The next day, she asked for leave again and went to the hospital to visit Uncle Li. Before leaving, she wanted to take the contract, but she felt it was inappropriate to tell Han Zhao this at this time. She hesitated for a moment, and finally let it go.
Li Bo's body was indeed as the doctor said. When the sun set, when Chu Ye arrived in the ward, Li Bo didn't even have the strength to raise his hands. He opened his cloudy eyes weakly, filled with the softness of many years of vicissitudes of life.
Chu Ye came to the bedside gently, and sat on the small bench with Han Zhao, one on the left and the other on the right. Uncle Li turned his head and scanned their faces, unable to get enough of them.
After a while, a nurse came in. After greeting Han Zhao, she gently lifted the quilt and took off the thread attached to Uncle Li's body. Suddenly, the instrument on the side made a sharp sound. The nurse's expression remained unchanged and she pressed the button directly. After pressing the power-off button, the chirping stopped and the room became silent.
The nurse packed up the threads, tucked Uncle Li into the quilt, and walked out with the monitor. Chu Ye witnessed all this from the side, and bad thoughts vaguely arose in his heart.
Soon, the bad thoughts solidified and everything seemed like a dream. Han Zhao went to the doctor to go through the discharge procedures and rented a wheelchair and a car. He picked up Uncle Li and asked Chu Ye to help him move the wheelchair. Pushed downstairs, the three of them sat in the car and returned to the fish pond.
When the car stopped on the road and could not get in, Han Zhao looked at the uneven road, thought for a while, bent down, picked up Uncle Li horizontally, and walked towards the car with steady steps. As they walked towards the fish pond, Chu Ye quickly pushed his wheelchair to follow.
When he arrived in front of the small house, Han Zhao placed Li Boping on the wheelchair. The wheelchair was facing the fish pond. The gentle breeze was blowing, making the water ripple, and the surrounding trees were rustling.
Then he turned around and went into the house, then took out a thin blanket and gently covered Uncle Li. Then he felt that it was not enough, so he ran to the back of the house and took out the pergola and bench. After doing all this, he motioned for Chu Ye to sit down. Next, I also sat next to Uncle Li.
Chu Ye silently watched all of this happen. The strange thing was that the uneasy thoughts in her heart dissipated at some point. After she knew what would happen next, she no longer felt sad in her heart, and she just wanted to give her a good final farewell.
Uncle Li quietly let Han Zhao do all this. Perhaps he was back in a familiar environment. His face was no longer as weak as when he was in the hospital. The rosy complexion returned to his cheeks, and his originally cloudy eyes actually showed a bit of brightness.
As Chu Ye looked at him from the side, four words suddenly came to his mind: return to the light. She turned her head and looked at Han Zhao. He seemed to be aware of it and looked over. Then he nodded imperceptibly, and Chu Ye's heart felt cold.
Uncle Li didn't know about their little moves. He just turned to look at Chu Ye, and then said, "...Xiao Chu, we have only known each other for a short time, but I know that you are a good girl... No matter what the reason for running so far away, You must be good in the future... living your life well is better than anything else.”
His tone was very soft, but he said these words very firmly. Chu Ye felt sour in her heart. There was a small hand holding her heart tightly, which made her breathing a little difficult. There were tears in her eyes, and she was holding back the tears. , then raised a bright smile on his face and nodded broadly.
Li Bo then smiled, his smile was like the dew on the leaves at dawn. It disappeared in an instant, and the breeze blew across the earth, driving his half-white hair. He stretched out his hand, and his withered yellow fingers fell on the top of Han Zhao's head and touched it gently.
"Although you are so old, you are still like a child in my heart." After saying that, he didn't know what he thought of, and chuckled, sweetness hanging on the corner of his mouth. His eyes were full of love, and his fingers fell on Han Zhao's cheek, He squeezed it gently and continued, "When I die, you can do whatever you want. But...get rid of all those bad habits in the future. I'm afraid that if something happens to you in the future, no one will clean up the mess for you." .”
"How can it be so scary?" Han Zhao retorted in a rare way. His expression was no longer as arrogant as before. Instead, it was a little more tender and his person was much softer.
"Why not?" Uncle Li also laughed, "In the past... every time you came back and told me about gambling, I couldn't let it go. I was afraid that one day you would be beaten and sent to jail. I just thought that I have to hold on, if something happens to you, I can still carry you.”
His hand fell from his cheek to Han Zhao's shoulder. This shoulder used to be a small and thin piece. When he wore cartoon short-sleeves in the summer, it was like a piece of floral cloth hanging from a branch, floating alone. At that time, he Kneeling down to talk to him, the little man seemed to be able to knock him down with one finger.
It's just that time flies so fast. This man obviously grew up under his nose, but in the blink of an eye, his palms can't cover his shoulders.
"...Okay, you have grown up. Don't come back anymore. Go to Hong Kong to find a serious job. From now on..." Li Bo's tone became softer and softer, like a candle burning to its last moment. , although it is still trying to emit brightness, this is the result of exhausting all efforts. People can only watch the candle burn out the wax oil and transform into a large amount of light. In the end, even the large amount of light disappears. Unable to maintain it, there was a "puff" and only a wisp of green smoke drifted away.
"...In the future...get a wife and have children...tell me...I also feel at ease." The moment the words fell, Uncle Li's palm slipped from Han Zhao's shoulder and fell weakly.
Suddenly, the world around them was spinning, and the two people next to them were in disbelief. The wind blew quietly, blowing away the last trace of reluctance in Chu Ye's heart. She finally bent down on her knees and cried softly. After a long while, she looked sideways. There was no emotion on Han Zhao's face. He just stretched out his hand and pulled up the thin blanket on Uncle Li's body. Then he took Uncle Li's hand hanging aside and gently placed it on his cheek. Then, his eyes turned red.
Li Bo's funeral was very simple. He had no wife or children all his life. He only had one relative, Han Zhao, and at most Chu Ye, a friend he had only known for a short time. So the two of them dealt with Li Bo's funeral affairs. , Han Zhao took Li Bo's ashes back to the house where he lived.
It was at this moment that Chu Ye realized that the house in the town that Uncle Li had mentioned was actually given to him by Han Zhao.
Uncle Li had a whole big house, but he only lived in a small room on the first floor. There were a lot of things in the house, but it was not cluttered, and the floor was very clean. Han Zhao remained calm and put the urn on the floor. After putting it on the table, he opened the drawer casually and then froze in place.
In the drawer, there are stacks of banknotes. Some bundles contain one-and-five-dollar bills, and another bundle contains hundreds of dollar bills, even mixed with Hong Kong dollars, like the living expenses that I give him every time. Han Zhao flipped through it again and saw a piece of paper under the table. He picked it up and it said - to Han Zhao.
When he was in the hospital, the old man never mentioned that he had saved money for himself, and the memories from the past came to mind again. He always kept running out, wanting to explore the bigger world, but the old man always stayed in this small town. , greeted him with a smile when he came back. He shared with the old man how much money he made, but he never cared and only told himself to be careful outside. He froze in place as if struck by lightning, his mouth was so dry that he couldn't speak, and something was floating around in his heart that he couldn't catch.
After a while, when Chu Ye hesitated to leave, Han Zhao turned around and said, "Let's talk about the contract."
When Chu Ye came out of the building, the sun set in the west. She was standing on the street, as if she had been plated with gold. She rubbed her cheeks and still couldn't believe that she had only spent 600 yuan to buy the fish. pond.
Although, there is one more shareholder.
Today is the end of the month. She went back to the factory to pack her luggage. After settling her salary for this month, she reluctantly said goodbye to Pan'er and Xiaoya.
Han Zhao was waiting at the door on his bicycle. He put on a fancy shirt. When he saw Chu Ye coming out, he stepped forward neatly and tied his luggage in the back seat. He said hello and walked away.
That's right, from today on, she will officially move into the fish pond's room, and Han Zhao has already emptied the house. After discussing that day, the two signed a new contract: Chu Ye bought the fish pond at a low price, and Han Zhao Han Zhao invested in the company with materials, and 20% of the profits from the future were given to Han Zhao.
It sounds a bit disadvantageous, but Han Zhao said that he only shared the profits. If the fish pond suffered losses, he would unconditionally subsidize funds and support Chu Ye, and he would also provide help in the early stages of Chu Ye's business. Chu Ye thought about it I thought about it and agreed.
As a result, Chu Ye's seafood business started to flourish in September.
She first put the fish in the two ponds together with Han Zhao. It has to be said that thanks to Boss Han's remaining power, no one dared to come here to fish openly in the past three or four years, so the fish here are still there. There are quite a few, enough for Chu Ye to sell for a while.
After vacating a clean fish pond, she purchased equipment to improve the water quality. At the same time, she purchased a large number of bass fry and feed according to the address she had inquired about long ago, and put these fry into the fish pond.
In addition, during the few months when the fry were growing up, she couldn't do anything. She went to the seafood market to find an open space, put up a sign, and fished from the fish pond every morning before dawn, and then brought When the live fish came to the market, she placed two glass water tanks with air pumps in front of the stall. When she put the fish into the water tanks, the fish were still swimming around alive in them.
The beginning of any business is always accompanied by misfortune. During the whole month of September, almost no one visited Chu Ye's stall. She was too young and had a fresh face. What she sold was not sea fish, but some ordinary carps. People I didn't buy it, even if someone was curious, they would stop in front of the stall for a moment, then curl their lips and leave.
Chu Ye is not in a hurry. When there are no customers, she practices knife skills. She will open up the fish carefully every morning and one fish in the afternoon. After removing the fish scales and internal organs, she will fillet the fish into thin slices. Or cut it into large pieces and pickle it. Every time at noon and evening, when the market is crowded with people buying ingredients, she will mark the processed fish as a special price. As time goes by, some people will buy it at a discount.
As for the ones that couldn't be sold, Chu Ye packed them home and threw the live fish into the fish pond, and continued fishing the next day. The cut fish meat was set up in a rice cooker to make dinner. If he didn't want to eat it, I gave it to Han Zhao when I got off work, which made Han Zhao feel annoyed when he saw fish.
(End of chapter)