When I was eight years old, my mother was killed in a car accident, and her brief maternal love warmed my childhood but it was so short.
Motherhood is sacred and irreplaceable in my memory, so I don't allow anyone to joke about my mother, even though I've always been on my own.
In order to provide for my education, my father quit smoking and drinking, and went to the construction site early in the morning to move bricks.
In those days when I didn't have friends, I saw my father and I had a direction to work towards, so I put all my heart on studying, and I gradually became a complete nerd and a reticent person.
My father said that I should make more friends, but I thought that life was originally my own, and I grew up rapidly in the years before I knew it, but my father was full of sadness.
When I was younger, I didn't know where my father's "sorrow" came from, but I rarely saw a smile on his face.
Later, I learned that it was the loneliness of adults, the kind of loneliness that fell into endless waiting after watching my back to school slowly disappear again and again, and I wanted to grow up quickly so that I could bring a good life to my father.
But I underestimated the loneliness my father endured.
When I came home from the vacation of my second year of high school, there were suddenly a few more people in the house, and Aunt Wang, the "big speaker" in the village, was leading another middle-aged woman, talking and laughing at my house.
When my father saw me coming back, he had a little embarrassment on his face, and he took out a few dollars from his pocket for a long time and asked me to go out and buy some snacks for myself.
"Dad!" I shoved all the money back into my father's hands, "do you think I am a child, who are they, what are they for, why are they at my house?"
The room was so troubled by me, and suddenly it quieted down, and the smile on Aunt Wang's face was a little unbearable, "What did this kid say?
Aunt Wang said as she pulled me to the woman's side, I felt uncomfortable all over my body, I didn't know where the strength came from, I pushed the woman, and shouted that I don't want you to be my mother!
I am very tall, even if the woman stands up, she is a head shorter than me, and when she sees me angry, she screams in fright and runs out, Aunt Wang glared at me angrily, and did not forget to nag her father a few words while walking out, "Let's talk about this matter later." ”
Later, it means that it can't be done, and I am relieved from the bottom of my heart. I thought my father would reproach me for this, but he didn't, just stared at me silently for a long time, sighing one after another.
When I was young, I was so ambitious that I could never understand my father's feelings, I only knew that no one could replace my mother's identity here.
After I made such a fuss, the gossip in the village exploded all of a sudden, and every family was talking about Lao Li's blind date in the east of the village being muddied by his son.
As soon as I walked by, I listened to it with relish, and saw who dared to come to my house for a blind date!
However, I miscalculated, and after I went to college, like other classmates, I only went home once in a few months.
The holiday soon came again, I just arrived home, and it turned out to be a woman who came out to greet me, she tied an apron around her waist, and walked towards me while wiping her hands, "Xiao Li, are you back?"
My mind buzzed, and after confirming that this was my home, I stood stunned and asked in a cold tone, "Who are you, and why are you at my house?"
The silence of the woman in front of me had already told me the answer, and I rushed into the house in a frenzy, colliding head-on with my father who had come out.
My father wanted to explain something, but I couldn't control my emotions at the moment, and I was already looking at him with tears on my face, and I wanted to question him why he did it, but I choked up in my throat several times and couldn't say anything.
I didn't even stay at home for a day, I hurried back to school, I was the only one in the dormitory during the holidays, I slept in the dormitory when I was sleepy, and I had nothing to do on weekdays to go out to work.
It was in those boring days that I realized how lonely my father was, but I couldn't convince myself to accept that woman.
When I was in college, I rarely went home, and even when I did, I only visited my father, and I had the impression that I had never talked to that woman, let alone taken the initiative to talk to that woman, except for what was necessary in life.
I know that she is also trying to please me, but my psychology is extremely unbalanced, as if she has snatched my mother and wants to dominate me and my father.
This psychological gap and depression caused my personality to become more and more withdrawn, but fortunately, in my last year of college, I met the person who really loved me.
Her appearance was like salvation in my conflicted life, trying to pull me into a new life.
We got married after we graduated, and I only informed my father on the day of the wedding, so that during the wedding, he was late and missed the time to change his words, and he stood under the stage and looked at me on stage, his lips trembling all the time.
We only met in a hurry at the wedding, and I took my daughter-in-law to a new life, and we rented a small house of 60 square meters in the city and lived an ordinary life.
I was in charge of earning money to support the family, and she was in charge of some chores at home, and later, she became pregnant.
In order to make a better life for my wife and the unborn child, I chose to go on a business trip without hesitation, but my pregnant wife could not be left unattended, and the family's financial situation could not afford to hire a nanny.
I called my aunts, but no one wanted to take on this unprofitable chore, and as the day of the business trip drew nearer, I was sweating profusely.
Although my daughter-in-law repeatedly stated that she could be alone, she didn't take care of anyone around her, and I couldn't even know what the accident was at the first time.
I didn't even go to help the woman on the day she moved into my house, and it was already a decision for me, and if it weren't for the fear that my wife would have no one to take care of, I would never have let the woman I didn't recognize enter my house.
But my daughter-in-law was very tolerant of her, and seeing the scene of my mother-in-law and daughter-in-law being safe, I still went on a business trip with anxiety.
I would throw a video call to my daughter-in-law every once in a while, asking her about her recent life, under the care of my stepmother, my daughter-in-law's face was obviously rounded, and her spirit was also very full, not like others at all, she was nauseous and couldn't eat when she was pregnant.
But I rarely see my stepmother in the video, and only occasionally I hear a voice or two from it, like hers.
The days of the business trip passed day by day, in the anticipation of day and night, I finally got on the return plane, along the way I endured for a long time, and did not send a message to my daughter-in-law, I hugged a bunch of specialties, thinking that this time I must give my daughter-in-law a surprise.
I returned home with flint all the way, and as soon as I entered the door, I was stunned by the scene in front of me, only to see my daughter-in-law kneeling on the ground, washing the feet of my stepmother sitting on the sofa!
"Hurry up. I was taken aback by the scene in front of me, and I fell to the ground with all the souvenirs, and I trotted over to help my daughter-in-law and kicked over the basin, and the water on the ground flowed all over the ground.
I looked my daughter-in-law up and down, and after finding that my daughter-in-law had nothing to do, I looked at my stepmother who was sitting cramped on the sofa at the moment.
She wiped her feet embarrassedly, and the whole person stood aside, "Xiao Li, are you back? Do you want to eat anything? Mom will make it for you!"
"You're not my mother!" I stared at her viciously, "She's pregnant, and you let her wash your feet, you have such a big face, now pack up your things and go out of my house!"
I couldn't hit her, so I could only stand aside and get angry, when suddenly I felt someone tugging at my sleeve, "Husband, you misunderstood, I took the initiative to wash my mother-in-law's feet." ”
My brain buzzed, and I quickly asked with concern, "Did she intimidate you, it's okay, you tell the truth, I'll call the shots for you." ”
"Okay, today is Mother's Day!" my daughter-in-law suddenly interrupted me, her eyes moistened, and continued, "My mother-in-law has taken care of me a lot these days, and I think that today is Mother's Day, and our younger generation will also do our filial piety." ”
My daughter-in-law walked up to my stepmother and gently helped her to the sofa, she looked at me with a disappointed face, and I felt very uncomfortable.
I told her about our family, we always quarreled over the topic of mother, and my daughter-in-law always thought that I was not mature enough and not considerate enough to care for her parents, but my financial ability was like that, and it was still difficult to take care of myself and my wife.
However, this time the daughter-in-law did not get angry, she just gently put my hand on the back of my stepmother's hand, which felt very rough to the touch, not at all like a woman's hand.
Looking back on the days when I was not at home all these years, my stepmother should have taken care of my father, and I must have done a lot of dirty work, and I felt very guilty.
Today is Mother's Day, and I have lost my mother since I was a child, so I have no impression of this festival, and I have never thought of giving this "mother" who came to my house a holiday.
I took out a mop cloth, cleaned up the water on the ground, refilled a basin of warm water, slowly squatted down, and put my stepmother's feet in the basin.
The daughter-in-law and stepmother were in a daze, and I gently washed my stepmother's feet, "Mom, my daughter-in-law is pregnant, or I will honor you." ”
I didn't wait for a response, only to hear my stepmother sniff from time to time, and when I looked up again, my stepmother was already crying.
That was the first time I saw my stepmother cry, and for so many years, I had always treated her with disregard or indifference, and she had never shed a tear in front of me.
And now, she burst into tears because I, a "white-eyed wolf" who didn't open my mind, washed her feet once on Mother's Day. The scenes of the past suddenly appeared in front of me:
When I was in school, she secretly packed her hand-sewn clothes in our luggage.
When I came back, I was busy in the kitchen and just wanted to cook me a few more dishes.
When I'm not at home, I clean my room over and over again......
How can I be a child without a mother? My mother has always been there for me.
In fact, we as teenagers always have some unrelieved obsessions in our hearts, and we can untie the knot in the face of it, but we always have to escape again and again, maybe we should give ourselves a chance to accept it and face a better life.
There seems to be an insurmountable gap between the elders and the younger generations, sit down and talk openly, don't let the wait become a regret.
This story is purely fictional, if there is any similarity is purely coincidental, please do not sit in the opposite seat.