Chapter 19: Both Fathers
He Shu left in a hurry this morning and forgot to bring lunch.
Upon seeing this, Aunt Liu shared half of her lunch with him. He Shu was too embarrassed to take it, so Uncle Zhang stuffed another pancake into his hand.
Unable to resist the enthusiasm of these uncles and aunts, He Shu ate more fully than ever before when he brought his own food.
"You are at the age when you can eat well. When my second child was about your age, he could eat half a pot for one meal."
Uncle Zhang laughed and said, "The little brat is eating me out of my house. There is truth in the old saying."
As we were chatting and laughing, the sky gradually darkened and a large black cloud came over from the south at a very fast speed.
Aunt Liu looked up at the sky and said, "Oh, the weather forecast said it would rain today, but I saw the sun was shining brightly this morning, so I thought it was wrong."
A few people brought vacuum cleaners, towels and other things back into the house, and soon the rain started to fall.
After working for several days, the ground was covered with dust. Raindrops hit the ground, and the air was filled with the smell of dust.
He Shu looked at the rain outside which was getting heavier and heavier, and felt a little regretful. No one would come to wash the car on this rainy day.
He only washed two cars in the morning. I guess not many people came to wash their cars because everyone knew it was going to rain today.
Zhao Qishui ordered takeout at noon, ate half of it and left it there, then sat at the door with his feet up and smoked. In a short while, the rice was covered with cigarette butts.
He Shu took a look, walked over, picked it up and threw it into the trash can, then found an ashtray and placed it in front of Zhao Qishui.
The work outside couldn’t be done, but the cars that had already been driven into the shop still needed to be repaired.
When they had nothing to do in the afternoon, Aunt Liu and her friends took some door mats to the eaves outside and washed them with the water flowing down from the pipes on the upper floor.
There were not many cushions, so Aunt Liu didn't need He Shu's help. He Shu just watched a few technicians repair the car.
Maybe all boys have a natural interest in machinery in their genes. Even someone like He Shu, who is a little bit of a germaphobe, has an urge to crawl under the car to take a look.
"He Shu, bring me the oil recovery barrel."
Zhao Qishui suddenly shouted, He Shu was stunned, and hurriedly looked for the recycling bin, but he had no idea what it was.
Xiao Dong took the bucket and said with a smile, "Master, just call me."
Zhao Qishui glanced at him and said, "Have you finished your work? Go do your own thing."
Xiao Dong was used to being scolded by Zhao Qishui, so he went into the operating room with a smile on his face and started working.
He Shu handed the recycling bin to the boss, and the boss started telling him to take this and that, even though some of the things were right next to him.
He Shu couldn't tell them apart at first, but after helping a few times, he actually recognized many things and knew what they were used for.
In the end, he simply asked He Shu to stand under the raised car chassis and help him hold the oil barrel to collect the waste oil.
This was the first time that He Shu saw what a car chassis looked like.
The car in front of him must have been driven for a long time, and many parts were rusted. He Shu felt a little itchy and wanted to rub out all the rusty parts.
Zhao Qishui didn't talk to He Shu either. He just focused on his own work, pumping out the waste oil from the car and replacing it with new engine oil.
He didn't chase He Shu away. He Shu just watched from the side, observing every move carefully.
“If you want to learn how to repair a car, you must first learn how to drive and understand every structure of a car.”
After Zhao Qishui finished his work, he threw a black rag to He Shu and said, "Wipe the lid clean."
He Shu nodded, grabbed the rag and started wiping it carefully.
Maybe the customers were not in a hurry to use the cars parked here, so Zhao Qishui worked for a while and then went to sit at the door.
He Shu put the used things back in place and saw a box of business cards among a pile of accessory boxes. He pulled it out and saw the photos of children printed on the business cards.
Zhao Yan, male, born on March 16, 1994, from Ningjiangkou, Danhe City, went missing on June 1, 1998 in Longquan Street, Xigang District, Danhe City. When he went missing, he was wearing a top with a red panda pattern and khaki pants...
"My son." The boss came over at some point and took the business card: "You were born in 1994, too?"
He Shu nodded, not knowing what to say. It turned out that the boss's son was missing.
Zhao Qishui slapped the business card on He Shu and said, "Take one. If you see someone who looks like me in the future, please ask for me."
He Shu held the business card and nodded heavily.
He felt very complicated. His boss had been looking for his son for so many years and had not given up, while his father, who lived in the same city, had completely forgotten that he existed...
When He Shu remembered He Zhicheng, He Zhicheng had been knocking on the door of the old building for a long time.
He ran to look for He Shu, but found him empty-handed. Today was Sunday and He Shu didn't have to go to school.
The funny thing is that he wanted to find his son, but he had no other way to contact him except home and school.
He Zhicheng waited at the door of the third floor for a long time, but He Shu didn't come back.
Instead, he was seen by Tan Kuan's mother who lived next door, who opened the door and asked him all kinds of questions.
"You are He Shu's father, right? Oh, I haven't seen you for several years."
"I heard that you bought a house in the new city? The house prices there are expensive, right? Hey, who are you looking for? Let me tell you, you really need to take care of your son. He went crazy the day before yesterday..."
"Oh, you don't know how scary it is. It's like he wants to kill someone. He throws that thing around and smashes the bottles..."
He Zhicheng was annoyed by the old woman and hurried downstairs and got into the car in the rain.
At this moment, he was only worried about his future and didn't take He Shu's madness to heart.
He was a little upset because he couldn't find He Shu.
At this time, He Zhicheng's cell phone rang. He took a look and saw that it was his unit leader. He immediately had a bad feeling.
…
Song Jing was also very upset at this time. She had just made an appointment to play mahjong with someone, but Yiyi was crying at home.
She was scolding her daughter when He Zhicheng opened the door and came back, dripping wet.
Song Jing looked at the clock. It was only two o'clock in the afternoon, and it was clearly not time to get off work.
"Why are you back so early? Look, your clothes are still dripping with water. They've all stained the carpet. Stand at the door and don't come in."
Song Jing's eyes were full of disgust. Her daughter sat on the ground, sobbing.
He Zhicheng seemed to be deaf to everything. He walked straight into the living room without even taking off his shoes. He lay down on the sofa without caring how wet his body was.
"Are you crazy? Get up quickly. The sofa is dirty."
Song Jing hurriedly pulled He Zhicheng away: "Why are you doing this ? Who are you showing this to?"
The three words "ghost-like" reminded He Zhicheng of what Qi Xue said in the morning.
His inner panic, fear, and despair when his boss called him and asked him to suspend his work and stay at home all mixed together in an instant.
He Zhicheng stood up suddenly and slapped Song Jing in the face.
Song Jing was beaten and fell directly onto the coffee table, and the fruit plate and some miscellaneous items on it fell to the ground instantly.
The sound of ping-pang-clang scared Yiyi so much that she stopped crying.
The room suddenly became quiet. Song Jing touched her face which had lost consciousness in an instant and climbed up in disbelief.
Suddenly, he rushed towards He Zhicheng like crazy: "You dare to hit me! I will fight you!"
