Weiqian arrived home at 3:30 in the morning.
He stood in the doorway pinched the bridge of the nose, first to the door inhaled deeply, and slowly spit it out. The long way home, he was all the way anxious gradually subsided, replaced by, from the bottom of his heart do not want to push the door into the home.
Of course, you can't go in without it.
Gently open the door, the living room soft reading lamp but lit, Wei Qian a stunned, to a probe, saw Wei Zhiyuan is sitting on the sofa flipping through a modern Chinese dictionary like a fat book, face hangs a pair of bright black circles, raised his head to him and smiled a little.
Wei Qian lowered his voice and asked, "Why aren't you sleeping?"
"Waiting for you," Wei Zhiyuan said, standing up, "Have you eaten? There's nothing else, nothing else at home, I'll cook you a bowl of frozen dumplings, right?"
Wei Qian: "Why are you waiting for me, I can't cook if I want to eat it myself?"
Wei Zhiyuan boiled water without looking back, "I'm afraid you'll be in a hurry."
Wei Qian took a red-eye flight for more than four hours, and then rushed home from the airport, nearly an hour of driving, every muscle in his body is sore, by rights should be extremely tired, but he is used to this kind of situation, and almost do not think about "tired" aspect.
But the fact that there was someone waiting for him at home in the dead of night seemed to jerk his spine at once.
Wei Qian sat down with his butt on a small stool in the dining room, his arched back pressed against the cold wall, his shirt crumpled into a ball, and his open collar revealing his clavicle that looked more and more protruding and his pronounced neck tendon.
Wei Zhiyuan put the frozen dumplings down into the boiling water, turned to a cup of water, pinched a small handful of lotus hearts and put them in it to soak away, and handed it to Wei Qian: "Defeat the fire."
Wei Qian leaned bonelessly in the middle of the corner between the locker and the wall, and asked with a somewhat wooden expression, "How's it going?"
"Into the ICU, just finished surgery today, temporarily can not visit," Wei Zhiyuan pulled a chair next to him to sit down, "Today I talked to the doctor, he said that after a few days the situation can be a little more stable, every day you can arrange for half an hour of family visitation time, don't you be anxious, anxious is also It's useless."
Wei Qian then understood what he meant - yes, there is no use being anxious, this is a matter of life and death.
He kept quiet, drinking the lotus heart infused water, so bitter it numbed his tongue.
He always thought that Mrs. Song was a dynamite packet ready to blow up a bunker, but forgot that the packet was already over seventy years old.
Some years ago she accidentally slipped and fell, but apart from startling the passers-by, nothing happened and she got up again by herself. After that incident, she even proudly boasted that a fall was no big deal, and that when she was young she could throw over two hundred pounds of sacks onto the car by herself, and she didn't know if that was true or bragging.
In order to save a few dollars, she walked out of ten miles every week, to the morning market to carry them to eat a week of vegetables home, ten pounds or even twenty pounds is often the case, the young man carry up feel pressure hand, she carried all the way back, never take the bus.
She is famous for saying that they won't make a dime out of my pocket.
...... even though they are no longer short of money.
Her decades-old rude demeanor didn't change a bit when she moved to a relatively upscale neighborhood, where there wasn't an evil old lady to yell at her all day, and she quickly found new ways to embarrass the three brothers - running red lights, spitting, standing on the side of the road and blowing her nose, and when she was done, she'd put her hand to the side of the street light or the poles.
For a while the neighborhood committee advocating civilized community, to combat spitting behavior, caught a fine of five dollars, Song old lady with people leaning on the old, splashing and cheating everything, so that people civilized red sleeve band later see her to avoid walking.
Wei Qian, although he did not want to buy anything good, but did not want to spend money on her, royal jelly, American ginseng, Cordyceps sinensis, these have bought her, but the old thing is ungrateful, not only face to face to scold him for having enough to eat, behind the back of the hand will be sold out - is from the beginning to the end, from the inside to the outside of the ungrateful.
She thought those were for official ladies and landlady's to eat, things she shouldn't use, and that using them would break her life.
Wei Qian hand gradually generous, every month to give her five thousand dollars in petty cash, she was happy to see the teeth, take the money but only in the hands of the cover, count on a dozen back and forth after locking up.
She holds her head up high every day, thinking that she is now a rich old lady, but this "rich old lady" still wakes up early every morning to sell boiled corn and tea eggs at the roadside stall.
What a worthless, uneducated and unqualified asshole old "no woman".
She wants to give him a hard time every three days, as if it's not a day without a few words. But they have been together for so many years, Wei Qian almost can not imagine how to live without her in the future.
"Brother, eat it while it's hot." Wei Zhiyuan's words called back Wei Qian's soul.
Wei Qian looked at the steaming bowl of frozen dumplings and lost his appetite a bit, the lotus seed hearts were so bitter that he lost his appetite, yet he still reluctantly took it and mechanically forced himself to eat it.
"Where's Xiaobao?" Wei Qian asked.
Wei Zhiyuan said softly, "Tired of crying, sleep."
Wei Qian couldn't help but slow down the speed of his food, and it became harder and harder to swallow.
Wei Zhiyuan continued beside him, "The worst possible scenario is of course ...... I'd better tell you the best case scenario. If grandma can be resuscitated, the most ideal, is that she can walk on her own, barely able to take care of herself - it's impossible to return to the way she was before, and even then, her brain cells will accelerate aging and atrophy, it can be delayed with medication, but it can only maintain the status quo or get worse and worse, and it's impossible to fix it. "
Wei Qian was not a medical student in the science class, but he was born in the biology department, and his specialty more or less overlapped, and as soon as he heard this, he immediately understood.
At that rate, the end result is nothing less than dementia.
He didn't want to eat at all and set the dishes aside.
Wei Zhiyuan analyzed, "If that happens, she might need someone to take care of her closely, I can do other things, but some too close, I can't be too convenient, I can't count on Xiao Bao, I might need to hire a nanny at that time. Brother, do you think this will work?"
Wei Qian was silent for a long time and nodded, "Don't say these words to Xiao Bao."
Wei Zhiyuan: "I know, she's all freaked out."
Wei Zhiyuan just like this, little by little to tell him the current situation, analyze and discuss to deal with different situations, what should be done in the future, his smooth tone and attitude so that Wei Qian full of confusion also followed little by little to precipitate down.
Wei Qian finally from "unimaginable", over to accept the reality, and has a clear line of thinking - she can not die, no matter what becomes, he will give her old age; if she is lucky to die without suffering, then he will give her a dignified death. .
Wei Qian suddenly raised his head to look at Wei Zhiyuan and asked him, "You said that Little Treasure is scared, if Grandma has a death, won't you be scared?"
Wei Zhiyuan cupped one of his hands, gently clutched it, and before Wei Qian could feel the difference, he quickly released it again and stood up, "What will you do if I freak out too?"
Wei Qian froze for a moment, Wei Zhiyuan's shadow as he stood up was made taller and taller by the lamp, as if it gathered his entire person inside. He thought to himself, why is this kid's speech getting more and more poking at people?
At the beginning of the period, Wei Qian ran to the hospital all day to see the situation of Mrs. Song, the old bear they have an extraordinarily long time on this expedition, which makes Wei Qian also have to take care of the company's work.
Fortunately, Wei Zhiyuan had completely moved back in from school, and Wei Qian felt that things weren't as stretched as he thought they were.
Wei Zhiyuan was like an extra brain that grew out of him, thinking and doing more than half of the things for him every day.
He was like a sapling growing taller and taller, holding up half of the rickety roof for him.
And luckily, Mrs. Song didn't die after all. She was resuscitated and left the intensive care unit after ten or so days.
Her words were slurred, but she wasn't stupid yet.
Stayed in the general ward, the family is going to start busy, Xiaobao is still in high school, every day can squeeze in time to the hospital to give a meal has required her to run all the way madly ...... and such a large amount of activity seems to stimulate her growth, two months in the past, she is a 17 or 18 year old girl, her pants are actually shorter a large part of the puberty length challenges the human limits for a time.
Wei Zhiyuan had heavy coursework - not just in school, he was probably studying something else, and every time Wei Qian saw him, he had at least one or two slate-like books by his side.
Wei Zhiyuan running at both ends, the time was shrunk by a large chunk, Wei Qian several times saw him at two or three o'clock in the middle of the night, yawning and sitting in front of the computer to make up the homework, and sometimes simply do it and fall asleep.
Wei Qian will never let him come over to the night shift, he supported a marching bed in Mrs. Song's ward, the company side had to take a long vacation, two whole months, Mrs. Song was discharged from the hospital.
There was no way around it, and ever since Mrs. Song regained her sanity, she had adamantly refused the caregiver.
When Weiqian tried to communicate with her about "finding a nanny to take care of her", she was met with serious protests from Mrs. Song, who, in a muffled voice with a piece of tofu in her mouth, even gesticulated and then yelled for Weiqian to understand what she was thinking, saying, "I'm an old farmer, not the kind of person who can make people work for me. "
Wei Qian said, "Ouch my old ancestor, your old man is still living in the old feudal society how?"
Mrs. Song's eyes glazed over, and Kirika wailed again.
She wouldn't think about delaying her family, delaying them from work and school, losing probably more money, and while she wasn't stupid, she couldn't get her head around that much anymore, and she was even more stubborn than she had been before she got sick.
Wei Qian let out a bitter laugh, "You're really bullying me into being too embarrassed to swear at you, and you're starting to lean on me as well, aren't you?"
Old Mrs. Song was pleased as punch to get the upper hand on him once in a while.
Wei Zhiyuan carefully cut her badly deformed nails and asked Mrs. Song softly, "If you don't hire a nanny, will you let Xiaobao wait for you to wipe yourself, take a bath, and go to the toilet in the future?"
This sentence hit the bull's-eye, and Mrs. Song was silent.
Xiao Bao just happened to come in from outside, she was panting and carrying two insulated buckets for food delivery, and only vaguely heard a tone, and without clarifying the context before and after, she recklessly opened her mouth and said, "I can ah, I can! Grandma, it's okay, I'll serve you."
Mrs. Song didn't say anything, but she didn't say anything about "hiring a nanny" either.
As her body collapsed, she was somewhat at a loss for words and had to become more conformist, which seemed to her to be a matter of principle.
But how could she let Po take care of her?
Bo was spoiled growing up, and the heaviest labor for a little girl was just washing dishes and mopping the floor.
Taking care of the sick is one of the toughest things in the world, and Mrs. Song, who has given her in-laws and her partner a bunch of old age care, knows it better than anyone.
Finally, she insisted on their own "more than two hundred pounds of sacks thrown on the car" perseverance, every day as long as they catch a gap in the exercise, miraculously like a crutch to support the wall to move slowly.
------------
Reading in sections 49
If you want to talk about inner strength, there's really no one as good as this old thing who has lived through three quarters of a century.
On the day when Mrs. Song was discharged from the hospital, Wei Qian was going to pick her up, but that evening he received a call from the administrative office of the company, saying that there was an important project to promote, and now he had to go through the "three meetings and one layer" [Note], so please make sure he attended.
This major decisions to be made through the "three meeting a layer" of the rules, is a recent revision of the company's articles of incorporation, the implementation of less than half a year, or at that time, the old bear dug from his father that a professional manager to mention, with their company has a little bit of a rise and scale, finally came to the standardization and high-speed development of the stage.
Wei Qian walked out of the hospital room and stood in the hallway, frowning as he asked, "Push which important project?"
The head told him, "It's that health retreat seascape resort project in C City last time ah."
Wei Qian asked nonchalantly, "Who pushed it, brain pit isn't it?"
The other party heard his bad tone, hesitated for a moment, and said warily, "It's Xiong Dong."
Wei Qian: "Then you transfer him to me now."
Admin: "He's already home ......"
Wei Qian: "What about talking about fish?"
Admin: "Probably still on the plane, he said he'd be back in time for tomorrow's meeting."
Wei Qian cursed in a low voice, usually in charge of administration is the three fat, Wei Qian and they do not have much contact, he came and went every day in a hurry, not much to say, and then the newly recruited employees are basically a little scared of him.
The little girl in the administration was even more uncertain in her heart, and asked carefully, "Then ...... can I ask, are you sure you can come tomorrow?"
Wei Qian sighed, "I have something at home, this ......"
"Brother, you have something to go your way." Wei Zhiyuan appeared behind him at some point, reaching out and propping up the ward door, looking as if he was half-hugging him, "There's me, don't worry."
Wei Qian glanced at him, followed by two seconds of silence, and finally, said to the person on the other end of the phone, "Alright, I'll go over tomorrow."
He wasn't pretending, he was really quite relieved about Wei Zhiyuan.
The next morning Wei Zhiyuan happened to have no class, he stayed at the hospital that night to keep watch, Wei Qian called the old bear twice, the other party did not answer, he had to explain to Wei Zhiyuan, he went out to find the old bear to ask for punishment.
The old bear is actually at home, pretending to be a grandson and not answering his phone.
The door is not locked, vainly closed, a push on the open, Wei Qian stepped in, nearly choked a heel - the old bear's home burned several columns of incense, so that around the cloud mountain mist around the fairy atmosphere, are fast catching up with the Yaochi.
That fat head fish do not know what disease, the sofa cushions on the floor as a futon, sitting cross-legged on it, hand pinching a string of wooden rosary beads, sitting face to face with the wall. Hanging on the wall of a large capital copy of the "Prajna Paramita Heart Sutra" in full, the scripture copied the word large line sparse, but also quite occupy space.
Wei Qian did not figure out what rhythm this was, and with a glance, he knew that sister-in-law Xiong was not at home.
The living room floor is either incense ash or tattered sofa cushions, almost no footing, Wei Qian walked in like a thunderbolt, scalp numb and asked: "How do you mean? You want to convert to my Buddha? Where is my sister?"
The old bear seems to expect him to come, heard the noise even did not return: "Out of town traveling to go - if she is at home I would not dare to do so, you sit down."
Wei Qian looked at the other couch cushion on the floor he was pointing at, decisively ignored him, and sat down on the couch - he had thought that the old bear had gone crazy, and only grudgingly conceded, after hearing his decade-long fear of sister-in-law Xiong, that he probably hadn't gone completely insane.
"What the hell are you trying to ......"
The old bear raised his hand to stop his words, "Wait a minute, Ninety-nine to one, I still have the last sutra to finish, wait for me for two minutes."
Then he literally began to bow his head and recite verses written in Sanskrit, which at first sounded like some sort of strange bird call.
Wei Qian waited for him to finish his recitation before asking patiently, in the spirit of respecting other people's religious beliefs, "Have you begun to believe in Buddhism?"
Old Bear: "Don't believe it."
Wei Qian pulled out a napkin and plugged his nose: "Don't believe me? If you don't believe me, why do you make your house look like a big smokehouse? Are you sick? Smoke me to death."
The old bear said languidly, in the same tone as a dancing god, "I'm looking for an anchor."
Wei Qian waved his hand, "How do you like to send how to send, I don't talk to you about this light, just now someone called and told me that the project in C city, in the end what is going on?"
The old bear climbed up from the ground somewhat clumsily, "Oh, that, you wait, I'll get you the project proposal to go--China's first ecological convalescent villa cluster, very attractive."
"Don't you fool me with the surname Zhang's set, it's not like you're going to sell it to me," Wei Qian leaned heavily on the sofa, "Are you on the wrong medication Comrade Xiong Yingjun? You tell me, what is the core value of this what healing villa, what cancer discovery suppression center?"
"I told you, as rich people start to pursue quality of life, health is ......"
"Fuck your health, do you know what health means?" Wei Qian cut him off, "The health they seek is face-saving sports, organic food that's like a psychological placebo, and countryside farmhouses that evoke memories of their childhood and give them the illusion that they're still young - how many of those who are superstitious about health care don't shy away from medicine? They'd rather practice qigong than listen to a doctor tell you what kind of cancer you have and how you need chemotherapy! Are you planning to make this program a hospice club?"
The old bear was dumbfounded for a moment, however he quickly calmed down, "The mountains are beautiful and there is no pollution, such a place, the title is just a gimmick, the mountain hot springs and the feeling of seclusion is what people really need, the villa is not worrying about selling."
Wei Qian said: "You are pure fart, villa project is much more risky than others, even if you really want to do, you can not build a row in the outskirts of the city? Non-running to that poor countryside, even the local farmers are rare, who are you going to sell to?"
Old Bear says, "Sold to those who wish to escape the city, all the stress and thought, and want to spend some time in isolation in the mountains."
Wei Qian said cynically, "Terminally ill people who wish to wait for death in isolation?"
Old Bear didn't laugh or retort, he just looked at Wei Qian quietly and replied, "Family members of terminally ill patients."
Wei Qian first felt that he simply couldn't communicate with Old Bear today, and he was just about to go by the seat of his pants and lash out at this often tolerant and conciliatory oldest brother for once, and with that, he sensed a hint of something wrong.
"Wait, Bear, what do you mean?"
"She followed you and suffered countless hardships, and when you finally wanted to be nicer to her, she didn't have the time," Old Xiong's eyes reddened without warning, his eyes turned to that wall covered with Buddhist scriptures, and his expression gradually calmed down, returning to a sort of numb general indifference, as he stared at those scriptures and niches as if he were glibly said to Wei Qian, "How do you think the family will want to make amends? It can't be made up in any way. Do you think that at this time, if you want this person to exhaust his financial resources to create an artificial paradise for his family, while at the same time providing the necessary medical services, all kinds of commercial services, and at the same time being able to detach himself from reality and comfortably enjoy his life, would he be willing to do it?"
Wei Qian looked at him almost shocked.
The old bear said, "If it were me, I'd do it."
Author's comments: [Note] Three meetings and one layer: the shareholders' meeting, the board of directors, the supervisory board and senior management