Invade the World

   Chapter 436 The Phone

  Zhu Qingyue came out of the bathroom, and when she was passing through the corridor, she heard the voice from downstairs change from hazy to clear, the little girl subconsciously held her breath and eased her steps.

   She heard the woman downstairs put down the phone, followed by the sound of her entire body sinking into the sofa, and she let out a long sigh.

   This sigh contained anger, confusion, and sadness that seemed to make the atmosphere in the whole house gloomy.

  Zhu Qingyue crept up and wanted to go back to the bedroom, but heard a voice from downstairs:

   "Qingyue...?"

  Mother's hoarse and tired voice was soft, as if she was talking to herself, without really shouting, as if she was testing whether she was really there.

   Standing in front of the room, the little girl stopped.

   For some reason, a kind of fear emerged in her heart, and her body was slightly stiff because of this.

   Obviously the person downstairs is his mother...

   However, even if she is still young, it does not mean that she cannot distinguish right from wrong. The subtle and complex contradictions between the parents, and somehow from a close family to a "cold war" state of separation between the two places, these have brought the originally happy family atmosphere to the brink of disintegration, so that...

   Even her original favorite mother seemed to have become an unknown stranger.

   "Qingyue? Are you there?"

   is still the same faint voice.

   "Is that so, not here..."

  Zhu Qingyue pursed her lips. At this time, she can still pretend she didn't hear it and go back to her room to lie down on the bed and cover her head to sleep, but...

   That is his mother after all.

   "Well, I'm here."

The little girl walked to the handrail of the stairs and looked down, but found that at this angle, she couldn't see her mother's face anyway. She could only see in the dim living room, only a lamp on the cabinet was lit, pale yellow. The light was hard to expel the darkness that flooded the entire first floor like deep water.

   She stood on her tiptoes hard, and saw the dim light that vaguely outlined the silhouette of the woman's back on the sofa.

"Oh."

   The woman downstairs replied softly.

   "I'm sorry, did your mother wake you up?"

   "...No, I, I just came out to go to the toilet."

"Um."

  Zhu Qingyue stood by the stairs and waited for a while, and found that she couldn't hear the sound from downstairs. She thought it was her mother who stopped talking, so she planned to turn around and go back to the room; but just as she moved, the woman downstairs spoke again.

   "Qingyue, do you think...Dad will...can we both..."

   Will it be anything? Can what? The hesitant voice could not give an answer, not even a clear question.

   "Forget it, it's pointless to tell a child about this."

   Another long, sad sigh, the woman coughed twice, and a thick phlegm sounded from her throat.

   "Qingyue, you'd better go to rest early, now is the time to grow your body."

"…Oh."

  Zhu Qingyue nodded, even though she knew that her mother couldn't see, she obediently went back to the room to rest.

   But for a long time, she tossed and turned in bed and couldn't sleep.

  It became quiet downstairs.

   But it was this quietness that made the little girl feel unspeakable uneasiness, like burying her head in the bed when she was afraid, and feeling suffocated after a while.

   She was thinking, Mommy, is she still downstairs and didn't go back to her room to rest? Zhu Qingyue listened carefully, and even heard the "click" sound of the alarm clock in the bedroom, so she could be sure that her mother did not move at all after that.

  The little girl turned around on the bed, hugged the pillow and refused to let go; then turned around again after a while.

She didn't intend to listen so carefully, but because she couldn't sleep and her brain was sober, she unknowingly pricked up her ears; and the more she did, the more thoughts came to her mind, and one thought followed closely. When another one appeared, "gudonggudong" came out like bubbling, so it became more difficult to fall asleep.

  Lord's world is really complicated, Zhu Qingyue thought to herself, obviously they were fine a few weeks ago, why did they suddenly separate?

Regarding her father's sudden departure and going to another city, she was just feeling lost in her ignorance. She felt that she would not be able to see her father for a long time, but she was not like a child who had just started kindergarten. That way, when you see your parents are not around, you will be frightened, thinking that you have been abandoned.

   Going to another city and not seeing each other for a while, this kind of thing should be called a "business trip", right? In fact, Dad's usual work is very busy. Once he works overtime, he will not be home for several days, so Zhu Qingyue can still accept it.

   Besides, isn't there a mother to accompany her?

  ...The little girl originally thought so, but what happened later was beyond expectations. Judging from the mother's reaction, it seems that the father's departure is far more than just "going to another city on business".

   Did the two quarrel? Dad, is he going to stay somewhere else for a long time? Or, or... not coming back at all? What about leaving her and her mother behind?

  Zhu Qingyue's parents have always treated each other with respect, and the usual quarrel between husband and wife has never happened, so she can't imagine the reason at all.

  If the little girl grows older, you can understand that it is precisely because of this "respect for each other" that the relationship between the couple is not as close as it seems to outsiders. But now, she just feels dazed and helpless

  In any case, Zhu Qingyue was originally sad, and as a minor child, whenever she encounters this time, her first subconscious reaction is to ask her parents for help.

   Since her father was not around, and the other party was the cause of the matter, Zhu Qingyue's only choice seemed to be to hug her mother. But then came the crux of the matter: in this whole incident, her mother's behavior was a little too scary, so even if the little girl had tears in her eyes, she wanted to act like a spoiled child with her mother, and once she saw the woman Zhang's sombre face, footsteps and tears will be scared back together.

   Such depressing days have been going on for two weeks.

  Children are by no means as obtuse as some adults imagine. On the contrary, their memory is better than adults, and their minds are more sensitive and delicate; they often just lack the ability to express and be heard and expressed.

The happy atmosphere that once permeated the family has been completely destroyed; Zhu Qingyue's character has also been affected. She used to be a lively and cheerful girl, but now she has become less and less talkative. She does not like to make friends and prefers to He locked himself in his room as soon as he got home, and was soon isolated by his peers.

   Even the teachers at the school noticed the change in her. That person still has a sense of responsibility as a teacher. He called and said that he wanted to come for a home visit, but his mother refused.

  Zhu Qingyue held the pillow between her legs and started yawning while thinking about a problem that was too complicated for a child her age.

   Mom said that she should rest earlier, so she should go to bed earlier, right? What's the point of sitting still on the sofa like that, just waiting for a phone call that will ring at some point, maybe never again...

   Thinking about it, her eyelids began to tremble, and she soon fell into a deep sleep.

   As for whether the mother went back to her bedroom to rest after that, whether she continued to call, or whether she just sat like that in the living room for the whole night, she had no idea.

  …

The next morning, when Zhu Qingyue woke up, she found that she was lying on the bed, the quilt covering her body had slipped and fell to the ground, the pillow was rubbed in a mess, and there was still drool marks left, and even she felt that when she saw it herself. blush.

   Is her sleeping so bad?

  Zhu Qingyue got up, stood in front of the standing mirror again, and found that her hair had turned into a bun.

   "Pfft."

   Zhu Qingyue found it interesting the more she looked at it, covering her mouth, she couldn't help laughing to herself.

   Since this time, this is the first time a little girl can show such a relaxed and natural smile. I didn't expect it to be driven by such a small opportunity.

  Zhu Qingyue walked to the window of the room, waved her little arm vigorously, and slammed the thick curtains open, the bright sunlight poured into the bedroom, and the golden brilliance quickly smeared the floor and walls.

   Outside the window is a spotless blue sky. The vast scenery can make people's minds also become very open.

   The little girl's spirit suddenly cheered up, she quietly clenched her fist and placed it on her chest.

   "No, I can't keep getting discouraged."

  Zhu Qingyue secretly made up her mind.

   "I have things I can do, and I don't have to ask my mother to do them."

  *

   This morning, while her mother was out to buy vegetables, Zhu Qingyue ran to her phone.

As for why she wanted to "hide her mother", she couldn't say it herself, but she always felt that she shouldn't do it... After all, in addition to doing housework these days, my mother just stayed in front of the phone cabinet. The feeling of human territory.

   "Call... Dad's phone number."

  Zhu Qingyue knelt on the sofa, with her legs together, and took out a rolled up piece of paper from her cuff. Because she barely made a few phone calls, even her father's contact information needed to be extracted from the directory.

   She stretched out her tiny body from the sofa and started dialing the number by pressing the dial on the phone. The girl was very nervous, and she didn't know if her father would pick it up.

   Judging from the father's side, all the calls he received were from home, and he couldn't tell whether it was from his wife or his daughter.

   After holding the microphone and waiting for a while, she found that there was no sound.

  Before feeling disappointed, Zhu Qingyue suddenly felt that something was not right.

   Is this what a phone call is like? Why is there no sound coming out of the microphone? Even if no one picks up, this shouldn't be the case, right?

   The little girl who has rarely made phone calls is not sure what she thinks, she is a little hesitant. At this moment, Zhu Qingyue's eyes accidentally caught a glimpse of the angle between the telephone cabinet and the wall.

   "Huh? Phone line..."

The    line was not connected, and he was lying quietly on the carpet.

   Zhu Qingyue's hand holding the microphone froze, and she suddenly felt a little cold.

  —does mom know about this?

Is she guarding a telephone that is not plugged in at all, waiting for no one to call? ", obviously only her daughter.

   For a while, it was impossible to tell which kind of guess was more terrifying.

   "Qingyue? What are you doing."

   And at this moment, her mother's voice came from behind her.

   (end of this chapter)