It was already February, and the Lunar New Year was approaching soon, but this year, Yuan Long had to stay with the troops and celebrate the New Year with the soldiers, so he couldn’t return to the capital to be with his family.
Since Yuan Long was spending the New Year with the troops, Yu Shanshan and Dudu naturally stayed with him, too. After they reunited as a family, they couldn’t be separated during the first New Year’s celebration. Even though Yuan Long was spending the New Year at the barracks, they had to be together.
Yu Shanshan attached great importance to this New Year. In previous years, it was just her and Dudu celebrating together, relying on each other without any relatives. Every New Year’s Eve was spent alone at home watching TV and playing games, which was quite pitiful to think about. Now that the family was finally reunited, they had to have a proper New Year’s celebration.
To prepare for the New Year, Yu Shanshan decided to plan carefully. Since Dudu’s kindergarten was also on holiday, the mother and son discussed what they needed for the New Year at home. Because they usually celebrated the New Year the same as any other day, Yu Shanshan didn’t know exactly what to buy. Fortunately, they decided to brainstorm ideas and write them down one by one on paper to buy everything in one trip to the city.
Dudu spoke first, “Mommy, we need to buy new clothes and shoes for the New Year. We need to wear them for the New Year.”
“OK, I’ll buy new clothes for you.” Yu Shanshan wrote it down on paper and asked, “Besides new clothes, what else do we need?”
Dudu immediately said, “Mommy, we need to buy lots and lots of delicious food, candies, melon seeds, and meat.” This was what he heard other kids in kindergarten say.
Yu Shanshan wrote it down while saying, “Mommy knows we need to buy those. Can you think of something useful, like couplets?”
Dudu immediately raised his hand and said, “We need to buy couplets!”
Yu Shanshan raised her hand to hit him, “You shameless little fatty…”
Dudu laughed, teasing his mom, then nibbled his finger, looking thoughtful. However, after thinking for a while, he couldn’t come up with anything reasonable. “Mommy, I can’t think of anything… I’ll tell you when I do. Can I go play with Er Bao now?”
Yu Shanshan angrily pinched his nose, “All you know is eating, playing, and having fun. What’s the use of you, huh? Mommy decided not to buy clothes for the useless little fatty, and not to buy delicious food!”
Dudu, feeling guilty from his mother’s words, finally mustered up the courage to compromise, “Alright, alright, don’t be heartbroken, Mommy. I’ll give you money!”
Yu Shanshan glanced at him with suspicion, “Are you accusing me of trying to swindle your money again? You always think Mommy wants to trick you out of your money, every once in a while, thinking I don’t know.”
Feeling a bit guilty after his mother’s words, Dudu touched his own heart, then reluctantly agreed, “Fine, fine, don’t be heartbroken, I’ll give you money!”
With that, without even looking at the pleasantly surprised eyes of his mother, he got up and ran to his room, took out his little wallet, and reluctantly took out ten yuan, handing it to his mom, “Mommy, here’s the money, you can use it.”
Yu Shanshan’s joy was immediately dampened, and the smile disappeared from her lips as she looked at the ten yuan with a serious face, asking him, “What can you buy with ten yuan? You can’t even buy a decent pair of socks with that.”
Dudu cautiously guarded his wallet, shaking his head as he said, “I can’t give more, Mommy. You can save some money. Ten yuan is a lot, you know. It can buy lots and lots of candy.”
Yu Shanshan continued to playfully hold her chest, “Ah, my heart hurts so much, it costs a lot of money to celebrate the New Year. I don’t have money for the New Year. Maybe we shouldn’t buy new clothes or delicious food. We can just buy a few steamed buns and pickles.”
Dudu, imagining his classmates wearing beautiful new clothes and enjoying various candies and meats at home during the New Year, while he had to eat steamed buns and pickles every day, suddenly felt that he couldn’t live like this. He wanted candy and meat. For the sake of the beautiful new clothes he had been longing for, as well as candy and meat, the little guy once again made a firm decision, taking out another twenty yuan from his wallet, “Here’s another twenty, this is the last time, I won’t give you any more!”
Looking at the large stack of red bills in Dudu’s wallet, Yu Shanshan’s eyes twinkled, and she pretended to hold her heart again, “Ah…”
Dudu: ….
Yuan Long: ….
In the end, Yu Shanshan successfully swindled half of Dudu’s wallet in one night. The little guy’s wallet suddenly shrunk, making him feel like his heart was bleeding. Now that Mommy wasn’t holding her heart, it was his turn to hold his heart, weakly exclaiming, “Ah, my heart hurts!”
Unfortunately, the heartless mother ignored his heartache, and the father ignored it too.
Yuan Long watched as Dudu fell asleep in frustration before poking Yu Shanshan’s forehead with a smile, “You, why did you swindle Dudu’s money again?”
Counting the money joyfully, Yu Shanshan said, “Because that little guy now has more money than me. I have to eat like a big spender from time to time, otherwise, I feel very unbalanced.”
This was not untrue. Although Yuan Long’s money was handed over to Yu Shanshan, it was just a regular salary, not much. The real big money was in the company’s shares and some investments, but these were not cash, and combined with the family’s small expenses, they didn’t touch that big money. Therefore, Yu Shanshan really didn’t have much money.
But Dudu was different. The old grandfather, grandmother, and uncle were all doting on him, and they would sometimes give Dudu pocket money, and give him red envelopes during the New Year and holidays, which was quite substantial. Even though Dudu was now living on this side of the barracks, they would still give him money through Yu Shanshan, who would then give it to Dudu.
Every time Yu Shanshan saw a sudden increase in her bank account or a sum of money in her phone, her heart would race with excitement, feeling like she had reached the pinnacle of life. However, before she could even stay at the peak for a few seconds, she had to hand over the money to Dudu, watching him put the money into his piggy bank and wallet.
At that moment, her heart felt like it had fallen from the sky to the ground, leaving behind a pit.The bittersweet feeling is something that most people cannot understand.
Calculating everything from start to finish, Dudu’s wallet was indeed much richer than Yu Shanshan’s , which made Yu Shanshan always feel the urge to give him a slap in the face.
Especially every time she saw the pained expression on the little guy’s face after being slapped, she found it particularly amusing. It had become one of the joys of her daily life.
Yuan Long: … What a strange taste?
Feeling particularly good after successfully swindling Dudu again, Yu Shanshan waved her hand the next day and took Dudu to the city early in the morning to buy New Year goods.
The mother and son went to the mall to buy clothes first, starting with Dudu. After all, he was a boy, so choosing clothes was quick. He decisively picked out the clothes he liked after only ten minutes. Yu Shanshan, as a mother, was not as efficient. She had been too afraid to buy clothes before because of her weight, and she didn’t have any suitable clothes to wear. But now that she had lost weight, she could wear whatever she wanted, and everything looked good on her. Moreover, all the clothes in the house had been donated because they didn’t fit, so her empty wardrobe reminded her all the time: Buy! Buy! Buy!
So Yu Shanshan started shopping spree in the mall, going from one store to another. She tried on clothes one by one, admiring herself in the mirror and smiling uncontrollably at the compliments from the salespeople.
In the end, Dudu couldn’t bear it anymore. He walked over and tugged at her clothes, looking up at her, “Mommy, we still need to buy New Year goods, we can’t just buy clothes all the time.”
Reminded by her chubby son, Yu Shanshan, who had been lost in the compliments from the salespeople, reluctantly put down the clothes in her hand, “Oh,” she said, “Mommy was just about to buy New Year goods, what’s the rush?”
Dudu rolled his eyes.
Yu Shanshan immediately put down the clothes and took Dudu out of the clothing store, then decided to go to the supermarket on the negative first floor of the shopping mall to buy New Year goods.
As they walked out of the store, she felt something was wrong. She turned her head to look in a direction, but because there were people everywhere buying New Year goods, she couldn’t see anything strange.
Dudu tugged on his mother’s hand, “Mommy, why aren’t we leaving?”
Yu Shanshan frowned and asked her little guy, “Dudu, do you feel like someone is always watching us?”
Dudu hesitated for a moment, shook his head, then suddenly looked around nervously. He even opened his arms to shield his mom and crouched down slightly, looking like he was ready to fight at any moment, “Mommy, are you saying there are bad people trying to harm us? Don’t worry, I’ll protect you.”
The little guy had recently become obsessed with watching Hong Kong movies, and his demeanor was exactly like the protagonist in the movies when he encountered an opponent. Yu Shanshan couldn’t help but laugh at his antics and tapped his head, “Let’s go, little fatty, you’ve watched too many movies!” Where are the bad guys? It must be her imagination.
Upon hearing his mother’s words, Dudu immediately dropped his guard, took his mother’s hand, and walked towards the entrance of the supermarket.
Inside the supermarket, Yu Shanshan pushed Dudu in the shopping cart, with her pushing and Dudu taking items from the list one by one. The mother and son cooperated happily.
By the time they finally bought everything on the list, it was already two hours later, and it was dark outside. It was already time for dinner, and Dudu touched his stomach, saying with a sad face, “Mommy, I’m hungry.”
Yu Shanshan was hungry too. After all, they had been shopping all day, which was quite exhausting. They still had two hours to go home, and they would be starving by the time they got back to eat. So she decided to eat out with Dudu tonight and let Yuan Long eat dinner at home alone.
Yu Shanshan first put the things they bought into the car, then took Dudu to a very delicious seafood restaurant opposite the mall to eat seafood. However, to go to the opposite side, they had to cross the street. At this moment, the traffic light was red, so Yu Shanshan took the opportunity to call Yuan Long and told him that they wouldn’t be going home for dinner tonight, asking him to eat by himself.
Yuan Long asked them where they were and instructed them to be careful. Since they couldn’t hang up the phone for the time being, and the green light came on, Dudu took the lead in holding his mother’s hand and crossing the street.
Yu Shanshan talked to Yuan Long on the phone while following Dudu across the street. Just as they were about to reach the other side of the road, they suddenly heard the roaring sound of a car not far away. Yu Shanshan’s peripheral vision caught sight of a black SUV speeding straight towards them. Before she could even see clearly, the car had rushed to where they were, showing no intention of braking at all.
The people around who witnessed this thrilling scene were all shocked and screamed.
“Dudu—” Yu Shanshan shouted loudly, but the car had already rushed over. She wanted to pull Dudu away, but it was too late. In a panic, out of maternal instinct, she pushed Dudu away. Dudu was pushed far away in an instant, rolling on the ground a few times before stopping, but he was not hit by the car.
However, Yu Shanshan was lying on the ground, and the car didn’t slow down at all after hitting her. It just drove straight ahead, leaving Yu Shanshan lying motionless on the ground, with blood slowly flowing from her body.
Seeing this scene, people quickly called an ambulance. Before the ambulance arrived, no one dared to move Yu Shanshan’s body.
Dudu staggered to his feet from the ground, crawled to his mother’s side, and saw the blood on her body. He hugged his mother’s head and dared not move, just repeatedly calling out, “Mommy, Mommy, Mommy…”
The people around were heartbroken to see the little guy like this. A kind-hearted person comforted him, saying, “Little friend, don’t be afraid. Your mommy will be fine. Do you have a way to contact your dad? Quick, tell your dad.”
Upon hearing someone mention his dad, Dudu suddenly felt a sense of relief. He looked around for his mother’s phone, and with a tearful voice, he murmured, “Yes, find dad. Dad will know how to save mommy.”
At this moment, Dudu suddenly saw his mother’s phone lying not far away. He quickly ran over and picked it up. The call was still connected, and Yuan Long’s anxious voice kept coming from the phone, “Shanshan? Shanshan? What’s wrong with you? Speak! What happened to you!” Dudu quickly held the phone to his ear, but as soon as he spoke, he burst into tears with a loud “wah,” feeling helpless. “Dad, Mom was hit by a car, there’s so much blood. Dad, what should I do?”
Yuan Long felt like his blood had turned to ice, his ears ringing, but beneath his son’s crying, he regained his composure, clenched his fist to suppress the trembling, and said, “Dudu, don’t be afraid, find an adult nearby and give them the phone, Dad needs to talk to them.”
Dudu immediately handed the phone to the uncle who had just comforted him. The man knew he was Dudu’s father, took the phone immediately, briefly explained the situation to Yuan Long, and then gave him the current address.
On the phone, Yuan Long begged him to take care of his son, to stay in touch with him at all times, and the man agreed.
Then the ambulance arrived, and the kind man carried Dudu with him to the hospital.
sarcastisaurus On CFRFGC Chapter 80