Myrna smiled and defended her gaze: “No, this expression looks very similar now, okay.”
She held the figurine up and shook it, and Dempsey laughed.
“Well, it’s not like that now.”
In the end , Dempsey accepted it and thanked him.
Myrna : “You’re welcome, green light … ”
…
When I got home, it was already early morning.
Myrna cleaned the house thoroughly before she left, and even hired a part-time cleaner to come and clean before she returned home. There was no sign that the owner had been away for several days.
She took a bath, lay on the soft big bed, smelled the fragrance of shower gel, and squinted her eyes in satisfaction.
Sure enough, no matter where you go, home is still the most comfortable place.
On the other side, Dempsey hasn’t slept yet.
The experiment has reached the final stage of the first phase. He has been very busy recently and even had to squeeze out time to go to the airport.
So, he planned to take a shower, change clothes and go back to the laboratory.
When he was putting on his shoes at the entrance, he looked up and saw the sculpture doll that Myrna had given him.
After entering the door, he placed the little thing on the bookshelf above the shoe cabinet, in a separate empty compartment surrounded by books.
He suddenly raised the corners of his mouth, they really looked alike.
…
In mid-January, H City was covered in heavy snow. Myrna opened the window and the world seemed to be dressed in a new white coat.
Just after eight o’clock, the children from the neighborhood went out in groups of three or four and started making snowmen downstairs.
The sounds of laughter and the hawkers’ calls are full of the atmosphere of life.
Myrna went downstairs to buy groceries, she saw little snowmen of different heights and shapes, but neatly lined up in a row.
The largest snowman among them looks stupid, with two fruit cores as eyes and a pink plastic windmill on its head. At first glance, it looks a bit like Doraemon.
Myrna had already walked over, but after thinking for a moment, she went back and inserted the small tomatoes in the basket into the tree to serve as its nose.
He took two steps back, looked at it carefully, and then nodded with satisfaction.
The beef freshly slaughtered at the market is fresh and cheap. She bought some beef ribs and planned to use them to make spicy beef strips. The rest will be used to make soup, which will be perfect with some sweet and crisp radish.
“Bang, bang-”
Myrna heard a knock on the door, took off her apron and went to open it.
The person who came was the neighbor aunt on the third floor. She smiled when she saw her, and the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes deepened a little bit: ” Myrna , are you at home? My daughter-in-law gave birth to a little girl two days ago. These are the eggs we cooked ourselves. Everyone in the building has a share. Here, this is yours.”
On weekdays, the aunt on the third floor took good care of her because she was a little girl alone.
Hearing the good news, Myrna was also happy for her.
She thanked him and turned around to take out some mung bean cakes and beef sauce she had made.
The aunt was surprised and delighted, and refused, “How can I do that? I didn’t give you the eggs as a return gift.”
Myrna : “It’s just a little thing I made myself. It’s not really a return gift. I just wanted you to try it for me to see if it tastes good.”
Seeing this, the aunt did not refuse anymore.
Mr. Gus next door usually goes out early and comes back late. I came several times but no one opened the door. Can you give him these eggs for me?”
As he said this, he remembered that he still had to go to the hospital to bring chicken soup to his daughter-in-law, so he went home first.
Myrna looked down at the egg in her hand, a little confused. If she remembered correctly, Dempsey didn’t seem to like boiled eggs very much?
…
At ten o’clock in the evening, heavy snow fell silently again.
Dempsey folded his umbrella, and the accumulated snow fell off the umbrella and soon melted into water.
There were some problems with the experiment, and the endless troubles made even him feel exhausted from dealing with them.
The closer we get to the end of the year, the stronger the festive atmosphere becomes.
He hadn’t had a good night’s sleep for several days, and today the experimental data was finally corrected to a safe value. Thinking that the New Year’s Eve was approaching, he simply gave everyone two days off.
Dempsey took out his key and was about to turn the doorknob when the door behind him rang.
Warm yellow light came out from the crack in the door, poured onto the ground and fell on him. The dim corridor was instantly lit up, and Myrna ‘s voice was like a source of heat in the cold winter.
” Mr. Gus came back very early today. The aunt on the third floor had a little granddaughter. She sent some red eggs over in the afternoon. Your portion is here. Please wait for a moment and I will bring it to you … ”
Dempsey ‘s perception is sharper than that of ordinary people. When she heard her clear and gentle voice, the rhythm in her mind slowed down a beat until a small bamboo basket was stuffed into her hand, which contained a few round eggs and the beef bone soup she had stewed today.
After a while, he came back to his senses and said in a low and hoarse voice: “Thank you.”
The cold wind blew through the hallway, and Myrna shivered. “I’ve heated up the soup and eggs, eat them while they’re hot. I’m going to close the door first.”
“good.”
The light briefly went out and the door closed again.
Dempsey pushed the door open and turned on the light. The empty room seemed particularly cold and quiet today.
He rubbed his heavy brows and unscrewed the lid of the thermos. There were a few chopped green onions floating on the hot soup. The radish had been stewed until soft and tasty. He took a bite and found it to be just the right saltiness.
He glanced at the egg at hand, with a bit of confusion between his brows, but he finally peeled one and ate it with beef bone soup. It seemed … not so bad?
Soon, the body warmed up.
He leaned lazily on the sofa, letting his thoughts wander, and his mood gradually relaxed.
The phone on the table vibrated a few times. I knew who sent the message without even looking.
In the past few years, he has been staying abroad, and he is always absent from every gathering at the old house.
This year, he plans to stay in the country for a long time, so family gatherings are naturally unavoidable.
Look, he hung up the phone in the morning, and then the Whatsapp bombardment came again in the evening.
He picked up the phone, and sure enough, most of the calls were from his mother, asking her questions and expressing concern, with a few being various inquiries and concerns from his brothers and sisters at home.
There was only one message, which was from his father. The content was actually almost the same as his mother’s, except that it urged him to go home.
Dempsey responded one by one, saying that he would finish the work as soon as possible.
Putting down the phone, Dempsey looked at the thermos. The soup was almost gone and only two pieces of radish were left.
He suddenly thought that when he went back in two days, by the time he saw her again, it should be after the New Year, right?
Will she stay in H City for Christmas ?
…
Dempsey tried several times to return the thermos, but was unable to knock on Myrna ‘s door.
There was no other reason. At this time, Myrna had already packed her luggage and went to the high-speed rail station.
She hasn’t returned home once in six years.
I hesitated for a long time on the mobile ticket purchasing interface, exited and clicked back in several times, and finally pressed the purchase button.
Some things cannot be avoided and must always be faced.