Chapter 6: Parents Have No Love

Zhou Rui's home is at the other end, so he has to go back a bit.

After passing Ping Ping Fruit and Vegetable Store, Sichuan Stir-Fry, Audio and Video Store, and Barber Shop again, Zhou Rui turned into a dark alley.

In 2009, Zhou Rui's home was in a separate residential building beside this alley.

This is not a community, there is no name, only a house number.

This is the house that my grandfather's unit allocated to him. It has only four floors and is quite old, but he is not familiar with the neighbors here because he and his mother moved here after his parents divorced.

The stairs in the old house are very long and semi-open. They go back and forth from left to right, passing through the windows of almost every household. The residents exhaust the smoke directly into the corridor when cooking, so from the walls to the handrails, almost everything is stained with thick oil.

The only advantage is that you can easily judge whose family cooks better and whose family is boiling Chinese medicine.

Taking out the key to open the door, Zhou Rui put his schoolbag on the shoe cabinet, and his mother's familiar but unfamiliar voice came from inside.

"Xiao Rui is back? It's a bit late today?"

Yao Peili, Zhou Rui's mother.

At this time, she was watching TV on the sofa. There were a few slightly cold dishes on the dining table. When her mother heard the noise, she began to prepare to heat up the meal for Zhou Rui.

Even in the third year of high school, she came home late, but Yao Peili never let Zhou Rui hesitate when it came to eating. Whenever she had time, she would cook by herself, thinking that the food outside was unhygienic.

Zhou Rui looked at his mother's back, which was much taller and healthier than a dozen years later, and a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

He was from a single-parent family. His parents divorced when he was in elementary school.

His mother worked in the Qinghe County Cultural and Tourism Bureau. Her position was low but stable. His father was a businessman. He used to be rich, but it has been getting worse in recent years.

When Zhou Rui divorced, he was still young. The adults would not tell him many things in detail. It was not until he became an adult in the future that his uncle told Zhou Rui the truth after drinking too much.

At that time, my father left the state-owned enterprise and started his own factory. He didn't make much money, but his temper became wild. He had all kinds of social activities, which made his mother, who was born in an ordinary family and had conservative family education, quite unhappy. She often went to the karaoke bar to pick people up and quarreled every day.

In the end, I don't know which quarrel led to the escalation of the conflict, and the two divorced in anger.

Because my father's behavior was indeed indecent, my mother had a stable job to support Zhou Rui, and my uncle worked in Qinghe County Court

So Zhou Rui was sentenced to live with his mother.

My father Zhou Weigang never remarried and had no other children. After doing business for a few years, he was no longer as unrestrained as he was when he was young. He often appeared in the lives of mother and son every now and then in the name of seeing Zhou Rui.

At that time, Zhou Rui didn't understand and couldn't tell.

But after rebirth, he recalled that his mother didn't seem to be too resistant to his father's appearance. Although she didn't say anything good, she didn't dislike it.

In fact, there were some small signs of reconciliation between the two.

But in the previous life, it didn't really come to this because Zhou Weigang's factory would soon close down and owe a lot of debts.

Zhou Rui took a deep breath and thought that the problems should be solved one by one.

After rebirth, everything is possible and all regrets can be made up.

This may be the meaning of his return to the past.

Yao Peili: "Why are you staring at me? Go wash your hands and heat them up immediately."

Zhou Rui smiled and said, "Okay, what are you eating today?"

"Steamed fish and stir-fried kale."

Zhou Rui's appetite was aroused, and he quickly washed his hands and sat at the dining table waiting to be fed.

"How was school today?" Yao Peili put the food in front of Zhou Rui: "Eat quickly, and do your homework after dinner."

Zhou Rui said while eating: "It's still the same old thing, doing exercises and studying papers every day."

Yao Peili smiled and said: "You did well in the last monthly exam. The teacher praised you. You ranked 12th in the class. Let's keep up the good work. It's the last two months. Don't be distracted by other things and study hard."

Zhou Rui lowered his head guiltily. If your son takes the exam again now, I'm afraid his score will be the last in the whole grade.

Zhou Rui didn't focus on studying when he was in the first and second year of high school. He was on the court and in the Internet cafe every day. When he was in the third year of high school, he suddenly turned over a new leaf and climbed to his current position step by step.

In the eyes of Yao Peili and various teachers, Zhou Rui is a typical prodigal son who has returned. It won't be a problem for him to enter university in the future. If he works hard, he may even be able to go to a key school.

For a county-level high school, it is already a very good result. You can't expect everyone to be Li Wenqian.

Many people, including Yao Peili, are curious about why Zhou Rui repented. In fact, only Zhou Rui himself knows the real reason.

One day, Zhou Rui skipped evening self-study after school and went to the Internet cafe to play for several hours. He chatted with a group of friends, and then returned home with a smell of cigarettes, ready to lie that he came back late because the evening self-study was delayed.

But that day, his mother came back very late after working overtime. She was exhausted and tired, but she insisted on cooking for Zhou Rui, and she kept blaming herself while doing it.

She said that she would leave the things in life to her mother, and that you were in the third year of high school and had a lot of pressure to study, so eat something good.

Zhou Rui wanted to slap himself at that time.

After that, he locked himself in the room and felt that he was really nothing.

It was a small thing, but that was the starting point for Zhou Rui to catch up.

But now, the hard work of high school student Zhou Rui for nearly a year seems to be ruined by him, the reborn person.

I won’t say more. I will go to brush the entries after eating. Time is running out!

"By the way, has your dad contacted you recently?"

After Zhou Rui stood up, his mother mentioned it unintentionally.

Zhou Rui shook his head. He couldn't remember clearly, so he could only say no.

"This guy has disappeared for half a month. Forget it. Go back to your room and do your homework. I'll clean up."

Zhou Rui was thoughtful. The problem with his father's factory may have started from now, but he didn't notice it back then.

Suddenly, Zhou Rui saw a business card on the table. He looked at it and found that it was a real estate agent!

An extremely important memory emerged in Zhou Rui's mind.

"Mom, where did you get this business card?"

Yao Peili picked up the business card and put it in the remote control box beside her. After hesitating for a while, she said:

"I didn't want to tell you to distract you, but it's okay to find out. This house was left by your grandfather. It has been built for decades. The structure is not good and it's old. I plan to sell this house when you go to college, add some money, and change to an elevator house in a new community."

Zhou Rui thought to himself: It's really this matter!

Yao Peili said while cleaning up the dishes:

"Now, not only in big cities, but also in Qinghe County, the house price changes every day. We can still afford to change houses now, but it may not be possible to wait for another two years. I can just go through it once in this life. At least there will be an elevator when I am old, right?"

Although Zhou Rui is only a high school student, there are only mother and son in the family. Yao Peili is willing to discuss such a big thing with her son. She didn't say it before just because she was afraid that Zhou Rui would be distracted.

In her opinion, this is a good thing. After all, Zhou Rui often complained about the poor sound insulation and bad location of this old building.

If the college entrance examination was not approaching, she would even want to cut the Gordian knot and change houses quickly. After all, the housing prices are rising every day. In a few months, I am afraid that her savings will not be enough.

However, Zhou Rui knew that selling this old house would make his mother lose a very important opportunity.

That is demolition!