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Edge (short story)

author:Guan Muju
Edge (short story)

Since his wife became pregnant, Tao Huran's heart has an inexplicable touch. Seeing everything felt beautiful, as if the long-awaited angel was about to come, and the things that were usually hated became beautiful.

A few months later, his daughter was born in a wonderful feeling he had never had before. The first time he picked up the little angelic child, the tall man was moved to tears.

Since then, Tao Huran has been busy rushing home after work, and the social rewards that can be pushed off are pushed away as much as possible. The first thing I did when I got home was to pick up my daughter and tease her. The little daughter seemed to know her father's love, and when she heard his footsteps, she would dance with her hands or listen quietly with her eyes open.

The daughter will smile on the first day of the full moon, and the first smile will be given to Tao Huran. When he saw this little smiling face, a feeling of déjà vu flowed throughout his body. He watched in a daze, as if he had fallen into an ancient and long-lost dream.

A deep alley stretched out from his eyes into the distance, and he walked involuntarily down the alley, and at the end of the alley there was an old gray house, the door was hidden, and he pushed the door in curiously, and the furnishings inside were as kind and familiar as if he had seen it a long time ago. Against the wall of the opposite door is placed an ancient carved black wooden cabinet, on which is the same carved hollowed out Buddhist shrine, in front of the shrine is placed brass incense burner, the incense burner also burns three sandalwood, the strong smell of sandalwood comes to the nose. Although everything is very old, it is wiped clean. On the left-hand side of the door is a long fire, and on one side of the long kang sits an elderly couple mixing their mouths. The old man held a tube of dry cigarette bags in his mouth, twisted his head and breathlessly said, "You are eighty years old, it is still so sloppy to let you do something, and it is really unlucky to marry you in this life." The old lady was also unconvinced, and with a flick of her mouth, "Zi", a string of spit squeezed out from between her teeth sprayed into the brazier in front of her, and a thin smoke came out of the brazier with a "whoosh" sound. Then the old lady said, "Old man with no conscience, do you think I rarely marry you?" Even if it is not rare, I have served you all my life, and now that I have buried my neck and bullied me, it seems that I will retaliate against you. ”

Tao Huran watched them advance or retreat, and suddenly, the old man's head flickered into another Tao Huran, and the face of the eighty-year-old lady became the face of Tao Huran's daughter who had just turned the full moon, and she kept smiling at him.

More than a month after Tao Huran's dreamlike hallucination, one day, her daughter suddenly had a high fever and was sent to the hospital to be diagnosed with congenital leukemia. No matter how carefully Tao Huran took care of it, he still failed to keep his daughter. Tao Huran, like losing the whole world, became silent and had no spiritual head to do anything. No one is persuaded to move. It wasn't until three years later, when the wife became pregnant again, that inexplicable touch struck again. A few months later, the wife gave birth. Another daughter, who looked exactly like the first daughter who died prematurely. A month after the birth of the child, the dreamlike illusion reappeared.

Edge (short story)
Edge (short story)

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