Abigail

 　　Abigail pulled open the door of the balcony by putting on her cotton clothes. It was five in the morning, and the sky seemed much brighter than I remembered.

　　Her mother-in-law heard her close the door in the east room and gave her a few instructions, to which Abi responded, dragging her vegetable basket down the stairs.

　　When she got down to the sixth floor, far from the clouds, sure enough, the ground was dark and sunken. The damp streets were dim and deserted. Abi did not know where the light from the clouds came from, just as she did not know whether her state of mind was happy or sad. She understood the origin of the fragrance in the rain and fog - the wax plum hidden in the camphor bushes was in bloom. One second she smiles at the knowledge, the next she hides her face and weeps, the continuous winter rains will make the dark opening even darker.

　　In the night, her mother-in-law called out to her, shouting urgently. She pushed the door in without a coat. She was more alarmed by her father-in-law's shame than by her mother-in-law's pleading eyes. He tried desperately to turn sideways, like the half of his face that he could not control, and his figure was more distorted by the effort. Without waiting for her mother-in-law to say anything, Abigail was busy twisting her head to support her father-in-law.

　　The mother-in-law was crying. She complained that her father-in-law was capricious and looked at Abi carefully: she told him to wait for his son to come back before scrubbing, but he said it was hard on him, and I thought I could get him to move. The mother-in-law's tears fell as she spoke.

　　My father-in-law had a stroke in September and was in the hospital for a month and a half, half of his body was still stiff when he was discharged. Old Ren said he didn't feel comfortable with them living alone, so he should take them home.

　　He said so with Abi in the kitchen, where the glass moving door was closed and the in-laws were sitting in the living room watching TV. Although she expected that her parents-in-law might move in with her, Abi opened the door and saw a large pile of bags waiting for her to pack them in the hallway, and her attitude was somewhat unnatural.

　　Abigail didn't answer, but went straight to bring out the food: "Dad, Mom, let's eat.

　　Before the stroke, my father-in-law took care of all the family affairs. Once on the way to work by bus, Abigail turned her head and saw her father-in-law riding a battery car with her mother-in-law, the front of the basket was full of objects, and two boxes of pears were on the pedals, it seemed that the old couple had gone to the wholesale market 30 miles away early in the morning. The father-in-law two feet in the air clip pear box, mother-in-law side seat in the back, one hand holding the father-in-law, dress fluttering.

　　Abigail did not say to the old Ren saw the in-laws in the morning, although the dinner table that day on the lamb chops, vegetables and pears bought by my father-in-law. She told a colleague about it, said when full of contempt: so cold days, we do not wear skirts, more than 60 years old people still wear sarongs, nothing will do.

　　After my father-in-law's stroke, my mother-in-law's aging was visible to the naked eye, so she stopped wearing skirts, tied her hair with a leather band, and later simply cut a child's flower head. Even so, Abi still feels that she "can't do anything", all she can do is "watch". Watch Abi choose vegetables, watch Abi mopping the floor, watch the old Ren frying and cooking ...... Even so, the father-in-law still likes to watch her, where she goes, the father-in-law will look to where.

　　The first time I saw this, I realized why I didn't want to talk to Ren about the fact that my father-in-law was driving my mother-in-law to buy vegetables and fruits. The two elderly people in the battery car were so happy and cheerful that neither Ren nor she had ever seemed to have before or after the marriage.

　　The rain and fog gradually stopped. The stores on both sides of the road are still dark, only the florist all night long lights. Yesterday, the third day of Ren's business trip, Zhang Jun met her at the glass corridor bridge of the company building and handed her a rose, saying it was picked up by the roadside. If Zhang Jun is frank, there is nothing fishy. But, although Zhang Jun faced her directly, his eyes drifted from side to side.

　　Abi did not reach out to take the flower. The sunlight shone on the rose through the folding glass wall in the west, although it only stayed for a few seconds, but in her infinitely elongated imagination, the sunlight cut red shadows with right angles at the core of the flower, and kept rotating inward, and in the deepest part of the bud, the colored bubbles rose. Blinking again, these dazzling bubbles suddenly disappeared.

　　Standing in front of Zhang Jun, Abi did not hear what he said, the rose eventually disappeared. In Abi's memory, it was the image of Zhang Jun looking down and sniffing deeply at the rose, which gave Abi the illusion that the rose was actually given to him by her.

　　When her mother-in-law shouts at night, she is reduced from a woman who can still accept flowers to a middle-aged woman who can ignore her gender. She could understand her mother-in-law's guilt at watching her turn her head to wipe her father-in-law's body, but she was still angry. She wanted to escape, but where could she go? As a housewife, she had to haul her basket of vegetables early in the morning to have a reason to go out.

　　Besides, even if she and Ren are tired of looking at each other, she can't think of anyone but Ren who could sit beside her one day if she also has a crooked mouth and slanted eyes. Beauty exists only when viewed from a distance.

　　Similar to the rose that was not accepted.

　　Abi bought a bag of rice at a roadside store and turned her head to go home. My father-in-law was sitting in a wheelchair, and my mother-in-law had cooked an unprecedented rice porridge and fried a pot of garlic and grass head, feeding him spoonful after spoonful. When they saw her return, the two old men looked back at her and smiled, greeting her to come and eat.

　　Abi's heart warmed up. In her heart, she always thought that old Ren would learn to love people when he grew old, just like her father-in-law.

　　After breakfast, she took the bus to work. The car swayed and turned, Abi suddenly found the road unfamiliar, and turned around to look at the light inside the car, she wanted to take the 201 road but sat by mistake into the 211 road. After five stops, she got up to ring the parking bell, but saw Ren at the entrance of the alley at the turn. She opened her mouth to shout, and then saw that Ren was carrying a doughnut in one hand and holding a long-haired woman in the other.

　　Ten minutes ago, Ren replied to her WeChat: Thank you for your hard work! I'll be home tomorrow morning!