That summer, when my classmates were anxious to pack their luggage home, I booked a ticket to Shenyang. This has been the case for many years. When the school was closed, my classmates scrambled to go home, but I didn’t know where to go, I could only go to my sister.
When we arrived in Shenyang, it was the end of July. For two months, I can’t be idle all the time. It happened that the hotel where my sister worked recruited people, and I became a cashier there very smoothly. Aunt Gui is the cleaning worker in this hotel.
The first impression Aunt Gui gave me was quiet. The “darkness” work all year round makes her skin look abnormally white, but her face is covered with freckles, which seems to confirm the marks left by the years. A sloppy face, and a pair of eyes that are often dull and stunned, make people feel what she seems to have experienced at the sight of her.
I need to work 12 hours a day. In addition to dragging the floor of the lobby three times in the morning, middle and night, I just sit at the checkout counter and register. Aunt Gui is a woman who doesn’t like to talk to others. She always does her work silently: cleaning the room, cleaning the floor, and washing the sheets. The laundry room is in the staircase behind the cash register. Every day I see her scrubbing back and forth, accompanied by the buzz of the washing machine, and the sound of her sighing, wringing water and putting basins.
Every day, the smell of acrid disinfectant floated out of the laundry room. I couldn’t stand the smell since I was a child, so I always covered my nose with her hands when washing the sheets. Aunt Gui was very calm. She washed and washed as if she were doing laundry at home. The sheets washed out by her hands were dazzling in the sun.
Later, during a meal, the aunt who asked for food asked Aunt Gui that she could not smell the disinfectant. She said lightly, “I have been washing the sheets for six years, I have lost my sense of smell, and can’t smell anything.”
Usually, there is very little dialogue between me and Aunt Gui, but when a guest checks out, I tell her and she will clean it. In contrast, I talk more to my cooking aunt. At first, I thought Aunt Gui was not easy to mess with, and the aunt cooking was enthusiastic. Because when eating, the aunt who cooks always thinks that I eat too little, so I eat more vegetables, and I usually take special care and care of me. Aunt Gui always said nothing to me.
The aunt who cooks is a native and speaks loudly, and smiles every day. The parents and Li family are short and can talk to anyone. Aunt Gui is from the countryside. She is plain-dressed and doesn’t like to talk. She had to leave until the end of my summer vacation, and never talked to me.
two
I really know that Aunt Gui is a enthusiastic woman and it is the second winter vacation. As usual, the students went home with their bags, and I set foot on the northbound train again. Since my parents divorced, I have become accustomed to such a life.
Because it was the Spring Festival, I didn’t buy a seat ticket, I just stood on the train overnight. When I arrived at the hotel at 3 am, I was really tired. My sister found a room for me. I lay down and fell asleep. I woke up very early the next morning. In fact, I was afraid that the boss would come to blame my sister, saying that she would let me rest in the guest room.
When I opened the door, I saw Aunt Gui being cleaned in the opposite room, and called weakly “Aunt Gui”.
“You’re here,” she said softly. “Why get up now? Let me sleep for a while, and I’ll clean up the other room first.”
“Never sleep, sleep well …” I answered her flattered.
This was my first formal conversation with Auntie Gui, which made me think she was not difficult to speak.
Later, my sister told me that in fact, Aunt Gui was very good, but she didn’t like to talk. My sister also told me that cooking aunt was not as good as I saw, so I would talk to her less.
Since then I found out that things are really like what my sister said. Cooking Aunt thinks that she is from the city, and even if she comes to cook for others, she is still expensive. She talked with Aunt Gui everywhere with contempt.
During a meal, the aunt asked Aunt Gui: “It is said that you rural people use a large pot to make rice, is it delicious?” Aunt Gui said with a smile, “The steamed rice is delicious.” She I took a hard breath as if I really smelled the scent of rice.
Auntie cooking said with a pout, “You said that you rural people are stupid, first exchange a large pot of water, when the rice is about to ripen, and then put out the rice soup, it is not too strenuous.” Auntie Gui calmly Explanation: “In the past, people in rural areas could not eat, and they would distribute more rice soup for everyone to drink. Now the day is good, but I have become accustomed to this practice and cannot change it.”
Auntie Gui can’t really change it. Every time she eats, she counts the cleanest. Even if she has leftovers, cold buns, and noodles, she will eat them and don’t let them fall. Therefore, the aunt who cooks always asks Aunt Gui whether to eat with leftovers and leftovers before she says no to eat. Auntie Gui consumes a lot of physical energy every day, so she is lean despite eating a lot.
One afternoon, someone called to the front desk and said he was looking for Aunt Gui. Aunt Gui asked me who I was, and I said, “I don’t know, it’s a man.” She answered the phone for a long time, and from her tone, I heard that the caller should be the aunt Gui’s ex. He may have done something sorry to Aunt Gui, and now knows that Aunt Gui works here and wants to see her. Aunt Gui refused, saying that so many years had passed, and it didn’t make sense to meet.
That afternoon, Aunt Gui finished her work, sat down beside me, and started talking to me.
She said that the person who just called her was her first love. She was sixteen when she was in a good relationship with her first love and knew nothing. They split up and split up three times and lived together, but when they were about to get married, the man left her and ran away. Aunt Gui said that she was still young at that time, because she lost her body, she went home crazy, and she was very scared all day. I asked Aunt Gui that the person was married now. She said that she had children when she was married. She also had children. These things had passed and it was useless to meet. She also advised me to be cautious when looking for a target in the future, and to find a responsible man.
At that time, I felt that Auntie Gui was great, even though she was an ordinary woman, a female worker who was lazy in bed in the small hotel all day long.
three
Aunt Gui has a 4-year-old daughter who looks a lot like her, transparent and thin. Auntie Gui’s husband occasionally brings children to find her mother. Whenever this time, I can see that Auntie Gui’s expressionless face appears happy. When I saw her holding her little daughter’s hand out of the hotel door, I thought she was the happiest at that moment.
Aunt Gui’s husband is also a local, and their family lives with her mother-in-law. Auntie cooking said that Aunt Gui’s relationship with her mother-in-law was not very good, and her daughter did not like Aunt Gui’s much. The aunt who cooks and Aunt Gui live in the same building. Aunt Gui is on the sixth floor and she is on the fourth floor.
According to the cooking aunt, the reason why Aunt Gui’s daughter doesn’t like Aunt Gui is because she abandons Aunt Gui’s door and never buys her good food; children like grandma because grandma always takes her to buy delicious food . These words were said by the cooking aunt in front of Gui and me. Aunt Gui said nothing at the time, finished the meal silently, and went back to work.
It was also at that time that I started to hate cooking aunts. She was not just mean to Gui Gui, but me. For example, she knew that I was taking a train back and forth, and always advised me to buy a sleeper. I began to think that she was afraid of my crime, and later I knew that she looked down on me to buy a ticket; and every time when I said that I was in Beijing, she was He said that the school I attended was not a good university, and her son was a prestigious university. This always makes me so angry that I don’t want to talk to her again. Aunt Gui was very calm, and she was calm about everything she said about cooking.
The first time I saw Auntie Gui crying, it was the last time I was on the night shift during the winter vacation. It was still bright that day, and Aunt Gui came. After coming in, she hid in the laundry room and didn’t come out to ask me if I had a room to clean. Later, with the “buzz” of the washing machine, I heard the sobbing sound of Aunt Gui. After a while, she came out of the laundry and asked me if I had a room to clean. I looked up and saw her crying eyes, but I didn’t ask anything.
After returning to school, I heard my sister talk about Aunt Gui several times. She said that Aunt Gui became better with her. When it was snowing, she always mopped and mopped the ground. I know when Aunt Gui is doing all this, she must be silent, just like usual, silent.
four
The summer vacation came another year, and when I saw Aunt Gui again, she lost weight all over. Eyes are more sunken into the eye sockets and there are more wrinkles than in winter. She still greeted me expressionlessly: “You are here.” At this time, I was a little familiar with her. When she was busy with her work, she sat next to me and read the newspaper, A magazine is more than an hour at a glance.
Around the beginning of August, Aunt Gui and her mother-in-law quarreled again. I was on the night shift that day, I was doing sleep during the day and I didn’t know until I woke up in the evening. I heard them say that Aunt Gui is going to stay at the hotel and stay with us because she was kicked out because she had an argument with her mother-in-law.
After dinner in the evening, when she and I were sitting in the front desk, I asked her why she had a fight. She said it was actually a trivial matter, and it wasn’t worth it.
It turned out that it was because the child was sick to take medicine. Aunt Gui insisted on taking the medicine for the child, either because it was thrown away, or because the child’s illness could be cured. After seeing the child, her mother-in-law just refused to give her medicine. Auntie Gui took the medicine to her child while her mother-in-law was out to play Mahjong. When the old lady got home, she got into trouble. At first, Aunt Gui did not speak, and she always listened to her mother-in-law’s scolding. Later, she couldn’t help but gave up. As a result, her mother-in-law was even more fierce, and her husband hit her. The mother-in-law let her get out of the house, and she stayed in the hotel.
I advised her not to stay in the hotel, and talked home with her husband and mother-in-law, all for the sake of the children, so as not to make it happen. Aunt Gui complained to me about her bullying and grievances over the years. She said that her mother-in-law didn’t look at her pleasingly, and the child didn’t allow her to bring her clothes. She didn’t even let her wash her clothes, but she was too lazy. Relatives came to Auntie Gui’s family, and they would not let them live at home. Even if Auntie Gui’s mother came to live here for a few days during the Chinese New Year, her mother-in-law ran into the hotel.
I asked her, “What about the child?” She said she hadn’t brought it since the child was born, and has been working here to make money. Speaking of these, I saw tears flashing in her eyes, I didn’t know how to comfort her, I could only sit quietly with her. I think that when her daughter grows up, she will definitely understand her good intentions and love and respect her.
Suddenly, Aunt Gui asked me how much it would cost to go to college a year. She murmured that her children would be able to go to college in a dozen years, and wondered if they could save enough tuition. I told her it was still early, she said quietly, “It’s not early, I was old at that time, and I couldn’t make any money.”
That night, Aunt Gui lived with me and my sister in a room. Before moving in, Auntie Gui plastered the surrounding walls with white paper, the sheets were white, and the pillows and quilts were neat. She moved an unused cabinet from the warehouse, made a beam of her own, hung up our clothes, and rugged the floor of our room (in fact, an old curtain she washed clean). Suddenly the whole cabin was completely renewed, and I happily said to my sister, “A married woman will keep the house!”
Fives
Every night afterwards, Auntie Gui went out to look for a part-time job after work, but there was nothing suitable to look for. Twenty days passed in a blink of an eye. Aunt Gui’s husband did not come to her, nor did the children come to her. She still silently cleans the sheets in the laundry room every day, but often takes a break, sometimes standing in the window and froze.
Later, I went back to Beijing to go to school. Before I left, Aunt Gui had found a part-time job and cleaned the house for two days a week. However, I don’t know if Aunt Gui’s husband came to pick her up later, did she always live in that room. I didn’t even dare ask my sister about Aunt Gui, because I was afraid that Aunt Gui would become homeless like me.