"Brother Wei, what are you doing? The bus is here, hurry up and get on."
Li Junfei's voice cut through Zhang Wei's thoughts. He turned and walked onto the bus.
"Coming."
As soon as he boarded, Li Junfei gestured to the seat beside him.
The bus was crowded. /
Apart from the seat next to Li Junfei, all other seats were occupied.
Zhang Wei sat down directly.
Just as the bus was about to start,
"Wait, driver, wait a moment."
A hurried shout came from outside the bus.
The aunt from the grandmother-grandchild trio Zhang Wei had been watching, seeing the bus was about to leave, quickly ran over, her shout the one heard.
As they watched,
The aunt, holding a baby, quickly boarded the bus.
She told the driver, "Wait, someone else is coming," and then turned to call out to the grandmother, who was jogging towards them.
"Mom, hurry up, honestly, always dawdling."
"Coming, coming."
The grandmother was around sixty, with most of her hair white, and her legs were not agile.
She wasn't as fast as the aunt.
Upon boarding,
She couldn't help but lean on her knees, panting.
The aunt, however, didn't notice and continued to complain:
"Glad we made it. Mom, I told you, don't always insist on burning incense before going out. If you didn't do all that praying, we wouldn't have to run like this."
She chattered on endlessly.
Many people on the bus frowned.
If it weren't for it being someone else's family matter, someone would have already voiced their displeasure.
Perhaps accustomed to the aunt's complaints, the old grandmother smiled kindly and even asked with concern,
"It's just that A Zhou was hospitalized recently."
"I thought I'd pray more, for blessings."
"Rongrong, when you were running just now, did you jolt the baby?"
The aunt rolled her eyes at the grandmother and hugged the baby:
"That's because you were dawdling, that's why I had to run so fast."
As she spoke,
She glanced at the bus and saw that all the seats were taken, her dissatisfaction deepening. She couldn't help but complain in a low voice.
"See, Mom, because you dawdled leaving, there are no seats now."
At this moment,
Before the grandmother could feel embarrassed and apologize,
"Grandma, Auntie, sit here."
It was Zhang Wei who spoke.
Having received nine years of compulsory education, setting aside the aunt, it was only right to give up a seat for the grandmother. And even if not considering the aunt, one had to consider the baby in her arms.
The grandmother, unable to refuse Zhang Wei, thanked him profusely and then pulled the aunt over to sit.
"Rongrong, you sit there."
The aunt didn't stand on ceremony with the grandmother and directly sat in Zhang Wei's seat.
At the same time,
Chou Xiaolin and the other two stood up to offer their seats to the grandmother. Ultimately, Li Junfei insisted on letting ladies go first, and the grandmother sat in Li Junfei's original seat.
"Thank you, young man."
The grandmother thanked Zhang Wei and Li Junfei.
Soon,
The bus started.
As they drove, the grandmother took out a few apples from the plastic bag she was carrying and offered them to Zhang Wei and the others, wanting to thank them.
Although the aunt beside her said nothing, her frowning gesture
clearly indicated her displeasure at the grandmother giving apples to Zhang Wei and the others.
In her opinion,
Giving up seats for the elderly and women was a given, and there was no need for thanks.
Zhang Wei completely ignored her expression
and refused the grandmother's kind offer.
Then,
He glanced at the aunt, then at the grandmother and the apples in her hand.
Thinking that the old grandmother was a good person,
Zhang Wei smiled and asked,
"Grandma, I overheard you saying earlier, are you going to the hospital?"
"Yes, my son A Zhou was in an accident while driving at night a few days ago. I'm going to the hospital with my daughter-in-law to see my son."
The grandmother replied with a smile.
However, before she could finish, the aunt tugged at her sleeve, clearly disliking the grandmother discussing such matters.
"Accidentally hit?"
Zhang Wei murmured.
After confirming that her son was alright, just a bone injury requiring a couple of days of rest in the hospital,
He looked at the grandmother,
"Grandma, are you sure your son was accidentally hit? Grandma, I'm not cursing your son, I don't mean anything else, I just wanted to ask, in the days leading up to the accident, did anything strange happen at home or to him?"
His words caused
not only the grandmother to freeze, but also the aunt and the three of them, Chou Xiaolin, to look over.
"What do you mean, young man? Are you trying to act mysterious and trick my mother? My mother is easily fooled, but I'm not."
The aunt's expression turned unfriendly, and she immediately started chattering:
"What are you learning at such a young age? Learning to trick the elderly. How did your parents teach you..."
Before she could finish her last sentence,
Zhang Wei's gaze fell upon her, his eyes so deep they were frightening, sharp and piercing.
The aunt was so startled that she swallowed the words she was about to say.
Zhang Wei's voice rang out at the same time.
"Shut your mouth."
"If it weren't for Grandma, I really wouldn't bother with your family's affairs. It makes no difference to me if a few people die."
At this moment,
Zhang Wei's demeanor was imposing, a stark contrast to his previous amiability.
If the grandmother hadn't quickly pulled the aunt back, preventing her from speaking, Zhang Wei would have slapped her.
There were two things he disliked the most.
One was matcha.
The other was people talking about his family.
Perhaps due to her Buddhist faith and Zhang Wei's words, the grandmother did not get angry.
Instead,
She uncharacteristically restrained the aunt from speaking and apologized to Zhang Wei while asking,
"Young man, what did you just say? How did you know that strange things have been happening in our family recently?"
Unlike her reaction to the aunt,
Zhang Wei looked at the grandmother, his expression returning to amiability. His rapid change in demeanor made Chou Xiaolin and the others stunned.
He smiled.
He didn't answer the grandmother's question but said,
"Grandma, don't believe me too quickly. Like your capable daughter-in-law said, be careful not to be tricked."
"How could that be?" The grandmother replied shyly.
Zhang Wei continued,
"Grandma, did you used to have a tabby cat? But it's dead, isn't it?"
"That tabby cat was plump, with a patch of fur on its chest that looked like a triangle."
"And,"
"Grandma, and this capable-to-the-sky aunt who wants to be shoulder-to-shoulder with the sun, have you both been feeling a heaviness on your shoulders recently, as if you're carrying something?"
His voice was not loud.
On the small bus, only the grandmother, Chou Xiaolin, and the others nearby could hear him.
But it made the grandmother's expression change.
Even the aunt looked at Zhang Wei, her eyes filled with shock.
"How do you know?"
The aunt and grandmother blurted out simultaneously.
At the same moment,
Chou Xiaolin, Zhang Ya, and Li Junfei also looked at Zhang Wei, the former two showing undisguised astonishment.
Earlier, when Zhang Wei was talking to the grandmother, they were curious and couldn't help but eavesdrop.
As the conversation progressed,
Seeing the grandmother and aunt's reactions, they were astonished.
What was going on? How did Zhang Wei know about their family?
From their conversation,
They knew that Zhang Wei was meeting them for the first time, but why was he so familiar with the grandmother's family?
As they were wondering,
The grandmother's next words made them even more shocked.
"Young man, how do you know that you and Rongrong have been feeling heavy and sore shoulders recently?"
"And how do you know we had a tabby cat? Yes, our Huahua died. She died three years ago in our hometown."
At this moment,
Everyone was too astonished to notice.
Zhang Wei's eyes, deep and ethereal, were fixed on the grandmother and the aunt.
More precisely,
He was looking at a pair of infant footprints imprinted on the shoulders of the grandmother and the aunt.
Those footprints looked as if a baby's bare feet had stepped on muddy ground and left them on their shoulders, clear and eerie, yet they seemed unable to see them.
In addition,
Zhang Wei's gaze shifted,
landing on the other shoulder of the grandmother, where a tabby cat was perched.
That tabby cat was translucent; it was not a normal cat, but the soul of a cat after its death!
At this moment,
The tabby cat seemed to sense Zhang Wei looking at it.
"Meow~"
It meowed at Zhang Wei.
...