After retaliating against Yao Huailin’s words, Shen Chang’an removed him from the small accounting book of grudges in his heart and said in all seriousness, “It’s time for me to go to work now. So long.”
Watching Shen Chang’an running away like a wisp of smoke, Yao Huailin held the flyer and stuffed it in his colleague’s hand.
“Brother, what’s this for?”
“Re-education of a civilization which is culturally and ideologically advanced. Take a good look.”
“……”
Due to insufficient funds, the office area of the Civil Service Department was rented in an old house facing the street which had been built for nearly twenty years. Aside from it being an old house, there weren’t many shortcomings. There was also a moderately sized park at the back of the old house. The park had several large trees, and after four or five o’clock in the afternoon, a few elderly people would often bring small stools to the park to enjoy the cool air.
After two o’clock in the afternoon was the hottest time. Shen Chang’an rode his bicycle into the park and saw a dejected young man sitting in the flowerbed under a tree. While locking the bicycle, he couldn’t help but glance at him a few more times.
Sensing someone passing by, the young man raised his head and briefly looked up, then shrank his neck in fright.
Shen Chang’an couldn’t refrain from touching his face a few times at the other person’s reaction. Was he that scary looking?
The other person, perhaps also realizing that he had overreacted, gave Shen Chang’an an uneasy smile. The smile seemed to give off a sense of trying to curry favour.
Shen Chang’an raised the corners of his mouth, returning a polite smile to the other person, thinking that this young man was a little strange. On the second floor, Gao Shujuan was mopping the floor, and seeing him come over, immediately said, “Stop, don’t move!”
She held the mop and pushed it in front of Shen Chang’an. “Rub the soles of your shoes against it.”
Obediently rubbing the sole of the shoes on the mop until it was clean, Shen Chang’an’s eyes curved as he smiled at her and said, “Aunt Juan, I’ll help you mop.”
“No need. You go in where the air conditioner is blowing and rest.” Gao Shujuan glanced at his face flushed red from the sun. Absolutely could not allow this fair and delicate skin to become tan from the sun until it was like the bottom of a pot1. Otherwise, where would a young girl be found who liked him?
“It’s fine.” Shen Chang’an grabbed the mop and began to bend over to mop the floor. Gao Shujuan watched his vigorous movements and praised, “Chang’an, it seems that at home, you usually help your elders with the housework.”
Shen Chang’an smiled without answering. He had good physical strength and lithe movements, and soon cleaned the whole balcony. About to go inside the office, he took a quick glimpse downstairs. The young man who was behaving strangely was still there. He had his hand stretched out, touching the largest tree in the park and appeared to be talking to himself.
“This young man’s name is Sun Jia. His family used to live nearby. He fell seriously ill after failing the college entrance examination. In order for the people at home to treat his illness, they sold their house. Although his life was later on saved, his mind became not very good, often blabbering nonsense and regularly runs away here to talk to the tree.” Gao Shujuan saw Shen Chang’an watching the person downstairs. “Maybe his illness acted up again today, and his family wasn’t paying attention, so he sneaked out. Don’t be afraid. Although this child’s brain is muddled, he won’t attack. I have already called his family. Someone should come to pick him up soon.”
“Is he … not going to the hospital?” This Sun Jia seemed to be a young person with a delicate and pretty appearance. It was a pity to go through life in such a muddle-headed way.
Gao Shujuan briefly laughed. “Chang’an. a child from the big city like you wouldn’t understand that sometimes poor families cannot afford these expenses. What’s more, there’s no good psychiatric hospital here. In the case that the child is sent to a hospital that mistreats its patients, the parents wouldn’t have the heart do so. It’s better to feel rest assured with them under their eyes.”
Shen Chang’an was startled and said to Gao Shujuan, “Aunt Juan, you’re right. I was thinking too simply.”
“It’s okay. If you stay here for a while, you’ll slowly see a lot of things that you haven’t been exposed to before.” Gao Shujuan consoled Shen Chang’an, “Don’t take it to heart.”
Shen Chang’an raised the corners of his mouth and smiled, no longer looking at Sun Jia who was talking to himself, turning around to the office. Chen Panpan and Xu Ze were already there. Xu Ze was resting his upper body on the desk, reading a newspaper. Chen Panpan was filling out a form.
“Chang’an, you’re here?” Seeing him come in, Chen Panpan put down the pen. “Was the person who was going to jump off the building at noon rescued?”
“Rescued.” Shen Chang’an sat in his seat. “You also know about this?”
“If something happens in this place of ours, it will spread all over the city in less than half a day.” Chen Panpan’s lips twitched. “Also, there’s rumours going around that this man had an encounter with a ghost and that’s why he suddenly went to jump off the building.”
“How could there be ghosts in the world.” Shen Chang’an pulled out a book propagating the construction of ideological civilizations from a drawer. “Even if there are ghosts, they should be scared of the sun. Isn’t that how it’s acted out on TV? When the rooster crows in the morning and the morning sun rises, hundreds of ghosts immediately retreat and disperse. The sun was so strong today at noon. If there really are ghosts, in the end, did a ghost want to commit suicide or did the man want to commit suicide?”
“That seems to make sense.” Chen Panpan took out her cell phone. “I’ll use what you said to refute those fools who keep talking about ghosts.”
“When people argue with one another, it’s extremely difficult to persuade the other person. It only escalates the argument and it gets more heated.” Shen Chang’an opened the propaganda book. “I am not angry when others are angry. When they fall sick with anger, there’s no one to speak on their behalf. It’s better to return an, oh, or OK, ba.”
“I thought you would say, if you can do it, then don’t ever force it, ne.”2 Chen Panpan deleted what she had just typed and replied to the other person, “Oh, okay, you’re right.”
“I’m a good boy who has received nine years of compulsory education. How can I do whatever I want.” He pointed to the words “Peace is the most precious” in the book, “I love peace, and peace love me.”
Chen Panpan, “…”
Chang’an this person, contrary to his handsome appearance, was rather thick skinned.
At about 3’oclock in the afternoon, Shen Chang’an heard the sound of a woman crying from downstairs. He got up and walked to the balcony and saw a woman whose hair was half white tugging on the arm of Sun Jia while crying.
“Jiajia, you be obedient and go home with mom, OK, a?”
Sun Jia didn’t move, merely staring at the tree in a daze, mumbling to himself.
Seeing her son like this, the old woman suddenly let go of his hand and sat down on the ground, bursting into loud bitter sobs. This crying was extremely heart breaking, as if she had been pressed down with a great burden and suffered for many years, finally crushing her last backbone, causing her to cry without pause.
“Jiajia, your father is sick, very sick. If you continue to do this, what will you do when I leave with your father? What’s to be done?!”
The muddled and ignorant young man and the old and tired old woman. Despair was like a canopy of shadows wrapped around them. Others would never be able to sympathize.
Shen Chang’an felt that he should go downstairs to comfort them at this moment, but his subconsciousness told him that it was not the time to go downstairs.
Finally, the woman cried herself hoarse and pulled her son who had lost his soul and left step by step. The shadow of her hunched back was pulled into a strange shape by the sun.
When work ended, Shen Chang’an was the last to leave. He locked the office door and when going downstairs, couldn’t help but turn his head to glance at the large tree that Sun Jia was leaning against in the afternoon. His footsteps stopped, head raised to look at the flourishing leafy treetop.
The leaves began to rustle, shaking off several tender green leaves.
Just then … it was windy?
Shen Chang’an looked at the other trees suspiciously. The other trees didn’t seem to move? He suspected that there was a problem with his glasses, so he pushed up the glasses and took another look and the other trees began to sway side to side.
Reaching out to touch the rough tree trunk, Shen Chang’an sighed. As it turned out, zero magnification lenses could also affect one’s vision after a length of time. It seemed that he was going to have to give up wearing glasses to pretend to look refined thing.
“I really hope that the young man can recover completely.” Recalling the desperate crying of the old woman, he thought of his mother. The memories of his mother were already a little fuzzy, yet he always remembered that his mother always smiled tenderly at him. She always kissed his cheeks early in the morning when he was young and said, “Darling, it’s important to go to kindergarten and have fun playing, o.”
The tree trembled even more intensely, and even the tree trunk trembled.
Shen Chang’an rubbed his face. Could it be that because it was too hot today, he couldn’t even feel the wind?
Not wanting to cook at night, he had a quick bite to eat and then returned to the community. The sky was already gradually getting dark and the lights in the community were a little dim. Shen Chang’an had a face-to-face encounter with a man holding a faucet head in his hand.
“You … are you alright, ba?” Shen Chang’an recognized him as the man who had been sent to the hospital for trying to commit suicide at noon. Seeing his current appearance, it seemed that he had returned to normal.
The man seemed a little embarrassed, and he awkwardly smiled. “It’s fine.”
“Children who don’t do their homework can be slowly taught. Don’t do extreme things. There is only one life.” Thinking about the man who was hanging out of the window today, and the way the little child was crying while pulling the man, Shen Chang’an couldn’t refrain from saying a few more words, “It’s not good to leave a lifelong shadow for a child.”
“Speaking of which, you may not believe this.” The man smiled bitterly. “I run a car wash shop and I’m usually tired from work. Although I don’t have as much time to spare to care for my child as his mother, I will never use such an extreme method to scare a child.”
He took a step forward with an indescribably strange expression. “Do you believe that there are ghosts in this world?”
Shen Chang’an was relatively close to the trash can and without extra trouble, took the broken faucet head from the man’s had and threw it inside the trash can. When the faucet head fell into the trash can, it made a dull sound.
“I personally don’t believe it very much.” Shen Chang’an sighed. “You are too tired. Take a good rest and spend more time with your child.”
The man took two steps backwards and seemed to be embarrassed about suddenly approaching Shen Chang’an. He shook his head and forcefully smiled, saying, “Today, I fell asleep after eating at noon, and when I woke up, I found myself lying in the hospital. My wife and child were sniveling and in tears and told me that I wanted to jump off the building at noon. Even the police and firemen came. I have no impression at all of these things. Now the whole community knows that for some inexplicable reason, I wanted to commit suicide. I’m embarrassed to go out the door.”
“Maybe…” Shen Changan pondered, “You have sleepwalking problems?”
“Huh?” The man was stunned. Weren’t they talking about being haunted?
“Big Brother, don’t avoid doctors. Maybe you have been working too hard recently, and because your child was lying to avoid doing homework, you became angry and wanting to make him confess, started sleepwalking.” He took out a Department flyer with slogans and placed it into the man’s hand. “Make sure to go to bed early and wake up early, exercise, and combine work with rest. It’s more effective than anything else.”
“Trust me, you will recover soon.” Shen Chang’an patted the man on the shoulder and smiled gently at him.
The man held the propaganda flyer and looked at Shen Chang’an’s departing back in a daze. Could it be that he really was too tired?
In the middle of the night, while sweetly dreaming, Shen Chang’an was sleeping in a daze when he heard a child kicking up a fuss by his ear.
“He said he will always play with me. Why are you taking him away?”
“Promises must be kept!”
“Promises must be kept!”
Shen Chang’an drowsily opened his eyes and saw a child with green hair huddled in the corner of his room. His voice was quite loud, but his expression looked rather timid.
Which brain damaged bear parent did this, letting their child of only a few years dye their hair?
Seeing Shen Chang’an looking at him, the green haired child started to tremble all over, but still tenaciously roared at him, “You give me back the seedlings!”
Seedlings? What seedlings?
Pea sprouts or small saplings? He must be dreaming.
Shen Chang’an lay back on the bed and a long time passed without dreaming. Did he dream of stealing other people’s seedlings?
Was there such an unknown hobby in his heart?
The author has something to say:
Chang’an:
1. Many problems in the world can be explained by science. If we can’t explain them, it only means that we haven’t studied them thoroughly enough.
2. Children shouldn’t speak nonsense. I have never done such immoral things as stealing flowers and pinching seedlings.
Footnotes:
1. Bottom of a pot: The bottoms of pots turn dark after it’s been used for a long time.
2. Don’t force it: If one can let go of an argument and simply agree, then don’t try to force them to see your point of view/continue to argue with them.
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