Stringy Wind in the Ear - Chap 3
On the way to the garage, Li Chuzhi saw a girl licking ice cream. She tugged at the corner of Li Xun’s clothes, called him “Uncle”, then nodded and signaled with her eyes.
Li Xun curled his lips: “Did I tell you that you can’t eat ice cream when you wear a coat?”
Li Chuzhi: “But I’m not cold.”
“Have you forgotten that you ate too much ice cream and ended up in the hospital last year? Have you forgotten the pain now that the scar has healed?”
“I don’t understand what you are saying.” Li Chuzhi pouted and stared blankly at the girl’s back.
Li Xun opened the passenger door: “Get in.”
Li Chuzhi turned his face away: “I don’t.”
“Li Chuzhi, I’ll count to three. If you don’t come up, you won’t have any cake on your birthday.”
Before Li Xun could start counting, Li Chuzhi jumped into the car and fastened her seat belt obediently. Li Xun rubbed her little head and closed the car door.
There was a bit of traffic on the road, so Li Xun turned on the music and the little guy played the ending song of a cartoon.
After a while, she lowered her head and tangled her fingers together.
Li Xun quickly noticed that she was not in a very good mood and asked, “What do you want to eat for dinner today? How about beef tenderloin?”
Li Chuzhi skipped his question and asked, “Will my mother come back to celebrate my birthday with me this year?”
Li Xun almost ran a red light.
He braked suddenly and was silent for a long time before saying, “Mom is busy, so can Grandpa and I stay with you? You can also ask your classmates at work. Aren’t you and Xiaoxiao best friends? Why don’t you ask Xiaoxiao if she’s free?”
“But I haven’t seen my mother for a long, long time, and I miss her.” Li Chuzhi said this, lowered his head, as if he had suffered a great injustice, and tears came down instantly.
Li Xun had no choice but to find a place to pull over and comfort the crying child.
Li Chuzhi’s mother, Li Xun, who is also Li Xun’s biological sister, met a good-looking man through an introduction at work. However, the man’s family background was not very good. His parents both loved gambling and had a bit of a weird temper. Li Xun’s father naturally did not agree with them being together.
At that time, Li Xun was probably dazzled by the man’s appearance. She had a big quarrel with her family and ran away with the man. She lost contact for half a year. Later, she received a phone call home and said that she was pregnant.
The matter was already settled, and no matter how uncomfortable the family was, they had to agree to the marriage. However, the man disagreed. Sometimes he complained about the woman’s rural household registration, and sometimes he complained that her family had no house and was from a single-parent family.
Later, I found out that he was having an affair with another woman and he cheated on her when Li Xun was pregnant.
Li Xun went to the hospital in a fit of anger, but she was already six months pregnant. The doctor did not recommend an abortion and showed her the baby moving in her belly, so Li Chuzhi was kept.
Li Chuzhi was born without a father, and Li Xun was often away for training, so only Li Xun and his father took turns to take care of him.
The year Li Chuzhi entered the senior class, Li Xun left home after leaving a letter. There has been no news of him since then. It was as if this person disappeared out of thin air.
Li Xun didn’t know how to explain this matter to an eight-year-old child. Even he himself didn’t know whether Li Xun had committed suicide or really went to live in another city as stated in the letter.
As he grew older, Li Chuzhi seemed to realize something and became a little sensitive and not so easy to coax.
Li Xun finally turned around, drove back to KFC, and bought a mango-flavored cigarette.
“Don’t cry after you finish eating. Look at your eyes, they’re so swollen.”
Li Chuyi nodded while hiccuping, saying in a muffled voice: “I understand. I don’t miss my mother anymore.”
Li Xun was amused by her.
Because of this commotion, I was half an hour late when I got back to the community.
Li Xun walked out of the elevator and smelled a bit of burnt food, which seemed to be coming from his own home. He opened the door in a hurry and shouted “Dad” loudly.
The person in the room did not respond, which made him even more anxious. He pushed the door hard, and Li Chuzhi was frightened, with a dazed look on his face.
Li Guotao pushed a wheelchair out of the kitchen and said, “You’re back. Why are you so late today?”
“Something happened at Jianguan and delayed me.” Li Xun smelled something and walked into the kitchen. He saw a pot of burnt braised chicken wings and quickly put on his apron. He said, “I’ll do the cooking from now on. Your legs are not convenient, so don’t mess around. I smelled a burnt smell outside and thought the house was on fire. It scared me.”
Li Guotao didn’t say anything. He smiled at Chu Zhi and opened his arms: “Come here, grandpa will hug you.”
Li Chuzhi threw himself into his arms and rubbed against him, then fed him the remaining few bites of ice cream: “My uncle bought this for me. It’s delicious, mango flavored.”
Li Guotao symbolically took a small bite of the crispy skin, showing a surprised expression, and turned his head and said: “It’s almost Mid-Autumn Festival, why did you buy her such a cold one? She has a bad stomach.”
“She is greedy and would cry if I didn’t buy her food. People on the street looked at her and those who didn’t know thought I was bullying her.”
Li Xun was about to pour out a pot of chicken wings, and Li Guotao said in surprise: “Why are you pouring it out? It’s not like you can’t eat it.”
“Burnt ones are unhealthy,” said Li Xun.
“No matter how unhealthy it is, what else can it do?” Li Guotao pushed his wheelchair over to stop them. “Make another pot. I’ll eat these.”
Li Xun poured it out without saying a word, and Li Guotao was so angry that he slapped his thigh and said, “You little bastard, you are so picky.”
Li Chuzhi followed suit and was hit in the head by Li Xun.
Li Xun cuts vegetables very quickly and stirs the wok when cooking. Li Chuzhi sticks to him like a little tail.
A large bowl of fresh food was put into the wok, and a flame burst out of the wok with a roar. Li Chuzhi was so scared that she hugged Li Xun’s thigh. When the fire was out, she praised again: “Uncle, you are so awesome. I want to see it again.”
When preparing the next dish, Li Xun performed it for her again and said, “You are not allowed to play with fire when I am not at home, understand?”
Li Chuzhi nodded obediently.
Halfway through dinner, Li Guotao remembered something and said, “The landlord came here once today.”
Li Xun was stunned: “Didn’t I pay the rent for half a year?”
“It’s not about the rent,” Li Guotao sighed. “She said she was going to send her child to study abroad, which would cost hundreds of thousands a year, so she wanted to sell this old house.”
Li Xun had already gotten used to this unpredictable life, and said calmly, “Oh?” “Is it urgent?”
“She said as soon as possible. She has asked someone to put the house online. Someone might want to come and see the house later.”
Li Chuzhi spat out a mouthful of dried shrimps: “What is studying abroad?”
Li Guotao: “It means studying abroad, where you can make lots of foreign friends.”
Li Chuzhi: “Oh, I see. Just like my uncle used to do?”
Li Guotao glanced at his son and saw that he didn’t show any unhappy expression before he said, “That’s about right.”
“That means I won’t be able to come back for a very long time.”
“Yes, because it’s too far and inconvenient.”
“Then why did the landlady send her child to study abroad? Her child will definitely miss her very much, just like I miss my uncle very much.”
Li Xun curled the corners of his lips and pushed a small plate of peeled shrimps in front of Li Chuzhi.
Sometimes he felt that taking care of children was more torturous than training on rainy days, but sometimes he felt that it was all worth it.
God’s arrangements all have a purpose, and his choice is right. He would comfort himself like this every night.
After dinner, Li Guotao went to the balcony with the help of Li Xun and used a multi-functional walking frame to do lower limb training.
His hemiplegia was a sequela of a stroke that happened last year. He fainted in the park and fortunately was found in time by a dancing aunt who called 120.
When he first woke up, half of his body was paralyzed and he couldn’t even speak clearly. It was only this year that he started to feel better.
Because of this incident, Li Xun missed the training camp and the World Championships selection. Later, he simply withdrew from the national team and came back to take care of him and Chu Zhi.
“Uncle, I want to see Boonie Bears!” Li Chuzhi called for help after trying to unlock the car many times without success.
Li Xun avoided her sight and entered the password. Li Chuzhi was getting smarter and smarter. She learned how to unlock and find videos. If no one was watching her, she could watch Conan all day without eating or drinking.
“I’ll go back to my room and sleep after watching two episodes,” said Li Xun.
Li Chuyi hugged the tablet and sat up straight: “I understand.”
Li Xun was searching for housing information on his mobile phone when suddenly a message popped up.
It was sent from an unfamiliar number, with just two words – Hello.
He simply ignored it.
After a while, it came again.
——I’m the one who asked you for your autograph in the evening. My name is Song Yang. I’d like to ask when you can arrange a new course. I’d like to make an appointment.
Li Xun recalled how Song Yang’s face turned red when he spoke during the day, and raised his eyebrows with interest.
——Which one do you want to book? The price for teaching a class is different from that for teaching one person.
When Song Yang received the message, he jumped up from the bed. After his heart rate stabilized, he typed in tremblingly – If it’s a one-on-one, how much would it cost?
——Twenty thousand per semester, thirty-six classes in total.
“This is a robbery!” Song Yang rubbed his head, and his short hair suddenly became a bird’s nest.
——I don’t have that much money right now, can I just take one class?
He regretted it right after sending the message. This wasn’t like picking cabbages by weight at the market. But there was no recall function for text messages, so he could only wait for a reply in embarrassment alone.
In just two minutes, Song Yang unlocked his phone dozens of times, but no message came in.
Would Li Xun think that he was being played with and therefore not want to bother with him?
Song Yang bit his fingernails and racked his brains to find a way to remedy the situation. Just as he was about to enter new content, the message came.
——Are you here for me or for the course?
