't really help her.But it's different now, with Jin Yan telling him about Xiao Yu and her grandmother's past, he knows what to do.

He looked at Xiaoyu with firm eyes, and said: "Witches start from confusion, illusions come from the heart. If you don't want to go in, we turn around and leave. Uncle can understand. If you want to go in, you have me and Yingying by your side , I am the body of pure yang, the baby is the body of a child, we are invulnerable to all poisons, you don't have to be afraid."

"You seem to know a lot?" Xiaoyu looked at him suspiciously, "I lived here for a long time, and thinking about it now, it's not a pleasant memory. I don't think you should bring Yingying here, it's not good for her."

She seemed to be cold, her teeth were locked together, and she was shivering.Li Sichuan couldn't bear to force her, so he opened an arm and pulled her into his arms, trying to use his body temperature to drive her away from the cold.As soon as he let go, Yingying slipped from his arms and walked towards the alley.Xiao Yu screamed in fright, and finally cried out.

Li Sichuan had no choice but to let her go and chase after his daughter.He entered a narrow alley, the high walls on both sides blocked the winter sun, his eyes suddenly darkened, as if he had stepped into another world, Li Sichuan couldn't help feeling cold.The wok-eared corners of the old house in front of me are continuous, separating the boundary of the sky, and dividing the space into two sides, bright and dark. old wall.

Yingying ran ahead, giggling, not paying attention to the dark alleyway, turning whenever she saw a corner, and turning when she saw a wall, as if she was very familiar with it.Running, she suddenly shouted: "Fly away, fly away!"

Li Sichuan was startled when he heard that, he stopped and followed Yingying's gaze, and saw a blackbird sitting on the wire in the corner, with something in its mouth, blinking against the light.

It turns out that Yingying ran so fast and so smoothly because he was chasing a bird... Li Sichuan blamed himself for being influenced by Xiao Yu and became suspicious.

At this time, Yingying stopped her little feet, looked at the flying bird, heard Li Sichuan's footsteps approaching, turned her head and said, "Father, the bird has snatched my hairpin." blackbird.

Li Sichuan laughed secretly, and said, "Father will buy ten more for the baby. This kind of bird likes shiny things. If you can find its nest, you will find beer bottle caps, glass beads, broken mirrors and so on."

Yingying raised her head and laughed, and asked, "Really?" She started to leave again, when the alley turned in front of her, a person approached her.Li Sichuan felt relieved when he saw it, he went up to meet him and said: "Uncle, we are here." He pointed to Jin Yan and said to Yingying: "Yingying, this is Uncle."

Jin Yan was wearing a black jacket with black gauze wrapped around her arms, her expression was much more haggard than when they met in the cemetery last time.He bent down to pick up the baby, and looked at it carefully, with tenderness on his face, as if he was holding a fragile porcelain bottle.

Yingying pursed her lips and smiled in Jin Yan's arms, and called out "uncle grandpa" crisply. In a blink of an eye, she saw Xiaoyu following up, and said to Xiaoyu, "Mom, Chinese New Year is so good. I like Chinese New Year. Go home during Chinese New Year. There are grandpas and uncles."

Listening to his daughter's words, Li Sichuan thought that Xiaoyu's deliberate estrangement from his family in the past two years had indeed deprived Yingying of a lot of family happiness, but he couldn't bear to blame her.

Xiao Yu also thought of this, her heart was sore, and her eyes were full of tears.

Jin Yan looked at Xiao Yu whose face was full of tears and said, "Why are you crying before you enter the house?"

Li Sichuan spread his hands helplessly, unable to explain anything.Xiao Yu suppressed her weeping, called her uncle, took the baby from Jin Yan's hand, and hugged her, as if she had recovered her life.

Yingying put her arms around Xiaoyu's neck and said, "Grandpa, Uncle." She covered her mouth and snickered, "The relatives on my mother's side have names like my classmates."

Li Sichuan chuckled, "Chen Juanjuan, Dong Tiantian, and Li Yiying." He praised Yingying's innocence in his heart, only such innocence can dispel the haze.He said to Xiaoyu: "Look, to her, it's just Chen Juanjuan, Dong Tiantian, and Li Yuying." After speaking, he took the baby from Xiaoyu's hand, "Mom is tired, come and hug Daddy."

Jin Yan hugged Xiao Yu in his arms, and said in a low voice, "It's fine if you don't come, why bother to make this trip. If I knew this was the case, I wouldn't talk about it, and told you to come back without telling you."

After all, the majesty of the uncle is there, Xiaoyu saw Jin Yan, and she didn't say anything back, she said in a sob: "Then I'll go burn a stick of incense, and then go."

"That's fine," Jin Yan said, "You've already arrived at the door of the house, and you can't justify it if you don't go in. Come on, let's go." He walked into the alley with his arms around Xiao Yu's shoulders, and Li Sichuan followed behind with his baby in his arms.Xiaoyu was always worried about Yingying, and looked back, but there was no sign of fear on Yingying's face.

The alley is narrow and long, and there is a house at the bottom of the alley. Wreaths and flower baskets are placed at the door, and they are placed all the way into the alley.As the principal of the middle school, Jin Yan has been full of peaches and plums for decades, and there are many condolences from the students alone.There are also quite a few from other companies. It seems that Yu Xiushan has expressed his position.There are too many people, people are standing in the alley, gathering in twos and threes, smoking and talking.When you see someone coming, move two steps to make way.After seeing the face of the visitor, someone was slightly startled.Then whispered to the person next to him, obviously telling that person who came.The people in the alley made way to let the granddaughter of the deceased go in, whispering.

Walking into the door, the eyes are dark, and there is a wooden screen a few steps away from the door.Bypassing the wooden screen, there is a patio paved with green bricks. The big green bricks on the patio are covered with thick moss, and a clump of fern sprouts from the water outlet.The desolation and humidity here surpassed Li Sichuan's imagination. It may not be good for Xiao Yu, who was five years old, to live in this environment.

It would be different if the elderly were caring and caring.

Behind the courtyard is the main room, where there is a memorial tablet on the table in the middle, incense and candles are lit, the chairs under the table are empty, and the two rows of chairs in the hall are full of people, talking with each other, and some people are smoking.And under the eaves are tower incense hanging, and the green smoke curls up, drifting away with the flow of people's breath.The main room is filled with the smell of incense and smoke, which makes people feel stuffy.

Seeing Jin Yan and Xiao Yu, the people in the seat stood up one after another, and everyone's expressions relaxed a lot.They greeted Xiaoyu in Hokkien, with kind faces on their faces, as if they had been waiting for her for a long time, as if they had waited for the owner of this room.

Xiao Yu didn't look sideways, and accompanied by Jin Yan, she arrived in front of the memorial tablet, and as soon as she stood still, someone immediately handed over nine sticks of incense.Xiao Yu took it without looking at it, lit it on the candle, lightly fanned the fire on the incense head with her hands, stood it in front of her, bowed four times, and inserted the incense into the incense burner.Jin Yan hugged her again and went back, Li Sichuan didn't know what ceremony they had, so he followed closely.At the back is another entrance to the courtyard, which contains three main rooms.The four doors of the main room were all opened, and the spirit stopped in the middle, and there were incense tables, candles, and braziers in front of the spirit.This time, the courtyard was also full of people. The difference from the previous ones was that this place was full of women.When the women saw Xiao Yu, some of them burst into tears.One of them came up to hold Xiao Yu by his arms.Li Sichuan knew her, she was Jin Yan's wife, she was present when he married Xiao Yu.Xiao Yu called her "Ah Jin", saying that Ah Jin treated her like her own daughter.

This time, Xiaoyu ignored her aunt who treated her like her own mother, walked to the futon in front of the brazier and stood there, knelt down on both knees, and kowtowed four times.The aunt handed over the incense, and she led and plugged it in.A woman on the right handed over an ingot folded in tinfoil, she took the ignition and threw it into the brazier.

After all the ceremonies were over, she stood up, walked to the coffin, looked at the old man on the bed, and bowed her head in silence for a few minutes.

She did all this with a solemn countenance on her face that gave her face the brilliance of a saint.Li Sichuan thought that Xiao Yu was indeed talented, her appearance, expression, and eyes all showed a kind of holiness calmly.Li Sichuan believed that when she was working as Grandma's assistant, the people who came to ask for help really saw hope.

She doesn't believe it now, and shows fear before stepping into the room, but when she gets into character, she takes on a certain dignity.This kind of majesty has the power of demagogy, and when this power is triggered, people will be excited about it.This kind of majesty and excitement can always be seen in the US election.All politicians and celebrities have such natural instincts, and Xiao Yu's potential was discovered and utilized by her grandmother, making her a legend.

Li Sichuan was standing in the courtyard with Yingying in his arms, and refused to walk in front of the coffin, he didn't want Yingying to see Grandma's body.Like Xiao Yu, he didn't want Yingying to come into contact with these illusory worlds, and he didn't dare to imagine the consequences it would cause.He covered Yingying's eyes, turned around, and pointed her to the painted sculpture on the roof.A bird is molded on the ridge, spreading its wings to fly to the blue sky, but its long legs are fixed to the antlers below it.

"Is it Phoenix?" Yingying asked in a low voice.

"No, it's a crane." Li Sichuan said, "The birds with the sika deer are cranes. They were endowed with auspiciousness and long life wishes by the people who shaped it."

——Just like Xiao Yu, who was shaped by Grandma, was endowed with psychic and prophetic wishes.

Xiao Yu left with Li Sichuan after burning the incense. Her appearance satisfied the wishes of those who needed her appearance, as if it meant the end of an era.

Jin Yan and his wife sent them to the entrance of the alley.Mrs. Jin Yan wanted to keep them sitting for a while, but Jin Yan stopped him. He said to his wife, "Xiao Yu is sick, let her go back and rest."

Mrs. Jin Yan looked at Xiaoyu's face, shook her head and said, "It's hard for you." She looked at the baby in Li Sichuan's arms and said, "When I saw her, I thought of you when you were young, when you came to my house, but A little older than her."

Xiao Yu wanted to say something, but she only opened her mouth slightly, then closed it again.

Mrs. Jin Yan was very disappointed and said: "You are still the same as before, you don't like to talk. I hoped that we could be closer and take care of you instead of your mother. But grandma took you over...it was me Didn't try my best."

Xiao Yu called out "Ah Jin" in a low voice, but she was still speechless, her eyes filled with sorrow.Li Sichuan wanted to say something, but there was no way to persuade him.Jin Yan seemed to be recalled by his wife's words, and with a sullen face, he still complained: "Grandma is too willful in doing things. I shouldn't let her go."

The four adults all looked sad, and Yingying couldn't bear such a heavy atmosphere, and suddenly said, "The Polygonum Zhee, the bandit Yihao."

Jin Yan was startled and asked, "Who taught it?"

Yingying smiled and said softly, "Mom."

Jin Yan sighed and complained, "What are you teaching children to do? It's too early."

Li Sichuan hurriedly explained: "I didn't teach it on purpose, Xiaoyu read it casually, and she remembered it."

Mrs. Jin Yan took a closer look at Yingying, and said, "Grandmother, I will give you something." After finishing speaking, she took out a jade pendant from her pocket and hung it around Yingying's neck, saying, "I begged from Kaiyuan Temple. Please The Buddha blesses you with no disasters or difficulties."

Li Sichuan taught Yingying to say: "Thank you, uncle and grandma."

"Thank you, uncle and grandma," Yingying said with a smile, "I saw a lot of grandmas today. Uncle and grandma, great grandma." Somehow she knew that the person lying there should be called grandma.

Jin Yan frowned when she heard this, and the tears that Xiao Yu could not bear to go back flowed out again. Mrs. Jin Yan hugged her and said hurriedly: "It's okay, it's okay, you guys go away, there are too many old people here, and there is a lot of gloom. Go up Get in the car."

The car that brought them had been parked at the entrance of the alley, and the driver stood far away waiting for them to talk. Seeing that they seemed to have finished talking, he opened the door and waited for them.Mrs. Jin Yan pushed Xiaoyu into the car and sat down. Li Sichuan got into the car from the other side, and Jin Yan rushed to the side of the car and said: "I see Xiaoyu's state, we won't come when the funeral is over."

Jin Yan sighed again and again, waved his hand and said, "Don't come, go back. It seems that I made a mistake again this time. You can spend more time with her and let her go."

Li Sichuan said: "Okay, then let's go."

He asked the driver to drive, closed the windows, and put the baby in a good seat.

"Father," Yingying asked in a low voice, "Is Mommy sick? Is she crying because of her body pain?"

"Yes, mom is sick, but she's still not recovering. Mom is sick at home, right? Baby sees mom." Li Sichuan said, "With Dr. Li Yiying here, mom will be fine after two days."

"The doctor also sees mom." Yingying said, "Daddy asked the doctor from yesterday."

"Okay, let's call the doctor from yesterday when we get back. Now let's be quiet for a while and let mother rest." Li Sichuan looked at Xiao Yu, who had her eyes closed, without any expression on her face.

Yingying turned sideways to the maximum extent in the safety seat, gently stroking the back of Xiaoyu's hand with her small hand.

Back at the hotel, Xiao Yu lay down.She's tired like she hasn't closed her eyes for three days, or just finished a marathon.Li Sichuan asked her to take a bath before going to sleep, Xiaoyu's eyes were blurred with tears and she kept silent, Li Sichuan waved her arms and made two movements, Xiaoyu stared at him blankly with a puzzled expression on her face.

Li Sichuan said: "I'm spinning."

Xiao Yu was taken aback for a moment, then suddenly smiled.

Li Sichuan started to undress her again, Xiao Yu lazily raised her arms and twisted her waist, and asked, "Then this is peeling off the cocoon?"

"That's right." Li Sichuan said.He put a tub of hot water for Xiaoyu to take a bath, and opened the essential oil bottles next to the bathtub one by one to smell, smell one, and say a name.Roses, almonds, and grape seeds were all discarded, frankincense, myrrh, and lavender were also thrown aside. Finally, he smelled a bottle with no floral and fruity aromas. He gave a satisfied "hmm" and poured two drops into the hot water. Xiao Yu slightly opened her eyes and asked, "What is it?"

"White pine wood." Li Sichuan replied.He looked at her and smiled softly: "Xiao Yu? Is your surname Huo? My surname happens to be Li."

Xiao Yu dug out the long past from the memory bank, and the tears broke the embankment and flowed into the bathtub.

Li Sichuan didn't stop him, and massaged her shoulders and neck with his hands dipped in essential oil, and said in a low voice, "The memory of smell is the longest among all memories. I want you to remember the smell when we first met, then On my behalf. I want you to forget about those unpleasant childhood memories and return to my life with the baby."

Xiao Yu responded with a "yes".

"Okay, it's getting better, and the skin will wrinkle after soaking." Li Sichuan picked up the bathrobe and wrapped Xiao Yu, "Go to sleep, wake up and take us to eat the delicious hometown food that you think is the best."

"Where's Yingying?" Xiaoyu asked, "I'm going to scare her like this." She had a guilty expression on her face.

(End of this chapter)