Volume 5: Qingming Chapter 18 Peach Yogurt
Gu Yao stretched out her hand and caught a few drops of rain.
She saw a circle of transparent silk thread that had been wrapped around her wrist at some point.
"One time when I woke up, I found myself at home. The lights were off and the plates and bowls on the dining table were not collected," Gu Yao retracted her hand. "I looked around the house and found him on the balcony. He was sitting on the ground, crying. At that time, I had been dead for three years."
"I just ordered a takeout milk tea." Jiang You said.
"milk tea?"
"Peach yogurt is delicious. I ordered two cups. You can drink it while talking slowly."
"You are such a person," she laughed, "you are really..."
"It's the weekend, and it's raining," Jiang You stretched his legs forward a little, "It's a good time to drink something sweet. Strawberry and peach flavored drinks are good. Last month, there were a lot of cherry blossom flavored sodas, milk teas, and potato chips."
"Is it delicious?" Gu Yao couldn't help but ask.
"It tastes like cherry. I don't really appreciate it."
After chatting for a few words, Jiang You's phone vibrated. The takeaway had arrived. He walked out of the yard, got the takeaway, took out a cup and handed it to Gu Yao before sitting down on the steps again.
Gu Yao held the cup of milk tea in both hands. She watched the raindrops fall from the eaves, onto the ground, and seeping into the soil.
"He grows a lot of things on the balcony, including various flowers, mint and bell peppers, which can be used for cooking."
"He knows how to live well." Jiang You commented.
"He was very skillful and could make those little houses that glowed. He put them on the balcony with the flowers and plants," Gu Yao's voice gradually became lower. "That day, there were a few clothes hanging on the balcony, empty flower pots piled up in the corner, and the little house was gone."
Gu Yao sniffed, inserted the straw into the milk tea cup, and took a small sip, which tasted sour, sweet and cold.
“He’s blaming himself,” she said.
"Didn't I ask you to go for a checkup in time?"
"It's not just this," Gu Yao shook her head, " If I hadn't been pregnant with Xiaohui, we might have divorced a long time ago."
"Why?"
"Wensong and I went to the same university, but in different majors. After graduation, he went to work in the Justice Bureau, and I joined a company doing business. Our parents felt that we had been dating for two years and that our jobs were stable, so they urged us to get married, so we got married," Gu Yao bit her lip. "I have a strong personality, and his mother also has a strong personality. I travel a lot for my job. During the busiest period, I was on business trips for a month. Every day when I woke up, I was a little dazed and didn't know where I was."
"You need to combine work and rest."
"At that time, everyone around me had the same idea: to fight hard while we were young. We encouraged each other and looked down on those who just wanted stability and didn't work hard or fight."
"Is your husband like that?" Jiang You asked.
"Yes, I have a family, so it's definitely different from being single than it is from other people. I think he's holding me back..."
"You just want a divorce?"
"Yes, plus the conflict with my mother-in-law," Gu Yao sighed, "At that time, we had already discussed how to divide the property, but then I found out I was pregnant. I originally wanted to have an abortion, but the month was not too late, and he agreed. But on the day I agreed to have the procedure, I suddenly burst into tears. I didn't know why I was crying at the time, and then the divorce was dropped, and neither of us mentioned it again."
"I can't bear to part with it."
"After Xiaohui was born, I weaned her off breast milk and returned to work after my maternity leave. I had fallen behind for a long time."
“Work harder?”
"Yes, and then there were some health problems. I always thought it was because I had given birth, so my energy and physical strength could not keep up, and I didn't think about other things. When Xiaohui was one year old, during the physical examination, the doctor asked me to go to the outpatient clinic for a follow-up check. I didn't pay much attention to it and delayed it for a while. As a result, when I checked it again, the disease had already metastasized."
"Then what?"
"At that time, I felt that God was so unfair. I worked so hard, why did he let me get such a disease?"
"I was stupid at work."
"Yeah," Gu Yao smiled bitterly, "I still think I'm smart, pretty, and motivated..."
"You're just finding your husband increasingly unpleasant to the eye?"
"Yes." Gu Yao admitted.
"Let me say something," Jiang You shook the cup of milk tea, "I think your husband is a good man, and it's not easy to take care of a little girl, so I didn't want to do this business at first."
"Yeah?"
"People have to look forward. It's been four years. He might want to remarry or find a confidante. If you suddenly appear in front of him, he might stagnate again."
"I know, so I have to meet him." Gu Yao took a big sip of milk tea, her eyes were firm, "At first I wanted to find that little girl. I searched for her in the hospital for a long time but couldn't find her. One day I saw Jiang Mo. I could see him. At that time I already knew some common sense about being a ghost. He was not fully alive at that time."
"Then what?"
"During the winter solstice, Wensong went to my grave and burned some paper for me. I followed him. That day, my neighbor was buried and I saw him again. His soul had been completed."
“Craft work.”
"I asked them, and I knew you, but then I lost consciousness again, and when I woke up again it was Qingming Festival this year."
"What a coincidence! I thought they had already been reincarnated."
"I have already gone."
"That's good."
"I heard what the man who buried them said. He cried for a long time and said he was sorry for them because it took him so long to raise the money to buy a cemetery so that my sister and brother-in-law could rest in peace."
"Do you want to eat anything else?" Jiang You asked.
"When I was alive, the last time I was conscious, I was in the intensive care unit, with bandages on my hands and feet, a tube in my mouth, and a breathing tube. I wanted to speak, but there was no way. I couldn't say anything. I, I knew I was going to die. I wanted to speak, but I couldn't..."
Gu Yao took a deep breath and tried to suppress her emotions. "When Wensong was studying, he was very popular in college. He was very clever and thoughtful. He would record interesting things in his life with paintings. He was also a member of the school cycling team. He always said that he had three goals: to ride to Tibet, Qinghai, and the Qilian Mountains grassland."
“I was also very adventurous when I was younger.”
" After marriage, he got caught between me and his parents, and even between me and my parents. My parents kept telling me that as a girl, it would be fine if I could just get by at work. I felt that they didn't understand me. It was always Wensong who was messing around and trying to prevent the conflict from escalating. In order for everyone to live in peace, he was the one who did all the housework so that I could work on my so-called career. But what career was that? I thought I had made a lot of friends and met some great people at some events, so I felt like I had become a very powerful person."
“It’s also useful.”
"But I don't like my job as much as I thought I would."
"Corporate management is also a science. In order to get employees to work hard, those particularly powerful companies have hired many psychologists, anthropologists and sociologists at high prices, just to find ways to make employees willing to work hard. Company culture, team cohesion, self-improvement, this system was created by countless elites with annual salaries of millions or tens of millions. You don't have to blame yourself. Your opponents are too strong."
"But I was avoiding it, avoiding the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, avoiding family responsibilities, and throwing it all to him to bear, and even despised him for not making progress. As a result, he still felt that it was all his responsibility and that it was his fault. He didn't force me to go for a check-up, didn't care about me more, didn't become very strong, and didn't let me work so hard. After I died, he went to see his parents every week. They were in poor health, and he had to take care of Xiaohui. But what about the things he wanted to do? Even if it wasn't cycling, even if I was destined to die early, I could have taken some time out with him every year to go to the places he wanted to go, or just stay at home and watch soap operas together."
Gu Yao raised her head.
She looked at the dripping water from the eaves and tears flowed from her eyes.
"I finally understood why I cried at that time, because I couldn't bear to leave."
Spring thunder sounded.
The sound of rain increased.
Jiang You handed the white postcard to her and said, "Here you go."
Gu Yao picked up the postcard and asked, "What is this?"
"postcard."
Gu Yao saw her fingers begin to melt, the spider silk break, and her soul slowly melt into the postcard.
"He is a person who can live a good life, you don't have to worry too much." Jiang You said.
"I know."
The postcards fluttered to the ground .
Above is a little girl with a bright smile.
Jiang You picked up the postcard and put it in his pocket.
He heard the door open.
He turned around and saw Fang Wensong standing behind the door in a daze. After seeing Jiang You, he said, "I fell asleep. Sorry, it was thundering just now, right? I woke up when I heard the thunder."
"Yes, there was thunder," Jiang You asked, "Did you dream about anything?"
"I, I dreamed about my wife. She, she..."
"What did she say to you?"
Fang Wensong looked a little stunned. He said, "She said thank you to me..."
