At noon today, I called my mom to ask how she's been lately. When will she come to bring me the car? When will she go to Southeast Asia? She smiled and told me that she sold five electric cars today, business seems good. Coincidentally, my aunt came to my house to accompany my grandmother and wanted to buy an electric car. I greeted her on the phone and then hung up.
In the evening, my mom told me that my aunt was killed in a car accident. In my memory, she wasn't a person with a good temper because she often used foul language. Her son used to be addicted to a game, not very responsible, but when I saw him during the Chinese New Year, he had improved a lot. He was helping his mother with everything, welcoming guests at home, behaving like a responsible adult. Her daughter grew up, went to Beijing to seek opportunities, and could earn a good amount in a month. She had settled down, married a soldier who was also outstanding.
Her son planned to join the army this year, but it seems he didn't pass the physical exam, so he was planning to go to Jinan for a new start. He just left yesterday, but unexpectedly, he had to return home today. Their family's livelihood depended on trading rabbit fur. Today, after helping my grandmother buy a car, she went to the village to collect rabbit fur, but a semi-trailer truck suddenly crashed out...
Her phone was crushed in the accident, so they couldn't contact her family. By the time the ambulance arrived, she had passed away, and no one recognized her. They took her to the nearest hospital morgue. It wasn't until dark that they couldn't reach her husband, and only then did they discover two scissors in the deceased's bag. The person who had been with him for half a lifetime was now separated by life and death.
When I was young, I didn't like going to my aunt's house for meals because the food wasn't tasty and there was no wifi. But my aunt was very warm-hearted, though she spoke harshly, she treated people sincerely. She often invited us to her house for meals without minding the trouble, and she always remembered us whenever there were fresh seasonal vegetables. My parents also visited her family often.
During this year's Chinese New Year dinner at her house, a teacher asked me to help with a project after dinner. Since I had nothing to do, I decided to go home early. My aunt asked me to stay and play for a while. She bought a pot of cherries, and although I wanted to eat them, I had a project to work on, so I reluctantly put some in my pocket and left.
Little did I know that this would be the last time we would meet in this lifetime. It seemed that every Chinese New Year, I could meet them since I could remember. When I was in junior high school, my second uncle passed away unexpectedly in a car accident. That year, during the New Year, we gathered together for a meal, trying to put on forced smiles, but there was a cloud of gloom hanging over us. If someone suddenly fell silent, a wave of sadness would sweep through the entire table. Everyone tried to maintain a relaxed atmosphere, restraining their inner grief and mourning.
Sigh.
It's regrettable that with the impact of the truck, some memories of the past in this world were lost, many unfinished stories suddenly came to an end. People don't live for a lifetime but for each moment, and everyone anticipates certain moments in the future, like the day their son gets married, the morning they hold their grandchild, the sunset when they pick up their granddaughter from school, or a night spent flipping through old photos with their spouse.
But at the moment of the truck's impact, a thousand words fell into a silent void. All past moments solidified in memory then slowly faded away, everything fell silent, and the world lost its essence.