So good she loves to laugh, hidden in his wallet, engraved in his heart

At first, he just kept squatting beside the vegetable stall, staring at the wallet in a daze.

The students who were hurriedly hiding from the tricycle stepped on the bamboo basket unintentionally, toon scattered all over the steps, and more fell under the stone bridge and floated on the water. The person who made the mistake was full of guilt, and bent over and over again and again, trying to help him pick up the cleaner parts, he waved his hand: "No, you go to class first, don't be late, it's okay, I'll do it myself."

Unfortunately, he was old and slow to move. Before he could pick up much, he was trampled by passers-by.

The child pursed his lips in embarrassment, looked at the time, and seemed to have made up his mind. He put down his schoolbag, rolled up his trousers, crossed the bluestone slab, cleaned the toon on the road, and even handed it back to him. . Finally, I bow deeply and apologize.

I passed the vegetable market and witnessed the whole process. The old man is kind, the child is polite, the toon is green and dripping with water, and it is more than fresh. It happened that the family sent a box of eggs and seven wild toon, which can be eaten for a long time.

I walked up to the old man and explained the purpose of my visit. He first carefully picked the defective part of the toon, then gathered it with both hands, then tied the straw and knotted it, and then helped me put it in the back basket. After doing all this, he stretched out his index finger and bent down, indicating that he wanted nine yuan.

I looked around and didn't see the receipt code. He smiled and said, "It doesn't matter, you can give it again later. I won't use that stuff. I'll talk about it when you have cash."

He insisted on doing so, and I had to come back another day. I walked down the stone steps to the fruit market, and when I looked back at him, he was squatting beside the vegetable stall again, staring at the wallet in a daze.

When I found him again, he seemed to have forgotten me, staring blankly at the ten dollars I handed over. I drew "nine" with my index finger like he did before, reminding him: "Toon." Then he suddenly realized that he took out a wallet from the inner layer of his coat, and took out a one-yuan bill from the inside before taking my money. .

I joked: "If I don't come, what will you do? If everyone comes to take advantage, won't you go bankrupt."

He smiled and ignored my teasing. After putting the wallet back in his pocket, he picked up an old book and looked at it quietly.

After a while, he remembered the business and explained embarrassedly: "I just lost my mind again, sorry little girl, look at these dishes, pumpkin tips, Xiaoyanghai persimmons (small tomatoes), dried tofu, dolls Vegetables... you can choose whatever you want, hey! Old Zhang, it's been a long time, so I still want to order dry cucumbers today?"

A man about the same age as him came next, carrying a blue cloth bag, slightly wrinkled, with the words "Drugstore Opening Ceremony" printed on it. There were also several small plastic bags stuffed in the cloth bag. It has been used repeatedly for a long time.

They started chatting in an instant, and I was pushed aside by him again.

Both of them are layer upon layer of years, and the past is like a river rolling in, completely ignoring passers-by who come to ask the price of vegetables. I was anxious, old man, old man, you stare at your wallet all day long, and you are staring at the hole, how can you turn a blind eye to the business of the vegetable stall! Do you still want to make money?

I was so anxious that I wanted to help him sell vegetables, but he and Lao Zhang talked more and more. It wasn't until Lao Zhang came home with a cane and vegetables, he turned around and sat down while feeling the bamboo basket.

Strong curiosity arises spontaneously, and I move to him and ask.

"Old man, do you really sell vegetables? It seems that you don't care about making money, so why do you count money all day long?"

"Of course I sell vegetables, but when have I been counting money?"

"Then why do you keep staring at the wallet?"

"Oh, that, that is a long story..."

He didn't say it after all.

In a noodle shop a few blocks away, I met Lao Zhang. He arrived one step ahead of me, and he was enjoying himself. When he saw me, he warmly greeted me and sat in the vacant seat beside me, and asked, "Daughter, do you know Lao Deng?"

The acquaintance of Deng Bo and I can be explained in a few words, so I asked Lao Zhang in return. He held the bowl and drank the last sip of soup, and talked for a long time. From his long speeches mixed with emotion and memories, I have roughly summed up the old man's situation.

The old man surnamed Deng, a local, lives in a vegetable production brigade 15 kilometers away. In the early years, he went out to work, and returned to his hometown after a few decades. He repaired the overgrown earthen house. He had no parents, no mother, no siblings, no wife and no children. Living alone, the cost is quite low, even if the government subsistence allowance is sufficient, I don’t know why he started selling vegetables.

Dengbo didn't talk to me much that day, maybe it was because of my rash question that he didn't know how to answer, he just took out his wallet tremblingly and handed it to me.

It is a very simple style, and the colors that have faded from the surface can be estimated to have been used for at least twenty years. At that time, he saw that I was embarrassed to open it, and took the wallet back.

He carefully took out a photo from his wallet, wiped it with a white handkerchief, and handed it to me with a smile. The one-inch black-and-white old photo, after so many years, has become as thin as a postage stamp. In the photo is a smiling girl with two pigtails and a grin, full of youth, looking only fifteen or sixteen years old.

Is it his daughter? After looking at it carefully, I compared it with the old man, it is not very similar, not to mention the old Zhang said that he has no children. And Deng Bo did not explain, just rubbed the photo and said that it was almost time today, it was time to close the stall and talk about it another day.

After finishing packing, he carried the burden of vegetables with most of the remaining vegetables, and walked along the street, looking at the skinny, legs and feet still neat.

When I saw him again, he was still squatting under the yellow juniper tree, holding a tin box with a corner, which contained eggplant and tofu made by himself, and the spicy sauce given by the grandma next door. His cheeks were bulging and he could eat it. good smell.

Still smiling as always, with clear eyes, it's a pity that business is not good. Mobile payment is very convenient. Nowadays, few people go out with cash, and there are only a few old customers who patronize his stall.

Seeing me from a distance this time, he had long taken out his wallet and put it on his lap, and I knew he was going to start to confuse me about her in my wallet I had been curious about for a long time.

"Dengbo, who is this?"

"My wife."

It should have been thought long ago, Lao Zhang said that he was married and met in the place where he was working, but he was alone when he returned to his hometown.

He looked up at the blue sky, the yellow quince leaves were swirling, the mottled tree shadows changed positions on his face, he said slowly: "It's been 12 years..." As if his memory was not as good as before, he laughed again, Laughing so hard.

"Little sister, her surname is Lin, her name is 'laugh', and everyone loves to laugh. She is such a good person, but her life is so rough. I took her to take the photo. It was the first time in her life to take a photo. Hall.

The purse was a gift she gave me for the tenth year we were together, and it cost her half a month's wages. I still remember when it was snowing that day, I put her hands in my pockets, her hands were red with cold, and her head was resting on my shoulders.

It was her 31st birthday and our 7th year of marriage. She didn't have a good life with me, it was her birthday, but it was me who received the gift..."

Deng Bo closed the lunch box and put the photo back inside the wallet.

Deng Bo and her in the wallet met in an accident.

One winter night more than 40 years ago, the young Deng Bo just got off the night shift and was going to have a meal with his co-workers at a nearby mutton restaurant and drink some wine to dispel the chill. When I was passing by the alley, I heard the sound of ping ping pong pong. I looked closely and saw that it was a little girl surrounded by a few young people in the workshop next door, to the effect of asking her to agree to the pursuit of one of them.

To say it is a confession, it is obviously a threat from the posture. Originally, Deng Bo adhered to the principle of "one more thing is worse than one less thing", but after drinking a little wine, he couldn't hold back his vigor, so he rushed forward.

Deng Bo was embarrassed when he said this, "I am also hot-headed, can I beat a group of strong men? If this situation happened in the novel, it would be the heroic part of saving the beauty, but the stunned head was beaten to the ground. Qing is not a hero, but she is 'beautiful' while shivering, if beauty can be dumb."

By the time the workers who paid the bill at the mutton restaurant passed by, Deng Bo was already bruised and bruised. The co-workers squatted behind the trash can and lied that the patroller was coming, and a group of people ran away in a hurry. But fortunately, he was so distracted by him, the girl was all right.

When Deng Bo woke up, he saw the top bunk roommate's bed. He didn't know how he got back to the dormitory, but he felt sore all over and bandaged on his head.

He later found out that the girl he rescued was named Lin Xiao, and she was also a worker in the factory, but she was a mute when she first arrived, and was assigned to the most inconspicuous workstation, so she was confronted.

The little girl is good-looking, and the female workers in the workshop envy her dark and shiny hair. However, being pursued by a male mechanic whom the female workers liked is not a good thing. After the news of what happened in the alley spread, Lin Xiao was even more excluded.

The factory is small, and people who bow their heads and don’t look up are the same methods to bully a person. The cafeteria deliberately eats less food, locks people in public bathrooms without turning on the lights, and throws their washed clothes on the ground.

The little mute was stubborn, calmly dealt with all the difficulties, and sometimes smiled sweeter. The female workers felt bored after being bullied for a long time, and gradually faded away.

Lin Xiao was highly savvy and willing to endure hardships, so he was promoted not long after, and changed to work as a skilled worker in Deng Bo's workshop. At first, the two of them didn't know how to communicate. It was all based on tacit understanding. They only knew silly joy when they met each other. It was very pleasant to get along day after day.

When Deng Bo learned to express his feelings in sign language, it was a matter of course for the two of them to be together.

Lin Xiao was not born dumb, it was because when she was a child, her parents only cared for the newborn son and ignored her who had a fever.

Before middle school, her grades were relatively high, and if she didn't spend too much time doing housework, she should be able to do better.

There is too much farm work in the valley, and her parents prefer her to marry early rather than study.

So when she was 16 years old, her parents lied that she had not received the admission letter, and asked her to stop reading, figuring out which one would give the most betrothal gifts. So she got on the train and walked a long way, never going back.

"She's been like that since I knew her, with thick and dark braids, a thin face, and two small tiger teeth. Let me tell you, Lao Zhang, my parents have long since died, and I went to work abroad to make a living. of."

They got married after falling in love for a few years, because she escaped and couldn't get a marriage certificate. The two ordered the most expensive double pepper beef noodles at the noodle shop downstairs in the rental house. Privately ordered for life under the witness.

The boss is serious enough, put two spoons of beef, but the red pepper is too spicy, a couple, the man's eyes are so hot that the eyes are so hot, and the woman's mouth is red.

In the factory, he was frugal and saved a sum of money, planning his own small family, and living in embarrassment but at the bottom of his heart. However, a medical diagnosis came suddenly.

In the days that followed, both resigned and the hospital became a home. One slept on the hospital bed and the other slumped on the chair. Deng Bo started working in a machinery factory during the day and selling teppanyaki in the night market at night.

When the illness was not too serious, Lin Xiao would also make handmade trinkets and sell them next to Deng Bo's stall. Afterwards, the local hospital was powerless, and they moved around like duckweed. Her condition hasn't improved for a long time, and in the end she couldn't even use the strength to hook the line, so Deng Bo took several jobs...

Lin Xiao's big braids turned into wool caps, covering his bald scalp, and his arms were also covered with needles for blood and infusion. She could only curl up under the quilt and look at the man who was running around for her.

Uncle Deng sighed: "I don't care what she turns into, I only want her to be alive, but the snowflake bills weighed down on me."

"Every year on her death day, I can't do anything. I sit at the door of my house alone, recalling the countless moments we had together, and imagining what she would be like if she were alive now. As for her death, she will never be here in my family. However, she didn't want to go back to her parents' house. She propped herself up and sat on the hospital bed with tears in her eyes and told me to scatter her ashes in the nearest river and let her float freely into the sea …”

Old Deng paused for a moment, then continued:

"She is a person, obviously no one has given up on her, but she has planned everything by herself. I will definitely not agree, I will hug her tightly without saying anything, and wipe her tears. Tormented to the point of losing any flesh, fluffy, nestled in my arms like a bird with broken wings..."

Speaking of which, a sparrow happened to jump down from the yellow sycamore tree, pecking at the rice grains that Deng Bo had put beforehand.

"Daughter, I have nothing more to say. I'll give you this vegetable sprouts. It's time for me to go back."

I held the vegetable in place and watched Bo Deng go away. In the following months, I never saw the old vegetable seller sitting on the steps and looking at the wallet.