"Didn't you go to apply for birth certificate ?"
"I said we have to wait because the materials are not complete."
"How long do we have to wait?"
"Don't worry, you can always get it done if you wait. "
"Can I wait for the child in my belly?"
The woman caressed her growing belly, her eyes showing disappointment. This was the first time he left empty-handed.
In the family planning period of the 1990s, obtaining a birth certificate for their child became a difficult issue for this family living at the bottom of society. After a few days, the birth certificate was still not issued and the woman finally left without saying goodbye.
The man chased her to his wife's house but failed to see the woman. Her mother-in-law only said that she wanted to go south for a walk. After several inquiries, he heard that the woman had gone to Guangzhou, so he hurried home to pack his bags and planned to persuade her to come back. However, his wishes were not met. There was a sudden "boom" in the back room, and the man's mother fell to the ground.
The doctor said it was cerebral infarction and there was a possibility of paralysis of the lower limbs. He scraped together some money to treat his mother. After he was discharged from the hospital, he often supported his mother in rehabilitation training. Fortunately, she recovered well. But the matter of going to Guangzhou to find her was put on hold for a year. Hearing that she didn't give birth to the child, he comforted himself that if she didn't give birth, then she didn't give birth. Everything would be fine when he got her back. Just seeing the mother who depends on each other struggling, I can't feel relieved.
When his mother could walk with a cane, he went to Guangzhou, but what he saw was her holding another man's arm and getting into a luxury car. The man looked at her and smiled softly. Yes, he couldn't even save a child, so what could he give her? Finally, he fled home in despair.
It’s just that since he came back from his trip to Guangzhou, he has been losing weight day by day. He can dream about her coming back every night, and he feels like she is really back, and her figure is everywhere. His mother looked at him with a sad face and wanted to say something, but in the end she could only sigh.
I don’t know when, there was a barefoot madman in the alley. He stood there looking into the distance every day, as if waiting for someone. In winter, he wore a military coat and his long hair was messy; in summer, his long hair was shaved off and his dirty upper body was shaved, and his dark, chapped skin could be seen.
In an alley not far away, an old lady was sitting on a low armchair looking at him distressedly. Next to her was the crutch she had used for many years. People around can always see the madman. He is there when he wakes up early and goes out under the morning sun, and he is still there when he returns home under the night stars. The old lady stayed with him year after year like this, until her hair was all white and her body was stooped.
Starting from one day, the rickety figure sitting on the low stool disappeared from the alley, and the long mottled hair of Summer Madman never got shorter.
One day about two years later, people around suddenly discovered that the person standing at the alley seemed to be missing. Since then, they have never seen that figure again. I just vaguely remember that one winter it snowed heavily, and a madman stood barefoot in the alleyway, looking dreamily at the flying snow in the sky. Maybe it was because her name was Snow.
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