C3 (2/2)

When the car arrived at the gate of the neighborhood, I told my uncle to wait for me downstairs.

This apartment building, from what I can remember, is here. A dozen years ago, it was the tallest building in this area, and it was once outstanding in a bungalow. Now, surrounded by a bunch of tall buildings, it looks extremely shabby.

My mother said that our family lives in the downtown area, and if we move to the city, we can buy a large villa in the suburbs with the money from the state subsidy.

For more than a decade, there had been little change in the six buildings in the entire unit, except that the open space in the middle had turned from sand to cement and green belts had been planted. When the national fitness sports are hot, there is also a single bar and a fitness bike.

A father and son walked towards me through the green belt. It was the Uncle Wang and Big Treasure on the eighth floor. His wife and mother were best friends, and I had known him since she was young.

Big Treasure was seven or eight years old. He wasn't familiar with me, but he still called me Big Sister. He had a face of ice cream, and his uncle was wiping it for him.

”Yo, you're home from school? Is Mom and Dad okay? ”

”My dad is dead. I came back to get something.” Tears came again.

”Ah, that can't be, why is it so sudden? Seeing him two days ago was still fine! ” Uncle Wang frowned and said.

”My child, I'm sorry.”

The Uncle Wang sighed as she opened the iron gate, and we walked into the elevator.

”What floor is elder sister on?”

”Third floor.”

Big Treasure sensibly pressed the elevator for me.

”Go get your clothes.” Before we walked out of the elevator, the Uncle Wang patted my shoulder.

I walked home dejectedly. The corridor was no hotter than it was outside. A gust of cold wind made me shiver. Suddenly, I felt that something wasn't right.

Dabao's mother always asked my mother to help her buy things in Hong Kong. She would come to my house with her son every few days, so Dabao knew which floor I lived on.

A few times when I came home and met him, he took the initiative to help me press the button for the third floor. But he just asked me, ”What floor is sister on?”

Did I encounter a fake treasure?

I suddenly remembered that when I walked out of the elevator, the Uncle Wang patted me.

”Go get your clothes.”

How did Uncle Wang know that I was going to go home to get my father's clothes?

Did I say that? How do I remember that I didn't say.

Looking back, he saw that the elevator doors were closed.

When I got on the elevator, Big Treasure pressed the button for me on the third floor.

Then he didn't seem to be on any of the other floors.

Uncle Wang lived on the eighth floor. If Da Bao and Uncle Wang went home at this time, the elevator would stop at the eighth floor.

I turned around and tiptoed to the elevator.

In the past few years, I have hardly met the Uncle Wang. Every time I return home, he would be surprised to see me and would say, Oh, it's been a year or so or something like that.

But when he saw me he said, as if he were used to it, 'Home from school?

It's like I come home from school every day.

Moreover, it was 2 in the afternoon and the school had already started lessons. There were no children who would leave school at this time of day.

I walked very quietly, and the light in the corridor was not on.

Step by step I approached the elevator until I saw the red fluorescent number.

3.

The elevator was still on the third floor.

I took a deep breath. Uncle Wang and Big Treasure were inside.

They were separated from me by the elevator door.

Who are they? What was he going to do? Should I press the elevator and ask, or run home quickly?

A jolt in my trouser pocket startled me.

It turned out to be the BP machine.

Just after the millennium, cell phones are still very high-end things, not everyone has them, especially children.

However, many students in their teens started to buy a BP machine. I also begged my parents to buy me a new one with Chinese subtitles so that I could display my messages in time. I didn't need to display only numbers like the old BP machine. In addition to leaving a message, you can also receive weather reports and a selection of daily jokes.

Every day, I put the BP machine on my waist and show it off wherever I go.

The purple BP machine emitted a white fluorescence:

”Don't go home! Don't trust anyone! Return! Shu

Even though I was only 15 years old, I could smell danger. He dared not press the elevator switch.

My intuition told me that the two people in there were not friendly.

Looking around, there were three families on the first floor of the building. Each family had their doors tightly closed.

There was also a fire escape at the rear corner of the elevator that led to the first floor. If he were to escape by the stairs now …

But suddenly I remembered my father's face. When he was alive, he always wore a clean checked shirt and kept his handkerchief in his breast pocket.

Such a clean father, and now he was naked, not even wearing a single set of clothes.

The air-conditioning in the hospital was so cold that Dad's feet were still outside the sheets. If he put his socks on to keep his father warm, would he come back to life?

No, I must get a suit of clothes for my father.

With that in mind, I turned and headed home.