When He Smiles - Chapter 23

In May and June 2012, this was the second year Meng Shengnan taught at Huakou No. 1 in Jiangcheng.

She replaced the English in the first grade (8) of junior high school, and classes lasted four weeks a week. The school apartment has allocated dormitories, one bedroom and one living room. The time from school to home is forty minutes by bus. Meng Shengnan goes back for two days every weekend, teasing Meng Hang and then returning to school.

She lived a peaceful and ordinary life like this.

On Friday evening that summer, as soon as she got home, she saw Meng Hang playing with building blocks by herself. The ceremony and Meng Jin were sitting on the sofa while looking at the photos while talking.

“Whose picture?”

She hung her bag on the hook in the hallway, changed her shoes and went into the house, and asked.

The ceremony picked up one and handed it to her: “What do you think?”

“Who is this?” She didn’t know.

“Your Aunt Kang introduced it.”

Meng Shengnan, “Huh? “Give it to me?”

The ceremony glared at her: “If you don’t give it to anyone, there will be no one if you are 24.”

“I think this kid is pretty good. He works in the government, and he is at his age. It’s a good fit for you.” Meng Jin said.

“Don’t, it must be inappropriate.” Meng Shengnan’s forehead hurts.

“I haven’t seen you yet, why is it inappropriate?”

Shengdian glared at her, and then said: “Look at Qiao Qiao, who got married just after graduation, how good it is now. There is also Kang Kai, I am staying in Beijing now, and I heard that Aunt Kang said that I had a friend from Beijing Normal University. Girlfriend, it seems to be engaged next year. Look at you again—”

Meng Hang suddenly raised his head from the building blocks and asked, “What’s wrong with my sister?”

“Your mother wants to drive me away.” Meng Shengnan gritted his teeth and said bitterly.

Meng Hang stood up and walked towards her in small steps.

“where to?”

Meng Shengnan hugged him and sat on his lap and shaved his little nose: “Guess?”

“Married?”

Meng Shengnan: “…”

“Do you know all of this?” She was surprised.

Meng Hang let out a hum, raised his head, and said rigorously: “I’m almost six years old, I don’t know that Zhang Jiahe will laugh at me.”

“Who is Zhang Jiahe?”

Meng Jin laughed at the ceremony.

Meng Hang became impatient and jumped from her arms: “You usually don’t care about me too much.”

Meng Shengnan: “…”

He said: “Many boys in our class like her, but she only plays with me.”

“so smart?”

“That is.”

The little boy spoke sonorously and powerfully, and Meng Shengnan naturally turned the topic to him. During the meal, the ceremony offered to meet the man in the photo again. Meng Shengnan had a terrible headache, so he hurriedly turned upstairs in a perfunctory manner.

It was only seven or eight at that time, and she finished washing and reading in bed.

The curtains are ajar, and the room is warm and fragrant. She watched it for a while and lost interest, then turned on the computer to write, thinking wildly. Before typing a few words, Qi Qiao’s call came.

“What are you up to?”

“No, idle.”

Qi Qiao said, “Is it boring?”

“Okay.”

“Don’t tease you, just pretend to be.”

Meng Shengnan smiled helplessly.

“What are you doing?”

“Song Jiashu’s comrades-in-arms gathering, it’s outside.”

“Oh.”

“I can’t stand your listless voice.”

Meng Shengnan sighed again.

“Then you are busy, I will hang up first.”

“Don’t, I still have something to say.”

“What?” she asked.

Qi Qiao cleared his throat, and said: “He has a comrade in arms, he is really nice, let me introduce you?”

Meng Shengnan frowned: “Why are you like my mother?”

“Who makes you still single after 24, can I not rush me?”

“What’s wrong with 24?”

Qi Qiao paused for a while and asked, “Don’t you still want to land Sibei?”

“No.”

“That’s OK, I’ll talk to others, and you will see you on the phone tomorrow.”

Meng Shengnan, “Huh? For a moment, “Hey, I said you—”

When she was halfway through the conversation, Qi Qiao died. Meng Shengnan couldn’t connect through the call again, and Meng Shengnan couldn’t wait to smash that married woman. She closed the computer fiercely, buried her face in the quilt and wanted to shout, but finally held back.

The ceremony downstairs asked Meng Hang to sleep, and then it was quiet.

She slowly got up from the quilt and turned on the computer to write the story that was not finished yesterday. Perhaps because of her growth, she wrote from the age of sixteen to twenty-four, and many of her outlook on life has changed. All previous expectations and dreams have been put on hold by reality, and I always say wait, wait, and then it’s now.

That day, she slept very late.

It’s rare to sleep late on the weekend, but I was woken up by Qi Qiao on the phone before nine o’clock. Meng Shengnan was really shocked. He didn’t expect that this woman had arranged for her a time and place to meet with the man at ten o’clock. She was very angry: “I will not go.”

“Really not going?” The woman was rather calm.

“Yeah.” She slept soundly.

Qi Qiao smiled slightly: “Okay, then I will come to your house in the afternoon.”

Meng Shengnan was deeply disturbed.

Qi Qiao said: “I have an interview with Aunt Shengdian.”

Meng Shengnan: “…”

“Then take the matter between you and Lu Sibei–“

“I go!”

“Dress nicely.”

Qi Qiao smiled and hung up the phone.

Meng Shengnan suddenly felt that one head and two were big. When I was with Lu Sibei, I kept the ceremony secret. If the ceremony knew that she had let go of the best prospective son-in-law who met all the requirements of a mother, according to the current menopausal situation of the ceremony, she would be talked about. Go to a mental hospital sooner or later.

“sister.”

Meng Hang went upstairs and asked her to eat. She was annoying when she suddenly had an inspiration.

“Xiao Hang, I’ll go to the door in a while, can I take you away?”

Children are just cheating.

So, after dinner, Meng Shengnan took Meng Hang out.

“Where to go?” the boy asked her in the taxi.

Meng Shengnan said: “See the individual.”

“Brother-in-law?”

Meng Shengnan: “…”

“No, an ordinary friend.” She corrected quickly, “Did you remember everything I taught you?”

Meng Hang nodded.

It is already twenty minutes after arriving at the cafe Qi Qiao said. She took Meng Hang’s hand and went in to look for seat number ○ ○ 7 and saw a man in the distance. With his back turned, he sat upright as if he was going to meet the leaders of the country.

Meng Shengnan was a little nervous and looked at Meng Hang and said in a low voice, “Being good for a while will buy you Mambius.”

The little boy pressed his lips and nodded seriously.

She took a deep breath, and then walked over with Meng Hang. When he saw the man’s face, he slowly calmed down. To be honest, he looked really good. After all, a soldier was born with a sense of responsibility. He was two years older than her. No wonder Qi Qiao felt suitable.

Of course the man was also taken aback.

“Hello, Meng Shengnan.”

Meng Hang suddenly raised his head and called her: “Mom.”

The man seemed to be frozen, Meng Shengnan smiled gently and explained.

“Sorry, Qi Qiao may not have made it clear to you, I am taking the child by myself now–“

The man’s face was indescribable.

Almost before ten minutes had passed, Meng Shengnan led Meng Hang out. The two of them stood under the big sun and exhaled, and the cars on the street drove one by one on the Jiangcheng highway. Oncoming was the 502 where she had sat countless times when she was young, and Meng Shengnan seemed to have some kind of illusion suddenly.

“sister.”

Meng Hang shook her hand and reminded: “Mengbius.”

She slowly returned to her senses: “I see.”

The two went to the nearest shopping mall, and Meng Hang was so excited when he entered. He ran quickly ahead, and Meng Shengnan followed behind. That shop specializes in children’s toys, and the main Ultraman series. Meng Hang stared at the half-meter-long Mengbius at a glance.

“I want that.”

He pointed to the Ultraman hanging on the wall and said to her.

Meng Shengnan bent down halfway: “That?”

“Ok.”

She handed the teller 100 yuan and asked Meng Hang, “How much do you want to find?”

Meng Hang was excited when he got Ultraman. He pouted his little mouth when he heard her question and glanced at her.

“sister.”

“Ok?”

“You are so annoying.”

Meng Shengnan: “…”

She really is the world of little boys. Later, she took Meng Hang around in the mall. The child has a fast metabolism and will go to the toilet soon. Meng Shengnan wants to take him to the women’s toilet, and the little boys are not happy. No way, she can only wait outside the men’s room.

Meng Hang insisted on holding Mengbius to enter, and it was inconvenient for him to hold the toys in one hand and his pants.

He was very depressed and didn’t know what to do.

“I’ll help you.”

Xiao Menghang turned his head and stared at this big brother who was much taller than him as if he saw a savior.

The man lost half of his cigarette and smiled faintly, “Do you like Mambius?”

The little boy nodded, “My sister bought it for me.”

The man raised his eyebrows.

“She is beautiful.”

The man laughed, “Yeah.”

After Meng Hang went to the toilet, he walked out with the man. Meng Shengnan happened to receive a roaring call from Qi Qiao at that time and had a terrible headache. He listened to her on the phone. He was standing in front of the railing on the second floor with his back facing them.

Meng Hang pointed at Meng Shengnan’s back and looked up at the man.

“She is my sister.”

The man smiled faintly, did not speak, just rubbed his hair, then turned and left. Meng Hang curled his lips in disappointment, walked to Meng Shengnan’s side with drooping shoulders, and tugged at her clothes. She quickly ended the painful phone call.

“what’s happenin?”

Meng Shengnan looked down at him with a wrinkled face and asked.

Meng Hang sighed: “I just saw a very handsome big brother, it’s a pity.”

Meng Shengnan: “…”

Afterwards, the two of them went back without playing more. After spending the weekend at home, Meng Shengnan returned to school on Sunday afternoon. Then it was the same day-to-day get out of class registration and registration. At that time, the ceremony had been retired early and went home to be a housewife.

Although it was relatively monotonous, there was the kind of fun that the grand ceremony said.

On Wednesday that day, she returned to the office after class. There are a few female teachers chatting in it, as if to talk about the premature love of the students in the class. After hearing a few words, she bowed her head to prepare for the lesson, and suddenly heard a female teacher calling her name and asking her what she thought.

Meng Shengnan thought for a while, and said, “It shouldn’t be a problem if it doesn’t affect study.”

The female teacher’s name is Lin, twenty-five and six years old.

“Have you been in love before?”

She shook her head.

The female teacher was happy.

“I see, there is no premature love, is it a secret love?”

Meng Shengnan smiled, the phone prompted a text message, she took it out of her pocket and saw that it was a mess of promotional advertisements, then deleted the phone and put it on the desk. I just didn’t expect that with a dazed effort, my arm accidentally touched the water glass on the table and flooded the phone directly.

Female teachers: “…”

She hurried to the rescue, and it was still usable at first, but after a while, the screen went black and couldn’t be opened again. That was the smartphone that Qi Qiao and Song Jiashu gave to her from their honeymoon trip abroad. They have been using them well. I can only stare at me now, but later I found time to go to several repair shops near the school, saying that there are no parts that can’t be repaired.

A teacher suggested: “Go to the city and have a look, I’m not sure.”

Meng Shengnan feels that this kind of special model of imported products does not match the average domestic repair shop. So she had a plan to buy again. It happened that she had no class on Friday, so she took the bus to go to the city for a leisurely trip.

At that time, the grass was really long and the ying flies.

She went to several mobile phone stores and couldn’t find her favorite, so she just continued shopping before it was too early. Just turned to a relatively remote street, traffic lights. She stood on the spot and waited, glanced around at random, and saw the small dilapidated street less than a hundred meters long that was left out in the cold.

There is a two-meter-high sign for repairing mobile phones and computers at the door of the house.

She touched the broken cell phone in her pocket, not knowing why, and suddenly wanted to try her luck in the past. So she turned her direction and walked in along the street. From a closer look, the facade is very shabby, just as inconspicuous as the street.

The name of the store is too, ordinary smack.

‘Mobile phone repair shop’.

The inside is not very big, about fifty square meters, no one. The inner half of the door is separated from the outer part, which should be a resting place. There is a sink and a small closet on the side. A long glass cabinet with a height of one meter separates the inner room. A table was placed against the wall next to it, with a computer on it, full of parts. Surrounded by a wooden cabinet, it was filled with keyboards, mice, and a few computers.

This room is unkempt and tight.

She stood inside and surrounded her, planning to wait for the shopkeeper. A person stood in the middle of the store just like that, looking into a daze. I don’t know how long it has passed, perhaps within a few minutes, she vaguely heard footsteps behind her, and just about to turn around, she heard a calm and low male voice behind her.

“Repair your phone?”