Chapter 3 He Zhicheng's Regret
Only three days had passed since Teacher Li Mei came, and Qi Yue finally left.
Half of it was because her condition was too serious to wait for treatment, and the other half was because she gave up on it herself.
She didn't want to leave her child with a huge debt because of her reluctance, so she left in a timely manner. When the deposit in the hospital was used up, Qi Yue passed away quietly.
Equally quiet was He Shu, a boy who had just turned fourteen, who sat at the door of the morgue all night.
One person changed my mother's clothes, one person prepared her remains, one person followed the hospital car to send my mother to the crematorium, and another person carried the still warm urn back to the home where he and my mother had lived together.
It was not until the door was closed, isolating the whole world from outside, that this boy, who had always been strong and steady, finally shed his first cry.
On Monday, Li Mei saw He Shu appear at his seat. The black mourning cloth on his arm hurt the young teacher's heart.
After class, Li Mei wanted to talk to He Shu and comfort him, but He Shu stuffed two hundred yuan into her pocket.
"Thank you, teacher. My mother doesn't need the money now."
When the child mentioned his mother, his expression was very normal. Li Mei couldn't see He Shu's inner thoughts, but she felt that the child seemed to be more indifferent to outsiders...
He Zhicheng hasn't seen his son for a while. In the past, He Shu would come to ask him for living expenses on certain days. Although the father and son were not that close, they would always see each other once a month.
Now that Song Jing is pregnant, her temper is getting worse. He Zhicheng doesn't want to upset her because of his ex-wife's affairs, and he doesn't pay too much attention to Qi Yue and He Shu's affairs. When he remembered that he hadn't given He Shu the living expenses, two months had passed.
Qi Yue's phone number became invalid, and He Zhicheng thought she had changed her number. So he secretly went to her old home when he got off work early one day.
In fact, there is nothing wrong with Qi Yue. He Zhicheng divorced her because she was too good.
A good one has no temper, a good one doesn't have to worry about anything, a good one makes him feel that life is dull and starts to want more passion.
Then Song Jing appeared, a woman who could act coquettishly and willfully, but also knew how to read people's expressions and was willing to flatter them.
He Zhicheng did live for two years of romance and passion, but all these pleasures in life that he once thought were necessary slowly changed in the daily life of firewood, rice, oil and salt.
Song Jing's coquettishness turned into unreasonable behavior. After several quarrels with Song Jing, He Zhicheng began to miss Qi Yue's gentle and obedient nature.
In the old residential building, even the sensor lights were broken, and it was dark and cold.
He Zhicheng walked to the third floor and looked at the familiar yet unfamiliar door in front of him, as if he could feel the warmth coming from behind the door.
After knocking on the door a few times, He Zhicheng felt as nervous as when he was dating Qi Yue before getting married. He wondered what Qi Yue's expression would be when she saw him. Would she be surprised? Surprised? Or angry?
No, no, Qi Yue wouldn't be angry. Even when she got divorced, she never blamed herself.
The door opened, but no light came out. An expressionless boy appeared in front of him.
The boy looked 70% like Qi Yue, but his eyes didn't have the gentleness that Qi Yue had when looking at people.
"Xiaoshu, why don't you turn on the lights? Is your mother not off work yet?" He Zhicheng said as he walked into the house, not noticing the strange look in the child's eyes.
He Shu closed the door after he entered the room.
"Why is it so cold in the house? Isn't the stove on?"
The building is decades old and has no collective heating, so we have to buy coal to burn every winter.
He Zhicheng recalled that when he had just married Qi Yue, he used his bicycle to haul coal lumps home in baskets just to save the dozen dollars it would have cost to hire a bike.
Past memories flooded into his mind like a tide, and He Zhicheng's hand touched the switch familiarly, as naturally as returning home ten years ago.
The room was instantly lit up. The dining table in the middle of the living room, which had been used for more than ten years, became an altar. A large portrait stood on the urn. The person in his memory just now was looking at him with a gentle smile.
"Bang!" He Zhicheng heard something break. He lowered his head and looked around in confusion, but nothing was broken. So what was that sound just now?
…
It was past ten o'clock at night. Song Jing stood on the balcony with her bulging belly, watching He Zhicheng's car drive into the community.
The room was as warm as spring, but her heart felt a little cold.
It is said that men are animals who think with their lower body, especially married men. Most of the cheating occurs during the period when their wives are pregnant and they cannot have sex.
He Zhicheng didn't come home so late today without saying a word . If she hadn't called his workplace, she wouldn't have known that he had left early today.
He doesn't answer the phone and doesn't go home after work. Apart from hanging out, Song Jing can't think of anything else that could keep him away.
There was a sound of "click" from the door lock being twisted. Song Jing did not look back, waiting for He Zhicheng to make up a lie to trick her. However, her calves were cramping from standing so much, and there was no response from He Zhicheng.
Song Jing returned to the room and saw He Zhicheng lying on the bed without taking off his clothes. A feeling of irritation rose from the bottom of her heart.
"How many times have I told you to take off your coat in the hallway when you get home? The dust on it will be brought into the room. You don't have to wash the sheets, right?"
"Where did you go today?" Song Jing put her hands on her hips and saw annoyance on He Zhicheng's face.
Disgusted? Once upon a time, He Zhicheng's discontent would only appear when he mentioned his ex-wife. Since when did this expression belong to Song Jing?
"Speak to me? Where have you been? Why didn't you answer my call ?"
The longer He Zhicheng remained silent, the angrier Song Jingjue became.
She walked a few steps to the bed, picked up a pillow and smashed it on He Zhicheng's head.
It didn't hurt when you were hit by a pillow, but He Zhicheng cried.
It wasn't the kind of crying that was like shouting at the top of one's lungs, nor was it the kind of sobbing that was like sobbing softly, but the kind of crying that was like a dead heart and shedding tears silently.
"You, what happened to you? Did the pillow hit your eyes?" Song Jing was a little panicked. At this moment, she felt a strangeness in He Zhicheng.
"Qi Yue is dead!" He Zhicheng muttered to himself.
"What did you say?" Song Jing heard it clearly, but she was not sure. Qi Yue, who she had always compared herself with and always tried to feel superior to her, was dead?
"Qi Yue is dead, woo~" He Zhicheng buried his face in the quilt and cried.
Song Jing was also shocked by the news, but when she turned around and saw He Zhicheng crying so sadly, she began to feel bad again.
"Didn't you say you had no feelings for her? Didn't you say you loved me? Now that she's dead, why are you crying so hard?"
Song Jing's words caused He Zhicheng to stop crying for a moment, but then he cried even louder.
He didn't know why he was crying. Was it because of Qi Yue's death or because of his own stupidity?
