The strongest dream therapist

Chapter 7: Arriving in the Countryside
It rained a little after lunch.

The rain didn't last long before the sky cleared up and the entire sky turned a bright blue.

The country road was a bit muddy, and when Mr. Fu drove past, he left two long tire tracks.

"Yuanyuan, I'm not trying to stop you, but you should take the initiative to call people when you get there. You're already that old." When they were almost there, Fu's mother was worried and turned around to look at Fu Yuan behind her, giving her another round of instructions.

"I know, I know." Fu Yuan said perfunctorily. After a good nap at noon and a short rest in the car, her face looked a little rosier.
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Red walls and green tiles.

An old man was sitting on a bench at the door. When he saw Fu Yuan and his group coming, he slowly stood up and invited them into the house.

"Xia Yun, Yuan Yuan, you are here, please sit inside."

Xia Yun is the name of Fu Yuan's mother.

My grandmother gave birth to my mother relatively late. She is now eighty years old, but still in good health. My grandfather passed away on Qingming Festival two years ago, and she has been living alone since then.

It’s not that none of her children have offered to take her to live with them in the county town, but she sometimes says she isn’t used to it, and sometimes says she wants to stay here with her grandfather, as it’s closer to him.

But only she knows what she is thinking.

Fu Yuan grew up with her grandmother and wasn't familiar with her grandmother. She couldn't even understand some of her dialect. Worried that the old woman couldn't hear clearly, she called out "Grandma" loudly when she entered the house.

The old man said "Hey" twice, and happily pulled her into the house. The rough calluses on the joints of his palms were a bit prickly.

She lowered her head and realized that the old man was very old. The back of his hands were covered with dark brown spots, like a riverbed that had been dry for a long time, and the blue veins were obvious, winding like earthworms.

"Mom, don't worry about her. Young people nowadays just keep holding their phones."

Seeing this, Fu's mother was stunned. She put down the gift in her hand, and affectionately pulled the old woman over to sit on the sofa. The mother and daughter began to talk.

"It rained this afternoon and the weather turned cold. I was..."

As Fu Yuan's son-in-law, Mr. Fu didn't have much to talk about. He just turned down the volume of the Huangmei Opera on TV and sat in a corner of the sofa with Fu Yuan to play with his mobile phone.

After sitting for a while, I heard Fu's mother casually mention "dinner will be served later" during the conversation.

Father Fu stood up and opened the refrigerator door. Inside was a piece of meat about two fingers wide and a few scallions. On the ground was a juicy cabbage and a few pieces of turmeric covered in dirt.

Looking at the label on the bag, the meat was the same one they bought last week. There was a faint sour smell now. He sighed and threw the meat and the bag into the trash can.

He informed Fu's mother and was about to go out to buy groceries. Fu Yuan was afraid of being lectured by his mother, so he quickly stood up and said he wanted to go with her.

My grandmother has a vegetable garden and usually grows vegetables. But considering that all the relatives will be coming tomorrow and there is not much meat left in the refrigerator, I decided to go to the county town to buy some meat.

The county town is more lively than the countryside. In the countryside, you can only see one house after several miles, but in the county town, you can hear hawking from a long distance away.

The two were not familiar with the place, so they followed the navigation on their mobile phones and came to the largest supermarket in the county, where there were the most things and they didn't have to run around.

"Would you like some eight-treasure porridge? I'll buy you some for tomorrow."

Father Fu knew that Fu Yuan was a bit of a germaphobe, and when he sat down to eat, he would basically only take a little bit of the food as soon as it came out.

It's usually fine at home, as we have serving chopsticks. But tomorrow, when my relatives come over to eat, I'm probably going to go hungry.

Fu Yuan shook his head softly, "I don't really like eating eight-treasure porridge recently, but you can buy a box for grandma. I think the elderly like to eat this kind of food."

Father Fu frowned. "I've already brought three bottles of Yinlu peanut milk and a box of XJ red dates. That's about enough." Fu Yuan knew what he was talking about. It was simply a feeling of insecurity, as she felt her mother had an older sister and three older brothers. But usually, only their family would visit the elderly on weekends; the others wouldn't come unless it was beneficial.

The old man has a pension and living in the countryside doesn't cost much. When the other people see them coming here, they think they are getting a great deal.

She lifted some weights, picked up a box of eight-treasure porridge, and walked with her father to the fresh food area, saying softly, "She's old too." Don't worry too much about those things.

Mr. Fu thought of the meat in the refrigerator and sighed. Without saying anything more, he took two steps forward and took the eight-treasure porridge from his daughter's hand.

The two bought some pork bones, a few pounds of beef, a chicken with its head removed and its internal organs processed, and some celery, fresh corn, potatoes, and green peppers at the supermarket.

Fu's father made dinner, stir-fried beef with celery and stewed pork bones with corn.

I stewed corn and pork ribs with chicken and a handful of red dates. The red dates were the big ones I brought from XJ. I didn't finish frying the beef, so I left some of it in the refrigerator.

The afterglow of the setting sun gradually faded. After dinner, Fu Yuan took a towel and some clean clothes and went to the bathroom.

The bathroom had a shower like the ones you get in the city. Fu Yuan's parents felt it was difficult for the elderly to boil water in the winter, so they pooled their money with their brothers and sisters to build it, and it was built outside the big house.

After a shower, the bathroom was still filled with steam. Fu Yuan stood in front of the sink and turned on the faucet. Clear water flowed out of the faucet. She leaned forward slightly, gently rubbing the towel with both hands. She looked up in a trance and felt that the person in the mirror was a little unfamiliar.

She rubbed her eyes and took a closer look, but nothing seemed to have happened: the person in the mirror was still the familiar face, eyebrows, eyes, mouth and nose, everything was the same as before. She suppressed her doubts and just thought it was just an illusion caused by recent mental fatigue.

Back in the bedroom, Fu Yuan lay down on the bed, reached out to take his cell phone, and slowly slid his fingers across the screen, slowly browsing the unread messages accumulated during the day, trying to put aside the inexplicable strange feeling just now.

For some reason, the suicide case that happened this morning started to ferment, and there was public opinion online slandering Jiangshi No. 1 Middle School.

Some people also spread rumors in the comment section below, saying that they need to get up at six o'clock every morning to do exercises and can't go to bed until 11 o'clock at night. It would be strange if they are not crazy.

Fu Yuan rubbed her brows. She went to high school there, how could she not know? These people on the Internet only know how to believe everything they hear.

But it's been so long since I graduated, maybe there have been some changes.

Just as I was about to turn off my phone and go to sleep, the screen lit up again. A new message popped up in the high school class group chat. The class monitor was @ing everyone, asking if they were free. He said he was going back to his alma mater tomorrow and if any classmates were with him, we could treat it as a class reunion.

Fu Yuan looked at the message he sent and checked the time. It was two o'clock tomorrow afternoon. Logically speaking, it would be difficult for her to find time to come because of her grandmother's birthday.

But in rural areas, lunch time is always early, usually around eleven o'clock, and then relatives sit together to chat. The younger ones talk about their studies, the older ones talk about their careers, and people like her are also asked about their marriages.

Fu Yuan started to feel a headache again when she thought about this. After hesitating for a moment, she sent a message in the group: "I am free, but the journey is a bit far, and the transportation here is not convenient. I am afraid I can't make it."

Someone followed suit and spoke, like a stone thrown into a calm lake, blasting out a bunch of students who were diving.

"I want to go too. Our school finally made it to the trending search, even though it was criticized, hahahaha."

"Me too. It's been so long since I graduated and I haven't gone back to see my teacher yet."

"Where is Fu Daxueba? I'm also going back from another place. If it's close, I'll give you a ride."

Being called like this, Fu Yuan sat at the head of the bed, his face flushed involuntarily, and he pursed his lips in embarrassment, but he still quickly sent the address to the group.

After a while, a girl @ed her in the group and said she could pick her up.

(End of this chapter)