Siheyuan: tomb robbing? I am serious about hunting.

Chapter 789 Making a Snowman

Friendly lights

The wind of December swept through the old street with fine snow, and the red lanterns in the Lin family courtyard swayed gently in the twilight. Lin Qiu stood at the kitchen door, watching his mother Zhou Suqin tiptoe to hang sausages on the clothesline. Her blue apron swayed with her movements, and a few strands of gray hair were blown by the wind beside her cheeks. "Mom, let me do it." Lin Qiu reached out to take the bamboo pole, but was slapped away by his mother. "You have thin arms and legs, you can't hang it steadily." Zhou Suqin smiled and dodged, with tenderness in the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes, "Go and see your dad, he insisted on making a rabbit lantern for his granddaughter, I think he probably cut the bamboo strips crookedly again." Passing through the main hall, laughter came from the living room. Lin Qiu's daughter Tangtang was lying on the coffee table, her chubby little hands holding colored paper, and her father Lin Jianguo was wearing reading glasses, holding the bamboo strips and worrying, with a little ink on the tip of his nose. "Grandpa, you have to cross it here!" Tangtang jumped with glue in her hand, "The kindergarten teacher taught us to do it like braiding pigtails!" Lin Jianguo pushed his glasses and carefully crossed the bamboo strips to fix them: "Oh my little teacher, shake the table gently, grandpa's presbyopia can't stand it." Lin Qiu leaned on the door frame and watched this scene, feeling warm in his heart. Since he was transferred back to the small town to work from other places two years ago, such scenes have become the norm in life. After retiring, his father fell in love with all kinds of handicrafts, from wood carving to bamboo weaving. Although the finished products are always a bit clumsy, they fill the entire storage room; his mother still maintains an unshakable schedule, going to the vegetable market at five in the morning to pick the freshest vegetables and take good care of the family's stomachs. "It's time to eat!" Zhou Suqin's shout came from the kitchen. Lin Qiu walked into the restaurant. The eight-immortal table was already filled with hot meals: bright red sweet and sour spare ribs, cabbage and tofu casserole with oil, egg dumpling soup sprinkled with chopped green onions, and the most eye-catching one was the white-cut chicken in the middle - the chicken's belly was filled with red dates and wolfberries, which was his father's best dish. Tangtang moved a small stool and sat at the table, staring at the chicken wings with sparkling eyes: "I want to eat this flying meat!" Lin Jianguo picked up the chicken wings and put them in his granddaughter's bowl, but he only filled half a bowl of rice for himself: "Eat slowly, no one will snatch it from you." Lin Qiu added a chicken leg to his father: "Dad, please eat more. Is your blood pressure stable recently?" "Stable, stable, your mother watches me take medicine every day, stricter than the nurses in the hospital." Lin Jianguo smiled and patted his wife's hand. Zhou Suqin blushed and gently patted his hand away: "You are the only one who talks nonsense, eat the food quickly." Halfway through the meal, the snow outside the window suddenly fell heavily. Tangtang was leaning against the window to watch the snowflakes, and suddenly turned around: "Mom, can we make a snowman?" Lin Qiu hesitated and turned to look at his parents. Zhou Suqin had already started looking for a scarf and gloves: "Go ahead, your dad and I will clean up the table. Tangtang, wear the woolen hat knitted by your grandma, don't let your ears get frozen." In the snow, Tangtang was like a happy little rabbit, rolling snowballs farther and farther. Lin Qiu chased after her, looking at his daughter's rosy face, and suddenly remembered that when he was a child, he also held his father's hand and played wildly in the snow. At that time, his father's back was still very straight, and he could lift her high above his head and catch the fluffiest snowflakes. "Mom, look!" Tangtang's shout brought her back to reality. The little girl was struggling to move a stone, "This is the snowman's nose!" Lin Qiu squatted down to help her adjust the position of the stone, and caught a glimpse of his parents not far away. They stood side by side under the eaves, the father gently patted the snow off the mother's shoulders, and the mother handed the thermos cup to his mouth. The warm yellow light shone through the window, coating their figures with a gentle halo. This winter, the small town encountered a rare cold wave. In the middle of the night, Lin Qiu was awakened by a cough. She got out of bed and put on her clothes. She saw that the light in her parents' room was still on, and intermittent voices came from the crack of the door. "Lao Lin, take another pill. This cough will never get better." It was her mother's voice, with obvious worry. "Don't make a fuss, it's just a common cold." The father lowered his voice, "Don't wake up Qiuqiu and Tangtang." Lin Qiu quietly opened the door and saw her father sitting by the bed wrapped in a thick cotton jacket, and her mother was holding hot water to cool it down. Under the light, her father's face was paler than during the day, and her mother's dark circles were as thick as ink that could not be dissolved. "Dad, do you have a fever?" Lin Qiu quickly stepped forward to touch her father's forehead, and the scorching temperature made her heart tighten. Lin Jianguo still wanted to show off: "It's a minor problem, it will be fine after a good sleep..." Before he finished speaking, he coughed violently again. Zhou Suqin's eyes were red: "He started to have a fever in the afternoon, and he refused to go to the hospital. He insisted on waiting for you to take Tangtang to learn painting tomorrow." "Stupid!" Lin Qiu was anxious and angry, "I'll call a car now!" In the hospital, Lin Jianguo was diagnosed with pneumonia and needed to be hospitalized. Lin Qiu worked during the day and accompanied him in the hospital at night, while his mother took care of Tangtang at home. During those days, the atmosphere at home became depressing and busy. One night, Lin Qiu was peeling an apple for his father in the hospital, and the door of the ward was suddenly pushed open. Tangtang rushed in holding a painting, and Zhou Suqin followed behind with a thermos bucket in her hand. "Grandpa, look!" Tangtang unfolded the painting. In the crooked lines, three little people were holding hands. "This is me, my mother and grandpa. When grandpa recovers, let's go fly a kite together!" Lin Jianguo's eyes were moistened instantly. He held his granddaughter on his lap: "Okay, when grandpa recovers, let's go fly the biggest kite!" Zhou Suqin opened the thermos bucket. There were two poached eggs in the steaming millet porridge: "Qiuqiu, you should eat something too. Don't tire yourself out." Lin Qiu drank the porridge and looked at her parents and daughter. Suddenly, she felt that the so-called happiness might be such an ordinary and trivial concern. During her father's illness, she learned to listen to her mother's nagging patiently, discovered the little thoughts hidden in her daughter's painting, and re-understood the deep affection between her parents. Half a month later, Lin Jianguo recovered and was discharged from the hospital. That day, the sun was shining, and Tangtang jumped at the gate of the community holding a homemade welcome sign. Lin Qiu pushed his father in a wheelchair, while his mother reminded him of precautions. The warm sunshine shone on them, stretching their shadows very long. The spring breeze blew gently across the old street, and the peach blossoms in the Lin family's courtyard were in full bloom. Lin Jianguo's handmade table was filled with new works - this time it was a rotating windmill. Tangtang ran in the yard holding the windmill, and her laughter was as clear as a silver bell. Lin Qiu sat in a rattan chair, looking at everything in front of her, and the corners of her mouth rose unconsciously. She finally understood that happiness is not a story that shakes the world, but the light that is always on for you among the lights of thousands of houses, the warm porridge in the bowl when the family sits together, and the years of companionship in the ordinary years.