under hope

This is a port city in the southern part of the Republic. Thanks to the efforts of the Academy of Sciences engineering team, the city has restored its former prosperity.

A man was walking home on foot, carrying a bag full of vegetables and a slight smile on his face.

If his calculation is correct, today is the day for his daughter to go home. He promised the girl last time that he would cook her his own specialty dishes.

He smiled to himself and soon arrived downstairs in the apartment where he lived. He pressed the elevator button with some excitement and couldn't help humming a ditty.

"Ouch, why are you so happy?"

A slightly familiar voice came from behind. He shuddered and quickly stopped humming.

"It's nothing, Xiaoxin is coming back."

He turned his head a little embarrassed and said hello to the visitor.

"This is what happened. The one in my house was similar to yours. He ran out excitedly early in the morning."

The person who came here was their neighbor's wife. She was also his best friend in junior high school. At that time, she was still a tomboy.

"Lao Zhang is indeed my best friend."

He said pretending to be calm.

"Mingming vowed not to get married when he was in junior high school, but now that he has a daughter, he still treats her like a treasure."

The woman covered her mouth and smiled.

"Isn't it the same with you? You were so bold and bold at that time, but now you are more reserved. I still suspect that Lao Zhang was forced into marriage by you."

He didn't show any weakness. He was very good at exposing each other's scars. After all, the two of them had done something careless before.

"Hahaha……"

Seeing that she couldn't take advantage, the woman quickly showed an awkward but polite smile, and her eyebrows twitched angrily.

"Your kid's mouth has actually become smarter."

The elevator door opened, and the woman muttered behind the man while he was entering the elevator.

In the elevator, the man hummed a ditty to himself again, and the woman also took out her mobile phone to scroll through the video.

"Jiayi, how is she doing recently?"

The woman suddenly asked

"ah? Oh, it’s just a little wind and cold~"

He didn’t stop humming, and his answers seemed to be brought into the tune.

"Jiayi was weak when she was in school, but she has a good personality. You are quite lucky. Why——"

The woman seemed to have remembered something, so she patted his shoulder with malicious intent and said in a teasing tone.:

"Don't tell me that you are using too much strength."

"Ouch, Sister Yifan, please let me go."

He couldn't laugh or cry, and waved his hands repeatedly to beg for mercy.

The elevator door opened, and they reached the floor where they lived. After saying goodbye to Sister Yifan in a hurry, he ran home first. When he opened the door, he first placed the dishes next to the chopping board, and then placed them gently I went to check on my wife who was resting in the back room.

"Oops, why did you get up? Put me down quickly."

When he saw his wife sitting in front of the sewing machine working, he complained and pulled her up.

"Xiaoxin comes back today, and I want to make the vest she wants."

The woman who looked a little haggard hurriedly explained

"Just leave me alone and rest for a while."

He hugged his wife tenderly, gently brushed the somewhat messy hair, and looked at the lifeless face. He felt extremely distressed.

"I'm fine. I was still sore all over yesterday. When I woke up this morning, I felt nothing. I could get up and exercise."

The woman in his arms touched his face and obediently reported to him today's physical condition.

"Okay..."

He knew his wife's temper. As long as she said it was okay, no matter how he tried to stop her, she would stubbornly try again and again.

He kissed his wife's forehead, then let go and let his wife do it. What she wants to do.

It's already two o'clock in the afternoon, and her daughter's school ends at three o'clock, but the teacher sometimes drags the class away, and it takes time to line up and leave the school. In addition, on the way home, she will talk to Lao Zhang's daughter next door. Talking, it may take nearly four o'clock to get home.

With plenty of time, he can go out to buy another bottle of drink. He forgot when buying vegetables. He remembered that his daughter said she wanted to drink red date yogurt last time.

He put the vegetables into the sink to wash, and then After cutting the meat slices and covering the ingredients with a vegetable cover, he turned to the back room and shouted::

"Wife, I'm going out to buy some drinks"

"Oh, got it."

After confirming that he heard his wife's reply, he walked out with confidence.

When he came downstairs, he found a large number of heavily armed policemen gathered on the street. As soon as he wanted to walk out of the apartment door, he was blocked by a policeman.

"What's wrong? Comrade police?"

He was a little at a loss.

"The protective cover is being inspected, and wind and sand may come in. Please don't leave your house for the next forty minutes."

The policeman shouted to him through the door.

He nodded hurriedly to show that he heard it, and then leaned against the wall to wait for the inspection to be completed.

The wait was always long, and he observed the scene outside through the glass. The policemen raised their hands He used his shield to resist the crazy influx of wind and sand. The wind and sand also carried the messy garbage outside the city. The police were almost engulfed in the wind and sand. He didn't know how long it took, but he saw that the wind and sand outside became smaller, and thought to himself The inspection work should be almost completed.

He sent a message to his wife to explain the situation, and then walked towards the door again.

The policemen opened their arms, waiting for the heat of the protective shield to sterilize them. He waited for a while, and the policemen Then he signaled to him that he could go out.

He ran quickly to the supermarket, found what he wanted, and immediately checked out and went home. It took less than ten minutes.

He didn't stop when he got home, and then opened it again The induction cooker started cooking, and the room soon became filled with aroma.

He had already heard the footsteps in the corridor, mixed with the sound of girls talking and laughing. He put the fried vegetables on the plate and put the yogurt on the place where his daughter usually sat. position.

My wife must have finished sewing her vest, because there were light footsteps in the back room.

"Click!

The door handle was twisted half a circle, and the daughter's energetic voice immediately rang out.:

"Wow, this is dad’s specialty! I can smell the fragrance outside the door"

"My dear, look at how well this vest is sewn."

My wife's voice also sounded from the other end of the room, and the mother and daughter said it almost at the same time.

"Mom, you really made me a vest!"

The daughter happily ran to her mother. After hugging each other, she picked up the vest and looked at it up and down.

"Just like it."

My wife had a bright smile on her face.

"Okay, okay, let's eat first, the food will be cold in a while."

He wiped his hands with his apron and asked the mother and daughter to sit down.

At the dinner table, the mother and daughter were chatting happily. After all, it had been two weeks since they last met, and his wife often missed her at school. daughter, who also seems to have endless anecdotes to share with them.

"Dad, Mom. Let me tell you, Xiaoyou received a love letter yesterday."

My daughter said mysteriously

"love letter? What's going on, tell me."

Hearing that this was a topic, he immediately became interested and showed an expression ready to hear gossip.

"Still like a child."

My wife rolled her eyes at him angrily, but he didn't care.

"Yes, he is a boy in the class who wears glasses and has good grades, but he is not very talkative."

My daughter raised her head half-way, trying to remember

"That's okay, Lao Zhang was like that before. It’s just that kid Yoyo’s personality is like her dad’s"

"So, Xiaoyou probably didn’t like that type, and besides, she didn’t have the idea of ​​falling in love, so she rejected it."

"The poor boy must have mustered up a lot of courage, but love is always a bit frustrating."

He said in a tone that sounded like someone who had been through it.

"Even though your dad is very serious now, he used to stuff my desk pocket with small notes with ugly handwriting, and I thought I was being disliked."

His wife revealed his dark history with a look of disgust, which made him feel uneasy for a while.

"Hehe, eat, eat."

He looked careless in embarrassment, burying his head in picking up the rice amidst his daughter's giggles.

Late at night, his wife had fallen asleep next to him. He was lying on the bed recalling past events, and the corners of his mouth stopped when he thought of interesting things. Keep rising

"What's the point of having fun if you don't sleep at night?"

The wife was woken up by him and lightly hammered his shoulder with some dissatisfaction.

"Sorry, sorry, I'm going to sleep now."

He felt a little guilty for waking up his wife, so he quickly apologized and closed his eyes.

""Tick-tock-tock"

There seemed to be some noise outside the window. He straightened up suddenly and turned his head to listen carefully.

"There was indeed a sound of"tick tick tick"!

He rolled out of bed and quickly opened the curtains, but there was nothing outside the window. He did not believe in evil, so he opened the window again and stuck his head out. Still nothing, the silent street was empty.

"what happened again?"My wife asked, rubbing her eyes.

"strangeness……"

He muttered softly, reset the windows and curtains, and lay back on the bed.

His wife quickly fell asleep clinging to him. He listened to the movement outside the window again and closed his eyes after confirming that there was no more sound.

In the early morning, the noise in the corridor woke him up. After settling his wife, who was still sleeping, he quietly came to the door.

"What it is! It killed my baby!"

It was Sister Yifan's voice. He had never seen Sister Yifan roar like that.

"Isn't it safe in a protective shield? Comrade police, tell me, what happened to my daughter?"

This is Lao Zhang's trembling voice, with a crying tone, and he is about to collapse.

"I'm very sorry for this comrade. We will find the murderer as soon as possible. We need to take the body away for examination."

Compared with the two parents, the policeman's voice was calmer, with a bit of electronic sound. He should be a bionic man.

He heard the collision of the telescopic stretcher outside, and hurriedly looked out through the peephole: the body had been covered with white cloth. But a large amount of blood still soaked into the cloth, showing a bright red human shape. How cruel this is!

"dad?"

The sudden sound frightened him, and he turned around and leaned his back against the door.

"What's going on outside?"

It turned out that my daughter was woken up. She was rubbing her eyes and still looked a little sleepy.

"Nothing...just...renovating."

He tried his best to keep his voice from sounding shaky.

"oh."

The daughter responded, turned around and walked to her room.

"correct!"

"Um?"

He stopped his daughter

"Youyou's family went on a long trip, probably... back to their hometown in the suburbs. They haven't been at home for the past two days!"